November 1, 2009

Today was a whirlwind of a day! I got up at 5:50 am and headed out the door by 6:30 to get on a train at 7:30 to get into NYC before 9:00am! Craziness! I started off my day with a Click Espresso Protein drink during my car ride.

I had to get into the city before 9:00 am because I had to take a train the Aileen’s house, drop off my bag, change and then be out the door in order to meet Aileen at mile 8 of the NYC Marathon! I wore my skirt goddess running skirt, my Gracie’s gear sports bra, my Road ID, my Zensah running sleeves, my new Headsweats hat and my Garmin.

I met Aileen at Mile 8 in Brooklyn. I was a rouge marathon bandit! One minute I was cheering on everyone passing me by, and then the next I was in the middle of the pack!

Aileen wanted me to bring her some Gu and Gatorade and pace her throughout part of the race. I was so excited that I got to share part of Aileen’s first marathon experience with her!

I was pretty much Aileen’s entertainment! I was chit chatting with her, snapping some pictures, pointing out fun stuff along the way, I even offered to sing for her! I met up with Aileen early in her journey, but I wanted to help keep her mind of the mileage and on the awesomeness that was surrounding her!

She was running in the NYC Marathon! She is a rock star!

Me all smiles a few miles in!

I tried to get a picture of the two of us while keeping pace. Taking pictures while running is hard! Ha!

Aileen wanted me to help keep her in the 9:30-9:45 pace world. So that was my job, and I think I did pretty well! I still think its silly that Aileen wanted me to pace her when I have never run a marathon! She is a much more seasoned runner than I am. I have learned lots of what I know about running from her!

I ran with Aileen for about 6.5 miles. We completed that in about 55 minutes. The time literally flew by! There was so much going on around us! So many runners, so many people cheering everyone on, it was truly incredible.

We even crossed a bridge together.

And then before we knew it, Aileen had already run half of the race!

I loved this billboard! Ha!

Aileen with the city in the background! Great picture!

Aileen is a MACHINE!

Before I knew it, it was time for me to peace out. We heard they were being strict about people going over the bridge into Manhattan, so I had to pull off to the side. I so wanted to keep going with Aileen and help keep the focus and the pace, but she did amazing without me!

I was so proud of Aileen for completing and doing awesome in her race! She is such an inspiration to me, and she played a big part in getting me started on running in the first place.

I was also proud of myself today. I felt really really strong during the 6.5 miles I paced Aileen. I think part of it had to do with the fact that I wasn’t running for me, I was running for her. I wasn’t going to let Aileen down in any way shape or form, so maybe that was a big reason for my strength. Or maybe its just the mileage I have been logging and that my conditioning is coming together.

Either way today was amazing. I am so glad I got to be apart of the 6.2 (+.3) miles of the NYC Marathon. I am proud of my friend, I am proud of myself, and today even left me toying with the idea of running a marathon myself. We shall see. We shall see.

Stay tuned for another giveaway tomorrow morning!

I know I asked you blog readers to pick a Halloween costume for Jackson and I ended up getting one that everyone picked! I was going to put it on Jackson for the Howl-O-Ween Party the other day, but it was so muddy and rainy and it would have gotten destroyed. And it was TOO CUTE to be destroyed!

I give you—Jackson the Banana.

I thought the banana was pretty appropriate for the blog.

Totally makes me laugh!

I love my little banana.

So I am that dog owner mom that got her pet 2 costumes! Whatever, they were 50% off! Haha! I also put the dinosaur costume on him again today! ‘Tis the Halloween season!

This just cracks me up!

And the winner of the Waterpik Giveaway is:

The Skinny Plate!

Email me your info at lmcder01 at gmail dot com

Stay tuned for another fabulous giveaway tomorrow!!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!! We started off this morning and realized we had a pumpkin but we didn’t carve it yet! I forgot that I had this Mr. Potato Head Pumpkin decorating thing from Target so we decorated the pumpkin with that! Fiancé used his new drill to make some of the holes. It was our ‘Lazy Man’s Pumpkin’

I think it turned out quite nice!  

Jackson liked it too

Tonight we were keeping it pretty low key. We had a few friends stop by for dinner and some others stopped by for drinks. I made some chili for our guests to enjoy on this rainy night in Philly.   

It contained my favorite mixture of peppers, onions, corn, beans, petite diced tomatoes and garbanzo beans! Yum!

The bulk of the chili had turkey meat in it, but I also added some of the Red Pepper Sausage from Applegate Farms.

I also added some Dei Fratelli sauce to the mix.

And some Coors Light. I always add some beer to my chili.

Some rice on the bottom, some cheese and sour cream on the top and some Miguel’s chips on the side.

It was chili perfection. I had it in the crock pot for a few hours today. That always makes it so much better!

And then Taylor Swift and Kanye West stopped by!! They were on their way to another party, but I was pumped (and star struck) that I got to see them! They were fighting over the MTV VMA, obviously.

Since it was Halloween and I had celebs in my house I decided to bust open some Scary Berry Cosmos

They turned out quite tasty (after a little alteration to the recipe)  and then the VMA Award started to scare Jackson!

As I type this the Phillies game is still on and just took a turn for the worse! Ahhh! I hope they turn it around!

I have been chugging water for a while (in my pumpkin cup!) because I am making a little voyage up to NYC tomorrow for the Marathon! Aileen is running the NYC Marathon (her first marathon) and I am going to be a marathon bandit and run 6 miles or so with her to keep her focused and pumped and chugging along! I am pretty much going to be her personal entertainment/water fetcher/pacing assistant and I couldn’t be more excited to run part of the marathon with one of my best friends! She is a machine and is going to be awesome!

So stay tuned for some tales from the NYC Marathon from a Marathon Bandit. I was recently informed that a bandit is someone that runs in races without a bib, which will be me tomorrow! Ha! Follow me on twitter tomorrow for updates!!