Yesterday, I ran 13.1 miles.  Whoa!  That sounds so surreal.  But in a too-good-to-be-true, I’m-so-proud, couldn’t-be-happier kind of way.  I’ll get to all the race details by the end of this post, but for now, let me just say that yesterday was perfect and I could not have asked for better weather, a more supportive cheering section or an easier going running partner.  I’m feeling very heart-eyed emoji today!

But back to Friday, when I was winning the award for Best Wife, by asking Joey if we could get breakfast burritos for the THIRD FRIDAY IN A ROW.  I guess I’m just in a breakfast burrito mood lately.  And also, I hadn’t been to Onefold in like a month and that’s an entirely unacceptable amount of time to go without my #1 favorite breakfast burrito.  I forewent my usual Vietnamese Iced Coffee for a regular cup of black coffee, so that I could still feel semi-sane later in the day.

Yelp hooked a girl up with free tickets to If/Then at the Buell that night and even though I knew nothing about the plot, I was pretty excited to hear Idina Menzel’s beautiful made-for-Broadway voice and see Maureen and Mark on stage together.  (If you understood that RENT reference, let’s be friends for life, okay?!)  It was such a nice night, so we sat out on the patio until show time and shared breakfast burrito rankings.  The show was okay.  I thought the songs were a bit boring, the plot was a little strange and the humor was pretty cheesy, but Joey put it perfectly when he said, “the best part was just hearing Idina sing.”  Amen!

We spent Saturday acting like it was Sunday — the worst part about Sunday races is that you have to behave on Saturday so that you’re ready for Sunday and then you’re wiped out on Sunday and do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day — so we slept in, took a trip to the race expo (which had me so excited for race day!), grocery shopped, did the laundry and cooked ourselves dinner.  We tried this recipe for Vegan Ramen and even though it was pretty good and looked killer, I still think I’d rather leave it to the professionals.  Oh and I watched The Terminator for the first time.  I tried to appreciate the special effects for what they probably were 30 years ago, but it was kind of hard not to laugh.  Joey took this as a personal insult.

I slept really well Saturday night, thank goodness!!  I can be a little anxious/antsy/excited about things, so I was kind of nervous that race anticipation would keep me awake, but I crashed right away and woke up feeling super refreshed.  Can’t ask for more than that.  Post bagel breakfast, we hopped in the car, parked and walked the mile to the start line with plenty of time to spare.  Who am I and when did I start making it to races early??

It was such a gorgeous morning (that sunrise though!!) and it was the perfect temperature for short-sleeved shirt running.  The Rock ‘n’ Roll race course winds all through downtown Denver, past the Pepsi Center and Coors Field and it seriously makes me so happy.  At Mile 8, I thought “oh my god, still FIVE MORE MILES?!” but then we headed into City Park, pretty fall trees and leaves were everywhere, “Footloose” started blasting through the speakers and it was all good.

Then all of a sudden, we were at the end of Mile 12 and the end of the race was just around the corner.  When did that happen?!  You run past the capitol building, the sidelines start getting crowded with race watchers and then you come down that hill, with the finish line in sight and WHOA, it is a rush like no other.  Funny Story: We saw my parents and Lori waving excitedly but I didn’t see my sister, so that first picture up there is me giving Joey an “ARE YOU SERIOUS??” look, followed immediately by me spotting her and giving the most excited “I WAS WRONG, SHE IS HERE!” wave.

We finished in 2:13:38 and I’m seriously so proud of us!  We all went to brunch afterwards and then Joey and I parked it on the couch for the rest of the day because: EXHAUSTED.  But in between football, Harry Potter and impromptu catnaps, I just kept saying “WE RAN A HALF MARATHON TODAY!”  I’m feeling pretty good today and actually less sore than I did yesterday (when the outside of my knees were killing me??), so I can’t even complain.  P.S. For the record, we did muster up enough energy to cook ourselves dinner last night and Minimalist Baker’s Garlic Mac and Cheese never tasted so good.

Gonna walk around with my head held extra high today.  Happy Monday!