Great week so far

Last weekend was pretty great. I house/dog sat for a little extra cash, worked on my candidacy, went for a run with Chris, went out to dinner with two different friends that we haven't seen in a while, watched a hilarious silly movie and drank wine with my fiance (hehe), bathed little Kirby, and relaxed. It was a really wonderful Labor Day weekend.

The week also involved three short (3 mile runs, more about those later) and having friends over for dinner. We watched a few cute movies, and I had lunch with friends from school that I don't usually get to see. On Wednesday Chris and I went to get my ring appraised, and I got to see something really awesome. With the way my diamond is cut, an ideal cut, if you look at it under a microscope in one direction you can see arrows, and if you look at it the other direction you see hearts. I thought that was pretty awesome. There is a picture of this below that I found using Google. Oh yes, and we enjoyed a dark chocolate wand and pumpkin juice from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter that Chris's mom brought us when she and his sister went while we were in St. Augustine. The pumpkin juice had a wonderful flavor but was very sweet. The wand did not last long with me around. Hehe. Our friend Kyle and I were brave and tasted the many disgusting and a few delicious flavors of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Jelly beans. Overall it was a great week.
In running-related news, I only ran 3 three-mile runs last week. The holiday then weather and school kind of messed up my plans. Earlier in the week, Caitlin and I ran an easy 1.5 miles to the park then back in 33:53. It was the perfect pace for chatting and not overly exerting ourselves in the intense heat. Caitlin, Ryan, and I ran another night. It was the worst run ever, because I had the most dreadful side stitch in the world. I had to keep walking and our time ended up being 37:28. Ouch. The next day I ran solo. I took is very easy and was super happy that I did not get a single cramp. My time was 31:35 which did not include a walk/water break in the middle. I was very relieved, because I knew that we were planning a long run for today (Sunday), and I was afraid of residual pain from that really horrible run.

Today Ryan, Caitlin, and I drove to Clermont, FL which is one of the few places in Florida that actually has hills. Caitlin and I set out to do a 12 mile run. We should have carried gatorade with us for the first part, because we were really hot by the time we hit our first hidden gatorade spot at 3 miles. We split a GU goop at that point. Then I wanted to find a bathroom, so we ran another 3.7 miles to the closest bathroom. This normally would not have been so bad, but at this point it was getting really hot and neither of us anticipated what it was going to be like to run the hills. We also did not have any other beverages along the way. Luckily we made it, and at this stop there was a store so we each bought a bottle of gatorade and one more goop to split. We ended up splitting that around the 7.5 mile mark. The run back to the car was really brutal. It was extremely hot and hilly. We had to walk some of the inclines. I screwed up the Garmin and forgot to restart it a few times, so I have the time for 12 miles instead of the full 13.4 miles. For 12 miles our time was 2:27:23. I think that isn't half bad considering we had to walk and it was so hot. We were both really happy to finish and pretty shocked when we found out we actually ran 13.4 miles. Woo-hoo! My longest distance yet. A half marathon was my longest distance before, so it's not like I beat it by much but still! I have to say that I think the goops (I don't know what they are really called) really help! If it wasn't for the fact that I felt under hydrated for the first part and just really freaking hot due to the sun, I think I could have kept going. Yay! Oh and during the last 3 miles we ran against a half ironman race! We passed some very hot and tired runners.

After we went to Infusion Tea for a much needed lunch. I even ordered an iced chai tea latte to go. YUM! Then I took a nice nap with my little snuggle-bug, Kirby.

I'm feeling pretty good right now. My butt is a little sore, I'm guessing from the hills. I think that we just need to start earlier next time. I'm actually looking forward to running it again (although I am sure I will complain about the hills again while running them).

I hope you all are doing fantastic! It is officially the start of my birthday week!!! Woo-hoo!

I will hopefully catch up on my 30 Days of Self Reflectance posts tomorrow. I am loving it, I have just been behind on blogging lately. Have a great week!