I would never, ever let you go

This past weekend I headed to the great state of Michigan to see another one of my besties married off. Brittany and I have been friends since we were 13, when I befriended her in hopes of getting one of her friends to date me (which totally worked.) Needless to say, that didn’t last, but our friendship persevered over the years through soccer teams, and classes that kicked our butts, and then through college 800 miles apart, and now living our lives wholly 2,000 miles door to door.

Every time I see her, she makes me giggle, smile, and usually cry because I am just so freaking happy to see her. I am so glad I made it to her big day, where I got to watch her marry her bff (besides me, of course ;)) and also catch up with friends from HS who I don’t get to see too often (my parents have since moved from my HS town, plus everyone is scattered like Hansel and Gretel’s breadcrumbs across this great nation.)

Britty, Brother Llama, I love you. I am so happy for you and Allen!

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Thanks to Jeff for the photos (and more here.)

First 10K: Check

Well friends, I ran my first 10k last Saturday. I was nervous because I had been sick for a few weeks prior, and hadn’t had a chance to run between my 5k on Thanksgiving and my 10k on December 8th, but I just figured I’d do the best I could do, and that was that.

I ended up finishing in 1:22, about a 13:22 pace. Slower than I would have liked, but still, as I crossed the 5k mark, I knew that I was running further than I ever had. And no matter what, every pace past that was a personal best.

Here we are at the finish – how cute are we, despite our tiredness?

We met up with Jen and Aaron, who were about to run the 5k, and color coordinated even though we didn’t realize it!

Ellen’s dad came out and was there close to the finish line, cheering on the runners, and giving me a high-5 when I past, despite the fact that Ellen had finished 17 minutes earlier…his smile and encouragement DEFINITELY got me going for the last .2 miles, indeed! Not to mention running into Jen, Aaron, and Jeff, who jumped in and finished the race with me!

Here we are looking for Ellen’s name, and my name, but more importantly, look at our cute hair ribbon that Ellen made for us!

Overall, I am glad I finished, that I didn’t finish horribly, and that I had such a great support group there to watch us run! I can’t wait to run another race and to work towards another goal, and luckily we have one coming up in February.

Hope you’re getting some goals ready for 2013, friends!