Minneapolis-Star-Tribune-runningkellometers

Over the weekend I went to visit my grandparents with my husband. They live in a pretty rural area almost 2 hours away, so we don't get to see them as much as we probably should. It was shocking when we found a weekend with no obligations (even the Bears were on a Bye week), and we had to take advantage. We arrived Saturday morning and visited some antique stores in town. My Fiestaware collection grew slightly as we found a good deal on some mismatched pieces. (The best thing about Fiestaware is that it doesn't have to match.) While out shopping, we worked up an appetite and made a pit stop for a pumpkin pie blizzard at Dairy Queen.

Yes, that is a size medium.

If you live around the Peoria-ish area, you need to stop in Princeton, IL and the amazing pizza shop we discovered over 10 years ago: Pizza Cellar. It is some of the best pizza I've ever had. (And this is coming from someone that lived in the city of Chicago for 7 years.) My husband and I were really adventurous with our choice. PLAIN CHEESE! I say, you don't mess with the original. If a place can't figure out how to make good cheese pizza, they're not a good pizza place.

No such thing as too many slices

My grandparents have lived on the same lake for about 12 years. Despite running parts of it here and there, I've never made it the whole way around (roughly 5.5 miles) until Sunday morning. I knew it would be hilly so I packed my ProCompression socks and I was glad I did. When I started out, the first mile seemed to go on forever. I'm not quite sure why but the next few went by fairly quickly. I stopped to take a few photos of the gorgeous fall scenery but the photos just don't do it justice...

I even met a few "deer" friends along the way (pun intended). It was a great 6 mile run, but not without a little bit of a challenge. I knew that there would be hills, but I didn't quite know how many hills.

That elevation map is no joke! I like that you can tell my speed slowed when going up hill. It was a really fun way to enjoy the weather and fall scenery at a place I've been a million times before, but seen through a different perspective. I thought the hills would be good training for my next race, the Zooma Great Lakes Half Marathon this weekend! I'm looking forward to having fun with this race and completing it with some of my Chicago Running Blogger friends. If you're in the area running the race or cheering, look for us in our green compression socks! :)

It's Monday and therefore time for my weekend recap! Saturday morning I went for a 12 mile run in the hills of Palos with my running group. My legs were exhausted by mile 9 and I was happy I was only doing 12 (the rest of the running group was doing 16 and 18 miles). I am ready for my half marathon to be here... beyond ready! Thankfully it is THIS SUNDAY! :) How was your long run this weekend?

After the run, I was very happy to put on my compression sleeves and shorts under my clothes and enjoy the rest of the day.

However Saturday was a bad day in a "first world problems" kind of way. I drove to the city and picked up a bridesmaids dress I'm wearing for my cousin's wedding. The boutique is in the Gold Coast neighborhood so it made for an annoying trip with several rides around the block. After picking up the dress, I headed to the office to do some work. I had about 5-6 hours worth of work to do. Unfortunately, I couldn't access any of the network files. I did what I could and then went home. Before I left though, Toph called to tell me that the dog chewed up a check that I had to have reissued. Needless to say, it was not a great day (other than the run of course). Thankfully we had dinner plans afterwards with our friends Kate and Sam which totally made up for the crappy day I was having!

Sunday I did the rowing machine for about 45 minutes while watching Sex and the City reruns on HBO Go. Then it was time for The Walking Dead. Was anyone shocked by what happened in the episode? I didn't read the comics so I was really surprised.

Next, it is time for another charity raffle! This time, the folks at Road ID donated a "prize pack" that includes:
1) T-shirt (cotton, men's size medium, suuuper soft)

2) E-gift certificate for a Road ID wrist bracelet

3) Wide variety of Gu and Gu Brew packets

Close-up of the Gu packets

In order to enter into the raffle, all you need to do is donate to my charity, Open Heart Magic by clicking HERE. For this raffle, every $3 donation = 1 entry. ($3 for 1, $6 for 2, etc.)

After you donate, you can tweet or blog about this raffle for an additional entry. Please be sure to leave a comment letting me know your twitter name and/or the link to your blog post.This raffle is open to anyone in the U.S. or Canada!

You have until Sunday, March 18 (11:59pm CST) to enter the raffle. The winner will be announced here on Monday, March 19.

Best of luck to all those entering, thanks again to Road ID for the prize pack, and thanks in advance for your donations!

Now that I'm done being sentimental, it is time for some more pictures of my dog. Haha. Last night my husband made me watch Marley and Me. I had procrastinated watching it because I knew it would be sad and I would cry a lot. Truth be told, things went as expected. I was sad and cried a lot.

Stay Tuned!