Saturday I completed my first 5K in, like, 100 years.  I loved it, except the part where we were made to freeze outside for 45 minutes.  There were a lot of half-hearted jumping jacks and full-fledged bitching.  We finally figured out the Food Court was open and attempted to warm up there.  I peed about 23 times because I was so nervous. 

I wouldn’t say the race was easy, but it was definitely not difficult.  Laura ended up running it with the Run Like A Mother posse; I have two regular running buddies in the group.  We all finished in under 35 minutes, a personal best for me.  I wasn’t sore and I wasn’t tired.  I was pretty damn proud of myself. Toward the end, I heard the music from Chariots of Fire and sprinted the last 300 yards.  I was almost screaming, “I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR!”  Then I nearly puked walking to my car.

After a reapplication of deodorant, I headed up to Maryland to see Julie.  The drive through NoVa was its usual cluster - 4 1/2 hours later, I had made it the 160 miles to Sykesville.  Her friend Christine hosted a baby shower for her soon-to-be adopted Ethiopian daughter.  It was great to see her, even though she kept calling it a “Smash and Grab” visit.  She got a lot of good stuff and had, I’m sure, a ton of fun trying to cram it all into a duffel bag for the flight back to Colorado.  Whenever I see her, it’s like no time has passed (cliche much?) and Christine was an amazing host.  My one bone to pick:  Christine kept telling me to drink a wine cooler, and I did.  Um, it wasn’t a wine cooler.  It was a Smirnoff Ice something or other.  After running and not eating much, I was a staggering disaster after about 20 minutes.  No more Smirnoff Ice for me, ever - but it was pretty tasty! 

The trip back was much better and took less than 3 hours.  Wahoo!