City Nights

Last night I stayed at my cousin's place in the city (aka downtown Chicago). I got off of work and took the bus to her place. I got off to a slow start when I took the bus going the opposite direction and didn't realize it until I was about 10 minutes in. Oops! After I finally arrived, we attempted to go out to eat at a Mexican restaurant called Big Star but they only accept cash. (Seriously, what decade is this that there are still places that ONLY accept cash??) With $3 in cash between the 2 of us, we opted for a different option. We drove around and found this cute little authentic place not far from her apartment. I forgot to take a picture of the food until it was 75% gone, and Mexican food remnants never look appetizing.

After dinner and a few glasses of Skinny Girl Margarita, we went out to a local bar for a drink.The bartender was extremely rude, but we had our drink and talked about running. My cousin ran the Chicago Marathon in 2008 and 2009 (missing BQ by 5 minutes in 2009). However, her running days are currently on hiatus pending possible knee surgery at some point in the future.
Here is a picture from her 2009 marathon - the part where they tell you to look up at the cameras. We (me, my cousin's roommate, and my cousin's dad) were all running together to support her, and the photographer was able to snap a picture of it all. As she's on hiatus and misses running, we don't talk about it too much. But last night after a few drinks, we were able to share some laughs and just talk leisurely about marathons, half marathons, and all the running inbetween.

I've been mentioning a lot of drinks from last night, so I'm struggling a little bit today. I'm exhausted from traveling to Memphis, and from staying up too late last night (watching Crazy Stupid Love). I'm hoping to fit in a 4 or 5 mile run today but we'll see how I feel. I'm contemplating leaving work early so I can get in my run and be in bed by 9pm. I haven't run since Tuesday night so I want to be sure to get the workout in before my 5k race on Sunday. How many days a week do you usually run? I did 4 during marathon training but now I'm down to 3.