The rest of the day after the race was spent doing whatever the heck I wanted to do! After hobbling back up to the room for a quick shower, we celebrated with my cheering squad at The Continental on the Pier (French onion soup dumplings. I guarantee your life will never be the same).

Jenny & Julia went home so Mike and I went up to the room to relax for a bit. Or, he napped and I tried to nap but couldn’t stop scrolling through my Instagram feed to see all of my fellow runners celebrating their own victories that day! I was still kind of jazzed up and Twister was on the TV and well, I didn’t nap.

So around 4:30 we made our way down to the pool and spa, where I tried to stretch out my legs (major ouch by now!) and floated around to kill some time before my massage.

Once 5:45 rolled around I headed into the spa and met Iris – AKA the woman I will one day marry for her amazing masseuse powers. Seriously, after 50 minutes on her table I was practically purring.

After she poured me out of her massage room and I wafted back up to the room, I pulled myself together for a final celebration: allllll the pasta I could eat at Buca di Beppo!

I’d never eaten there and was pleasantly surprised at how delicious it was! The penne vodka wasn’t overpowering and even had some crushed red pepper, which I usually don’t like but LOVED on this dish. I had to green it up with some broccoli though – gotta get that fiber.

And that wine. ALLL that wine.

Between the early wake up call, the running 13 miles, the non-stop carbs and the wine, by the time the check came I was done-zo. You know how a baby rubs its eyes when it’s tired? Yeah I had all but rubbed the makeup clean off my face, and was about to use the leftover penne as a pillow for a quick nap.

But I pulled it together long enough for a quick visit with Mike’s other cousin who works security at Caesar’s before heading back up to the room to crash in bed at 10:30 with the Fresh Prince and this magnificent cupcake:

I can still taste the deliciousness…

The next morning we packed it all up and I squeezed my poor feet into my new Brooks for the ride back home, where I worked from my kitchen table for the rest of the day. And if you were wondering, yes: I did wear my medal all day 😉

All in all it was a fantastic way to wrap up my race weekend, and I can’t wait to do it again soon! With that said, when’s the next race? 😉