Weekend Update!

Happy Monday!  I'm linking up with Tara over at Running 'n' Reading for her weekend update!  Just a little something to make Mondays more enjoyable!

I was lucky enough to enjoy a 4 day weekend!  We had two snow days, and honestly they came at the best time.  Maddux and I got in lots of quality time together and I'm onto the next book in my book challenge.  I'm reading Girl on the Train for my "book currently on the best seller list" and so far so good!  I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty proud that I've already knocked out almost 4 books on the list!

Last week I got an email from Get Pumped for Pets 15k saying that the race might get cancelled because of the snow.  I decided to be on the safe side and knocked out 10 more treadmill miles on Thursday.  Luckily, the warmer temperatures allowed for the race to still go on, so I ended up having an almost 30 mile week!  I think I'm just about ready for Shamrock!

On Saturday I enjoyed an amazing group run (it was SO nice to finally have some warmer temperatures!  We actually joked that they must have just added sidewalks, because we hadn't seen them for so long haha!).  After running and finally hitting the grocery store, my nice friend and I headed to Annapolis to pick up my packet.  Originally they thought they might spike our shoes, but the trail ended up clearing enough that it wasn't needed.  After chatting with the race director for a minute, my nice friend and I headed to dinner.  I had some amazing crab soup and made sure to get a few liquid carbs in.  We remembered from our day date to Annapolis last year that just around the corner from the restaurant was a beer store with a fun local selection, so we made sure to make a couple of six packs before we headed home.  Always fun to try new beers!  We ended the night playing Phase 10 (I got my butt handed to me) and then I headed to bed to get some rest for my race!

Sunday morning came nice and early and I quickly got ready and headed out the door to Chester, Maryland.  It was a gorgeous morning and I was excited to run on the Cross Island Trail!  The race was pretty small (someone told me that there were only 50 runners doing the 15k--there was also a 5k and a 10k), but I got a fun t shirt and a reusable bag of goodies including a pen, a water bottle, and a chip clip.  Let's be honest, you can never have too many!  I found a girl from my running group (hi Nancy!) and we stayed together for the majority of the race.  It was nice to have a familiar face and someone to talk to before we started!  They had to change the course because of the snow, so a lot of the race ended up being on the road, but it's good practice for Shamrock, right?!  I would love to run there again some day to get a good feel of the trail.  It looked like it would be a really pretty place to run or walk Maddux.  They arranged the course so we ended up having several water stops, which was awesome.  There weren't many volunteers, but then again not many were needed.  They were all super friendly!  Thanks, guys!  While I definitely love smaller races, I was a little bummed at the end when no one was really in sight.  I was starting to feel it by the last mile and I do some of my best work at the end when I have people to pick off.  I had to give myself a few pep talks to keep my pace up there at the end!  When I got to the finish I found that I had won a door prize!  I am the lucky winner of a gift card to Charm City Run!  Perfect timing since I'm in desperate need of new running shoes.  I think it will be a great post Shamrock reward!

Sleepy post race pic to show off my awesome new dog shirt ;-)

When I got home my nice friend and I took Maddux to the park to enjoy the beautiful day and I spent the rest of the afternoon eating all the food and reading on my balcony.  It was a terrific weekend!

How was your weekend?!  Any fun races?  Shamrock is getting so close!  I hope to see a lot of you there!