#michigan grandma shirt goes actually crazy

[jomprowley]

if i had access to a time machine the FIRST PLACE!!! i would be visiting is joes first tally hall performance.

[robinruns]

Where I've Been

Fuck. Its been a day. Literally. I was going to make a big post about everything going on from this weekend, so at this point I may as well include yesterday in it too. I feel like I'm burying the lead here, but if I don’t try to type this up in some kind of order, I won't get everything.

Saturday me and Kyle had awesome breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and before noon headed up to Manitowoc. We went straight to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, which is where packet pickup was held. I got my bib, shirt, a cowbell, and a free pair of socks! Naturally I chose purple.

Then we went through the museum, which has lots of actual boats, an actual steam engine, attached to a giant prop, and the coolest part, we got to go on a submarine! They have a WWII submarine docked at this place and you can go on and take a tour. The whole thing was so narrow! And they said it was usually like 100° in there. Ugh, the men who were working on those subs were true heroes.

We went back to the hotel after that, grabbed dinner from Noodles and I watched a good portion of Mortal Engines on the shitty wifi. I went to bed about 9:30 and crashed immediately.

I got up pretty easily about 5:00 on Sunday and started getting ready. They had shuttles starting at 6 to the start line and I was on that first shuttle so there was some time just hanging out. I saw there was a 4:50 pace group so I was like ok, I can hang with this guy. The race went well in the first half. I was able to hang with this group really well.

The vast majority of the race you are running right along Lake Michigan and it's just incredible. It's one thing to stand in a spot and be like wow, look at the lake, it's another to run along it for miles and miles and it just goes on and on as far as the eye can see. It feels like the ocean, but you know its not.

The route takes you from Manitowoc to Two Rivers, where you turn around and head back, that's when the group took off when I stopped to go to the bathroom, and I couldn't ever catch up to them. Then it really became a mental game. I think I handled it pretty well, until about mile 18 when I was like I'm hungry. Not oh let me take a shot blok and some Gatorade hungry, like GIVE ME A FUCKING CHEESEBURGER hungry. That's when things became a problem. Oh and then my Dad texted me at mile 20ish and said he was proud of me and I started crying, and then at 21ish my Garmin died. Fully charged I will note.

But I think being able to see Manitowoc in the distance really helped, I could see I was getting closer as I trudged along. And I knew there were people behind me, so I was like I'm doing ok, I'll be ok.

The last mile has a good size hill, which sucked since the course is so flat, so I walked it. But when I got to the top I took off again and I had Champion playing and I ran hard into the finish.

First thing I do? Go get a hamburger.

I told Kyle I felt like I was gonna cry, and he replies "well why did you put so many sad songs on your playlist?" 😐🙄 No! I was just emotional from finishing the race again! And I felt like I did it right this time, I left it out there. I don't have any regrets other than I just wish I could have maintained my pace in the 2nd half or hung with the pace group longer. I should have been able to hang with them through mile 20 based on my Syttende Mai performance, ya know? Maybe I did too much that day. Who knows, all I know is I'm satisfied.

Then as I'm eating this burger that I've been craving for so long, I turn on data so I can sync my Fitbit and then that headline comes up. Y'all know the one. Jonas Brothers hint at MCR reunion.

I, in that moment, started to not believe I was still living. Something happened on the course, and I'm in The Good Place. And yes, later I read a lot of people rationalizing it as, it was probably FIATFV rehearsing for their tour, since it was in NYC, but still. As long as it makes the guys happy, I'm happy with whatever they choose to do, reunite, stay split up, whatever. I'm Team Happy MCR.

So we went back to the hotel, Kyle packed while I got a shower. I wore a tank top and had my hair in braids and I noticed when I was done, the hair ties beat against my back for so long in the same spots that I got welts! Crazy! Also leave it to the fucking vampire to get sunburned on a cloudy day. Not too bad, but I got tan lines on my back. Not that I care, but still.

We grabbed brunch at Perkins and had very Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson-esque meals. When we got home I finished my movie while eating Elephant Tracks ice cream for dinner.

Yesterday the morning was nice and chill. I'm officially back on the watching what I eat bandwagon, so things were less indulgent yesterday.

Then I get a text from my mom to call her. Fuck. That's never good.

My aunt passed away suddenly and unexpectedly at age 70. She died in her sleep either of a heart attack or stroke. My grandma, her mom, had a heart attack, and then a stroke which ultimately killed her, 20 years ago.

Cancer took my mom's dad and sister, my mom had cancer like 25+ years ago. Heart problems took my dad's parents, and now his sister. These are all things I need to consider when making life choices. It's like oh I'm young, but things have an impact down the road. Your weight, your dietary choices. I also have the potential in my genes to live to 97 like my Grandma did, passing away just two years ago.

Despite the news I went on with my regularly scheduled day off stuff and got my hair done. I texted some people, like @breakfastwiththesun and emailed my boss so hopefully people aren’t annoying when I get back in to work today. Then I went to Target and met up with my mom. I had to go grocery shopping and it helped both of us I think.

I'm the type of person who when something happens, I have to spring into action, but there was no action for me to spring into. The coroner hadn't even determined a cause at this point, let alone when anything would be.

Now we know that it will be a memorial service at some later date. Hopefully the last week of the month, but who knows.

And with all that, I've been off social media for the most part. Just I've been busy, but also just cleaning up files and stuff on my computer. I didn't want to make a million stupid, rambling posts that I'd regret in a day.

I also kinda didn’t wanna talk about this. I don't want people to feel forced to feel sorry for me. I feel more bad for her son, it's his birthday today, and he's the cousin I feel closest too. Or for her grandkids. Just yea. I dunno. It's been a weird few days.