Annapolis Ten-Miler

The weekend was great! Started Saturday morning with a nice little drive to Annapolis to pick up my race packet for the Annapolis Ten-Miler on Sunday morning. Proceeded to spend the afternoon at my favorite pool in Baltimore with Noel with a nice big margarita, some mindless magazines and my favorite view of the prisoners in SuperMax prison...I will post a pic next weekend, because it is hilarious---you get a bird's eye view right into the center courtyard where they let the well behaved prisoners come out for a bit of fresh air...went to church and enjoyed the house to myself for weekend as Garianne was at the beach celebrating Marianne's 50th.

Woke up at 4 on Sunday morning to get ready for the '8th most popular 10-miler in the world' or something like that race in Annapolis. Earlier in the week I bribed my new friend Ed to run the race with me. (Ed is a very fast runner who can easily run a 7:00 mile with the greatest of ease...he took pity on me and ran with me...the entire race) It was fun; we talked, and ran a good race. I failed to ever look at a course elevation because the race fit the criteria: good premium and good food/free beer post race. I really wish that I would have known that the course was incredibly challenging and it was great to have the encouragement of another to keep me going. It was slightly reminiscent of Austin; but it was about 50 degrees warmer and mostly uphill. We ran into someone from Ed's gym after the race who asked him if he was just jogging or had an injury because he was running much slower than normal. Ended the race experience back in Baltimore at the Nautilus Diner with Chipped Beef and over easy eggs...then a nice long nap!

Susan got back from Germany last night; Noel and I picked her up and it was great to see her. I have been so very blessed by the additional of these two women in my life over the past few months. Truly, truly an answer to prayer and proof of God's continued presence in my life. They make a possible DC move a lot harder. I was told this weekend that we appear to be 'high maintenance and intimidating' I thought that was hilarious because we are anything but high maintenance, I could take slightly intimidating...Anyway, this high maintenance crew is going to West Virginia on Sunday to go tubing---I am sure that there will be many colorful characters floating on the Shenandoah river...it's an all day combo-trip with flat water and rapids! Looking forward to it!