"Motivation" - Kelly Rowland [feat. Lil Wayne]

Seattle . . .

You left me feeling like this. [ummm but actually, this was pre-race ---- shoulda known ;) ]  SO love Amanda and her signature pose.

Seattle has left me with something . . . . . .

M o t i v a t i o n . [x 4,444]

That 3:10 marathon.

That "BQ like a man" goal.

 - - it's so freaking mine.  Ya, it might be in January of 2012 not December of 2011 [as I was planning] but . . . I'm totally okay with that.

So on to SEATTLE race report with new happiness and a lot less anger.

On the way there.  I saw my mountain.  And this awesome opportunity to advertise for Southwest.

Awesome moment #1:
Sitting in seat - look up for air fan thingy . . . . Am I the only one who instantly thought this was an Ironman sign?  Jeff, was I in your seat?!

Loved that.

Awesome #2:

Sitting next to an 18 year old and his Dad on the way to the Expo on the "light rail".  He was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo intrigued. 

him:  we don't have these in Oklahoma!
him:  we have to pay to ride things like this at the fair!
him:  and we have to pay about $3.00 MORE!

It went on and on and I loved it.

EXPO time:

Fun stuff.
Got to meet a friend from DM [dailymile] Samantha.  awesome.

then........well.......we pretty much rolled out.

It's Seattle!  I don't want to go to the expo for hours!  It's sunny and did I mention
freaking . . . 65*.

Soooooo.......we went to Pioneer Park [I think].  I chilled with the baggage and the Pita found some awesome sandwiches at a local place.

We sat in the sun and listed to this guy jam on this violin-ish looking thing.

a w e s o m e.

Went to our hotel.

And

Hello....................look..................at.................this.................view.

DoWeReallyNeedToLeave?

Do you see what I see?

Yep. My CC bill going up by the second.  Nordy's.  Heaven.

So the Pita dragged me out and we were off for. . . .

Pita Vs. Seattle food fest 2011.

Yep - First stop: Pike's for:
1.  Strawberry Shortcake
2.  Sandwich
3.  Bread Pudding
4.  Peach [what?]
5.  Blueberries
6.  Mac N' Cheese
7.  Salad [Cesar]
8.  mini donuts

I got:

Boosh.  heck ya!  Best.  $15.  Ever.

Signs from Pike's.  I. freaking. loved.

And

Awwwww. yaaaaa.

Oh and I found this to eat.

ummm, was NOT yum.

Sooooooooooooooo..........

Then I said so what's for dinner and --- ya, he wasn't hungry.  In fact he was a bit full.  So off to the gym we went at 7pm.

In PitaVille . . . . workout = hungry again in an hour [I'm smart & I want dinner]

Got 5 miles in.  He did 40 on the elliptical [new record].

shower. clothes.

good.
great.
On. We. Go!

ummm, ya.  we didn't make it out the hotel door.

Hello, Ruth's Chris & Blue C were IN our hotel.
nom. nom. nom.

Friday.
This was the Pita's day.  He had a few worky things he/we needed to do.
We drove to Gig Harbour for the day.

b e a u t i f u l.

House we went to - A-freaking-mazing.

They chatted.

I chilled.

Loved it.

Dinner. . . . . Spaghetti . . . the best ever.

And

Salmon.  The good crap.  Alaskan something - something.

Yep, I tried.  I likey'd.  I ate.

Fast Forward one hour.

We late-y leaving.  Pita Indy 500-ing our way back.  Emz a pukie. [big time].  I get car sick/motion sick.  This. was. bad.

Ate 1/2 bagel.  Texted Dawn [duh, she totally needed to know about this], drank two 16oz bottles of wa-waaa-washington water.

Set alarm.

I'm out.

Woke up.  felt a bit "wonky" but good great! [no excuses].

Walked 1/3 mile to shuttle.  Was on within 5 minutes. I kinda "cut".
Shortish bus ride.  Arrived with an hour to spare.  Toilet.  Bag drop off.  Stand in front of generator for 30 minutes inhaling who knows what but it was warm.

Walked up to corrals.  Saw Jess, Mel & Amanda [above mentioned photo].

And I am off.

I unknowingly ran past Chelsea.  She.  Freaking.  Rocks.

She took these photos!

And I CANNOT believe I didn't see this.

Yep, she made it too.

Freaking
love
that.
[hmmm, I haven't been there today]

So... ya..... not mentioning running numbers but it wasn't pretty.

First 6-10 [ish] miles were 7:23 average
and
it
got
worse
from
there.

Here's me smiling for the Pita.

To which he said:  "What are you doing 3:20 is ahead of you.  suck it up. run faster!"

he. knows. me. well.

but....
he didn't know my legs today.
They weren't there.

blah. blah [I sucked] blah. blah.
3:27:08 [flipped off camera guy]
Finish line.  YAY!

My Pita.

Love. Him.

Then Jess - got this awesome photo for us.  Thanks Jess!

Then I got my photo with the girls.  Super.Sweetness.

[Me, Stacie, Mel & Jess].  Sorry, I kept you guys waiting for FREAKING ever.

And one photo with me and Stacie. 

[the treadmill lovers!!] ---- [let me rephrase, we love treadmills!]

OK -----

So I'm hiding that I'm uberP'dOffRightNow.

Walk in hotel.  Bye Bye hotel.  Off to TM for 2 miles.  NOW, I am better.

Ice. ice. ice.

texting while icing.

BAM.

It's fun time.
Got my Run Emz shirt on [shuddup].

And it was time for food.

fun,

shopping [photo intentionally omitted, Nordy's!], Ninja's,

getting "Randy" [Randy Couture]. . .

[seriously. nicest. guy. ever.  Sat three seats away from him.]

And four points to the Pita for scoring front row seats.  Crazy fun.

at the baseball game & a 4 mile walk.

a w e s o m e n e s s .

Here's what the Pita thought of my finishing time:

[which is 29.4% why I love him.  He knows I expect a lot of myself and he expects EVEN 4 times more.]

The run . . . . ya, I sucked it up.

but . . .

the weekend  . . . . best one EVER.

w a i t . . .what the . . .

This is my 202nd POST?! 

"How did I miss making way too big of a deal over my 200th?"

 --- that was the thought I had this morning until I realized it [200th post] could not have been better. 

It was this.

I did have something all fun planned for my 200th though.  I guess, I'll just have to save it for 300.

After our Portland fun.  Did I mention, I'd move there in a heartbeat?  We moved onto Washington.  Now Gina, this is for you.  The best photo I have ever captured on my iPhone.  [you must check out her blog.  her photos are taken from her iPhone.  we have the same version - so [very] apparently she knows what she is doing and I do not.]

The bridge connecting Oregon to Washington.  Beautiful.  Need I remind you I live in AZ.  The last time I was on a bridge was when I was in Seattle last year and the time before that probably on a family trip over the Hoover Dam in 1998.

We ended up in a city, town, dot on a map place with a population of 494 497 people - and just in case your grandma lives there [I'm not mentioning where].  A little dodgy.  But we were soon back into areas like this.

Ok, seriously, you Washington & Oregon dwellers . . . I really hope you know how awesome you have it there.

We spent a night in Port Angeles.  I loved that city.  SO did Peanut.  The starfish were freaking huge.  huge. alive ones nonetheless.

We of course made our way to Seattle.  Where I got my fabulous sandwich three days straight [ya, the place at Pike's market with the line out the door... started with a "m".  Sorry, didn't care about the name - I knew where to find it and that's all that mattered.]

Peanut thought this was pretty sweet.

I'd rather have a scorpion on me than a bird in my hand but --- she loved it.

And apparently, you have to have your photo on [or with or rubbing] the pig?!  whatever.  we [they] did it.

And you know how it goes . . . where ever there is a Nordy's I'll surely be close.  But we captured Peanut in front of this sweet recycled penguin thing there instead of a photo of my credit card bill.  I'm one smart chika. ;)

But check out her new kicks.  nice.

We stopped at the aquarium for this horrible and freaky photo.

But we saw this on the walk there.  awesome.

Hey Kovas, you should have bought this instead of the minivan. ;) joke. joke.

But my favorite photo from the whole trip . . .

 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

Yep, our best Nordstrom [shoe department] photo ever.