This post is SUPER belated. As in, the most belated post I have written yet. Which is really mean of me, because I teased Laura months ago about not posting her side of the story so I could gank her photos. [camera was broken back then, too.] So, my apologizes to Laura. And my apologizes to you, for having to be bothered with this post from the first week of November. [at least I’m following through with my New Years Resolution Declaration of Fabulous Independence and procrastinating, right?]
I’ve told you several times about my love for these two ladies.
Stef and Laura are two of the people I am most thankful for in the world. We met on SparkPeople when we all signed up for the same challenge, and I honestly know that I owe them endless amounts of thanks for helping me to keep going, stay strong, and never give up when I faced a broken heart. These ladies sent love and encouragement my way via telephone calls, text messages, emails, spark notes and random packages. I will be forever grateful for their presence in my life.
So please, imagine my excitement when the calendar showed that it was time for the three of us to meet in Boston for a weekend of fun!
Laura was coming up from Texas to see her family in Boston, where Stef lives- so I knew I was going to make the three hour drive come hell or high water to be reunited with my two favorite Spark-friends. 
Naturally, I packed my suitcase, my duffle bag, some groceries for breakfast and snacking on a budget, and my laundry basket:
Boston was such a blast! We got a hotel room to make it an extra special girls weekend!
Friday Night: Delicious dinner, followed by wine in the room. We stayed up talking for hours – you never would have guessed that we had never all three spent time together, before. It was magical.
Saturday: We woke up on our own time, ate breakfast in the room, and headed out down to Newberry Street for some shopping, and ate lunch at Parish Cafe [which was fabulous!]. We ordered dinner in and spent the evening laid back in the room – it was the perfect way for us to spend our last evening together – we are all pretty low-maintenance ladies.
Sunday: We got up early, made oats in the room for pre-race fuel, and packed up. Please note how much luggage we had. Please note that we were not even in the room for 36 hours.
We drove to the race site, picked up our bibs & goodie bags and got ourselves set. The race was sponsored by Road ID, so you know we had to get the photo of Stef & Laura showing their Road IDs off. I was pretty excited that my race bib contained my two favorite numbers – 6 and 8.
I’m not going to lie. I had a rough time with this race.
Going in, i couldn’t decide if I wanted to race to PR my time, or see if I could run the entire 3.1 miles and stay with Stef and Laura. Well, apparently once the race started I couldn’t decide either. After going on my own for about 1 minute, I stopped and waited for a few seconds for
my friends. Then, I struggled. I couldn’t find a comfortable pace. Finally Laura laid it down: “Heather- JUST GO!” And I did.
I don’t know if it was the greasy pizza and breadsticks I enjoyed for dinner the night before. Or perhaps the several glasses of wine. Or perhaps the late night, or the long pants and long sleeves in the unpredicted warm weather. Or maybe it was none of those things and it was just my brain- but I struggled through the entire race. I stopped to walk so many more times than I did for my first 5K or even any of my training runs. And although I was very happy to cross the finish line, I would be lying if I didn’t tell you I was a little disappointed with my time.
I came in officially at 35:29. As my second 5K, I obviously was hoping to cross the finish line faster than my first 5K time of 33:49. But, I also knew it was important to keep things in perspective – not only did I finish another 5K – something I wouldn’t have been able to do a year prior – but I did come in under my first goal of 40 minutes, again.
Also, it meant so much more to me to be able to race with two of my favorite women. It was such a great, and unforgettable experience.
So, Race #2:
November 2009.
Boston, MA. [state #2 of the 50 state goal]
35:29
My second race ever.
My first race with friends.
My first race on a not-closed course. [urg.]
My first race t-shirt:
Looks like such a fun time! And good job on your run!
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