After a week of post-marathon recovery, this morning I finally felt it was time to lace up my shoes and hit the pavement. My legs had been feeling great and I was just planning on running to the end of the road and back which comes to roughly 3.5 miles.
My Sister and Melissa joined me on the recovery run. At first Kelly bolted out fast and I had to remind her I had just run a marathon the week before. She managed to slow down but we still held a strong 9:00 minute pace until the end of the road.
I kept doing mental checks of my body. Left leg good…. left knee good… right knee good…. back of right knee not so good.
I have yet to find anyone who is able to tell me the proper name to the muscle on the back of my leg that connects my calves and hamstrings, but that is the muscle that has been on the tighter side since I finished my race. During the run it started feeling very tight again and at the halfway point I had to stop and stretch it out and let my running buddies know I was going to need to slow the pace on the way back.
Kelly took off for a few more miles while Melissa and I headed back to the house at a much slower pace.
With the extra tight leg I knew I had to take it was easy or risk being injured. My first run back I would have to say went well, but not as great as expected. I just need to take it easy a bit longer before I know I will be back to normal.
It still feel great to get a run in. I celebrated with a great breakfast prepared by my Daddy.
My plated had Scrambled Eggs, Fruit Salad, Biscuit and a Tiny spoonful of Sausage Gravy.
The past part was the fruit salad, which I went back for seconds and then helped finish the bowl!
Melissa joined me outside for blogger breakfast photography.
Our plates were the prettiest of the table. 
The beach was on the agenda for this morning and I could not have been more excited! It was actually pretty fun driving in the daylight to where we had witnessed the turtles nesting the evening before.
First we had to make a little detour stop by the water so Melissa and her boyfriend Brad could catch their first glimpse at wild manatees.
I guess its because I grew up by the water and Manatees are such a common creature here, but it never occured to me that other people have never seen one outside of captivity before!
We were lucky that two beautiful manatees popped up as soon as we made it to the dock.
I think they knew we wanted some close up shots, so they swam up to say hi. They were very sweet manatees.
When we made it to the beach all the girls went straight to laying in the sand, while the boys headed to the water.
We got out there early and before the rain. It could not have been a more beautiful day on the water!
We had fun playing in the sand.
And hiked to see if we could find where our turtle had nested the night before.
She was a little far away from where we were and we gave up on walking through the sand. But, this is what the stake looked like that we helped mark the nest with.
Obviously, you can not go to the beach with out snacks!
I had a handful of these yummy chips
A handful of Blue Corn Tortilla Chips
and some Trail Mix Melissa had brought.
Unfortunately the clouds moved in and cut our fun in the sun day short!
We stopped at Publix on the way home to pick up some subs for lunch.
I ordered the Boars Head Salsalito Turkey with Honey Mustard, Jalapenos, Banana Peppers, Black Olives, Tomatoes, Garlic Pickles, Onions, Lettuce and a drizzle of vinegar.
This sub was SPICY!
I also had a chopped Green apple and another handful of the Buffalo Bleu Cheese Kettle Chips on the side.
After lunch I passed out in the living room before making the drive back to Orlando.
On the way to my apartment I was trying to figure out what to have for dinner and all I could think of was Almond Butter on vegetables. So in a new trial experiment I had a bowl of steamed vegetables with almond butter on top.
For the base of the bowl I had steamed carrots, green beans, leftover sweet and sour cabbage, and some random cantalope I was craving. It was a ridculous odd combination of flavors but it totally worked! I am now under the impression you can literally throw anything into a bowl and as long as you are craving it, it will be awesome!
To satisfy my sweet tooth I had a small bowl of Coconut Milk Coconut Ice Cream with a sprinkle of Chocolate is For Lovers Granola sprinkled on top.
I was very disappointed this afternoon when Caitlin texted me to bail on out bike ride plans for tomorrow. Luckily she made up for it when she invited me out bowling this evening instead.
She also invited fellow Orlando blogger Megan from MegaNerdRuns.
What can I say Meg[H]an[N]s are cool no matter how you spell it.
We originally set out to bowl three games, but the girls were tired of bowling interrupting our conversation, so we bailed on the third and instead gabbed about all things life. It’s always so much fun to meet new people and get their life story.
As always its impossible to bowl without a little beer confidence.
Unfortunately the bowling ally bar had slim beer selection and as we ordered ore pitchers the selections got smaller. I was very excited they did have Shock Top, but our pitcher order tapped the keg. We also managed to tap the AmberBrock tap!
I had 1 cup of the single Shock Top pitcher.
Sadly, none of the other beers peaked my interest.
Somehow Caitlin brought up her uncanny ability to out chug a frat guy. Needless to say her brother in law put her to the test.
She kicked his butt... twice. 
Wow, what a day! Time to get some sleep! I am excited for the 20 mile bike ride I am still planning on, despite Caitlin’s bailing on me. It will feel nice to get out on Blue again, it has been far too long!
Good Night!!
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