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As I mentioned on Monday, we had a big family wedding over the weekend. In preparation, I tried on the bridesmaids dress the week before the wedding to see if it still fit. Small crisis: it was too tight. (I was training for the marathon when I was originally fitted and I've gained a little weight since then.) Trying not to panic, I put on the corset leftover from my wedding to see if it would work. It helped me fit, but it looked weird because of the seams of the dress and where the corset ended. Thinking I needed to go out and get some cheap Spanx from Target, I tried one more thing, my CEP Compression shorts. I've worn them under a pencil skirt, what made a dress any different?

under a pencil skirt

It worked and the dress fit! It was a compression miracle! Since the dress was black and just at the knee (with no slit or anything), it totally worked and no one knew. It was also nice to not have to worry about sitting like a lady. Haha. This is just another example how compression is the best invention ever.

Because we had a big family wedding on Saturday night (and I was meeting the bride and wedding party on Friday afternoon), I was debating to do my long run on Friday morning or Sunday night. Thursday night before going to bed, I had every intention of doing this run on Sunday morning. However, when Friday morning came, I decided to give it a shot. Having not properly planned the night before, this was a big mistake. I thought 12 miles wouldn't be a problem. The plan was actually to do this as a progressive run with the first 6 miles easy and the last 6 progressively faster. Since I decided to do this run kind of last minute, I didn't properly hydrate the night before. Waking up thirsty when you have a warm long run ahead is never a good sign. Also, Thursday's dinner could have been much better. Can you see where this is going?

I started off feeling strong and had to force myself to slow the pace. The trail was relatively shaded and not very crowded. Miles 1-5 were right on target, no problem but I was starting to get warm and pretty sweaty. At mile 6 I realized that a progression run was going to be more difficult than I thought. This run soon became "just get through it." I was so thirsty and the hard core stomach sloshing started around mile 9. I was so sad that this run was sucking, so thirsty but couldn't drink any more, and so hot that I wanted to cry (and did a little at during mile 10). Miles 11 and 12 included a lot of walk breaks and left me feeling defeated. The more I thought about the things that went wrong, they all seemed to point to my poor pre-run planning. There is definitely a lesson to be learned from every run, and I'm walking away from this one trying to focus on the positive. Amanda reminded me of something I had once told her during marathon training and it totally holds true. Not every run is going to go as planned. Bad runs make you appreciate the good ones just that much more. I've had many successful workouts in this training cycle. This was just not one of them and I'm okay with that.

So now that the run was done, it was wedding time! We really had a fun weekend and I'm very happy for my cousin. Here are some photos from the day!

On the party bus

At the reception with our cowboy boots on!

the bride and I

me and my bros!

Note: mixing beer and Tom Collins is not a good idea...