More proof that I make wise choices

Within about a minute of pressing publish last night, I got two texts telling me how hard my race pictures were making people laugh. Based on comments, emails, and further phone contact, I get the impression that I spread a lot of joy and laughter last night. You're welcome, world. My writing may fall short, but my race day expressions never let me down.

 As a thank you, I decided to bring back a couple oldies but goodies. 

Myrtle Beach Marathon, 2012

Eyes closed and possibly sneezing?

I can never get enough of this picture. Might be my favorite race pic of all time.

Marine Corps Marathon, 2011. We hated you.

Once again, you are welcome.

I had another run in glorious 99% humidity before work today, but it was weirdly good. I even brought my headphones, which I normally don't for a run that short, but my audiobook was almost finished and I was dying to know what happened. Then it was over before I'd ran even half a mile, but I switched to Pandora and I think it helped pump me up. 

I decided to just take it easy and see what happened and I ended up with a 9:07 pace without feeling like I was putting forth too much effort. My heart rate was higher than usual, but my super smart science-y friend confirmed my rudimentary theory that it was because my body was working extra hard to sweat and cool itself. So now all I need to do is get used to that and completely acclimate by Sunday. Easy.

I'm running Sunday's marathon completely by myself - Eric will be out of town (not that I wanted him to go, spectating small marathons is horribly boring), and my friends that signed up with me aren't able to run anymore. I guess I've never done this before (running a marathon alone, I've run plenty of shorter distances races on my own, I'm not a codependent freak). Usually at least I know another blogger or acquaintance who will be racing. It's pretty weird because I have no one to obsessively email about the weather, so I just have to retreat even further into the obsessiveness of my own mind. 

So the plan Sunday is wake up at the ass crack of dawn, drive up, run 26.2, creepily ask a stranger to take a picture of me for the blog, drive home, get drunk on Moscato, pass out on the couch. Solid.

Last year for Memorial Day we stayed in a gorgeous house on Ocean Isle Beach.

But, this will totally be good too. Running 26.2 is a pretty close second to spending the weekend sipping drinks in paradise. 

Who's got some good Memorial Day weekend plans? I know mine are hard to top, but feel free to try.