Madison Weekend

I have been looking forward to my weekend in Madison for the past 7 months! Less so for the actual 26.2 miles, but more for all of the fun with all my favesies Wisconsin chicks! After consulting google maps the day before I left, I learned that Madison was actually 7 hours away instead of the 5 1/2 that I originally thought.  Woof.

Friday

I started out at 8am on Friday morning after a quick stop at Starbucks for caffeine and ice water. Hydration FTW. Armed with 5 audiobooks for a 14 hour round trip drive, I was ready to go!

Roughly a bazillion hours later (and 2 confusing roundabouts later, seriously, roundabouts?? I don't *get* the point of you) I arrived on Krista's doorstep. We decided to head to the expo and then grab some dinner.

Great pic and backdrop, wind you're a turd.

Next up was dinner. Amazing beer and cheese curds? Yes please. This trip is already off to a great start.



After dinner it was back to Chateau Kbug for pajamas and NaNoWriMo time.



While hydrating.



Saturday
Saturday we woke up, Krista went for a shake out run like a good little PR star (check out her recap, dare you not to get teary eyed) and I hit the foam roller with coffee in hand. I like to think that Krista had this green mug on hand just for this Team Green member.

We had big plans Saturday afternoon to see the newly remodeled downtown public library (squeeeee!), do some more NaNo writing, and just see some of the sites.

Our first stop was Panera for lunch #1. Technically it could be considered breakfast, but I had a cookie, so let's pretend it was lunch #1, ok? Then it was off to the library. Gorgeous gorgeous library. Poor kbug was hauling around a 97 pound laptop so she wasn't enjoying the 5 story library (!!!) tour nearly as much as I was, and I was trying to limit my time on my feet, so I didn't spend nearly as much time gawking and photographing as I would've liked on a non-marathon eve day. There was an entire FLOOR for the Children's department, and that alone was bigger than my ENTIRE LIBRARY. Just amazing.

We wrote for quite awhile (or I did, Krista showed her ragey side via twitter of all the loud and obnoxious people in the library, hah) and I finally hit 10k+ words! Days late, but still! MILESTONES!

We swung by the expo again to again contemplate buying merchandise, and paused to enjoy the Capital a bit on the way there.

This little cheese store caught my eye and after laughing out loud I had to snap a pic. #genius



Yes, <3 WI



After our tour of downtown, we went back to Krista's to wait for Anne's arrival! We had plans to go to a neighbor's apartment and cook a big pasta feed for dinner. Meanwhile, to settle my pre-race nervous stomach, when in Wisconsin, amiright?



Dinner was amazing and so much fun to spend an evening with a bunch of runner girls without having to wait an hour for a table and another hour and a half for dinner, all the while panicking about eating far too late the night before a marathon (yes this happens to me every time!)

Sunday

Race Recap

Immediately after the race, Renee and Jen went to grab us a table at a nearby restaurant, while we went to grab non-sweaty clothes out of Krista's car. I have no problem doing some post-race celebrating without a shower in this kind of weather, but on a normal weather day?? No. Freakin'. Way. A quick changeroo and we were off to lunch and to watch the PACKERS game. I was on such a post-race high that Jen and Renee were kind enough to shield me from our updated quarterback situation, thanks gals, much appreciated.




























We sat down and I had been thinking about a bloody mary and a spotted cow the entire race, so I had to order both, and double fist. Mmmm. Unfortunately the food tasted really off to me, so the drinks were the most enjoyable part of the meal. But the company more than made up for it!




My twin Anne.



Rest assured, I did have the meal of my lifetime later Sunday night when Kbug and I hit up a Mexican food place and had a life changing chimichanga and an entire trough of guacamole. Mmmm.... I'm still dreaming about it.

Best race host everrrrrrr.

Monday

I was lucky to have Monday off from work to start to make my trek back to SoDak. I almost had a major accident when I tried to leave without all of my delicious Wisconsin beers in Kbug's fridge! Luckily we both remembered at the same time, and we were reunited. I also had the genius idea to grab some beers on my way out of town while fueling up. So I was that girl getting 12 beers at 10am on a Monday morning. NBD.

Until next time Wisconsin!