Not Just Another 4 Day Weekend...

I love fall. 

 I love the colors of the changing of the leaves.

I love picking apples.

I love carving pumpkins. 

I love Columbus Day Weekend!

Columbus Day weekend brings the Scarecrow Festival.  I had planned to spend the entire weekend at the festival...

Friday went according to plan (sort of)...

 The boys and I woke up and walked over to the festival.

The boys rode the carnival rides...

Ben even went on this one (Sorry Dad, I know you don't approve of carnival rides).

We saw some amazing scarecrows. 

Does it still count as a "scarecrow" if there isn't any hay?

Everything was going to plan until I received a call on Friday night....

~~~

Do you have that friend that you cannot say "No" to?

The type that can suggest that you can run 26.2 miles and you believe her...

You know the one I am talking about...

My friend called me up and said that she had an extra bib to the Chicago Marathon and she thought I should run it with her...

(Please keep in mind that as of two years ago, I had never run more than 3 miles.  Granted, recently, I had been running with some girls who were training for the Fox Valley Marathon.  I trained with the girls but opted out of the "long runs.")

Well, I couldn't say, "No."

So, my weekend switched from leisurely enjoying the fall festivities to gearing up to run a ...marathon.

~~~

I e-mailed a few friends to let them know my plans...

(One of my friends thought I was joking)

I borrowed my neighbor's I-pod...

(If I couldn't run with her stories, I could run with her music)

I bought lots of Gu...

and

drank lots of water.

On Sunday, I met my friends in Chicago.

I -pods ready, I entered the queue for the 4:30:00 pace group.

and I ran...

and ran...

and ran...

I ran for 5:03:22 or 26.2 miles.

I finished! We finished!

While it wasn't the weekend I planned. 

 It was absolutely amazing. 

I am so thankful that I "got to" do it.