sweet d

it has come to my attention that i have a resemblance to Sweet D from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

in mannerism, features, and voice.

i am absolutely thrilled for the comparison. because normally i just get this one.

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yep. which to be perfectly honest isn't all that far off. except for the amount of pink. i don't wear all that much pink, unless it's swimsuits and summertime.

without further ado, reasons i am like sweet d:

we favor this dance move

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we drink beer like champions:

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sometimes this happens:

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this game:

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 i make this face a lot:

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we both don't do well with public speaking:

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this has been known to happen to me:

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you shouldn't hold me responsible for what i say or do:

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 we both get told we resemble birds:

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so there you have it...reasons why sweet d and i are similar and should be best friends.

the race that should have been...

now that i have taken a week to not think about running or anything to do with the marathon, i have come to terms with it.

it should have been a good race. for all intents and purposes i was trained, fueled and ready to take the IMS Arizona Marathon head on.

two weeks before the race my ankle was super tight. like it was spring loaded. and it did not feel great. so i elevated it and did a whole lot of nothing for two straight weeks.

alright, alright. i ran 5 miles the thursday before the race to make sure i could actually still run.

low and behold my legs understood what we were doing and my foot didn't feel like it was going going to detach from my ankle and leave me crippled. so a tentative thumbs up for race day.

and then race day came.

with perfect morning weather of 45 and not so perfect afternoon weather of 71 it was time to run this race.

i started off with the 4 hour pace group and felt strong for the first 15 miles. i had dropped back from the 4 hour pace group, but was still well ahead of the 4:15 group, and i had been fueling and liquiding properly. i felt good.

and then mile 15 hit. and my right foot felt like maybe someone who was the size of an elephant carrying a rhino while tap dancing with a hippo was river dancing on the outside of my right foot. so that was fun. you're welcome for that mental image.

i had plans to meet darwin at the 23 mile mark about 3.5 or so hours in and he was going to run the last 3 with me.

hour 3 i was at mile marker 18.

without my phone.

sooo yea. there was a tracker that he could watch that i came to find out didn't actually do anything useful.

about 1.5 later i got to mile 23-24 and saw darwin running towards me. oh hi there.

he nicely walked the last 4 miles with me while i contemplated actually sobbing uncontrollably.

an hour later i was done with marathon number 3. and i couldn't be more grateful for the support that i had.

now i am taking some time off and letting my foot heal.

how to taper for two weeks...

well.

 after an eventful frantic rescheduling of flights, i made it to arizona late tuesday night. my original flight was scheduled to leave out of atlanta wednesday morning. monday night i get a call from delta that my flight had been cancelled and rescheduled to thursday.

son of a bitch.

i dropped darwin off at the airport tuesday morning and raced home to figure out if i could leave tuesday instead of thursday when the ice was supposed to be the worst.

luckily, i found a flight that left tuesday and 10 hours of travel later i was in arizona. and exhausted.

but now that race day is 2.5 days away, and i have taken a two week sabbatical from running to see if could keep my ankle attached to the rest of my leg, i am going to let you in on a little secret:

tapering is boring.....

in light of that breaking news, here is what i have been doing to keep entertained.

i took some online quizzes. those entertained me for about 20 minutes.

i think i have found quite possible every single split end in my hair. tried this hair repair serum:

i like it. i don't know if it is actually doing anything, but for $6 it's hard to pass up. and it doesn't leave your hair greasy which is nice. because ain't nobody got time for greasy hair.

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 we had the snowjam in atlanta. so there were two days that i didn't move from my bed, take off my leggings, or eat anything besides pizza and drink beer. those were nice.

i watched the superbowl on my ipad, because cable is for losers. or because i am poor. and because i was at the shop and we don't have cable.

 watched a sunset at the JFK airport while drinking beer and eating pizza.

that beer cost  more than my pizza

saw so many service dogs. and sat by this little creature.

 read a lot of books. A LOT. and found a lot of typos.

 finally made it to arizona and was reunited with my loves.  mainly this one.

oh hi...

 took the monster on a walkaroo.

hello 75 and sunshine. every.single.day. i could seriously get used to this. it's amazing.

and then today i broke the taper. i couldn't handle it anymore. my butt agreed. it was time to get out there and run some easy miles. 5 miles with fuzzyfatass. glorious! please ignore the leftover mascara look. i am really trying to make it a trend. #noshame #blondehairdontcare

 that is how you spend two weeks tapering. until you fail at tapering.

it's a secret...

i bought this the other day....

it's a secret.

and i can't wait...

Mayan Village Resort

tapering...

tapering is a necessity before races.

you get to be a lazy bum for a little while and get fully rested before race day.

especially when you see this:

11. ELEVEN. one-one.

normally i wouldn't really start tapering until next week, but my run saturday left my right achilles feeling like a spring that had been loaded and was waiting to explode.

i've been pitifully limping around my house, learning that driving in boots with a bum ankle is difficult, and tackling the stairs with less grace than a rhino in a tutu.

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that one has considerably more grace than i do.

with an 8 mile run scheduled for this upcoming saturday, i've decided that maybe i should just start my taper early and perhaps learn from my past mistakes. shocking. i know.

race day should be interesting,  but i did find this. and I LIKE IT.

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net downhill for nearly the entire race.

and this...the weather average is 74 for the high and 40 for the low. i'll take it.

the key to the taper is to not go stir crazy. it's tempting to get out there and just go run for days, because who doesn't like that, but don't do it.

if you must go run, keep it easy and light. also wear all the compression. it does wonders.

carbo load (or don't, i'm not sure what the authorities ruling is on this today), don't eat anything crazy, stay away from high fiber foods, drink some beer (i throw that into the carbo loading rule), and most importantly trust your training.

well maybe more importantly, decide what you are going to wear. since i am traveling for this marathon, i have to be sure and pack a couple of options, because, well i am a girl and we change our minds about ever 12 seconds.