The last 24 hours have been hectic. We are in Louisville, Kentucky as Julie is Maid of Honor for her best friend, Erika and her husband to be, Mike Friedburg. Julie has been rushing about with the girls doing things and I have been trying to be helpful but also stay out of the way and get a little rest in between runs. I had a good second run yesterday and felt pretty strong and loose on the hilly terrain of the nearby parks. As soon as I got back and had done my drills and strides, I had to shower, change and then head straight out the door with all the girls in the car to go to the rehearsal dinner. We arrive right on time at Z's Fusion, a really nice restaurant in the downtown area. I met Steve Slattery (international steeplechaser) there with the rest of the University of Colorado team that were featured in the book "Running with the Buffaloes". Everyone had had a pretty crazy night the night before as it was Mike's bachelor party so I just tried to keep up with the stories of the night being retold.

We sat down to a great dinner (I had the steak of course) and just chatted for the rest of the evening at our table. I was glad of this as I was pretty tired and didn't want to be on my feet. From there we moved down the road to 21C, a hotel/bar/art museum that seriously cool. I had actually seen a bunch of the art before but not up close so it was a great experience. The highlight, for me, was the mens bathroom where you pee against a glass wall that looks out at the guests and passers by. Its a 2 way mirror so they can't see you but it still does enough to make it hard to produce anything! We sat at the bar for a while as I got more and more tired. I was the designated driver so being up so late without copious amounts of alcohol was pretty tough. I slept very well when we got back.

We woke up in the morning when our bodies told us too (9.30am) and Julie brewed up a big pot of coffee while I chowed down on a PowerBar and some PowerBar Endurance drink. After some coffee and answering emails, I drove out to the back side of Seneca Park where there is a flat, one mile grass loop that I was planning on doing most of my long run on so that I could grab my drink every 3 loops. After one lap I was bored and ran a hilly two mile loop that I had found the day before so that made it a little easier on the brain instead of 22 loops. I felt pretty tired for the first 9 miles until I had a caffeinated PowerBar gel and that perked me up a little. The only problem was that as I ripped it off of the bottle, it split down the side and half of the gel went down my chest (I was t shirtless) and I was now very sticky. It started to dry on my chest hair which wasn't pleasant but what made it worse was that my earphone cord was stuck to the hair and my chest. It was pretty annoying but at least the cord wasn't flapping about anymore so I just decided to leave it and get on with my run. I made a decision to skip the next drink as I wanted to run over to the other park close by and get a loop in there. It was very hilly but I knew the route pretty well from the past couple of days runs so I knew where to ease off and where I could roll a little. I got back to the car for my next drink at 15 miles and then just did a few more combinations of the 1 and 2 mile loops. It actually started to get pretty cold and windy in the last 10 minutes of the run so once I was finished I quickly got into my warm ups and got straight to my post run drills and stretching. I was pretty happy with the 22 miles I ran but I knew I was going to suffer later if I didn't get to put my feet up before the wedding.

I got back and showered off all the gel that was all over me and headed out to pick Julie up and grab some food. Just as we headed to get a sandwich, it started to rain and the clouds came over head. This wasn't good news for the wedding as the whole ceremony and reception was supposed to be outside. There is a back up plan to do everything inside so I guess they will have to do that. We got back to the house so that Julie could get ready and I could hopefully rest. FAIL. I had to write out Julie's speech onto note cards and then take her and another bridesmaid back to the venue. Luckily it is only 5 minutes away so I drove back and writing this has been the only time I have managed to get my feet up today. I guess you have to make sacrifices on special days like this for your loved ones so i'm not too bothered. I haven't told Julie yet that I have decided to stick to the training program and do a 25km tempo on the morning of our wedding. Greg offered to change it to mid week but I figured I could get up early and get it out the way and have a rest before I need to be anywhere that day so hopefully that works out! I think I will offer to be the driver again tonight as I have to get an hour run done in the morning before church at 8am as we have a brunch to go to at 10am. Its going to be a long day as we leave Louisville at 5pm (a second run before then also) and get back into Phoenix at 8.30pm. That means we won't get up to Flagstaff until about 11pm so I'm just looking forward to getting a lot of good sleep when I get back.

I'm now looking at the clock and realizing that I have to be at the wedding in 15 minutes so I'd better get into my suit pronto. I'll try update tomorrow if I have time but I probably won't get time until Monday to do so.