Shamrock Shuffle

The night before the Shamrock Shuffle we needed to fill up on some carbs, so we ate at an Italian restaurant with the Lyman's and the McMahon's. The Lyman's live downtown so it was nice to catch up with them and go out without our sweet kiddos.

Since Kelli and I knew that we were going to burn 500 calories the next morning we thought that we should make up for them by eating some ice cream! HA!!!! After dinner we went and saw a movie and parted our ways to get some sleep before the big race.

Ryan's parent's and sister drove in to spend time with the kids, so we decided to stay downtown so we would be there for the race bright and early. We stayed at "The W." A trendy hotel where the check-in area felt like a night club. The rooms were super nice and hip and our view was of Lake Michigan! It was nice for Ryan and I to spend quality time together and be able to get a good night sleep without the kids waking us, because most nights at our house are like a circus!

Okay, there were 36,000 people who participated in the 8K race! Can you imagine that amount of people? That just blows my mind! I did feel a little like cattle getting into our gate to start the race and then when we finished our race we had to stand in a huge line to get out! It was extremely hard to find people. We were going to run with or friend Tammy, but we ended up not being able to find her. That was a big bummer, but we were able to hook up with her after and drive home with her and eat lunch with her.

Here are my running buddies, Lisa and Kelli. I ran the 1/2 marathon with Lisa last fall and Kelli has just become a runner and this was her first big race. We ran the Frosty Run in February, but that doesn't count.

After the race we all met up at Jake and Shari's apartment. Don't they have a beautiful view out their window? We are trying to convince Shari to do the triathlon with us in August.

Here we are running in the huge crowd of people! We were so excited to spot our spectators, because like I said, there were so many people there!

In preparation for the Shamrock Shuffle, people go crazy with their outfits. Look at the two below pictures. One guy is dressed in a peanut costume and running 5 miles in it. Yes, he ran the whole thing! In the other picture you see two guys covered in green body paint. They actually look like they are good runners and brothers!