Run away Bride!

Today I headed to Seattle where I will be staying until the wedding at the end of May. I got to the airport and my suitcase was 60 pounds instead of 50. Being the Dutch girl I am I tried to find all the heavy things in my suitcase and put them in my already stuffed backpack. I got it down to 50.5 and the guy let me check it without the additional fee. My backpack was so heavy! Not to mention the fact that I was carrying my wedding dress. My flight was a little delayed so when we touched down my connecting flight was already boarding. When I got off the plane I started sprint across the airport to my connecting gate with my dress flying through the air behind me. Someone yelled after me "run away bride!" I must have been quite the site to me seen. I arrived at my gate disheveled and a hot (I was wearing all three of my coats to make my suitcase weigh under 50 pounds). A guy on my plane said "are you coming from a wedding?" I said no I am going to my wedding. The guy said "A destination wedding in Seattle?" Yes I said. Then a voice from a few seats down said "It's gonna rain!" and then everyone on the plane started laughing. haha. quite the day.

Eugene

I wanted to share with everyone this article that was in the Eugene marathon program...pretty cool! : ) I found out that there will be about 10 women at the race trying to qualify for the Olympic Trials so that should make for a good race. I am excited. It is so hard with the marathon to know what type of shape you are in but one thing I do know is that I try to go into everything in life prepared. I am not a "wing it" type of person. So I have put in the work and I can stand on that starting line knowing that I have weeks of hard training behind me. My main concentration from now until Eugene is to work on my mental game- I want to remain confident and tough. For the beginning of the race my mantra is "smooth" i want to focus on my form and staying relaxed and smooth. My middle of the race mantra is "focus"..if I stay focused in the morning I will be able to keep my mind off of thinking more than a mile at a time. My end of the race mantra is "dig"

Shamrock Shuffle

Well unlike the other years it was 80 degrees for the shamrock shuffle! It had been a very long time since I have been hot on a run. It was alittle warm for racing actually. The race went very well. I ran my own race the whole time not thinking about what anyone else was doing. I slowly passed people over the race which is always a good feeling! I ended up with a 22 second PR. Of coarse, as distance runners we are never satisfied and I wished that I had gotten a bigger PR : ) As a team we didn't do as well as in the past. We got 6th place and top 5 get prize money. Bummer! However, I just love the team atmosphere at the race. It is sooo fun! Makes me miss cross country. I stayed at the race for a really long time catching up with all my runner buddies from different teams. After the race I went out to Bruch with Calvin people that were in town. The rest of the day I was sad because the day incorporated everything I love about Chicago and made me not want to leave...great competitive racing, nice weather, good restaurants, a city that draws my friends from out of town to come and visit, cooling down with a a team of competitive runners that are my really good friends along the beautiful lakefront, walking around in the sun.....I could go on and on.