birthday booty

No dirty minded people.. not that kind of booty..
My birthday presents and Bentonville Half Marathon '10 recap

Well I have debated all weekend long on whether or not I should do a Race post & then a Birthday post, or if I should just put them together. Which since they go hand in hand they are going to be together.. So sit back and enjoy!

To start off I found the results from mine and Kelly’s first real 5k. Please see below.
Place 25 Name Cortney Carlson Age 25 Pace 11:13 Total time 34:45.31
This from the Tour De Cure 3 years ago, and when we first really started running.
Today if I was to run that it would read more to the effect of:
Name Cortney Carlson Age 28 (ughh) Pace 7:50 total time 24:20

After work on Friday we went to the pasta party sponsored by Stouffer’s & Buitoni. Normally every night before we run we eat pasta with red sauce no cheese, or Kashi pizza.
Needless to say my anal self had some reservations about changing up my meal the night before. The food looked really good and I was hungry and figured if I said not so much Kelly would tell me to chill out and let it go. Looking back now, I should have listened to myself. I am not saying that was the demise of my run or anything, but I definitely felt a little off the morning of the race.
The start of the race was at the Bentonville Square at 8am. It was overcast and 35 degrees, flippin cold in other words. It probably didn’t help that I threw a 5 year old style tantrum (complete with the foot stomp) the night before to open one of my presents. My MIL Julie had called last week asking about the running skirt I wanted, so I knew she wouldn’t fail me! That is the one I would like to open I told Kelly. I NEEDED it to run the next day. Sadly the weather did not get the memo that I was going to be wearing my cute new running skirt and it needed to be warmer with sun, instead we got cold and rainy.

yep I am a geek..admit it though.. skirt is super cute!

Around 7:30 we ran in to our friends Darin and Melissa. Darin was running the 5k, but sweet Melissa had made us a sign too! The news crew even came over and taped her and Kelly, then they took our picture for the paper too. Well I guess in all that excitement I forgot that I hadn’t put my knee brace on. ( I have IT Band Syndrome- which it the muscle that runs basically from you hip to your knee and if you hurt it causes excruciating knee pains) I normally always run with it. Here lately I have been trying to test my limits a little and see if I could handle a short recovery run without it, and normally I am sore after. So forgetting this with a course of hills was not the best feeling.

The race started out like every other race we run.. me trying to stay on pace, Kelly taking off like jack russell terrier. I knew once I hit mile 4 it was going to be a tough race. Everything felt off. My knee kept giving me warnings, my legs were sluggish, and my mind was second guessing everything. We crossed the 10k mark (6.2) and all I kept thinking was, “Oh crap, this is when I am supposed to pick it up some. How can I pick it up when I already want to slow down?” Thankfully I made it to mile 8 and I saw Melissa and Darin with our poster. It was that little bit of boost that I needed to keep me going. Then I just kept thinking get to dad. My grandma lives along mile 9 & I knew that my dad & grandma would be there cheering me on. I am not going to lie, I teared up. My dad out there with his hand painted (yep- watercolors ladies & gentleman-the man painted me a sign in watercolors) sign and my 75 year old sassy grandma clapping and running with me. I made it through the next mile pain free, it was a very large down hill and I was able to catch up some big ground. Then I hit mile 13. It is a mother of a hill. One of those hills that you feel like you could put your hand out touch the ground it is so steep! I just kept looking at my watch thinking, “I don’t know if I am going to be able to make it.” Then I thought about my sweet friend Jenni. (she lives in all the way in Springdale & came to watch me, AND she made a big PURPLE POSTER) So thinking about Jenni telling me on Friday, “Well I want to make and see you and make sure you are on pace,” made me pick it up. I picked it up until I crossed the corner and realized how much I had left to run, and how much time I did not have! Then I heard my boss yelling at me to come on. As much as it pains me to admit it, he pushed me to almost sprint to the finish. Then I saw Kelly so far away and the seconds ticking along I really thought I had missed it. All of the sudden he was right next to me yelling that I had 30 seconds and not to give up, push it, come on, you have this!! I crossed that finish line at 1:59. DANG. Yes, incase you missed that little bit, Kelly had already finished when I was crossing. 1:56. DANG IT he beat me.

I know that without a doubt that run sucked, and without all of those people there cheering me on, I know that with out them I would not have made my goal. Seeing them along the course helped me to pick it up when I needed to and helped me to finish strong. It really meant the world to me to have them all out there. I can also honestly say I left it all out on the course, and left nothing in reserve. Next time I just need my reserve to be faster!
*I knocked off 15 minutes off my last PR half & Kelly knocked off 22 minutes!
So after that excitement we headed home for me to shower. ( It rained at some points so we were wet and cold on top of being super tired) Kelly was really sweet, about the whole deal and only rubbed it in 2 or 3 times that he beat me. After I had thawed out we had errands to run and no time to eat so after burning 1300 calories we had the snack of Champions.. We Snapped in to A Slim JIM!

After our fabulously romantic birthday snack Kelly took me to Overstreet’s Jewelers in Bentonville to pick out my marathon charm that he wanted to get me for my birthday. Why couldn’t have gotten it on his own you ask? Well the last time he bought me a charm for the bracelet it was the size of a Frisbee. I could wear it as a medallion instead of a necklace.. Hence, why we took the bracelet to compare this time! I was very impressed with his thoughtfulness. He even googled my blog and birthday to see what I had written!
We headed back home to open up presents after that. All week I was so stressed because I didn’t get a single card in the mail. I even thought Friday after I had checked the mail, man no one thinks of you when you are as old as I am. Turns out Kelly had been hiding them all week long. When I told him how upset I was he was pretty proud of himself.

Please excuse the beauty that is me after the race..

I was very excited for a red running shirt!

We had dinner reservations a Basil’s Café in Rogers and I was so excited about it. Our friends Wade and Kelly Jones own it and we haven’t been in since they moved locations. I looked at the menu earlier in the week and had been contemplating a dish called Razorback Risotto. I also mentioned to my wonderful husband that the spinach dip sounded AMAZING! My sweet and wonderful husband ordered the spinach dip right off the bat which made me so happy. It was so good. They serve it on a cheesy flat bread pizza then let you pile the dip on top of each piece! If it wasn’t such a nice restaurant I would have taken pictures of the food!


Next up was Razorback Risotto for me and the Kobe Burger for Kelly
Razorback Risotto with roasted pork, tomatoes, dried cherries, morels, and spinach
Kobe Beef Burger had parmesan fries cooked in truffle butter.
I am not lying to you when I say, It was the best meal of my life and worth eating all 1300 calories back in that one meal!

We were so full we didn’t even want dessert, but Kelly knows how much I love crème brulee so we got one to go so I could eat it when I wasn’t so full!

We also stopped by the new coffee show near the restaurant, Silver Joe’s. I got a white chocolate mocha and le me tell you.. WAY better that Starbucks!

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday so special.. LOVE YOU!