Girls Getaway to Galena

I am home from a girls weekend with Hilary and Holly in Galena where we ran a half marathon, relaxed, chatted, ate and shopped a little.  It was a wonderful weekend and I am feeling a bit of that post-Christmas let down.  I've looked forward to this weekend for a long time, we had a great time and I'm a little sad it's over.  I thought perhaps blogging about it, looking at the pictures might cheer me up a little bit!

We all arrived late in the day Friday for the half marathon that was on Saturday morning.  So much about this race felt practically luxurious. The race start was in the parking lot of the hotel where we stayed and the race start time was 9:00am. We slept until 7:00am, got dressed, ate our pre-race breakfast and rolled down to the start about 10 minutes before the gun went off. I have never felt so rested and relaxed at the start of a race!

Here we are, minutes before the start trying to capture the lovely view from the top of the mountain.  Yes, I said mountain.  Who's idea was it to run a half marathon that starts and finishes at a ski resort?  Oh yeah, it was mine! 

This was, by far, the hilliest run I've ever done.  Hilary, Holly and I each ran our own race, but Holly shared the photos she took along the way.  It was just stunning, the light was so lovely making everything feel golden and dappled, the course was lush with Fall trees winding through a pretty rural area.... 

Can you believe how beautiful that is? Another view from the course...

This picture was taken about a 20 seconds after I crossed the finish line, much slower than I expected to...  My face looks a bit pained, but I really was happy - happy to be done and grateful to run strong 3.5 months after I broke my elbow....

Continuing the awesome, we rode the chair lift back up to the hotel, we each grabbed a quick shower and change of clothes, then headed to the post race party which was also in the hotel. Then we went back to the room to eat a little more, rest and relax.  Later that day, somehow we managed to rally, change clothes, put on some make up and head into Galena for a little shopping and some dinner.  Galena was so charming, we walked up and down the main drag, stopping in stores, picking up a few trinkets.  We had a beer at a local brewery, followed by some tasty pizza at a local pizza place.

See, we clean up pretty well!

This morning we moved kind of slowly through packing and check out. Hilary suggested we walk back to the chair lift for one more chance to soak in this lovely view.... It was hard for me to say good-bye even though it was time to get home to my people.

Back home now, ready to move into a running recovery week, re-group a little and see what lessons are to be learned from this half.  What I know for sure is that this weekend was one of the best I've had.