Subject: Life... post-RTB...

Yeah it kinda SUCKS! I'm dead tired, every time I run I'm just more tired. I've done only short distances since the race- 2 miles here, 4 there... but nothing worth talking about. And none of it has been good... I've just been sore and my legs have felt like weights.

The good part about this is I know how I usually am after a race... it takes me a week or two to get back on the wagon, and then I'm geared up again and ready to go. The better thing is that I am signed up for the Monson Memorial Classic half marathon in November, so I have something to aim for when I'm running. I'm doing some 5Ks here and there, but the half marathon is the next real race I'm looking at. I'm doing it with a bunch of my RTB buddies, which is amazing cause they are the most fun!

Just a word about that: I LOVE that I now have running friends. Rather than taking my existing friends and trying to make them runners (which almost never works, by the way) I now have a group of people who are already as passionate and crazy about running as I am, and many of them are crazier than I am!! They push me and motivate me beyond any other force I've ever experienced... I guess that is the beauty that comes out of spending a whole weekend in a van with people... This team is so crazy awesome, I can't see how I could have done this race any other way... Many thanks to Mud, Sweat, and Beers :)

This weekend is going to be really good. Tonight, unfortunately, I am going to be doing planning and stuff for my classroom. Things are definitely hard at TC4, but it looks like they will be getting better by the week... I'm hanging in, and the girls at work make it 100x easier- Jessie, Leslie, Stacy, Erin, etc... you gotta love em! Tomorrow I am probably going to hit the gym (in another attempt to get the hell out of my running dry spell) and then I am going out with my entire family (read: mass craziness) to watch my uncle's band play lame covers... BUT it will be a great chance to see my family and DRINK with them, which I LOVE cause they are so FUN! It will be a good time. What's better is that I am staying at my Mom's which can only mean one thing... Mom's belgian waffles on Sunday morning. YEAH BABY!

Unfortunately, I will be missing Clare-Bear's bar-hopping birthday on Saturday night... so to Clare, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! and to the rest of my team partaking, GET HER WASSSSTED!!!!!!! haha

Overall, things are going so well. I'm very happy.

;)

Subject: 200 miles, 24 hours, a thousand stories...

I can't believe it's over :( but this past weekend was the EMS Reach the Beach Relay and it was the best weekend I have had in a very long time! It was so amazing! Everything from meeting my team for the 2nd time ever and realizing that I had no idea what I was in store for, staying in a 3-floor condo type thing at Attitash the first night, living in a van for the following 2 days, to the smell of the vans at the end (oh my it was something special) was so amazing. I can't even describe it, but it was incredible.

I'm really excited now because I have running buddies- Lynn, Clare (Clare Bear!), Nick #2 (Gernt, or Nicky F***ing F***), Nick #1 (Swanson), Lynay, Megan, Rob, Barbara, Stephen, Andy, Marcelo... these people are awesome. I know I'm staying in touch with them for a long time! There were sooo many jokes and so many laughs from the whole weekend...

Andy: "I need toothpaste at the finish"- Us: "Let's give him a button, a knob off of the van radio, a toothpick, a tree branch, and your firstborne child."
Lynn: "Nick, don't turn around" Nick- "what? WHOA!"
Marcelo: "Helloooo... oh. I take that back... just Hi."
Lynn: "Andy, is this your bagel?" Andy: "Yeah (takes a bite)"
Lynn: "Lookin good... Lookin REAAALLLL good"
Clare: "I passed my husband!"
"Need to take a PRP?"
Nick: "I DESTROYED a port-a-potty at leg 32"
Text message-- Me: "We're having a naked party in our van!" Swanson: "Are you running that way? Cause it's getting cold out..."
"Hell with the beach... hand me a BEER!"
"I have nothing to offer but MUD, SWEAT, and BEERS!"
The crazy messy van
Sleeping on a hallway floor with like 200 other runners for 30 minutes
Port-o-Potties for 3400 runners... yum
Sharing beds on the first night with Nick, Megan, and Lynay... "I thought I told you to leave your vibrator at home!"
The underwear discussion...s (lol)
The longest running conversation all weekend (hahaha...)
Reaching the beach 32 hours later... with 11 new friends and hundreds of new memories!

The next best thing to spending all my time with them in the vans was opening my e-mail inbox today and finding 23 e-mails from all of them :) with pictures, inside jokes, stories, and awesomeness. I was so happy! And a little sad cause I miss them!

Best of all, this past weekend has really gotten me to realize what the important things are... that I need to stop staring at closed doors, see the good things that I have and run with them to make them great.

You know how these past 2 months have been awful?
Well this past weekend has changed EVERYTHING and I'm so happy.

I LOVE RUNNING!!!!!!!!!!