I did it! It was surreal and I was very emotional. Let's back up and start on thursday. Get ready for some photo dumping!
We drove down on thursday morning. This was a mini-vacation for me and Tony as we were suppose to head to vegas this week for a work trip and that got canceled and then I was suppose to go to USDAA nationals in TN but that didn't happen because my dog had several one bar away from a Q runs. SO we decided this was the Coleman family vacation/long weekend.
The view from our hotel. Kind of glad we weren't smack down in the middle of downtown. We had no traffic issues the whole weekend and free parking thanks to the hotel. The start line of the race was a quick walk down market street (the street we were on). The expo we had to drive to but there was a parking garage right across the road so that wasn't so bad after all. I would stay here again if we do this race again next year. Super nice rooms, free soda and popcorn in the evening and free drinks and chips (which i got 0 of:). We got there mid afternoon since we had to stop a few times and let the kiddo out to run off some steam. We headed down to union station to explore. We had been told it was a ghost town and it was but there was some pretty delicious food. I had my first california chicken philly and it was so tasty.
They had a little area with stuff the kids could ride on so andrew rode on the pony and then decided to sit in all the other cars/helicopters/riding thingies. Our main goal was to let him burn off some steam and our mission was accomplished. Andrew slept good that night, no problems, but he is pretty seasoned at hotel rooms and traveling thanks to going to dog shows.
I had put a question out on FB about places we had to go while in St. Louis. City museum came up again and again so off we went, first thing Friday morning. All i can say is WOW. That place was HUGE and we probably only saw a tiny bit of it in the 5 or so hours we were there. The toddler only room was a huge success with andrew. He loved the ball pit (i think he licked every ball) and he loved the pit with all the blocks and cars/trucks. His new favorite thing is to look at something and go "ooooooo" and he just kept saying that over and over and over. Plus, there was so much to see that Tony and I had a great time too. You could seriously spend a week in that place, but we had to go to the expo. Since i hate lines and crowds, I wanted to get there as soon as it opened up and get checked in.
Once we found it and found parking, everything was easy. They had it streamlined to a T. Got my bib, shirt, swag bag and got into the expo. This was my first runner's expo so didn't know what to expect. Tony and I walked through it all once, talked about what we were interested in and then went back through and made our purchases. We spent alot of money, but tony has been working 12 hour days, 7 days a week so we had some saved up just for this occasion. We had a list of things we needed to keep up our running addiction and we hit about every point on our list. We got some new winter running gear and some wireless headphones, two of our biggest needs. Tony also got some compression socks where he could get fitted for them and get the right type. I also tried out for Team Refuel. I did a video try out and I hope I was cute and witty and what they were looking for. Used my southern charm and my smile so we shall see if that is enough. You can get 500 bucks in sponsorship and lots of cool gear. I am already a huge proponent of chocolate milk as a recovery fuel so I think i should win, right???? I was told this was a pretty small expo. I was hoping for more free samples so we could try stuff but the only samples we got were of biofreeze, snap peas and jamba juice. Oh well still got some cool stuff. I think the highlight of the whole thing was this:
There was a lady at the expo that had dog/running themed stuff. SO cute! Got some dog print arm sleeves and this shirt. I have two running partners but one of them is a dog:) Miss stella has been a great running partner and look forward to continuing to run with her. The name of the lady's company is gypsy runners named after her BC gypsy. I spent a little more money at this place getting some decals and some stuff for my BRF. Never run in running sleeves but excited to do so. I now feel like I have every season covered no matter how cold or warm!
Had dinner that night at the hotel restaurant. Apparently it is the home of the Blue's hockey team and there was a game that night. So glad we went down early . Andrew actually tried coloring and not eating the colors. Well, he still tried eating them but attempted to color some before eating the crayons. So funny! He actually ate a good meal. He loved the toasted ravioli and ate a whole plate of it! We are currently battling his eating. Some days are good and he eats like a horse and some days he just doesn't want to. I try and not get freaked out about it because i figure when he is hungry he will eat and he won't starve to death, but it is still disconcerting.
I ended the night with me feeling a little bit of pain in my legs. I was getting a little scared. I have been battling tight calf muscles no matter how hard I try to keep them stretched and I was starting to panic a little. I had had a massage the day before we left but I had also run 4 miles and was a bit speedy with my run, not because we were trying to, but because it felt good. I wanted to sight see and take everything in yet still rest enough. I didn't sleep too well that night because i was freaking out and I was in a little bit of pain. And on top of that, Andrew had a night terror luckily at about 10:30 that night, so not too late, but still. His night terrors consist of him screaming bloody murder for 10 or so minutes. I hate when he does this at hotels because I hate to disturb others but I have not found anything that prevents them or ends them quicker. He basically has to cry it out and then he goes right back to sleep. In fact, I don't know if he even wakes up at all. He doesn't respond to any calming or comforting.
Okay breaking this into two parts! This is too much for one blog post!
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