I punched running in the face...kinda

Hello all. This was a fun filled weekend and the festivities aren't totally over yet. Here's the short of it. Friday: Papa Roach concert, Saturday: drive to Spokane, go to Race Expo, Sunday: Run Bloomsday, drive home and not fall asleep at the wheel. All that's left is Tuesday: Hollywood Undead/10 years/New Medicine concert! :) YAY!!!

Now, here's the long of it. Friday, Erin and I left school/work early so we could get up to Spokane early in order to get an awesome view of the show. We ended up leaving Pullman about 3:30, so not bad and made it to Spokane and parked about 5ish. We went to the MIXX 916, which is attached to the Knitting Factory (concert hall). It turns out that if you are 21 and have tickets for that night's show, you get let in to the hall before the regular general admission. So, we got there early, got our grub on, waited what seemed like forever and then were let into the concert hall and Erin scored a railing while i went to look at merch. The opening band was called Pop Evil and they are from Michigan (GO GREAT LAKES STATES!) ( I'll forget that you're that state up north for one night! ;)) They were amazing and full of energy!!!

Then Finger Eleven came on and they were completely HORRID!!!!! I'm very sure that the lead singer was at least drunk b/c it seemed like if he wasn't attached to the microphone stand that he was going to fall over. Then we had the bassist that seemed like he got picked out of the local Best Buy and was just chillin with the bass. One of the guitarists was cool and keeping up the energy, while the other was drunk high stoned somethinged out of his mind. This dude was flailing around like a crazy person while playing the guitar. With that, the singer did nothing to keep the crowd going and seemed surprised when people cheered for them. They closed with their most famous known song "Paralyzer" and I actually knew that one. At that point, Erin and I were far from impressed, but looking forward to the P.Roach!!!

After some waiting, Jacoby stormed on stage and the whole mood/energy of the place was rocking! I can't even tell you the number of songs they played, but the set was a good hour. They even played songs that I didn't know. Jacoby even jumped into the crowd and was singing. It was a good time by all, especially the 6 14 year old girls who thought it was awesome to crowd surf to the front and get spit out. They did this on repeat at least 50 times. So by the end I was dodging feet, arms, elbows, from my head/camera. Poor Erin didn't fare as well b/c she got hit in the head but that was probly only b/c she switched spots with me so i could wield the camera and get us some good footage (which I did, so she says :)) I will post more pics when I get them.

Saturday, I drove back up to Spokane to go to the Race Expo and pick up my number. Last year I got my number the morning of the race and it was complete chaos, so I decided against that this year. I got some cute BondiBands from the Expo and then I was pretty much done. I went and hung out with my old Boss for a while and got to meet his Great Pyrenees puppy and see his baby goats, sheep and chickens. It ws nice visiting with him for a while. He had to go write an exam, so I went to his other house in Spokane (don't ask...there are many houses) and chilled for the night.

Sunday was the big race day. It was beautiful and sunny but still pretty chilly in the morning. Sadly, I had left my camera in Erin's purse from the night before, so I don't have any pictures from the big day, but you can bet your bottom I will have bajillions of pictures next year. I started in the 2nd wave of the Blue Group (everyone had different colored bibs according to their finishing time). I lied to try and get an earlier start but that didn't work and I was stuck in Blue again this year. For some reason, it seemed like the race was more organized this year. Seeing that it was the 35th running, it doesn't make much sense that the 35th was more organized than the 34th but I'll take it! I think it helped that people were yelling "Runners to the Left, Walkers to the Right" and people actually stuck to it for the most part. This was good for me b/c I feel like there was less weaving in and out of people who were going slower than me, which i felt I was doing the entire race last year. I was feeling pretty good even at the top of Doomsday hill, which took me 10 mins to get up. (I timed it on my Nike+).


I started to drag about mile 6 but kept steady. I power-walked up the hills b/c I felt like I wasn't going anywhere when I tried to run them and I walked through the 4 water stations to make sure I got enough water in and didn't choke in it either. In the end, I finished with a time of 1:42:45, which was 14 minutes faster than last year! WOOHOO!!!!! :) I did what I had set out to do, and that was doing better than last year. So I'm happy.

This is the Finisher shirt this year

After the race and getting to my car, I went to Target and stocked up (6 boxes) of Special K Protein bars b/c they are super cheap ($5.34/box) there compared to Safeway ($7.65/box) which is closer to me. Then I drove home, fighting to stay awake for the last 10 miles, but finally made it home. I then fell into a 3 hour coma on the couch, woke up at 6, ate some dinner, watched tv and then got the "Obama Bulletin." I was fairly shocked but surprised and fairly angry b/c I didn't get to see the "Next Big Restaurant" show! Haha. But I did get to watch Celebrity Apprentice and then I went to bed.

Today, I'm not feeling so bad but I think the 10 miler the week before had helped me to prepare. I wore my old man compression socks but took them off last night b/c they were sucking the life out of my legs. I have a little soreness in my butt/hips but overall am not doing that bad. I guess I am in better shape than last year after all! SCORE!