The Early Bird....Gets Frostbite

Hey there everyone!

Well, this morning I decided to participate in the State Farm 5K run. I'm pretty sure I got the bright idea to sign up for it during one of the beautiful, sunny, 70 degree days we had a few weeks ago. Needless to say, I was none too happy when I finally realized that I would have to run the race in "less than favorable" conditions.

I must say that we are extremely lucky that we haven't been hit with the ridiculous snow storm that has recently plagued the Dakotas and Kansas (those states are our neighbors to the immediate north and south in case you're not up on your Nebraska geography). However, we did not escape the bitter cold and wind. This morning, at the time of the race, it was 25 degrees with 20 mph winds (it felt like 12 degrees with that wind...at least that's what the weather channel told me). Ok, now that is COLD, people. And I don't do cold. In fact, I'm pretty sure the last time I ran in the cold it was the winter of 1995 and I was running with my friends from our sorority house to whatever frat house was having a party that night.

But, I decided to suck it up and run the race. And, given the fact that it was insanely cold, windy and I was weighed down with about 5 extra layers of clothes, I didn't do as badly as I thought I would. I'm not positive of my exact time, but I think it was somewhere between 27:10 and 27:15 for an average pace of 8:47 per mile (UPDATE: I just got my official time and it was actually 26:52 for an average pace of 8:39 per mile.. WOO HOO!!!) . That may sound slow to some of you who are runners, but I probably should have prefaced this whole story with the fact that I have always been a very bad runner. I'm good at most forms of exercise, but definitely not running. So I was pretty happy with my time.

My next race is the Novartis 10K on April 18th and after that, I'm doing the Lincoln Half-Marathon in early May. Yes, I just may be off my rocker.

Here are some humorous photos taken this morning right before I left for the race:

Above: Rocky Balboa??

Nope, just some crazy lady dressed like a fool. I also have to point out that I am indeed wearing my AXO windbreaker that I purchased in 1994 when I first joined the sorority. It very well could be the best purchase I've ever made. I have worn the heck out of that thing. And it has served me well!

For some reason, Greg felt it necessary to get a close up. Be afraid, be very afraid!

Ok, so that's all about my race. Topic switch...my brother's episode of the Price is Right was aired this past Thursday. It was so funny to see him on there. One of his friends posted it on Facebook. I'll try to get the clip posted on here sometime in the coming weeks.

And finally, tomorrow we leave on a week long vacation to visit Greg's family in sunny southern Florida. I am pumped. We both could use a vacation like no ones business. I'll be sure to post lots of pics when we get back.

Later,

Brooke

March Madness

Hello!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful month of March. I, for one, am thrilled to be done with February for two main reasons: First, February is my birthday month and I no longer enjoy getting older (I must point out that although I don't like growing older, I DID have a wonderful birthday so I really shouldn't complain). Second, now that we're in March, the long stretches of frigid temps should be behind us. Yipppeeee!!!

I got a chance to go home and visit my family back in Illinois a couple of weekends ago, which was so nice. We spent a lot of quality time together and had a lot of fun. Oh, and while I'm on the topic of family, I'm happy to report that my dad just had an appendectomy, hernia surgery and removal of a portion of his colon (this was all done in one surgery) and he came through it with flying colors. He only had to stay in the hospital for the minimum amount of days (3) and is now at home and continuing to heal. Praise God!!

Last weekend, I got together with my best friends from college and we went to Vegas. I always look so forward to our weekends together because they only happen once a year. We all live in different parts of the country, so getting together once a year is about all we can do, but we always have such a good time.

This time around, we may have had a little TOO much fun. Let's just say that Vegas reminded us in a not so subtle manner that we are no longer 21 years old. We decided that we were going to "re-live" our spring break 1997 trip. Ummm, let's just say we did that...and then some. For spring break 1997, we decided we were going to be more awesome than all other spring breakers from Millikin and go to Vegas instead of the usual Florida or S. Padre Island, TX. And not only did we go to Vegas...we totally road-tripped it mini-van style. No planes for us...we were too cool back then (aka.. broke). I think it took us like 24 hours to get there. We drove straight through.

Most of our friends were VERY jealous back then and thought we were pretty awesome too. I can guarantee that NO ONE thought we were awesome this weekend. Not even us. But, we had a good time, so that's what's important.

Here are a couple of pics from the weekend:

Below from left: Dusty, Emilie, Me, Erin. Eating at Buchon in the Venetian. GREAT restaurant. The food was outstanding and our waiter was hilarious. I would definitely recommend eating there.

Below: Our first (and most physically damaging) night there. I think we had been awake for almost 24 hours straight at this point. We were at Harrah's watching the dueling pianists. That place is so much fun!! Some really drunk guy decided to get up on one of the pianos and moon the audience while attempting to dance. Gotta love a multi-tasker.

Girls, I had such a great time with you, as always. Can't wait to do it again next year :-)

Love to all,

Brooke