Foto Friday: Adventures in Michigan

Hubs and I took last Friday off work to make the ~5 hour trip to Dearborn, MI. The trip was smooth, but would have been quite a bit shorter if we didn't have to make so many pit stops. Hydrating the day before a marathon can easily complicate a road trip! We stopped in a quaint little town along the way for lunch at Subway - which will become a new day-before-the-race tradition, although not necessarily in the middle of nowhere Strathroy, Ontario.

I had some fun runnerd'ing it out along the way. Hubs made fun of me at first, but pretty soon he was pointing them out too!

We munched on some carby car snacks...

We arrived at our very modest hotel in the early afternoon and unloaded. Marathoners need a lot of stuff when travelling!

I started getting things organized while hubs went for a run in the 'hood (the morning run was good enough for me - yes, he ran a double the day before the marathon).

Hmm, can you tell we had a race in the morning? Yes, I even brought our toaster!

Pretty soon it was time for an early dinner at Olive Garden (unlimited bread? yes please) before heading over to the expo. There were blow-up martians everywhere!

We picked up our packets and promptly spotted the Redhead, all crutched out but cheerful as always. I finally got to meet the infamous Spike as well and both were formally introduced to hubs (he had met Red briefly around mile 25 of the Disney Marathon last year).

[photo shamelessly stolen borrowed from Red]

Red (with the help of some lovely sponsors) spoiled us with awesome goodie bags - she even had one for hubs! I think that made up for me dragging him around to meet my "internet friends."

I got to meet some other awesome bloggers as well (including Jessie!) before shopping around a bit and eventually heading back to our hotel.

We got ourselves ready for the next morning and called it a night early. I had a decent sleep, surprisingly.

You already know what happens next...

After getting a bunch of hugs and chatting for a bit with Runner Nic after the race, we boogied back to the hotel to shower up and change so we wouldn't be too late for the big bloggy brunch. I later learned that we should have stuck around because prizes were awarded for the top 5 in each age group (I was 4th)! Fortunately the awesome people at Running Fit are going to send me my prize.

Brunch was awesome! There were tons of people there already, but Red had lots of tables reserved for us. She also squealed and hobbled over to give me a big congratulatory hug when we got there, making me feel like a total rock star. It was so nice to catch up with everyone after the race and of course enjoy some delicious food.

[these photos also shamelessly stolen borrowed from Red]

After saying goodbye to everyone, hubs and I did a little shopping and a lot of wandering around in the afternoon. We eventually settled into the hotel with some grub and our laptops to fill everybody in at home. I loved seeing all of the tweets, facebook/blog comments and emails rolling in!

We went for a short recovery run in the morning before feasting on another big breakfast and making the trek home.

Farewell Dearborn...

Until next year!