A good run and celebrity sighting

There are two things you should know about this weekend.

No. 1: I ran 9 miles (9.2, actually) for the "fun" of it.

No. 2: I met the winner of the marathon Olympic Trials, Shalane Flanagan.

Which do you want to hear about first? Did I hear the batch of White Chicken Chili that I just threw in the slow cooker?

Sorry. You'll have to check out my new menu page.

So back to my weekend. I ran 9.2 miles and met Shalane Flanagan. Since I ran first, let me chat about that. OK? OK!

I had 8 miles on the schedule for today, and I was counting on the run going as my Sunday runs have for the past few weeks - Mark joins me for the first few miles, shares stroller pushing duties and then baby wrangles while I finish up. However, Mr. Mark woke up with a 101 degree fever and running was out of the question. I was already feeling pangs of mother's guilt for leaving Miles all afternoon so I thought I'd take him and Denali for all 8 miles.

Of course, I was naive in this plan because I assumed that Miles would sleep for the entire run. Yeah. Not so much. I noticed that he was awake at 3.75 and at 4.5 miles in, he let me know that he was not happy and was not going to be a part of an 8-mile run. Thankfully, I was relatively close to home and I was able to drop him off just after 6 miles.

I feared that the last two miles would be difficult. My legs, already tired from Body Pump, would be fatigued from the stroller's resistance (+pushing it in the snow) and my mental game would not be there. However, as I set off alone, I had one of those rare moments in running. I felt like I could run forever. I was enjoying the activity so much that I missed my turnaround and ended up at 9 miles.

Crazy, right?

Onto No. 2. I met Shalane Flanagan.

She was the keynote speaker at the track club banquet and my new BFF. I mean, it was written in the stars - we have the same shirt from Target.

Shalane had a lot of great things to say, and she is very much a testament to hard work and believing in yourself. I took notes on the things she said but I'm too tired to go get them. It's not like you need a book report, though - just look at those arms!

How was your weekend?