Run like the wind!

Wow. I made it through. I made it through Chicago.

If you've been following along with this blog, you might know that I was talked into running the Chicago marathon by my friends Anne and Kelli. They had decided to run it, and somehow I didn't want to be left out of the fun, so I said I would do it, too. We worked like mad to get through the crazy computer system on the day entry opened, and finally got the notifications that we were in. (The number of people trying to sign up at the exact same time crashed the computer system this year and created whole debacle. I think the whole thing is going to be a lottery next year.)

Then, it was time to wait. Well, wait and train.  It seems like this all happened so long ago, yet, the time also crept up on me.

The girls and I spent all summer slogging out long runs in the heat and humidity and torrential downpours. We followed the training plan from "Train like a Mother," and I got in all my miles. I'd experimented with different fuels and tried different clothes. I knew what worked. I was ready.

But, I was nervous. Very nervous. Like, stomach tied up in knots, dream-interrupting nervous. You'd think, with this being my third full marathon, that I'd be done with nerves. Or, at least, they wouldn't be that bad. I actually think, though, it was because of my previous marathons that I was so nervous.

My first, in 2006, was in Dallas in April. It got up to 92 degrees that day. I think it was about 87 degrees with 80 percent humidity when I finished. Um, yeah, miserable. I immediately said I would never do another marathon.

My second was in Tulsa, OK, in 2010. It was also warm that day, even though it was November, with temps reaching 79 degrees. And, high humidity. I hit the wall around mile 22 and hated the last 4 miles with every ounce of my being. I said I'd never run another marathon.

While I was glad I had run both of these, neither of them were exactly "fun." Nor was I ever eager to do it again. I was so afraid of that happening to me again. So, this trip, I was nervous. So nervous. And, I definitely seemed to be the only one of us nervous for the entire trip. What in the world had I talked myself into?

But, let's step back a day or two to the beginning of the trip ...

Kelli, Anne, Marsha and I took off from KC on a plane bound for Chicago early on Friday morning. We wanted to get to Chicago early enough to enjoy time while we were there and not have to feel rushed.

At the KC airport. Apparently our barista thought we looked like an Emi and Kian instead of Amy and Anne.

Anne and Marsha on the L to get to our hotel.

And, Kelli and me.

We dropped our bags off at the hotel, grabbed some lunch then took off down Michigan Avenue.

The Mollys take Chicago

On the day Molly was born, Cory and I were thrilled beyond belief, but also completely in the dark about what life with this little bundle of joy would entail. We did, however, know a couple things as certain as we knew the sky was blue.
1. We knew Molly was loved completely.
2. We knew she was the cutest baby ever born (natch).
And, 3. We knew that when she was old enough, Molly would be going on a trip to get an American Girl Doll with Cory's mom and sister.

This trip has been planned since her birth. I mean, we didn't have the plane tickets or anything, but we knew it would be happening. Aunt Amber and Mommom have been telling Molly for years that when she turned 5, she would get to go to get an American Girl Doll. Molly knew this would be happening. She was counting on it. And, the day finally arrived.

See, I'm a little old for American Girl Dolls. I read a couple of the books when I was younger, but I never had a doll, or any of the accouterments that go along with. But, Amber (though only a couple years younger than me) had a Samantha doll. And, she was very into the whole genre. So, Amber and Joan wanted to pass this along to the next generation of Lafferty girls.


I do realize at this time that almost all males reading this will have absolutely no clue what I'm talking about. Feel free to travel over to wikipedia to learn all about the phenomenon that is American Girl.


We hadn't really planned for the trip to take place exactly on Molly's birthday, but it just happened to work out with work schedules and vacations. On May 28th, Molly's actual 5th birthday, we all headed to the airport for a girls' trip to Chicago. Molly had been telling Cory ever since we planned it that she was going on a Girls' Trip, and that Girls' Trips were better than Boys' Trips. I guess she was trying to make him jealous, though I do happen to believe it is a true fact. It kind of broke my heart, though, when Charlotte brought out her own suitcase and thought she was going with us.

Molly's Gigi got her a new suitcase for the trip. The polka dots were actually quite helpful in always being able to find it. Plus, Molly thought she was hot stuff with her own suitcase that she could pull.

Molly and Mommy waiting to get on the airplane.

We tried all sorts of transportation on this trip. Waiting for the subway with Amber and Mommom.

The plane flight was uneventful, and with only a few minor hiccups, we made it from Midway, through the subway system, and walked to our hotel. Molly was a pretty good trouper about the travel part. I only had to carry her suitcase up and down the stairs, other than that, she pulled it.

We checked into the hotel, and what did we find? A bed for Molly's American Girl Doll. That sealed the schedule. We would have to go get the doll that day. We had considered waiting a day, since our scheduled tea party wasn't until Tuesday, but once Molly saw that bed, she was convinced that she needed her doll immediately.

Molly was amazed by the bed for her doll in the hotel room.