Welcome to MIAMI!!! (FrIdaY)

Our flight left at 6 am on Friday morning, so that meant an early start for us three gals. No worries….we were ready to take Miami by storm!

We checked into our hotel and even though we arrived early they had a “beautiful room” ready for us. 

The rooms were nice, but there were some creepy pics hanging over the beds. We wished we had sticky notes to cover their eyes!

We stayed at the Red South Beach Hotel….a cute little French boutique style hotel. The workers were super friendly and accommodating; way more than I expected (for some reason).

After checking in we went up to the room to rest for a little while.  Actually, I hopped in bed and took a little nap. I didn’t want them to have to deal with me being a grouch monster from lack of sleep. Lori rolled around on her foam roller and then laid in the floor while Crissy unpacked and stirred around for the whole hour. I just slept like a champ.

 

After our my nap we headed right over to the expo to pick up our race packets. (See, is that painting not super creepy right above my head?)  It was about a mile walk to the convention center. Since it was in the mid 80’s, we were all rocking shorts and flip flop. Ahhhh, that is some FABULOUS weather for January and I LOVED every last second of it. I told the girls all that sunshine was making my heart happy, but my feet weren’t as happy as my heart . I got a blister before the race even started. DUMB. Lesson learned: Make sure to wear comfy/supportive shoes that will NOT hurt your feet before races, especially if you have to do a good bit of walking.

The expo was huge and there were almost 20,000 runners. I’m not big on the color orange, so I got my race t-shirt for Big Jon instead as his souvenir from my Miami trip.  I also bought a pink carrying case for my i-phone. Typically I don’t run with my phone and I just bring my i-pod, but I knew I would need it since Jon wasn’t there and we would all finish the race at different times.

I love the One More Mile shirts….

{I really thought I made up the “finishing = winning” quote.}

{Big Jon said I always say this…I guess he might be right.}

{And I just liked this one. I like hills.}

I am seriously about 5 inches taller than both of them….and I am only 5’5 1/2”!!! I felt like a giant all weekend.

After the expo we ate lunch and hit up the beach. I took another nap on the beach. I know, I know….I sound like a lazy fool, but my little monthly visitor showed up at the airport (what a lovely surprise, right?), so I think I was extra worn out from that.

The beach was gorgeous.

We ordered pizza in the room for dinner, watched Dirty Dancing, played Family Feud, told stories and laughed until about 9:00. Then it was bedtime. Fo real. That 3 am wake up just didn’t cut it for us and we all take our beauty sleep very seriously. And as Lori said, “We’re not partiers….we’re athletes.” True. Story.

The race was on Sunday morning, so we still had another full day to enjoy Miami before the big race!! So far, so good.