I heart bloggers

 I am officially here to tell you that Kara is who she says she is, not a creepy old man creating a running blog with pictures of an adorable baby as an elaborate ruse to lure young women into the woods!

  

Running behind her looks like this - nice view!

Running with Kara was so much fun I officially want to win the lottery and fly all over the country and go on runs with all my blog friends. And as long as we're going down that road, buy a giant mansion in Maui with full time maid, a brand new car that doesn't have a dent in the door from the time I opened it and someone hit it going 40mph and almost removed my arm, maybe some diamond earrings, bibs for every race happening ever, etc.

I woke up at 5:30 and had some coffee, changed my facebook status a few times, and headed down to southern MD, to an area I never even knew existed. At this point in my life a two hour drive feels like nothing, Jillian Michaels podcasts made it fly by, plus saturday morning = no traffic. I did have a minor panic attack when I left and realized I didn't know if the government was shut down. I texted my dad as soon as I stopped at a red light, the only person who would be awake AND up on political situation at 6am on a saturday, and then tried for about ten minutes to find NPR. Everything on the am stations was either church radio or sports so I gave up and kept rocking out to Ke$ha.

It's kind of weird meeting someone for the first time but feeling like you've already known them so long. Kara's friend that ran with us actually asked if we were friends from college. It really felt like we had been friends for at least as long as I've been reading her blog, and she's totally someone I would have been friends with had I met her the "traditional" way. Hopefully none of my mom friends read my blog but she is the third coolest mom I know (the first and second are, obviously, my mom and my grandma) - her stories about her kid are actually interesting and funny, but so were all our other non- kid conversations, if you know what I mean.

We did two loops at a state park, for a total of 14.6 miles. We stopped after the first to eat some of the delicious snacks Kara was so sweet to bring, including the  much talked about double stuff oreos. We figured the 50K is giving out cookies, so we have to make sure our stomachs can handle it! So much more fun than Gu.

The time flew by because we were chatting the entire way, and I know I've said I converted a lot of things this year (treadmills, yoga, ice baths - kind of) but I am now a trail running convert. I guess it might be good if I don't encounter a cult leader since I seem to be easily influenced, especially if its some sort of exercise cult. But running in the woods, not worrying about time or pace, walking up the hills, eating oreos halfway through - what's not to like? 

Thanks for the great run, Kara, and for only thinking I'm a little bit psycho to drive 2 hours for it!

Here's what trail running looks like:

 Look at those gazelle - like skills!

 Downhills are scary on trails.

 Pretty lake that I couldn't look at because I had to stare at my feet.

When we finished the run I had to rush back to Baltimore to volunteer at race packet pickup (I didn't get to go to Kara's house to meet Faith, sad, it's on the schedule for our next run though).  It was in the freezing basement of a local running store, but it's always good to help out. The girls in charge of the race were super nice and Lily and I got to chat without huffing and puffing, which is sort of rare.

When I got home Eric and I had a date night at home. 

 Not from last night.

 It took us like 2 hours to make dinner so by the time we sat down and ate it it was almost my bedtime, so we didn't get to the movie portion, but we still had a fabulous time. And our dinner was so unbelievably delicious that I think I am going to link to the recipes. Sorry I don't have pictures but I have a serious hunger problem and dinner at 8:30pm after a 14.6 mile run does not = photography, it = get in my belly.

Beer bread (probably posted this before but it's THAT GOOD)

Brocoli cheese soup (and I recommend making every recipe on this site)

Flounder (the recipe says salmon but we just went with what our freezer held)

Seriously you know I don't talk much about food that doesn't contain chocolate so when I do, it's good.

And I'd like to wish GOOD LUCK (even though she doesn't need it) to my IRL (in real life) BFF Katylin who is nice enough to read my blog and is running her first 5K today! I am so excited for her and she is going to do fantastic!

 If she can walk on cobblestones up hill in a wedding dress, she's got this.

 That's how we roll - class all the way.