Livin' the Dream in Lima

Hey all... today's post is a little all over the place. But that's okay, because typically I'm usually a little all over the place. First order of business : Super-fab photos. The "official" race pics from the marathon have been posted online. Let me tell you, there were some beauties. Let's try to pretend that running a marathon in soaking wet clothes and shoes is super-duper-fun.  "Are we finished yet? I've been running for a looooooong time." No, Sara. You're just at mile 15. Towards the end, silently wishing I was the man who is already finished on the sidewalk. "Why can't that be me?!?!?" Pull out a fake smile for the finish. There's the real emotion....... utter exhaustion. Why do people do this to themselves? Oh yes, "for fun." So there ya go. You can see that I was soaking wet the entire race, which was loads of fun now that I look back on it. It's still hard to belie...

Marathons are hard. But before we get to the actual marathon, let's rewind a bit to Saturday afternoon. We arrived in Cincy around 2pm, and hit up marathon expo. Goodness sakes, I had never seen a room so large filled with so many runners. Everyone was so excited, you could almost feel the energy. We weaved our way through the exhibitors and what they had to offer. (Think free dark chocolate almond granola samples! Yum! I also might have snagged some info on the Disney Half & Marathon in January... we shall see.) We also stopped for a few fun photo ops. Posing with a balloon flying pig. These were everywhere! Flying pigs with all sorts of themes. They were so cute! After the expo, we headed to our early-bird dinner. We had the luxury of dining at Maggiano's Little Italy   (major carb-loading!), and it was a fantastic dining experience. The service was great , and the food was delicious as well. None of us had ever eaten there, befo...