Susan's Visit

I have been telling Susan to come to Sioux Falls and run the marathon since it first got added to the half marathon in 2010. She's fast, and could probably win it. About a year ago, she told me that her boyfriend, Eric was really good friends with one of the guys who was opening a brewery in town, so now they had twice the reason to come visit. Yessssss!

They got in on Friday, so we did some sightseeing in Sioux Falls after grabbing lunch and coffee. And by sightseeing, I mean we went to the Falls of the big Sioux river. And our cities namesake.

It was a gorgeous day, so we got to spend a lot of time walking around taking tons of pictures. 

We went to my new favorite restaurant for dinner, Ode to Good Food. Where we were served a palette cleanser of grapefruit sorbet with champagne. Yes please.

 

Once dinner was over, we went to the Fernson Brewery so Eric could see his friend.

  

I got to go on a second brewery tour, so before too long here, I should be able to give them to anyone who wants to listen.

Fernson recently started distributing their beer in cans. I loved seeing cans as far as the eye could see.

 

Mmmm beer.

 

It was only the end of the night when I realized that Susan and I had yet to even take a photo together. Not okay.

 

Saturday I was stuck working, so Eric and Susan got to spend the day exploring the city together. After work I went to packet pick up and then met them and Kyle for dinner at Redrossa.

Sunday after the race, Susan and I hustled up to get to a sports bar before kick off. GO PACK GO! 

Trifecta cheers.

 

She's cute, even if she is a Bears fan.

 

Beer and bling, a post race tradition.

 

We left at halftime to watch from my couch, in pajama bottoms, and with the added bonus of pug snuggles. Ollie is in love with Susan, and kept her comfy on the couch most of the afternoon. 

She also napped with a Packers snuggie, but since I'm a friend, I won't put a sleeping photo of Susan on the internet for the world to see. Just know that she looks very nice in green and gold and we would welcome her with open arms as a Packer fan. :)

NYC Half Marathon + NYC Trip

And the lottery results are in!

Drumroll please......

I didn't get in.

Womp, womp.

Yesterday was super weird, I checked my email obsessively and then saw that people were checking their statuses on NYRR, so I did that and it said I wasn't in. Bummer. And THEN I saw that some people who had saw their statuses as "not accepted" later got their credit cards charged and flip over to "accepted." So I held out hope! Then my not accepted status changed! YIPPEE!

And then when I got home I found out it had changed BACK to not accepted, and then I got the official email. Such a bummer. I'm really not that mad that I don't get to do that particular race, but I REALLY REALLY wanted to be in NYC over St. Patty's day with my two race options falling in the middle-ish of March. I tried to swing my flight STILL to make it work to be there over the day o' green, but the flight is $130 more. Gross.

I'm really glad I had a backup plan of the All State half, or I think yesterday would've left me SUPER BUMMED.

NYC (+Susan!) I'm still comin' for ya!

^I finally let myself pick these guys up from the library this week to start perusing. 

Any must sees?

Must dos?

Must eats? (<--most important, obvs)

Must drinks?

While I'm there??

Lottery Entry

$10/mile?  Sure..... why not.

I'm finally finalizing my graduation trip present to myself:  a trip to NYC!  I've never been before, and it's on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days (even though I'll miss the cutoff by about 90 days).  AND I'll get to see my favesies running nurse SUSAN!!!!  I think she's been trying to get me to come to move to NYC for approximately 3+ years now.  Maybe I'll just pack the pug and make her wish come true!

Anyway, I had been looking for a race to coincide with my trip, and found two:  2014 NYC Half and the All State Life Insurance Half, both in March, on either side of St. Patty's Day.  A sign?  Surely.  So I'm throwing my name in the hat for the 2014 NYC Half to make it my most expensive half to date.  I'm not sure if I've spent that much on my races TOTAL for 2013.....

Our last (=only) run together, over 2 years ago.  Pre-fall, pre-skinned knee!