Marine Corps Marthon... CHECK!

Last Sunday I woke up at 5:00am, safety-pinned a bib to my t-shirt and stuffed my face w/ a peanut butter sandwich in preparation to run the Marine Corps Marathon! Nearly 30,000 runners came out despite the threats of Sandy to run 26.2 miles on a pleasant yet overcast morning.

It was my FIRST marathon and I finished in 4:43:15! My goal, of course, was to beat Oprah's 1994 time of 4:29:15 but there were a few obstacles along the way that held me back. 1) The five minute porta-potty line at mile 4... 2) The mad mob of people I couldn't get past for the first 10 miles... 3) My legs turned to lead at mile 19 and I had to push through the final 7 miles.

Overall, it was a great experience that I can now brag about forever. I kind of felt like I was gonna hurl for half the race & all of my bodily organs were messed up for 3 days. But despite all that, I'd TOTALLY do another one!

Click HERE to see a bunch of photos!

Here were my stats...

- I ran the race in 4:43:15
- I finished 11,933 out of 23,532 finishers, (AKA- In the top 50.7% of all finishers)
- I finished 4,099 out of all 10,005 female finishers, (AKA- In the top 40% of all female finishers)

ROCK ON! Now... which race should I sign up for next? :)

SAVOR: A Craft Beer Experience

On Friday afternoon my boss came up to me at work and offered me two free tickets to go to SAVOR, a craft beer & food festival at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC! Due to the fact that the tickets were $120 a pop, I had to pay nothing & Brian loves beer, I felt "obligated" to say yes. Tough life I live... the perks of my industry :)

And let me tell you... SAVOR was AWESOME! Sixty craft breweries from across the country came and were offering tasting of two beers produced at their brewery, (that's 120 beers, readers!)... In addition, each beer was cleverly paired with a delicious food offering. And all the food was fabulous.

My favorite beer?
Ithaca's Apricot Wheat Ale... (Surprisingly it's a year-round offering!)

My favorite food?  
Butterscotch Cheesecake... or maybe the Chocolate-Covered Red Velvet Cake-pops

My favorite pairing?
Saranac's Blueberry Blonde Ale paired with Creamy Coconut Macaroons

I guess I have a LITTLE bit of a sweet tooth :) .... Oh well, it was great! I would definitely go again next year.

RUN, RUN, RUN!

This Spring has been FULL of races. And I'm not talking about those horrible circles where the little men hit horses with sticks. I'm talking about ME, running my butt off around DC!

On March 17th I ran my first half-marathon. IT-WAS-AWESOME! Because it was St. Patrick's Day, there was a lot of spirit along the course. Spectators were even offering runners cups of beer! (Which I kindly declined). I did, however, accept Gatorade from a stranger. It only occurred to me after that I could have been drugged by runner-haters... OOPS! I finished in 2hr 15 min averaging 10 min 20 seconds per mile. Here are a few pics of me strutting my stuff around DC...

Here's me at mine 12 during the 1/2! I'm sorry the photo quality is crap. I won't even tell you how I uploaded it to my computer because you will laugh at me.

 Here's a picture my friend Laura took at mile 5 of the 1/2! I still look pretty happy in this one. The exhaustion didn't start until mile 9 or so.

AND here's me after the race with my shiny new medal! I'm sorry again for the crappy picture quality. I love how I'm holding a banana. I wasn't hungry at all. I was actually nauseous because of how hot it was. But everyone else was eating them so I thought I should too. PEER PRESSURE!

Yesterday I decided to take things down a notch and run a 5k at Wolf Trap, a popular theater/park near my house. I was joined by my friend Traci & Aunt Aimee. Somehow I busted my butt and ended up finishing in 27 min 24 seconds, (averaging about 8 min 46 seconds per mile). WOOHOO!

Because of my awesomeness, I also signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon this October! I'm looking forward to a dreadfully hot summer full of long-distance training. Should be a blast!

Happy Valentine's Day!

For Valentine's Day, Brian and I got together to cook a wonderful meal. We busted out the big guns this year and cooked homemade sushi! Here's a wonderful picture of me after rolling our vegan California Roll, (so much avocado!)

Here's another picture of me "testing" our food before dinner. It would be such a shame to be poisoned on Valentine's Day. Do you like my beautiful roses in the background?

And here, dear readers, is our finished product! We made 3 different kinds of rolls...
1) The Elephant Roll- (avocado & peanuts)
2) The Vegan California Roll- (tofu, avocado, carrots, cucumbers)
3) The Mock Unagi Roll- (mushrooms & crumbled tofu cooked in tangy orange sauce)

NOM, NOM, NOM! Happy Valentine's Day!

Who You Gonna Call!?

Hello, readers! I'm sorry for the blogging recess. But I'm back now and excited to share with you a picture of my new best friend...

It's Dan Akroyd! My company sells a vodka that Dan, (we're totally on a first name basis), co-owns and he came to our office a few weeks ago. I got to meet him, take this snazzy picture with him and get his autograph. He's a really cool dude! We're making plans to get together next week for tea. I'm hoping to get his opinions on the most recent Twilight movie!

Yet Another Maryellen Moment...

For those of you who've been following Life's A Musical for some time, you know that I've written a handful of posts about my mother's occasional nonsensical outbursts. Every once in awhile, we'll have a conversation that makes me fear the state of my mind in 30 years. Here's a "fun" little conversation that took place today...

Me: "Hey, Mom. Guess who just got engaged? It's someone we know pretty well."

Mom: "Oh my God, YOU!?"

Me: ".................... Are you for real?"

Mom: "Ok, let me guess.... (Insert name of random boy I dated briefly in high school)"

Me: "..................... Again, are you for real? Out of all the people it could be, you guess (Insert name of random boy I dated briefly in high school)"

Mom: "Oh, I know!..... (Insert name of cousin who isn't currently dating anyone)"

Me: "Mom, come on. Give me a serious guess here."

Mom: "Oh, is it (Insert name of random friend I haven't talked to in about 7 years)?"

Me: "Wow, you are really bad at this game."

Mom: "Is it your brother!?"

Me: "UGH! Mom, NO! It's Antonio & Hannah!"

Congratulations, guys!

Happy 2012!

Did everyone have a fun New Years?... Oh, you didn't? Well, that's no real surprise. New Years may just be the most over-rated Holiday in existence. I think Groundhog's Day might have a better track record of being a fun, joyous holiday. I have not had many successful New Years celebrations. HOWEVER... My New Year's celebrations last night were surprisingly QUITE enjoyable! Here's a run-down of the night's events...

6:00- Went over to Brian's house.
6:10- Began cooking home-made Chinese food with Brian!
6:25- Burnt some garlic, making Brian's house smell like burnt popcorn. Opened several windows.
7:00- Sat down to eat and drink w/ Brian and two of our friends, Gwen & Jeff.
7:45- Scratched off some lottery tickets! Gwen won $2.00.
8:05- Brian demanded we buy MORE lottery tickets, so we drunkenly walked to 7-11.
8:30- Took an AWESOME picture with a polar bear! (See image above)
8:40- Won $10.00 on a lottery ticket!
9:45- Began watching Revenge of the Nerds
10:30- Took a brake from movie to scratch off more lottery tickets! Jeff won $2.00
11:45- Finished Revenge of the Nerds
12:00- Ran a lap around Brian's house banging pots w/ wooden spoons to celebrate 2012!
12:01- Brian ran into a tree stump during the lap & hurt his leg.
12:35- Very drunk Brian started talking about the Soviets.
12:58- Very drunk Brian and I went to bed.

What a great New Years Eve! Happy 2012!