Back to the grind

Yesterday H and I slept in.  I'd emailed my bosses the night before with the outcome of the race and saying that I planned on coming in late and would notify them if I was unable to come in at all.  I showered when we woke up as H made us coffee and waffles.  I decide my body just wasn't ready to move for work just yet so I called my boss to say I'd be working (and icing) from home. Today I’m back in the office.  I’ve already struggled more than once to hold back tears when a coworker asked how the race went.  But I know that the good thing is that it the more I talk about it and the more time passes, it should only get easier. 

As suggested by one of my high school cross-country teammate (who ran St. Louis marathon in August and decided at mile 21 that her body couldn’t handle the rest), I started reading Peaceful Warrior last night.  I’m not entirely sure what it’s about, but she said it gave her the confidence to run again and the book description says it’s the book that will “change your life” so we’ll see if it does.

Last night was bittersweet as I picked up H from the train and we went to one of the local running stores, Fleet Feet in Lincoln Square neighborhood, to have his marathon medal engraved for free.  Maybe I shouldn’t have gone dealing with my own frustrations, but I wanted to show him my support and happiness for him.  Whoever set up the engraving obviously didn't run the marathon. Stupid people. We walked in the store and filled out the form of what H wanted on the medal, but then we had to walk up a flight of 20+ stairs to actually get the medal engraved; really?!  We were greeted upstairs with the option of beer, water, frozen chocolate banana, or popsicle, all for free.  H and I were surprised (and gladly accepted a 312 each) and later commented that we’re both happy to have given the store our business in the past and will continue to do so. 

After a treacherous trek down the stairs (seriously, the worst part of trying to function post race is going down stairs and standing up); I realized that yesterday I’d been so disappointed I hadn’t even give myself the one treat I’d wanted…ice cream!  Lucky for us, the only Coldstone still open in the city was just a few doors down, so I insisted we stop in and grab some ice cream for dessert.  Yum.  Just because I didn’t finish yesterday, at the time I stopped I had already burnt over 2,900 calories and that ice cream was well deserved.

Later H commented that I should really try to not think about the race for the next few days; so, as always, when trying to get my mind off something, I tried to think of something else to put my time and energy into and with the timing, it’s our anniversary (Sunday!).  We decided about a month ago that we’d go camping for it.  Well, we actually looked at different weekend trips and then knowing that H wanted to go camping sometime this fall and looking at our calendar, I suggested that this would be the best weekend for it, not to mention much cheaper.  Now we’re both really looking forward to getting away from the city for the weekend and just being in each other’s company.  Actually MIL checked on me yesterday to see how I was feeling and said that H is so excited for this weekend that FIL has been teasing that H isn’t really his son (lol), so now on to one of my favorite mindless tasks – making a list of what we need and trying to round up and organize everything.

I’m also uber excited to give H his anniversary gifts.  I wrapped one yesterday and then after poking around on Pinterest a bit, I found a third gift idea that I’m going to construct over the next few days to occupy my time after work.  I’m just hoping that Michael’s will have what I’m looking for.

Here are a few deals going on:

·         Banana Republic/Gap/ON/Piperlime: 10% off today for cardholders with code: TUESDAYS

·         Banana Republic: 25% off orders of $100+, through 10/13, online only with code: BR25OFF

·         J Crew: Extra 30% off sale items through 10/13 with code: MUSTHAVE

·         Walgreens: Through Sat, 10/15: 40% off prints with code: ALLPRINTS, 5 gifts for $5 each (photo ornament, t-shirt, mousepad, keychain and/or commuter mug)