I ran my 41st half marathon last weekend, the Dallas 13.1 Series. Pretty cool to have run as many as I am old. It’s been a crazy week or I would have posted about it sooner, but Peggy and I had a blast not sweating like pigs because it is 112 degrees outside. The run was good too . . . I didn’t start to even feel it until mile ten. Baby steps, Internet People, baby steps.

After the half, I jumped in the shower and headed north to play with my Martini Twin. But this time playtime was called paint the former bedroom and currently new wine room the color of Cabernet Franc. So, not only did I get lower body workout, my arms and shoulders got a workout too. We did pretty awesome if I do say so myself! Daisy approves, it is her new favorite room.

And now that I am finally rid of my gross bacteria, I have e.coli. [Insert big sigh here] [And big glass of wine here]

September has been massively crazy – mostly due to the stupid bacteria my colon insists on hosting. I just finished my 24th day of medication. The 24th day of what could be the most disgusting medication on Earth. Cross your fingers that it is gone forever. [please. please. please. be gone.]

In an attempt to look better, even if I didn’t feel better, I made a trip to play visit with my twin in Oklahoma.  She gave me a new color and cut and we were super cute and super blonde again! Just look how awesome my hair is! I love it. Michelle’s hair is always cute . . . one of those perks of owning a super-cool salon.

The day after I came home from my much deserved playtime with Michelle, my parents arrived. And I can’t believe I don’t have any photos from their visit. It was nice and relaxed and Kenza got another guitar lesson from Grandpa and my mom and I slaved away at the garden.  I do happen to have photos of the work we did, albeit not sunny ones. More photos to follow in a later post.

And then there has been training. And I won’t lie, it hasn’t been easy . . . the air here has been so bad. Thank goodness Peggy and I head over to the trails to do our long runs. This Saturday we are running the 20k Tour des Fleurs. It is going to be so much fun – just cross your fingers for some cool weather.

With our combined powers we can float, sip and style – all in a single weekend!

The long runs training for the Oklahoma City Marathon have been getting loooongerer, 19 miles this week, 21 miles next week, then 23, etc . . . you guys have been there, you know the drill.  So, last Saturday the Martini Twins© had 19-miles to run. And what a better way to run 19-miles than sandwich a half-marathon between two 3-mile runs. Saying it that way sounds like three much shorter runs – and anytime you sandwich something it just makes it funny, I’m a 13-year-old boy like that.

Months ago Michelle and I registered for the Fort Worth Cowtown Half Marathon and we worked it into our training schedule. Since we’ve started this marathon training we’ve ate, hydrated and rested like we are training for a marathon. With special emphasis on hydrated – my pee has been a lovely shade of clear for weeks.  We have been the picture perfect epitome of training.

Friday night we were in bed by 9 PM. We woke at 4:45 AM, drank some coffee, ate some our chia infested oatmeal, dressed and were on the road. We arrived at the interstate off ramp in downtown Fort Worth at 6:25 AM – over an hour early for the half. We stayed on that off ramp not moving for nearly three hours. And I have no clue why – we were so early. Runners were abandoning their cars on the off-ramp bridge and running to the start line. Really. My Candy Car was not getting left on a ramp, so we entertained ourselves the best we could; face-booked our ridiculous status, we car danced, took pictures and made videos for as long as two girls trapped in a car for 3 hours and hydrated to run 19-miles could. For your car-dancing pleasure:

Cowtown Traffic from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

By the time we actually parked the car and got to the start line, the half course was being taken down. Bye, bye sandwiched half marathon.

Car-fatigued, frustrated and hungry, since it was almost lunch time at this point, we decided to make the best of the situation – we needed to run, it was a gorgeous day and we were right next to the Trinity Trail – a beautiful place to run along the river. We knew we couldn’t do the distance with the water or fuel we had on hand, so our plan was to run as far as we could and enjoy the beautiful day. See, here we are enjoying the beautiful day in our hot pink and hot peach matchy, matchy outfits:

For about 4 miles there wasn’t a soul in sight and then our trail merged into another trail and we saw runners. Lots of runners. So many runners we thought we might be dreaming. Runners with bibs and chips. We got closer and noticed ULTRA on the bib. ULTRA? I didn’t know they were running an Ultra-marathon as an event for Cowtown. Oh well, we decided to follow the Ultra course for a bit and head back to the car, and at this point if we could get ten miles run, we’d be good.

We chug along, and then before we knew it these hippy-looking, water-vested and often barefooted ultra distance runners were giving our cute, neon-dressed selves a “great job, girls” and thumbs up all over the place. I look down and we still have our timing chips on. These insanely happy ultra runners think we are a part of the ultra-marathon. I turn to Michelle and say “let’s just finish the Ultra”. We had a brief discussion about whether these runners are insanely happy or just insane. We had no clue at that point how long it would be to the finish, but decided we didn’t care, we liked the happy runners and we kept going.

So it wasn’t really “our” mile 29, but we were having 29 miles of fun.

We weren’t expecting to get coronated with medals and t-shirts as we crossed the finish line, but then again, we never received our half shirts or medals. By the time we finished the entire day was just comical. We ended up running at least 14 miles and Gallowaying another 4-5 miles. A perfectly unexpected day of training.

We topped off our weekend by doing out best to dehydrate ourselves with good wine and stuff ourselves silly with shopping and good food. One of the best girl weekends I’ve ever had. Who other than the Martini Twins could miss a half-marathon, crash an ultra-marathon and finish with a marathon medal?

On Saturday my Chef and I loaded up the car and headed to Oklahoma. The plan: drive 3 hours, run 3 hours. And it happened just as so, and it was a spectacular 50-degree sunny day. If the weather turns out like this on race day, the Martini Twins are going to kick some serious marathon ass. We ran our 17 miles in 3 hours and 5 minutes – a perfect training pace for us. This is the most I’ve run in a long, long time and it made me really happy and really hungry.

After our spectacular run, our wonderful hosts, Michelle and Phillip, fixed us the most delicious meal, which I proceeded to inhale in approximately 2 seconds. Hey, I ran 17 miles, I was hungry. And I proceeded to be hungry for the next 3 days. I normally have tons of pictures from my Oklahoma trips, but this is the only one that wasn’t blurry from my shaky hands from running 17 miles. We took this on Sunday, the day after we ran 17 miles and then proceeded with 17 miles of retail therapy to recover from the 17 miles of running we did.

Did I mention that we ran 17 miles? I’m not normally a beer drinker, but I think that was the best beer I’ve ever had in my life. I needed those carbohydrates for all the shopping we were about to do. And, Internet People, you are going to be so proud: I bargained shopped. And, I got some fantastic deals – for some unknown reason my Chef keeps reminding me about some recession?!?

So, humor me while I’m in the mood to ramble.

Our first stop was at Tuesday Morning where I procured a Spiegelau wine decanter for $5.99 and another wine decanter for $16.99. Now I have a total of four wine decanters. Which is good, because they are so pretty and for some reason wine decanters don’t last very long in our house.  I also got a set of nested mixing bowls, which I need because since I’ve met Michelle, I’ve been inspired to cook stuff that tastes like real food. FYI – I’m still in training and have a long ways to go.

Our next stop was TJ Maxx where I got an adorable sofa throw and some salt scrub – I also had a really heated love-hate relationship with a gorgeous Steve Madden handbag that I reluctantly ended. I still haven’t recovered from that break-up. Then, we headed over to Ross where I found some really cute salad servers – and the most amazing thing happened as we were walking to the check out line – I found a salad serving dress. And for only $19.99. Is that not amazing? Because I totally did not own a salad serving dress of any way shape or form. Now I can toss salads with reckless abandon. I’m such a lucky girl.

(I feel a salad making picture going right here in the near future.)

I also ended up with a bread basket from Target, and a pepper grinder from a different Tuesday Morning. Do you see the trend in kitcheny stuff? I’m almost a full professional now – or, at least I look like one. I don’t think I spent much over $100, which makes the Chef me really happy. And all that after running 17 miles.

We headed back to Michelle’s house and had another better-than-gourmet meal, drank some good wine while we watched the Olympics with our husbands. Our husbands who bought us flowers for Valentine’s Day.  A lovely, lovely weekend.

In preparations for the upcoming visit of the infamous Ms. Not Born to Run and Nod, I decided I better actually run and have some fun. And who else better to practice those skills with than my funner, runner and wine sipper friend/Martini Twin, Michelle! Saturday, we ran 13 miles in the rain – and in the rain, I created my new # 2 motto: If you gonna run, run fun!*  It’s hard to argue with that kind of brilliance. (Well, unless you’re at mile 17 of a marathon and your quads are on fire, but I totally plan to change that this year.)

We petted zebras and kissed horses and finished in 2 hours and 17 minutes (we won’t mention anything about the auto pause feature on our Gamins during our petting zoo break) and beat our virtual partner by 2 minutes!

We finished soaking wet and with smiles on our faces.

I’m ready for you now, Jeanne! And so is Rowdy.

*# 1 motto: Fun lasts longer than fast.

We had a blast. Chef Nicole took over my kitchen and taught me some awesome things! The wine was fabulous, the food was fabulous and the company spectacular.

Sunglasses, wine, sake, bikes, legs, free kittens  . . .  seriously, who wouldn’t buy what we were selling? I think we’re on to something here.