back blogging!

well, enough people have called me out on being a blogging slacker...so i'll get on it and start where we left off. we spent labor day weekend day with allison and mike. they treated us to a wonderful weekend of fun! we got down to atlanta on friday night and then continued the trip over the Auburn. Allison and Mike are both Auburn alumns and now Mike's sister goes there too...so we met up with her and went out to a nice dinner down there.

So the special thing about this weekend was that it was opening weekend for Auburn football. And if we learned one thing from that weekend, its that Auburn students are OBSESSED with Auburn football. people tape off tailgate spots the night before the game and there's an unspoken rank system within that too...as far as where you're allowed to tape off. and people obey it too! weird. so saturday morning, the tailgating begins. i've never seen such elaborate tailgating...far cry from messiah chessy dogs i'm sad to say. they have entire entertainment systems set up with satellites to watch all the other college games that are going on all day. serioulsy, i walked around with my mouth hanging open the entire day. the entire campus is busting with people (who had driven in as early as tuesday to get spots)...wearing a sea of orange and navy. it was a really amazing atmosphere...really opened my eyes to what a different college experience people have. not that i'd trade my messiah days for anything...but it would've fun to be a part of something like that.

so the game starts at about 7 and they have a huge spectacle going on... armored cars ushering in the refs and the real live eagle that flies in to start the game... a "tiger march" of the players marching campus into the stadium, etc. nuts. also, the game experience is just soooo different in the south. i couldn't get over it. i was probably one of the only females not wearing a sun dress (and an innapropriate one at that) who gets dressed up to go to a game?!?! what happened to painting your face or chest or something??? no, we have to put on as much makeup as we can, and get dressed for a summer party in our best little dress. and the guys...polo's and khacki's at the very least. really strange. but all in all...it was a rediculously fun day...so much energy and excitement. aaron and i came out yelling auburn cheers as if we'd gone there too...allison and mike were glad to claim us as honorary alumns :-) so here are a few pics of the 87,000+ people in the stadium...

so we stayed over that night and then drove home sunday. we took sunday to relax and lay around all day cause the big race was monday morning! it was a nice day to relax. aaron and mike went and drove the 10K course while allison and i shopped fo some carbo loading dinner materials. i was soooo nervous about this race. i don't really know why...maybe cause i heard it was really hilly. so they came home and didn't calm my fears at all...saying that it was the hilliest course they've ever seen and whatnot...nice of them huh? the race was great though. they weren't lying...it was all hills...and mostly uphill too. but it went well (mostly for aaron). there were 12,000 people in it. i've never run in an environment like that...its great cause it distracts you a bit when you really don't want to be running anymore. also annoying cause they didn't take waves of people to start the clock. they said go and we were at least a few minutes back from the starting line, walking with the 12,000 people to get there and start but the clock had already started!!! so annoying. so i think our times aren't right. but either way, we did all right. i finished in about an hour and aaron finished in way less :-) he ran the whole thing in a 6:20/mile pace. which i think was actually faster cause of the starting issue. but he did well and won a lttle medal....i think he finished 48 out of the 12,000. no doubt beat by all the kenyans there...all three top finishers for the men and women were kenyan or ethiopian. such a monopoly on this sport! so after the race we went to the water park (the race finished there and we got free admission for running in it) hit a bunch of rides and then head out. it rounded out a great weekend! here are the three racers after it was all over....allison didn't run cause she doesn't like heat or hills...and now i totally understand :-)

so, next on our calandar was the kiawah island triathlon with the casey's... i have to get pictures from sam and heidi because i disgraced all females by forgetting to bring my camera to this adventure...but once i do i will continue this life update! lets just say it was an awesome weekend again and i'm married to a freak of fitness nature :-)