No Turning Back

Last night was the Awards banquet for our local run club.

The banquet was held an hour away from me, so my friend picked me up and we made a day of it. I have been a member of the club for 8+ years now, and this is the first awards banquet I've attended.

To start the day off right, I had a long run planned, 12 or 13 miles. When I woke up at 6am, it was 14 degrees, with a breeze. Ugh! I know I've run in colder weather, but I just couldn't get myself psyched for it. At around 7am, I got a text from Barbie saying that she was headed out for her run, and dreading it.

I decided that I didn't want to go outside, but I HAD to run. I have a perfectly good treadmill and can run on it. I talked myself into breaking the distance into 3 sections of 4 miles each. I got on the treadmill and was watching some of my Tivo'ed shows from last week. The first four miles were OK, so I went for 5 in the first segment. I took a quick break, opened the sliding glass door next to the treadmill (I got hot quick in the house), changed my shorts (at what point did I start getting chub rub? Must. Lose. Weight.) and back for another 4 miles. I took a second quick break and finished up with 3 more miles. I ran 12 miles on the treadmill! Woohoo!

After the run, I got ready to head out for the banquet. We left just after noon, as Barbie's son lives in the same area as the race, and we had plans to do a bit of shopping beforehand.

First, we went to the liquor store. Who ever heard of a dinner where it was BYOB? Ah, well, we got our wine. We had a late lunch (Mexican, of course), since none of us had really eaten much yet. Next, we had to shop for black pants. Yup, we came so prepared. Anyhow, we found some nice ones in the mall. At that point, it was already after 5pm! Social hour was 5-6pm, and we still had to change clothes and get to the banquet hall that was about 20 minutes away! We rushed back to the apartment, threw on our dressy clothes, and we were off. Very. Late.

We wound up getting there just in time to sit down for dinner. Whew!
Barbie received the Female Athlete of the Year award! It was very unexpected. I knew about it, but she did not. Let me tell you, it was TOUGH to keep my mouth shut about it! She had an excellent running year in 2008 and has been running better than ever.

I do have pictures from the banquet, but I'll have to post them later. I can't believe the dang cable for my camera is at work! Ugh!

During the course of the day and night yesterday, I told several people about my plans to run the inaugural Illinois Marathon. I also told some people at work last week. One colleague that was in town from Chicago even marked it on his calendar (he's a runner, too). This means that, come hell or high water, I have GOT to do the training for this marathon. I can't back out now, lest I have to explain to everybody I know that I'm a lazyarse. THAT is NOT going to happen!