Parties at the Park & Training at the Beach

So I've discovered that, as a result of being a teacher, I tend to be lame on the weekends. I'm just tired all the time and don't want to do anything. So this week, to make sure I couldn't be lame and bail on people, I invited a bunch of people over to my apartment so I couldn't cancel on them. It was a good life decision.

Back in South Bend, I had a couple different circles of friends and I was always planning things involving all my friends and bringing people together. Friday night, I did that same thing here and I finally felt more like myself instead of just like the new girl in town. It was lovely and I was thinking how I should do this more often...

But then around 11, one of my neighbors came and asked that we be quieter so he and his kids could sleep. We weren't being super-crazy or anything, but 15 people having a couple different conversations can get kinda loud I guess, so since I live near a park we decided to just head down there. It was still quite fun, but now I'm wondering if I can host more such get-togethers. I'd really like to, but I don't want to be disrespectful to neighbors either. Dilemma. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Now, I suppose, to the real reason for posting -- the long run. To start off, today I finally trained with my half marathon buddy!!

That's her. She's awesome.

I ran from my parents' house down to the coast and along the beach for awhile, then met up with Kristy and we walked to the pier and back from where she started. It was gorgeous and not too hot (YAY OCEAN BREEZE!!!), and it was awesome to get to catch up with Kristy for awhile. She just started work as a nurse in the ICU and is super-busy. I was lucky I even got her to come out because she just finished her third night shift in a row, and this was her first stretch of nights. Shout out to Kristy for being awesome and walking with me =)

And that was our view. Also awesome.

Now, I'm sure you're all wondering what I decided to do about the length of my long run today. Well, it's funny you ask because I'm not entirely sure. I mapped it when I got home (see below) and it said 5.5 miles. But the reason I got a ride home with Kristy instead of running/walking back is because based on her calculations I had already done 6.5 or so. Our technologies disagree. What I can say for sure is that I ran for 32:28 and walked for close to an hour, maybe more. I'll have to try to be better about keeping track of distance in the future.

Not sure what to make of this whole business...

But, either way, I went outside today and did some healthy moving around. And then I made myself a breakfast of champions: scrambled eggs, a Honeycrisp apple, and an eclair my mom made for my dad's birthday party last night. I'd been up for a few hours at this point so I figured dessert was okay... right?

I can hardly believe that today is already November 17, which means we're down to 2 months and 2 days until the race. Also, this is post #10 for me. Time flies, man. Hopefully it will fly during my run tomorrow since I may not have a running buddy. Good thing I have you guys to keep me motivated!! I will do my best to think of something more interesting to write, but I make no promises...