Fargo Fun

To say that Carter, Melissa and I had a good time celebrating in Fargo, would be an understatement. So much good food, so many good drinks, and so many belly laughs. A weekend that was good for the soul!

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

Duluth Trip Recap

We packed up my Subie to head to Duluth on Thursday morning. We grabbed some coffee and were well on our way. As soon as we got to the SD/MN border it was discovered that I forgot my fan. PANIC. We were staying in the dorms, and the notes were pretty adamant about bringing a fan as the dorms didn't have AC, also I'm the lightest sleeper in the world, and it was college where I originally learned that I have to sleep with a fan on to drown out the noise of the rest of the universe. It was quickly decided that we had to turn back and get it... 30 minutes into our trip. In that 30 minute drive back home, we thought of several other necessary items that we had left behind as well. Gah!



We loaded back up and were back on our way. The trip flew by, we had a ho-hum lunch outside of the cities, ran into some annoying construction north of the cities, and played "guess if that car has runners going to grandma's or not". The drive there seemed to take no time at all.

We went straight to the expo when we arrived, as we had heard that Friday was insanity their, and wanting to avoid chaos at all costs. There were some cool vendors there, and somehow I managed to spend $0 there. What the heck??






From the expo we made our way to a delicious Indian food place. My stomach and taste buds were oh so happy.

Next stop: the dorms! We arrived at our digs for the weekend and promptly decided that we were meant to be college roomies, and that in an alternate universe, surely we would've been. Like the universe in which we're not 9 years apart. Whatever.

The next morning we got up, ran some errands, and then went out for a shake out run.

FYI Duluth is hilly AF. Holy cow. I had more elevation gain in 3 miles than I typically do in a long run in Sioux Falls. The shake out felt gooooood. Like really good. Like I'm surer excited to tear up the race course good.

After the run we got ready for lunch. And while Toni was in the bathroom making her hair look pretty, the world was ending outside our window. Like right out there, is supposed to be the Superior. Except you can't see it because the world has ended.

I desperately needed a beer at lunch, but also needed to hydrate but ALSO was tempted by the lavender infused lemonade. Mmmm happiness.

After lunch we made a very important run to the liquor store for some local beers to take home slash enjoy after the race. Luckily for me, we had a cute little dorm fridge in our room perfectly for beers.

And then in true Toni and Jeri race weekend fashion, we opted to take a little siesta after lunch. This tradition started in Twin Cities for the ten mile, and man I love a good nap. And there's no better excuse for one than an early wake up call the next day!

Luckily by the time we got up from our naps, it was basically time to go eat again. Lolz. We made our way downtown to Pizza Luce for some pizza and a salad. And a beer. obviously. 

Then it was time to head back to the dorms and get ready for the race. Clothes laid out, gear bag packed and ready to go. And back to bed. Does it seem like all we did was eat and sleep? Because you'd be correct. 

Race morning details can be found here.

After the race, I had every intention of enjoying a shower beer. But then I forgot to bring my beer into the shower. Fail.

We got ready as quickly as we could, which wasn't super quick because we were still freezing from the race. We went back to the same lunch spot as the previous day, because there was so much delicious stuff on the menu that I couldn't have the day before the race, and I wanted it all after the race. Pretzels with beer cheese sauce? check. Nachos? check. Side of fries? check.

There may or may not have been another nap after lunch. Getting up at 4am and running for 2 hours will do that to you, I guess. We woke up and connected with some other SFWR gals that were also staying in the dorms and made our way back downtown for some drinks.

I very much appreciated the free shuttle from the dorms back to downtown. 

We had some beverages at a bar that I felt super old at, and eventually made our way across the street where one my college friends was. We had a good long life catch up chat, and it was so good to see him. It's so fun to see someone after years and years apart and it's like it's been a day or two.

We drank all the beer that the brewery had (jk, I think) and around 9 realized we hadn't eaten dinner yet. Luckily a bunch of places delivered so we had pizza yet again. Mmm pizza.

Once we got back to the dorms, I gave myself some important legs up the wall time before bed. Ahh.

Sunday morning we made our way to a super cute cafe for breakfast before hitting the road. It was a long wait for a table but it was a perfectly sunny and nice morning to wait with a coffee in hand.

We were on our way out of town when Toni went rogue and pulled off the interstate stating that we *needed* pictures. And she was right. We were so cold after the race that we didn't take any solo finisher photos with our medals. Plus I still wanted to take my ice bath in the Superior!

It was a great race weekend! Can't wait for the next one!