Running across the border

To Michigan, that is.


One of my good friends from college lives in Michigan about 130 miles from the Bean Town in Ohio. I've always wanted to tour her stomping grounds, and went up last Friday night! There's a 5km race that she's raved about for several years, and that happened to be on Saturday, so double bonus! See a friend and run a race, in the same weekend!


When I arrived, we did a practice run-through of the race course. The race is called Run Clark Lake, and it goes along the coast of Clark Lake. (If you couldn't gather that from the name of the race... :-P)

The lake... don't you want to live here?

After that, we chilled at her bf's house. (He lives just about a 1/2-mile from the picture above.) We ordered lunch from the Beach Bar. Which had the best tomato soup ever. Why were we eating tomato soup in the middle of hot, sweaty August? Because it was that good.

Later that night, we decided to pull out our GC traditions and make spaghetti. You gotta carb-load the night before a race, right?!?

We started out rockin' to some Kesha on Youtube.

Dance party in the kitchen!

And a pre-race meal of spaghetti would not be complete without garlic bread!

We go for the good stuff.

Not quite sure what this was about.

Then we had a small dilemma. We were using the stove, oven, microwave, computer, and laundry machines all at the same time. Apparently, that is enough to blow a fuse. Lovely!

Oh, no! We're stuck in the dark!

We had to wait a few minutes for the power to come back on, so we entertained ourselves by preparing "Appetizers". Also known as melba toasts topped with butter and parmesan cheese.

Michelle's a hottie. That's all I can say.

Mmmm... this tastes so good! Can't you tell?

At this point, we noticed parmesan cheese was moldy. Maybe that's why it didn't taste too great?

Finally, we got the power up and running again and we were able to enjoy our spaghetti!

Carb-licious!

The next morning, we got up bright and early for the race. We all love mornings!

Yay for running!

Yay for running early in the morning! This is Michelle's bf Alex, by the way. He's a pretty cool guy.

Yay for having someone to run with for once!

It was a great morning for a race. The weather was actually cool. I could have used a long-sleeve warming up! We did the usual 13-minute jog warm-up, and then all the drills from GC. It was actually pretty nostalgic. I was a little sad that I'm not running any cross country races with the team this fall! 

Before we knew it, it was time for the race to start! Now, I have been running all summer, (minus about a week after the wedding), but not doing any real speed work-outs. I didn't really know what to expect.

But, I finished in 20:28! I was quite happy. My 5km PR is 19:08, so that's pretty far off, but to be able to run sub-21:00 without much speed training was satisfiable for me.

Michelle, the running beast that she is, ran 19:03, a 30-second PR from last year's Run Clark Lake! Way to go Shelly-Bug!

After about a 4-mile cool-down, we decided to pose for some fun pictures while we waited for the awards ceremony.

We're so BA...

Friends for life! 50% of the Fab 4. One day soon we will re-unite!

We were pretending to be running here. Michelle looks like a leprechaun, and I look like I'm about to face-plant.

Then, we wandered over to the Beach Bar for the awards ceremony. We had our choice of pop or beer after the race, and we both went with pop. Not sure if I could stomach a beer after running 8 miles. Not sure if I could stomach a beer ever.

Where the fun and festivities took place.

Michelle ended up getting 2nd in our age group! (ages 18-24) The girl who won ran a 18:06. She was a runner for Michigan State, so go figure.

Posing with her award. 

After the race, we pretty much headed back to Alex's house to get cleaned up. I then drove back to the Bean Town because my Business Man was missing me very much! (Or, maybe I was missing him... :-O)

Beautiful view near Alex's house.

Thanks for a great weekend Michelle! Had a great time!