Success! Apparently all those fast thoughts y’all thought for me worked! I was faster than a speeding bullet during the ING Georgia half marathon yesterday. What a great race! I’m very pleased with my time of 2:12, although that time includes a super long wait at the porta-potty. The lines at every pit stop were really long. I arrived around 6:30 am and it was dark and freezing out, and 45 minutes later we finally managed to start the race, by which time I had to pee like a racehorse. So I would estimate that my actual running time was more like 2:08. Not too shabby! I had really high energy, most likely because the night before I ate about a pound of pasta and then went to bed at 9:00 pm. The Canadians cheered me on at Piedmont Park. Ray and Michael ran to Centennial Park to see me run past at Mile 13, and of course Dice was there at the finish. Good times! Pictures tomorrow.

Otherwise the weekend was pretty boring. Friday evening Dice and I went to cheese dip for dinner and had a leisurely time eating our dip and having a couple margaritas. Afterwards we stopped into Ray and Michael’s for a bit to catch up. Saturday morning we went to a car show at Ga Tech that was really interesting, it had all sorts of different cars from older vintage cars to racing cars to fancier ones like Lamborghinis. We stayed just long enough to see everything and then left quickly because the sky got really dark and started to rain. We went to the N. Highland Pub for lunch where I had a terrible cuban sandwich with delicious fries and Dice had a two-foot-long hotdog. Later that afternoon Ray and I went to the racer’s expo at the Georgia Dome so that I could pick up my race packet. The worst about about that visit was that I purchased $30 worth of running socks and then forgot them there on the table! Dang it! Afterwards we stopped at Target for some necessary and not-so-necessary things. That evening Dice and I got takeout from Little Azio where I had pretty good pasta and Dice had an awful pizza. Seriously, folks, never get the pizza at Little Azio. And then I went to bed at 9:00 pm and conked out until 5:15 the next morning.

After the race yesterday we went to Thumbs Up in East Point. Because there were so many people at the race we didn’t manage to meet up with Ray and Michael. So we waited for them to get home and then we all had to shower before leaving. What all this means is that we hit Thumbs Up just after the church crown arrived, so we ended up waiting at least a half an hour for a table. By that time the wee packet of oatmeal I’d had at 5:30 that morning was an inadequate memory. I think our table may have cleared the kitchen of food for the rest of the day. Which meant we all went home and took a nap. Well, I didn’t because I rarely nap, but I did lay almost comatose on the couch watching Masterpiece Theatre. In the evening Dice and I roused ourselves and went to Brick Store for dinner, at which I had at least 3 glasses of wine which was more than enough to put me over the top considering my weekend.

So, to recap: good weekend! I am fast, and also an athlete! And now I’m also obese given the amount of food I ate all weekend.

Not to be rectified any time soon if this week is to be any indication. Tonight we are going to the Glenwood where I hear tell they are doing a baseball themed event to signify the beginning of baseball season. So they’ll show the Braves game and offer stadium-type food. My running group was canceled today because everyone ran the ING Georgia half marathon yesterday, so instead we’ll go to the gym. It’s better weather for the gym anyway, it’s cold and grey outside. That was truly the worst part about the race yesterday: it was REALLY f-ing cold. I wanted to die before and after the race.

I missed my buddies having dinner at Fire + Ice in Boston on Saturday night. I’m still waiting for a recap, boys!

Last night I had dinner with the female half of the Canadians and Tashi-tash-tash. We went to Cafe Circa and on the whole, it was very good. I’m not sure what they are supposed to be circa to, which bothers me a little. But we all know I’m crazazay about the grammar so we’ll just recognize the error and move on. I had pork potstickers for an appetizer and they were crispy and delicious, very nicely done. They’re also available in veggie form for the veg people. Then I had the salad with fried tofu on it, and while the salad wasn’t innovative or terribly creative, it was simple, perfectly proportioned and very tasty. Just enough fried tofu, plenty of pine nuts and craisins, not too much dressing (although I could have used a little less, but I like just a tiny bit of dressing). I was well pleased with it. Also my glass of wine was very good, good enough so that I would go back just for drinks so that I could have it again. The interior was decorated in a welcoming and yet trendy manner, very cute and inviting. The next time I go back I am going to try the Thai chicken in peanut sauce, which I couldn’t have last night because the female half of the Canadians is deathly allergic to nuts and I’d prefer not to kill her with my entree. Maybe with my bare hands, but not my entree.

This weekend is mostly about getting ready for the race and then running the race. Mostly I plan to eat a lot of food and rest. I don’t really need to do this considering I ran 13 miles a couple weekends ago and most certainly didn’t change my routine in any way. But having a half marathon just gives me the excuse to eat like a pig and sit on my ass. Yes, for those of you wondering, I do need an excuse, otherwise I feel guilty. Sunday morning I’ll run the race, hopefully in under 2.5 hours, and then we’ll go to brunch to celebrate. Oftentimes when I’m running races, the thought of brunch pulls me through when nothing else will.

I’ll be thinking of my good buddies having a fun mini-reunion without me in Boston. I’m totally jealous because I wish I could be there. It just so happens that I signed up for the half marathon before I knew it was happening. Next time, they should really consult my schedule before planning anything. Here’s hoping the Brazilian tranny doesn’t f* the place up!

Wish me luck! Think fast thoughts for me on Sunday morning!

And, all the tornado excitement is gone. And I mean that in a good way. It’s surprising and inspiring to see how fast much of the damage was cleared away. Further, the sheer volume of volunteers have contributed to both the clean-up as well as the inspiration. We have yet to call a tree guy to get the tree/large branch off of our roof so as not to take professional attention away from the areas that really have 50-inch diameter trees crashed into houses.

Went running with my neighborhood running group last night. It’s actually only about four us of from the neighborhood who show up. The other three besides me are hashers, so they convince their hasher friends to come along and that fleshes us out to 8 or 9 or so. I have no problem with this, I just wish more neighborhood people would run with us as well. I can run by myself, the whole point is to meet my neighbors. A bunch of them went for dollar tacos at Blue Frog afterwards, but I didn’t go with since it’s Monday and that’s against the rules. I didn’t eat worse than I usually do over the weekend, which means it was very, very bad.

In ironic news, due to the shift in running days last week, and the intentional low mileage before my long run which was supposed to be on Saturday but then happened on Sunday, I have already surpassed last week’s 5-day mileage by 3 miles. After only two days (Sunday and Monday) of running. It’s ironic and sad at the same time.

So, I don’t know if anyone reading this either saw the photos from the tornado that hit Atlanta on Friday night, or lived through it like I did. If there are people who hadn’t heard, downtown Atlanta was hit by a tornado on Friday night. The tornado hit directly downtown and then went in a southeasterly direction. Wouldn’t you know, I just happen to live in a southeasterly direction from downtown. Its path was only a few hundred yards north of my house, but that small distance was enough to divert any real damage.

Friday I left work early since Dice was out of town and I didn’t have to wait for his overly sensitive work ethic to satisfy itself. I had planned to stay home watching Masterpiece Theatre all night, but the Canadians called to invite me to cheese dip for dinner, and who can say no to cheese dip? I’m sure a lot of people can, but I’m not one of them. So there we were on the patio of cheese dip having an alcohol-infused good time when suddenly all hell broke loose, rain, wind and cows went flying through the air. The center of the tornado went about 300 feet to the north and east of where we were. It lasted oh, about 10 minutes or so, and then it was over, and we finished our drinks and went home. When I got home the cable/internet was out, so I went to bed. In the morning the cable/internet was still out so I popped in a DVD and watched that, puttered around the house, talked to the cats, and whatnot until mid-afternoon when another storm hit. This one consisted of driving rain that then turned into hail. It was HUGE hail, too, almost golf ball-sized. It was the hugest hail I had ever seen in my life. I tried to take several pictures but none of them came out because everything was moving so fast. I was positive that the picture window in the front of our house would break, and was shocked when it held up. The hail was scarier than the tornado, in my opinion, because it felt like shots being fired from the sky.

Meanwhile, during the storm, I get a call from Dice who is in the Philly airport trying to get home. Now, remember that I had no link to the outside world, so I had no idea that a tornado had hit Atlanta. I thought the hailstorm was the worst thing that had happened, and I was all freaked out about that. Of course Dice’s flight was delayed and while he was sitting there he happened to be watching CNN which was showing extreme devastation in certain neighborhoods of Atlanta that he knows are in the immediate vicinity of where we live. So he called me asking if I was dead or not, and I replied by saying I might be soon, considering I’m being shot at with hail bullets. Finally that ended and the danger was over. Dice didn’t land until about 9:00 pm or so, a good 5 hours late. After I picked him up we went to the Depot for dinner. The Depot’s power had been out for 24 hours and was only restored about 7:00 pm, so they were offering a limited menu of burgers, fries and salads. Luckily we like burgers, fries and salads so we were fine. We asked them to put CNN on the TV so that I could see my first glimpses of the devastation. By the time we got home, around 11:00 pm, our cable/internet came back on and we caught the 11:00 pm news before going to bed.

Sunday morning I woke up feeling much better about things. Obviously I couldn’t go running on Saturday, so I did my long run Sunday morning. I felt so good because of the two days off I’d had, plus it was sunny and beautiful, that I stretched it to 13 miles. I was very pleased with myself, and I’m now ready for the half marathon in less than two weeks. After I got home and showered and stuff we went off to watch the first Formula 1 race of the season. What a great race! Very exciting, lots of safety cars and car trouble and stuff. It was nice to see our group again, too, and it was especially nice to watch the race at a reasonable hour. I didn’t have time to eat after my run and before we left, so I ate a pretty hefty lunch at Frankie’s while watching the race, which means I wasn’t hungry for dinner at all. So after the race we went home and I cleaned the inside of the house, while Dice went up on the roof to clean off the tree that had fallen on our roof. It was a very small tree that had snapped off at roof level and stayed on the roof. He sawed off the branches and left the trunk of the tree because it was a little too hefty for him to manage by himself. We will have to hire someone to get that down, although our little tree isn’t so much of a priority for the local tree people, considering the preponderance of people who have completely lost their entire house to a 3-foot-diameter old growth tree. Did I mention that there is a lot of damage in our immediate vicinity? ‘Cause there is.

So the weekend was bizarre and scary and had it’s fun moments as well. Last night I was so tired after the accumulation of all the stress and the running that I was fast asleep long before 10:00 pm. It was nice to have Dice home, and it was nice to have the weather get back to the appropriate 70 degree sunniness that it’s supposed to be.

Tonight I am going running with my neighborhood running group. Our route should take us past some more of the tornado-ravaged area, which will be good to see, although I did see some during the last leg of my run yesterday. But the weather is perfect today, and it’s light out almost until 8:30 pm these days, so I hope it’ll be a good one. Heh, as long as a tornado doesn’t hit while we’re running, it’ll be fine! I get to say that about everything from now on.