Before Bellingham

I head to Bellingham today to run the Bellingham Bay Half Marathon!

Before I go, I should post about my runs during my dismal taper week:

This 5 miler was postponed from Tuesday and tacked onto one of the busiest Wednesdays I've ever had - somehow, I fit it in between a modern class, a tap class, a choir rehearsal, and moving furniture. Eep.

Then, I had my last shakeout run today... an easy 2 miles.

What do I expect for the half tomorrow? Well, honestly, I'm not sure. I've been trying to get enough sleep (7 hours, 6 hours, 8 hours, 9 hours, and 6 hours since Monday) and eat enough carbs (not like I have to try very hard...) and I feel like I've succeeded okay. I drank like a fish today to make sure I'm hydrated enough.

These last few runs have all been "in the 9's", but my September monthly average so far has been 9'53" - the slowest its been since April 2013.

So, I don't know how the race will go. I feel well rested and hydrated, though I feel under-trained in the mileage. Here's my weekly mileage total from the start of training:

Yeesh. My increase and decrease in mileage has been literally all over the chart!!

We'll see...!

My Wedding Day: The Reception (Toasts and More Dancing)

All photography copyrighted by Kelly Garsee Photography.

Catching up? Check out Pre-Ceremony, The Ceremony, The Formal Pictures, and The Reception: Part 1.

Then, at 5:07 (literally - I guess it only took us 7 minutes to cut the cake!) it was time for toasts! My dad went first.

The best man Mark made his speech next.

Then, my sister Whitney made her speech.

All three of the speeches were special - so touching, so funny, so sincere. But nothing prepared me for what came next- my best friend, Molly's, speech. Well, performance is more of a better word.

I knew Molly was planning on making a speech, but during Dad, Mark, and Whitney's toasts, I couldn't see her. Whitney and Mark were standing next to my dad while he made his speech, and Whitney stood next to Mark while he made his, so I figured Molly was just standing somewhere else to where I couldn't see her.

After Whitney made her speech, I gave her a hug, as did JW.

I scanned the room to look for Molly, and immediately saw her come out from behind a curtain hiding the kitchen, unsheathing her violin from its hiding place behind her back. I couldn't believe it - she was going to play something! Molly is a professional violinist - she graduated from NYU in Violin Performance - and had played during my sister's ceremony 5 years ago. I desperately wanted her to play during mine, but I couldn't figure out a good way to feature her as my maid of honor and a ceremony musician without stretching her too thin.

Little did I know, she had planned this all along. Both my Mom and my sister knew about it all along! Molly said a few quick words and then started playing "All I Ask of You", from The Phantom of the Opera.

Phantom of the Opera is a special musical for us - we went to see the movie for our first date in 2004, and it was the musical we saw in New York the same night JW proposed.

Say you need me with you here, beside you
Anywhere you go, let me go too

Share each day with me, each night, each morning
Say you love me (You know I do)

Love me, that's all I ask of you

 

The toasts ended around 5:30. Then it was time for 30 more minutes of dancing!

Then it was time to toss the bouquet and garter, at 6pm!

Of course, my girl Molly caught the bouquet :)

Closeup of my tossing bouquet :)

Then, it was JW's turn!

Haha, Rachel's face!!

And wouldn't you know, the Best Man caught the garter!

Then it was time for more dancing!

And finally it was time for our grand exit at 6:50 - coming up in the next post! :)

Taper Week

Taper week is here!!!

I couldn't be more happy that this training is almost over with.. not really sure what happened, really. I have a suspicion that since I was originally going to just run at 10K, and started training for that, and then decided halfway through that it would actually be training for a half marathon... something in that thinking was off, and it made me over train. At least I PRed at the Columbia Winery 10K?

Anywho, my runs last week weren't that terrible, but they didn't feel that great. I just kept thinking "one run down..." after I finished each of them. I'm really ready to stop.

At least this was negative splits?

And, I try to remind myself that I'm super lucky to be running in the sun, given the fact that it's September in Seattle.

I ran my last long run (10 miles) on Sunday - I deliberately tried to make it slow, but was kind of surprised by how slow I could be.

Granted, it was 85 degrees and not during the coldest part of the day, so that was hard... but still, 11 minute miles? Jeez.

I really have no idea how the half is going to be. If it'll be one of my worst times ever, or if it'll be around normal. I'd be happy with anything below 2 hours, 10 minutes. I mean, I did run 13 miles a little over 3 weeks ago and my time wasn't terrible. But I guess a lot can happen in 3 weeks?? They certainly seem to be flying by!

Seattle skies continue to be amazing, at least!