Twin Cities Marathon Weekend: A Jeroni Reunion

We started off our Jeroni weekend by Toni getting in so late that I was already asleep. Luckily she was up and at em for our regular coffee run! We ran a nice and easy 4 miles, had all the time to catch up with friends over coffee and time passed so quickly that Kyle left for work before I had a chance to say goodbye for the weekend. Whoops!

We got on the road, mid morning but not without some extra coffee for the road. Mmmm.... coffee.

Per standard traveling with Jeri I made it 100 miles before I was ready to pee my pants. Luckily the light was excellent for a selfie. :P

I had to steal a couple of onion rings for this very important photo op at our lunch stop in Albert Lea. Not the best race weekend food but shockingly my stomach was fine with it.

We arrived in the cities and made our way to the expo. 

This is our view upon arrival at our hotel. gulp.

After the expo we went to dinner. Kyle and I had gone to this place for pizza before the Monster Dash half, and it was a short walk from the expo. It was delicious.

Saturday morning Toni was sleeping really hard, really late, so after I was up for an hour or so, I decided to go back to bed and catch some extra Zzzz's myself. Around 10:30 I woke up and realized we needed to get out for our shake out run ASAP! 

 We went out for a nice easy 3 with strides with an accidental extra one mile walk because I suck at navigating in the cities. Always. Full stop. Luckily we had time to take some excellent BRF photos mid-run.

When we got to breakfast, which was now lunch based on how late it was, the place was packed. I ordered a beautiful rainbow latte and a crepe with chick peas, avocado, arugula, and goat cheese. It was the most delicious thing I've ever eaten and I want it again daily for the rest of my life.

They also had lattes with edible glitter and a s'mores latte that looked like heaven in a cup.

This is how happy I am to be drinking a beautiful latte. 

When we got back to the hotel, I was ready to start working on my race day nails. I had bought nail wraps from Sarah Marie Design studio for me and Toni and I was nervous about how hard they'd be to put on. Nope. They were super simple and looked amazing! So fun.

We got ready for dinner and Melissa and Karissa joined us. Melissa and I ran a lot of miles together and Karissa is the sweetest human who was running her first marathon. We ate pizza and pasta and chatted all about race morning. It was so fun.

Toni and I finally got the chance to wear our BRF jackets together. YAY!

 After dinner, it was back to bed to lay out Flat Jeri, foam roll, and get into bed. What a fast weekend! Toni left right after the race, after a shower to start her 10 hour drive home, so it was short but sweet. <3

Running Without My BRF

Let me tell you about my best (running) friend.....



I'm sure you've noticed lately that my post-run selfies are missing a very important person: my BRF. Sadly, most of my marathon training thus far has been done without my BRF, Toni. I was so excited to train for a marathon with her but life happens, right? She has a super exciting opportunity not here (insert the crying emoji here, please) so I've been without my BRF.

It's crazy to think how close you can get with someone just through running all of the miles together. I joke that running with someone is like taking a shot of truth serum beforehand, because I end up just baring my soul on long runs with people. So many of our runs together were like free therapy sessions. In the course of all of our miles, we had 3 out of 4 parents diagnosed with cancer. We lost two parents. Work drama, life drama, all of the drama. All of the happy things, new jobs! New dogs! SO MANY PRS!! So many hard miles, so many miles that were full on unicorn runs.











Running best friends are just the best things on this planet, and I really hope you have the chance to find yours, random internet readers.

















I'm so sad to not be able to spend 30-50 miles with my BRF each week. There are honestly some weeks that I would spend more quality time with Toni than I would my own husband. Despite being so sad, I'm so thankful that she entered my life when she did. I met Toni a couple of months before my mom died, shortly before our family had the hospice conversation, knowing my mom's cancer had spread and it was only a matter of time before her body shut down. Running became my coping mechanism to deal with my grief, grief that I was struggling with from the time my mom was diagnosed with an incurable, fast moving cancer, that was essentially a death sentence. Having someone in my life who would just be there, to go for a run, or a walk, no matter how far, no matter how slow (we had to go sooo slooooowwwww), no matter how many times I'd have to stop because I'd get all weepy.





















All the love and happiness to my BRF on her next journey in life. And I assure you all, we'll still manage to wear matching outfits on our runs even when we're not together. :)