Chicago Weekend

We started our weekend waking up at 4:15am to meet up for the coffee run. We needed a shake out run and this is the most fun run of the week. It was then that I learned that Toni would have to go to work until noon, so we wouldn't get in until 9pm ish. Uff da!

We hit the road at noon, got MOAR COFFEE but failed to get lunch, and made our way east. I tried to limit my water intake so our 9 hour drive didn't become a 15 hour drive. That may have been a mistake......

With matching goodr sunglasses, of course. My pink ones are scratched. :(

Around dinner time we were dying of hunger and Krittabug helped me find somewhere in Madison to eat. I'm pretty sure I ate at the Great Dane when I stayed with her for the Madison Marathon a million years ago. Except this time, I didn't have a beer because we still had a 3 hour drive and again, I didn't want to have to stop a million times, AND I DIDN'T GET CHEESE BALLS because my stomach had been really upset all week and I didn't want to risk stomach issues for the race. Spoiler alert: I should've just eaten cheese balls. We had planned to get all sorts of Wisconsin beer and cheese on the way home but for some reason Toni's GPS routed us through Iowa. GPS, NO ONE EVER WANTS TO DRIVE THROUGH IOWA! No one. harrumph.

We got to the hotel and immediately went to bed, after laying out our outfits. I've never been so thankful for a 10am race start to be able to sleep in. But because all I did all day was consume caffeine, I didn't sleep at all. Ugh.

But I got to see Soldier Field for the first time, so that was pretty darn cool.

We ran the race, and I felt like garbage. Toni was meeting up with a friend that lived in Chicago, and I laid down trying to stop feeling like crap. I felt like I had a fever and my stomach was killing me. About 4:30pm I realized that I'd only eaten a banana, a protein bar, and my GUs all day. And I wasn't hungry. Yikes. Very un-Jerbear-like.

Luckily Toni came back and we decided to make our way to dinner. I found a menu that looked delicious so we started to make our way there.

Naturally we had to stop to take obnoxious photos on the way there.

We made it to Hub 51 in time for my stomach to wake up with a vengeance. Time to eat two meals in one sitting. Challenge: accepted! First up: Grapefruit vodka with black salt. Whaaaa? U fancy.

I had to resist the urge to grab a giant handful of my bar neighbor's nachos, so we obviously needed a mountain of those.

Which lead to some delicious tempura battered sweet potato sushi rolls (where are we going on this culinary journey?!! pick a lane....) and some tuna rolls. I'm getting hungry just typing this. The meal was so amazing. We actually debated more food after this, but opted to move on. 

Several drinks later....

We made it back to our hotel room at 9pm, and both crawled into our beds to sleep. Both of our husband's called after 9pm and thought we were out partying in the city. LOLZ.

Sunday morning we were up bright and early because there was a terrible forecasted blizzard and every person we know and care about had called us, texted us and sent a carrier pigeon with this information,  twice, to make it clear we needed to get home asap.

We ate at a super cute breakfast plate but my meal was just, meh. What a bummer. At least we went to breakfast matching. haha.



Coffee made it better, as it tends to do. Also I forgot to take a medal+post race beverage picture so Toni reminded me to take one with my coffee.

And then it was back on the road! Despite having a less than stellar race day, I can't wait to do it next year. Preferably with Monday off from work so we can have more fun (aka eat more food) while we're there!

For anyone concerned, we made it home hooooooouuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrssssssss before the snow started. Most delayed blizzard ever. [insert eye roll here]