Baltimore Running Festival

This past weekend, I completed my first half marathon (13.1 miles) in Baltimore. After, 2 and a half months of training and 300 miles later, it’s finally done, which was definitely exciting. It is difficult to tell from the pictures the magnitude of this event but there were 30,000 runners in the festival. I finished in 2 hours and 8 minutes. This was probably the most difficult but inspiring thing that I have ever done. The streets are lined with people cheering for you and holding up signs. One of my favorites was a little kid with a sign that said "Worst Parade Ever!"  Many people also have charity teams that run. It was amazing to see the support that was out there after months of training.
Some people in the race did the marathon in wheelchairs, and there was also a brain cancer patient undergoing chemo who ran the marathon with his surgeon from Johns Hopkins. Several fathers also ran pushing their child in a wheelchair for the full marathon. When you get to mile 10, 11, 12 and think you can’t go any farther, those are the things that really push you and put things into perspective. It really makes you realize how many things are out there that are so much bigger and more difficult.
On a lighter note, it’s also demoralizing to watch a guy in a pickle costume running in a tube with no arms, just little feet moving under the pickle, pass you. Also frustrating to see a guy run and JUGGLE for 26.2 miles while you’re just trying to get your feet through the first 13.  Regardless, I had a wonderful time and I now have the bug…on to the DC Hot Chocolate Run in Dec. and the Rock N’ Roll marathon in March…Jason’s running this time!

Marathon photos for the finish line and during the race are at the link below. You have to enter my last name and also scroll down to Baltimore marathon 2011 for the event.
  http://www.marathonfoto.com/index.cfm?action=site.login

Finish line at Raven’s Stadium

Full marathon start with the elite runners who ran 26.2 in 2 hrs 15 minutes. They’re nuts!

Waiting in my bay to start. There were 3,000 people just in my bay.

Half Marathon start line. The start line was about 3/4 of a mile long.

In the start bay with Chris and Stephanie, 2 co-workers who ran with me.

Go TIME!!!!! We’re off!

St. Louis- Brunch and other fun stuff

Lauren’s mom is the president of an awesome children’s museum in St. Louis called the Magic House. They had a beautiful brunch there the morning after the wedding and we got the museum all to ourselves to  play in after we ate. This museum had a room for everything imaginable, they had a presidential suite where kids could sit at the desk in the oval office or do a speech on TV, there was a bank, a market, a house, an electromagnetic room, a bubble room, and even a music and sound room. We had a blast!

Brunch and outside of the Magic House. It is much bigger than it looks in the picture.

 

A house and the grocery store.

Jason playing on the pulleys

Me, standing in a bubble and in electricity room with my hair standing up.

Music exhibits.

The beanstalk ropes course, you can take the stairs of the beanstalk to other exhibits.

Alice in Wonderland exhibit.

WALT FOR PRESIDENT?????

 

After the brunch we did some additional sightseeing. We went to the St. Louis Oktoberfest, which is one of the biggest in the nation, and also the Anheuser –Busch plant.

We had extra time since our flight was delayed 8 hours. We didn’t get home until 3 in the morning.

Oktoberfest

This is the plant where they house all of the horses and Dalmatians that are in the Budweiser commercials, so we got a tour of the stables.

St. Louis- The Wedding

Lauren and Johnny’s wedding was absolutely beautiful. Lauren is a little more non-traditional but really put together some of the most beautiful and interesting wedding decorations that I have ever seen. Lauren looked beautiful and the wedding was absolutely amazing.They had some of the most unique and fun ideas. They had a limo bus for all of their guests so no one had to drive and instead of a guest book, they had a photo booth and guests took one picture with them and put one in an album with their wedding wishes on the back so they had a photo of everyone at their wedding. One of her bridesmaids was Laura Planck who is currently on Project Runway.

They got married at a beautiful building in Forest Park called the Jewel Box, which is an all glass building with beautiful gardens and sculptures.

The beautiful bride. Her dress was absolutely gorgeous.

The reception was at the Top of the Met, which is the tallest building in St. Louis, overlooking the entire city.

 

The skyline.

St. Louis- Sightseeing at the Arch

On Saturday before the wedding we went downtown to see the arch. We were going to go up in the arch but we didn’t have a lot of time and also, I’m not really sure how I feel about traveling  50 stories in a tic tac with no windows. So we opted to go on a boat in the Mississippi River instead.

Views from the boat.

The old courthouse by the arch.

Underground museum of Westward Expansion.