Early on in our wedding planning process, we started talking about ways to make running part of our "big day" (Quick recap: We were engaged on Christmas morning 2014...after a 6-mile run, we opened gifts together. After I thought we were done opening gifts I started switching out the laces in the awesome new pair of running shoes Clint had gifted to me. I handed one to him after he offered to help. When he gave it back to me...there was something "extra" dangling and sparkling from the laces and he followed up that gesture with asking me if I would be his wife. EEEEEK!!). We tossed around a few ideas, including doing some kind of trail run out at Timber Pointe Outdoor Center (our wedding ceremony site) the morning of the wedding. We kept coming back to the fact, though, that neither of us really wanted to see each other the day of the wedding until the moment that I walked down the aisle...which meant that the run had to occur sometime post-ceremony.
Somehow we came up with the {insane} idea to run from our ceremony site to our reception (or at least close to it). Clint mapped it out and it turned out that it was a pretty neat-and-tidy 13.1 miles from Timber Pointe to the Marriott in Uptown Normal. We had already planned to use this hotel as suggested accommodations for some out-of-town guests and then had the thought that it would be a PERFECT race "finish line" as we could shower there before heading to our reception at Epiphany Farms in Bloomington.
A few months prior to the wedding, we started sharing our {crazy} idea with some of our friends. Surprisingly (or maybe we actually shouldn't have been THAT surprised, knowing most runners are actually just as crazy as we are :)) we had many people who appeared to be eager to join us. Our friend Joe even took the lead on designing and ordering some great shirts for the event! We created a Facebook group and started spreading the word by mouth as well. We wanted anyone who wanted to join in on the fun on our wedding day run to join...not just wedding guests. Since we were having a relatively small wedding, this was a great way for us to include more of our amazing circle of friends.
On a Monday morning about two weeks out from the wedding, we drove out to Timber Pointe and parked a car there with plans to run the route to see what we would be working with. It was a stinkin-HOT day! The route took us from Timber Pointe out along rural roads ten miles (NO SHADE COVER for ten entire miles...goodness gracious!) to the corner of Northtowne Road and the Constitution Trail. We thought that this point, with a perfect 5k/3.1 miles to the finish, would make a perfect place for friends who wanted to run with us but didn't want to run the entire half marathon distance to meet up with us on the day of the wedding. Also, conveniently, it was right about this point that we were gifted with glorious, glorious SHADE from the trees lining the trail.
I recall being kinda whiney as we made our way through the hot rural Hudson, IL roads that run-preview day (sorry, Clint! :)). As usual, the Mr. was a champion...and stuck with me even though I was really slogging through the miles. #Imundeserving
When we got to the Uptown Normal area (the final half mile or so), it was a pretty great feeling to be in the final stretch. When we arrived at the Marriott, sweaty and victorious, our Garmins read slightly over 13.1 miles. We made one little course tweak to our Uptown area route and were pretty certain that it would come out close to perfectly on "race day."
We tossed around the idea of getting race medals printed up. We weren't sure if we wanted to spend the money on "just one more thing" (gosh weddings are EXPENSIVE...even smaller ones like ours!)...but ultimately decided about a week and a half prior to the wedding that we wanted to give it a go (if we could find somewhere that could print them up with pretty quick turnaround time!). We visited B&B Awards in Bloomington and were very impressed by their helpfulness...and quick delivery of product! We had the medals in hand just a few days after ordering them (for just a few dollars apiece!). After the route was ironed out, shirts were ordered, medals were in hand...we just had to work out the final details including water/nutrition support and focus on keeping our bodies healthy enough to run 13.1 hot miles {we both have had a few injuries that have plagued us off-and-on over the course of the summer, so the worry of not being able to complete an event is in the back of our minds at times}.
We knew we wanted to get someone to drive a vehicle with water/gels during the run to offer up sustenance to the runners, but we weren't quite sure who to ask. We settled upon asking my mother...she is a helpful, calm presence who is really ready to do anything that someone asks of her. I asked her if she would feel comfortable driving her van with big vats of water and gels and of course she said she would.
The wedding weekend was a beautiful whirlwind. The festivities started the day prior to the wedding on Friday, July 31. I met up with my sister, mother and 2 nieces at a salon in town where my sister and I got manicures and pedicures. We had a great time...and were grateful for my mom's presence to help with the girls while we had our pampering session :). Macy (my almost-3-year-old niece was so cute...she loved watching the process and was fascinated by the nail salon happenings! :)). Afterwards, we all got lunch at Firehouse (hurray for some of my favorite GF pizza!) with my aunt Linda, cousin/friend Jen and her two boys.
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| Love these! They looked great adorning the men at the wedding! |
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| "Tomorrow we are getting married!" |
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| Babies!! |
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| One of the tables of guests at the dinner out on the porch at Stern Lodge...what a great place to have our pre-wedding festivities! Big thanks to Timber Pointe staff. |
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| Sister, niece, brother! :) |
Ryan and his friend worked hard constructing the trellis {that may or may not have turned out to be a bit more complicated than any of us anticipated ;)} while the wedding party ran through the ceremony....and a few of us were there after dark as Ryan put the "finishing touches" on the trellis ;).
We got up early Saturday to make it to our hair/makeup appointments at 7am at a cute salon in Bloomington, girl Friday. Brooke and I pulled in to their parking lot just before 7...and I received a text message. It was my sister-in-law and bridesmaid, Laura, calling from the Marriott lobby asking where we were. Long story short, my brother apparently had asked me the night before to drive Laura to the salon (I remember NOTHING at all about this conversation!!)...and I failed to follow through :). So, I headed back to the Marriott while Brooke headed inside to get her hair started.
Before long, all of the girls (bridesmaids Megan/Jillian/Brooke/Jen/Jill/Laura and flowergirl Macy!) were with me at girl Friday getting our hair and makeup done (and one of us...Laura...even got in some studying for her PT school finals!). Macy remembered that I had promised her the night before that I would paint her toenails blue to match mine and I fulfilled my end of the promise as soon as she asked :).
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| Soooo proud of her pretty blue nails :). Big thanks to Brooke who had some fast-dry drops in her makeup bag for us to use! |
The ceremony was beautiful...and funny {we started ~15 minutes "late," the aisle runner was a bit of a #weddingfail, our flower girl shed some tears, and our "sand unity item" resulted in lots of sand spillage}...and just perfect. My brother Dan was our officiant, which added a very special personal element to the day.
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| Vows...one of the best moments :) (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| Bridesmaids! (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| Wedding Party by Lake Bloomington (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
I was SO excited about this Runaway Bride Dress made by Oiselle...I ordered it a few months prior to the wedding when we decided that some sort of running event would definitely be a part of our big day.
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| I was also sure to use a generous amount of Tri-Slide to help prevent chafing! :) |
We had arranged for our 13.1 runners {and two cyclists!} to join us outside of the lodge that we used for wedding preparations at 2pm to start our run. We were able to start pretty close to 2pm, which I found pretty impressing considering the fact that the ceremony didn't start right on time at noon as we had hoped...and we took many fun pictures between the ceremony and the run! Everyone involved did a great job of working together to help us keep things moving...it was awesome and a big team effort for sure. {Shout out to Molly here for being an amazing coordinator and corral-er of people!}
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| Here's our group of beastly 13.1 runners/cyclists! (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| BIG THANKS to Joe who designed and ordered shirts for the run! We LOVE them! (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| I just LOVED AP's surprise for us....race bibs! I hadn't even thought about this amazing detail...but I am so glad AP thought of it and ordered these awesome things for our runners! What a great memento as well :). (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
My mom set off in her van ahead of us runners with maps and instructions of where to stop for our three water stops: at mile 3.5, 6 and 10! With only one small issue at the beginning (I told her to take a left turn instead of a right turn out of the camp! Whoops!), everything worked out perfectly and we were all SO grateful she was willing to help us out so we had cold water, gels and bars if we wanted them at three different places during the run. THANKS Mom!
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| Walking to the start! (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| Andy...being Andy ;) (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| Adam, one of our fearless cyclists ;) (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| Laurel and Adam, our awesome two cyclists...loved Laurel's "Just Married" flag! (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
Most of us (minus ANDY!!) stuck together for the first mile or so (to look good for pictures, of course! Ha!) but soon after that we started spreading out.
Mile 1 - 8:32
Mile 2 - 8:24
Mile 3 - 9:04....yeah the heat and general exhaustion from the day started getting to me after just 2 miles in :).
By our first water stop at mile 3, I was ready for a breather :). It was great to see my mom there with the blue Odyssey and cold water! I also took my dress off and wore just my fav purple Adidas shorts and one of the awesome commemorative shirts that Joe had gotten made for the event. The dress was awesome...but boy, it was toasty!!
After the first water stop, I ran a good number of miles with friends Amber and Meghan...thanks for the company, ladies!!
Mile 4 - 9:00
Mile 5 - 9:48
Mile 6 - 9:04
Our second water stop and opportunity to stop my watch for a bit was at mile 6.6. After this water stop, Laurel kept me company for a while as she rode her bike. Thanks for the company, Laurel! :)
Mile 7 - 9:16
Mile 8 - 9:11
Mile 9 - 9:25
Mile 10 - 9:17
Mile 10 (the corner of Northtown Road and the Constitution Trail) was a BIG landmark...it was where we had arranged for some more friends to join in the fun (as it was a 5k from the finish!) and also it was where GLORIOUS SHADE started as we continued our journey on the Constitution Trail! Here, Clint also waited for me (what a guy!!) so we could make the final trek into town and to our finish line together!
We enjoyed some water and goods at our final water stop courtesy of Sally Matyasse :), took a few pictures with the people who had just joined our group...and soldiered on! {Thanks to Laurel Schumacher for the next four pics!}
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| Best mobile-aid-station-driver ever! :) |
Mile 11 - 9:24
Mile 12 - 8:58
Mile 13 - 8:38
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| Paul and Steve! (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo:Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| Gary and Karen (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| And here comes the rest of the group! (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| This is one of my fav pics from the run :) (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| Hilarious: Whenever Laurel rang her bicycle bell, we "had" to kiss...even if we were mid-stride ;) (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| Just inches from our finish! |
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| THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who participated! |
When we got up to the room, we took a picture of my hair and makeup...the picture below is what my hair and makeup looked like post-13.1-mile run (and 2+ hours of SWEAT!!!!). Not too shabby! Crazy! Thanks, girl Friday for the amazing airbrush makeup! I showered, but didn't wash my face, and just touched up the makeup and shoved a few more bobby pins in the hair {thanks for your help, Laura!} and then we were off to the reception!
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| "What just happened?!" |
Sugar Mama Cake and Cupcakes!!!!
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| MMMMMM! We loved our {gluten-free!} cake! (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
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| (Photo: Christopher Cole Photography) |
THANK YOU to everyone who made our day unforgettable! Special shout out to our reception set-up crew {Jillian, Jennifer and Adelle!} who helped set things up in our reception room at Epiphany Farms while we were running...things turned out even better than I had envisioned. Thank you, ladies! You are amazing!
Some of our wedding details... (we highly recommend each of these!)
My dress: Maggie Sottero
Run dress: Oiselle
My hair/makeup: girl Friday
Clint's shoes: TOMS (yes, people were asking ;))
Flowers: AP Prescott and Molly Mazur originals (*Bloomington Farmers Market!*)
Cake/Cupcakes: Sugar Mama
Ceremony Site: Timber Pointe Outdoor Center
Officiant: Daniel Matyasse
Music: Heart Strings
Photographer: Christopher Cole Photography
Reception: Epiphany Farms (*Craig was amazing to work with!)
DJ/MC: Lynden McGriff :)
Rings: Solid Gold (Uptown Normal, IL)
To my groom...thank you for making this day (and every day) unforgettable :). I love you!
