A multi-purpose post today. First things first, I finally dealt with my rat’s nest hair yesterday. Bit the bullet and went back to Kenji for color and much needed cutting. I’ve attempted to justify the color change as wedding hair experimentation, since I’m not sure what shade I want my hair to be for my wedding day. I’m not the type of girl that just sticks with the same color year in and year out, and it tends to range anywhere from black to light brown. The new shade is pictured below, along with a cute camera-shy Indy:

My gut feeling tells me that for the wedding I want this super-dark-almost-blackish brown, and I think it will look really nice and contrasted with the white wedding dress.

Flashing back in time, I haven’t had a chance yet to post pictures from the Meijer Indy 300 race that we went to a few weeks ago. Lindsey, Casey, Casey’s friend Chris, and I headed down to Sparta, Kentucky for tailgating, racing, and of course, picture taking. The highlights are below:

Beautiful rolling hills of Kentucky.

Lindsey and the stolen ghetto-blasters…

Just a couple of crazy race fans.

Just me and Danica hanging out as usual.

Emily, Chris, and the Dancia coozie (thanks, Linds!)

Converted race fans.

Overall a very fun race, even though Danica finished eleventh – ugh. Racing season is coming to an end, which can only mean one thing… It is time for FOOTBALL SEASON! Goodbye Sunday afternoons, hello black and orange. Bring it, boys.

Going into Saturday’s long run, I was pretty nervous. Seventeen miles. The longest I have run since May 2nd. A horribly painful 8-mile run on Wednesday didn’t help.

I knew that we needed to pick a good route. Small loops are nice for water stops and refueling, but also make it much easier to quit or cut your run short when you are closer to home. I decided the best strategy was running two 8.5 mile loops that would pass several water fountains and both my and Lindsey’s houses, if goo or bathrooms were needed.

I don’t know if it was the weather (perfect), the pre-run pasta dinner (thank you Casey), or the company (thank you Lindsey) – but the run was awesome. Dare I say it, I think I actually enjoyed myself. I felt really strong and good, and we held a respectable pace for most of the run.

The run was also aided by several new additions to the “Run It” playlist:

• Jordin Sparks – “One Step at a Time”
• Chris Brown – “Forever”
• Kanye and Estelle – “American Boy”

Pretty much these three on repeat for all the hills, and the last few slightly painful miles. Thank you Lindsey for the pre-run iTunes action!

This run also proved to be a bit of a milestone for me. I did the unthinkable. After ten miles of complaining to Lindsey about how hot I was, and weighing the options in my mind, I sucked it up (and sucked it in!) and took my shirt off. I threw it behind the sign of the school where I work (ha! just retrieved it monday morning!), and continued on with my run in my sports bra and shorts (and obviously my bondi band). Now I may have lost some weight, but there was definitely still some jello jiggling going on. I just told myself that it was okay and tried not to think about it. Of course not even a mile later I ran past someone I knew (sorry Eldrich!) and felt the shame, but oh well. If it helped me get through 17 miles, I’ll take it.

Overall, the run was great, and I wasn’t even that sore afterwards. All my runs up until now have felt a little sluggish and unmotivating. This was definitely the boost of confidence I needed going into Chicago.

I eat 17-mile runs for breakfast.