Monthly Archives: June 2008

June 29, 2008 · 10:36 am

20 Days

That is how long I have until the Spirit of Racine half-ironman. In the beginning, my training was great. I was hitting the pool 2-3 times per week, running according to schedule, and once the weather was nice enough, I started to get in some good long bike rides.

Then all things wedding started to interfere, and training went by the wayside. I haven’t been to the pool in almost 3 weeks, I got in two long rides in that time, and my running was almost non-existent. Now I am at the point where I should be starting to taper, yet I have all but skipped the most intense training weeks. On Friday I wondered whether I should even do the race. It is not a sprint distance. This race will be long and hard and I am not ready.

So I have a new plan. No taper, but I will take it easy with one week to go. I will train up to the last minute, and I will go into the race with a goal just to finish. I will try my best, but I will allow myself to be slow and not beat myself up about it. This will be the longest race I have attempted to date, and I just want to get through it. After I get through it, I am going to have a heart-to-heart with myself to determine if a full IM is in the cards for 2009. Do I have it in me? We’ll see…

I got in 13.2 miles running yesterday and felt pretty good, despite getting caught in a massive thunderstorm about 3 miles from home. Fun! Sometime this week I will try a 56 mile ride followed by a run and see how that goes. I am confident in each distance on its own; it is putting them all together that scares the crap out of me. So for the next few weeks I will be in uncharted territory, and I am kind of excited to see how my body responds on race day. Slow and steady, I am determined to cross the finish line.

1 Comment

Filed under Triathlon

June 27, 2008 · 11:14 am

This little flower girl is NOT happy

Wedding Recap

Ok, here we go. This will probably be pretty long and photo heavy, so sit back and enjoy! Let me start by saying again that we couldn’t have had a more beautiful day on Saturday. The day flew by so fast, it was so hard to take everything in!

Let’s back up to Friday night, and our awesome rehearsal dinner. After the rehearsal, we all headed over to La Perla for some delicious Mexican food and margaritas. They put us up on their outdoor terrace, and it was the perfect place for our group of about 40.

Me with Michelle (bridesmaid)

And ring bearer Andrew. SO cute.

Moving on to Saturday morning. The War Memorial called in the morning asking if we still wanted everything set up outside for the ceremony since there was a chance of rain. I said yes, definately! I just had a feeling that it would be a beautiful day.

Here we are getting our hair and makeup done. I think one of my best decisions was having a hair and makeup person come to us on the day of, rather than having to go to a salon. It was so much more relaxing being in one place and not having to run around.

This is the view from the room where we got ready. The chairs were already set up for the ceremony.

Ready to go! Seeing this photo, I think I was starting to get nervous.

These are my favorite pics from the ceremony. The flower girl is hysterical, running up the aisle screaming “mommmmyyyyy!!” The matron of honor (right) is her mom. Her and my aunt are waiving to get her to come. This just cracks me up. I hope to have video of the flower girl to post later this week.

Here’s me walking up with my dad. Surprisingly, I did not turn into a big puddle at this point (or at all in fact). I was actually trying not to look at everyone beacuse I was afraid I was going to lose it.

It seems that my eyes are closed in many of the pictures, but here’s a good shot of my hair flowers. I LOVED my hair.

The sand ceremony. We had a rather large container, so this took a while. It worked out ok though, because my brother and my cousin were singing a duet at this point. We overfilled the bottle a little, which made us laugh, along with the party music from Polish Fest going on next door.

The kiss!

Mr. and Mrs. C!!

The bridal party

This is just after being introduced into the reception. I wish I would have peeked into the room before everyone went in, because I really didn’t get to see what the tables looked like with the centerpieces. Hopefully the photographer got some shots of that.

We had individual cakes at each table as the centerpieces. We had three different flavors and told all of the tables to mingle about and try the different cakes. They were so yummy!

Our first dance was to “Lover Lay Down” by Dave Matthews. We are NOT good dancers, so we kept on looking at each other and counting down the minutes until the end of the song. We did do a good dip at the end, but unfortunately I don’t have a picture of that yet.

My dad got misty-eyed during our dance to “Lullabye” by Billy Joel.

The rest of the night was spent partying down old skool style, so I will leave you with a collage of images that capture that feel:

And by far my favorite photo of the night:

All in all it was absolutely fantastic! We have already had people tell us it was the best wedding they’ve been to. People also raved about the food. I was glad we splurged on the dinner (we had a combination plate of filet and chicken in a puff pastry), because everyone loved it. I didn’t do many of the little details that people seem to get so hung up on, and I don’t think anyone noticed. My point is not to drive yourself crazy with all of the small stuff. I didn’t really stress about anything leading up to the day. Whatever got done got done, and whatever didn’t, well, who cares? We had an awesome party, and I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

In other news, people were so generous with their gifts I was sort of blown away. We were able to book our honeymoon yesterday, and I can’t wait! We are going in November, and we will spend 9 nights in Belize!!

2 Comments

Filed under Wedding

June 24, 2008 · 3:12 pm

Wedding Teaser

I’m finally married! We had a perfect day on Saturday. The weather gods we looking after us, all of the vendors were fantastic, and everyone had a blast! I am planning to do a full post tomorrow complete with many pictures I’m sure, but for now, here’s a teaser from my mom’s camera:

1 Comment

Filed under Wedding

June 18, 2008 · 9:54 am

Things I am looking forward to this weekend…

- Partying it up with margaritas at the rehearsal dinner Friday night. Mmmmm…..Mexican….

- Spending our last night engaged together.

- Waking up Saturday morning and knowing that by nightfall, I will have a husband.

- Spending all morning with my girls, getting hair and makeup done and relaxing. This will probably involve bloody mary’s.

- Steve seeing me for the first time in my wedding dress when we meet for pictures before the ceremony.

- Walking down the aisle with my dad. I hope I can keep it together.

- Saying the vows and officially promising to love each other forever.

- Having cocktails outside on the plaza.

- Visiting with all of our wonderful family and friends.

- Being introduced as Mr. and Mrs…

- Hearing what the best man and matron of honor have to say during the toasts. I expect to laugh and cry.

- Eating some delicious food.

- Eating some delicious cake.

- Dancing the night away and partying like rock stars.

- Coming home and letting it sink in that we are married!

- Getting together with our families on Sunday for some casual food, drinks, and gift opening.

- Sleeping in on Monday and then spending the day together doing something fun.

I. Can’t. Wait.

1 Comment

Filed under Wedding

June 12, 2008 · 5:04 pm

Oh Johnny, how I love thee

So I am almost positive I ran past Johnny Depp’s movie trailer today.

I may or may not have peed a little.

I read the other day that the Public Enemies film crew had applied for permits to occupy the curbs of several downtown streets. After I read the article, I promptly forgot about it, because well, I’ve had a few things on my mind lately. So imagine my surprise when I was running along Prospect Ave only to look up and see a barrage of large vehicles, semi tractor-trailers, and actor trailers parked along the street with orange cones all over the place and complete with people from local businesses standing in the middle of the sidewalk gawking.

That’s when my memory of the filming was jogged (pun intended) and I kicked into Johnny stalking high-alert mode. Ok, so there were no actual movie people to be seen anywhere, but I did spot one trailer (actually let’s call it more of a tour bus without the front end) that was much nicer than all of the rest. Johnny’s I’m sure. (Really I’m not sure at all and am probably wrong about all of this, but for the sake of my story, it was his, damnit!).

Suddenly I had daydreams of knocking on the door, or maybe just trying to peek into the window. Creepy much? Anyways, Johnny would answer, and I would say “Hi Johnny Depp, do you have any water in there?” He would pull an ice cold bottle out of the fridge, I would drip sweat all over his floor, we would chat for a bit, I would invite him to my wedding, he would say he’d try and stop by. Swoon!

By this time I was home and already plotting my running route for tomorrow to take me within distance of a possible Johnny sighting. I’m sure it won’t happen, but it will be damn good motivation to get me through the swim and bike portions of tomorrow’s brick workout.

Weather Stalker

After years of loyalty to Weather.com and the 10-day forecast, I recently discovered AccuWeather.com and the 15-day forecast. Awesome. Now, I realize that weather forecasters have trouble being accurate in describing the weather for the next 5 minutes, but for the last few days I have been stalking the 15-day forecast. I am completely neurotic about the weather over which I have no control, always have been.

Today is the first day that the wedding day appeared in said forecast, and here is the prediction:

This better be subject to change in the next 15 days. Do you think it’s bad luck to stalk the weather?

Neurotic. Case in point.

2 Comments

Filed under weather, Wedding

June 6, 2008 · 1:03 pm

Aren't they perty?

And they’re all mine. I had a “professional” running shoe fitting today, because my old New Balances just weren’t cutting it for me anymore. The sales associate had me walk away from her, walk towards her, and run on a treadmill before disappearing to the stock room and re-emerging with about 6 pairs of shoes that would be just right for me.

I learned that I have a normal foot. Normal arches, neutral gait, good running form. Basically I could not be more ordinary, which in this case is good. She said I would be fine with any neutral shoe, so I was just trying them on for comfort. I am all about the cushion, and these bas boys fit the bill. Light and cushy. Oh and they look pretty cool too.

As if I didn’t spend enough money buying brand new running shoes, I also felt the need to stop over at REI for some biking supplies. $156 later I have a new bike bag, a bento box, new gel gloves (all about the cushion), a bike repair kit, and approximately $51 worth of gels, blocks, bars, sport beans, and accelerade. This sport is not cheap.

Well, that’s it. If not for the current 90 degree temps mixed with the gale-force winds and possible hail, I would try out the new shoes. I will have a chance to try out my new bike stuff tomorrow during a four hour ride, and I’m pretty psyched about it. It’s time to kick the training into high gear, which will be no easy task with the wedding in 15 days. Oh my!

1 Comment

Filed under The run, Triathlon

June 3, 2008 · 10:14 am

The bachelorette party (aka I didn't know it was possible to drink that much without dying)

It is Tuesday morning, and I am just now feeling completely recovered from my bachelorette party on Saturday. I had so much fun, but man did I pay for it on Sunday. And Monday. The day started early at the 12:30 showing of the Sex in the City movie.

The IPic theatre at Bayshore was pretty sweet, and the drinking commenced. (Yes, my grandma next to me came to my bachelorette party, because she’s awesome that way). I LOVED the movie. It was so good, I didn’t want it to end. I laughed, I cried, I was completely satisfied with the way things turned out.

After the movie, it was on to a margarita cruise on the Milwaukee River.

Here we are on the riverfront waiting to get on the “ship.”

I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of the boat, and the pictures from my camera on the cruise weren’t that great. You will have to take my word for it that it was very fun, and a great way to kick off the night. In fact, there were probably about 5 or 6 other bachelorette parties on board, so a lot of people must have had the same idea.

The cruise took us right past the Milwaukee County War Memorial, where we will be married in less than three weeks, so that was pretty cool.

After the cruise (and 4 margaritas later) we headed to dinner at Riptide. The only picture I have from dinner is my aunt with her giant plate of crab legs, so here ya go:

The food was delish, I had a lobster-stuffed catfish with rice and veggies.

After dinner it was time to say goodbye to most of my family; my mom, grandma, and aunts headed home. I was left with my cousin Kelly and my girlfriends to get wild and crazy. First stop was Moct, which happened to be pretty uneventful, and the only picture snapped was a self-portrait of all of us stuffed into one bathroom right before we left.

This is where the night got crazy-fun. We decided to head over to LaCage, which is a gay dance club. I had only been here once before (on my 21st birthday) and remembered having a blast, and it did not dissappoint.

I don’t think you can really tell from this picture, but these shots are on fire! (notice my huge bling too)

Now for my PSA: no matter how fun it may sound to do not one, but two shots of flaming 151, you will not think it so fun the next day when you cannot move yourself into an upright position on the couch for 12 hours straight.

This photo was snapped right after the shots and right before this happened:

Yes, that is me busting out some moves on stage with the gay men. This is only one in a lengthy series of embarassing photographs, the rest of which I am not even going to post. Let’s just say by this point, I was beyond hammered, and I don’t even know how these guys were holding me up.

We finally made our way home, and Kelly crashed on our couch. The morning after was rough to say the least. I am not a puker, in that I don’t puke ever, which I think made things worse because I still had alcohol corsing through my veins when I woke up at 10:00 the next morning.

Sunday in its entirety was spent perpindicular on the couch, a total waste of a day. By Monday I felt better and went for a run, hoping to sweat out any lingering hangover. I did feel better after that, but it wasn’t until I woke up this morning that I felt totally normal.

In the end, it was worth it. I had a total blast with the girls, some of whom I don’t get to hang out with that often. Now it is crunch time, as I am realizing how much has to get done in the next couple of weeks before the wedding. Yikes!

1 Comment

Filed under Friends, Wedding

Tagged as bachelorette party, drinking