Long Run + ASVT

I think I'm still recovering from yesterday : / Although I'm exhausted, it was a really amazing day! Most of my girls opted out of the Saturday morning run, but a few of us dragged ourselves out of bed and headed downtown to East Beach. Ironically, this is where ASVT is held, so we would be back that afternoon, but under very different circumstances.

The weather was perfect for running - cool and overcast (although it was less than perfect for hanging at the beach later). Since Jordan was playing in the ASVT volleyball tournament she wasn't there for the run so I started out solo. And since Tom is out of town, I also don't have any good pics from the run, jsut a few I snapped on my phone along the way. Full marathoners had 2:45 on the schedule, and since we had such a small group that morning, our runners were few and far between. We headed toward Leadbetter and up along Shoreline until La Mesa Park. We continued toward the preserve, crossing my favorite bridge over a flora filled abyss. Instead of running through the preserve, we stuck to the roads and passed it until we hit Piss Hill - the infamous half mile incline that was at mile 23 of the SB Marathon. Going down was great. We hit the beautiful bird refuge at Hendry's Beach at the bottom then turned and made our way - slowly - back up Piss Hill. I pushed myself to run the whole thing and made it to the top feeling good just pretty winded. As we headed back to La Mesa I caught up to two girls on our Team who I ended up running the rest of the time with, and I was glad for the company : )

My fave bridge!

Going down...

Bird Refuge

Just before Hendry's

....going up!

When we got back to East Beach all the halfers were done, but we still had about 40 minutes to go. So we continued on, passing the lagoon, cemetery, butterfly beach, and the ritzy Biltmore. The last few miles I ran with an awesome girl and chatted the whole time about running, making the time fly by. It's a whole different experience to run with a newer runner and help them finish their longest run to date - it totally takes the focus off of you. We finished in exactly 2:45 with a total of 14.8 miles for the day : )

My favorite bike path above the ocean, right before butterfly beach.

As soon as I finished we hurried home to shower and get ready for ASVT!! For the past month or so I've been working with a fabulous designer down in LA to create a theme and swimsuits for my entire sorority. As stressful as the whole experience was, it all paid off Saturday. Everyone looked ah-mazing! We even had other houses tell us how cute our suits were : ) The theme I chose was Havana Nights, inspired by the nightlife of Cuba. The day was like one huge photoshoot, with some volleyball thrown in : ) We didn't win the tournament, but if there was a swimsuit contest, we would've totally won!

All cleaned up!

Roomie and I ready to go!

 East Beach

ASVT - we made it!

Roommates, past and present : )

Gamma Phi Beta ♥

Fave : )

Team G Phi!

With 2 of my runners : )

My little sis!

Flower girls : )

Roomie and running buddy ♥

We finally made it home around 5pm, and not only was I exhausted but I was ravenous! I had only ate a little bit of pasta and a Cliff Bar after my run, so I desperately needed food. We decided to head to Freebirds, a Mexican food joint in Isla Vista best known for catering to the throngs of inebriated kids in IV. My roommate and I split a massive order of veggie nachos and they were incredible. I don't know if it was because I was starving or what, but we devoured them in like 10 minutes. Yummm : ) I don't know how but I managed to stay awake much later and only finally fell asleep in front of the TV around 11pm. I seriously felt like a zombie. And today had been a lazy lazy day, trying to recover from my busy week and crazy weekend. Even though I had a blast, I'm just a wee bit glad it's all over : )