When your best friends from childhood come to visit for a long weekend, you do all the tourist things, eat all the food and drink all the beer. My best friends Hailey, Elizabeth and Melissa came to visit me in Philly this past weekend and it couldn’t have been a better weekend. The weather was PERFECT and I was able to show them literally almost every Philly neighborhood. I didn’t think we would fit as much in but we did a lot!

 They all got here Thursday night and on Friday morning we started our adventures in Rittenhouse Square. 

After Rittenhouse Square, we headed down to Reading Terminal Market for a delicious lunch and 4^th Street Famous Cookies (so damn good).

 After a large lunch, we walked up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to run up the Rocky Stairs  lay in the sun at the top of the Rocky Steps before I made them all take my 4:30 spin class.

After a quick recharge in the sun, we made our way to Body Cycle Studio for my class! You know true friends when they take your cycle class on vacation… 

Caught in action...

On Friday night we started at Independence Beer Garden (Hallelujah so happy it’s back open!!), danced at Fado and ended Ubering to Big Ass Slices for some Big Ass Slices of pizza. No pics here because pizza was our priority. Let’s just say my early Saturday morning at work was quite a challenge.

On Saturday when I got off of work, we roamed around the Italian Market for some Philly Cheesesteaks from Geno’s and some cannolis. A true Philly meal. After that we head over to Old City, Society Hill and Race Street Pier. We were totally exhausted after Saturday so we head back to my neighborhood to finish off the night with margaritas and Mexican food at a cute little place near my apartment.

On Sunday we were citied out so we went on a little hike through the Wissahickon Trail…

It was a good ass weekend!! I already miss my girls and I’m so happy they could all make it up to visit :)

XO - Rach

How was your weekend? 

What's your favorite city to visit?

Happy Monday, friends! And welcome, November (how did that happen?)  This past weekend was one to remember - I ran my first half marathon! And it wasn't that bad. My mom and her boyfriend also came to visit to cheer me and Chelsey on while we slogged ran. 

Chelsey and I headed to the expo after work on Friday to pick up our packets and a plethora of free stuff including a ton of mini Lara Bars. SCORE! After the expo we headed to Mercato, a fabulous Italian restaurant with homemade pasta. We both had amazing pasta dishes to carb up. No pics because we were too busy savoring :)

Race Day

Saturday morning rolled around and it was time to wake up at 5:30 a.m.! I made myself a bowl of oats with peanut butter, some coffee, and my mom and I made our way down to the race around 7:30 in the freezing cold. Chelsey and I were in coral 31, so we didn't actually start running until about 8:30. However, the sun came up once we started running and it felt great!

The first 8 miles are actually kind of a blur. They went by SO fast, there was a lot of adrenaline and we both felt really great. The first 5 miles were through the city and the remainder was a flat road along the river. Such a great course! 

Around the half way mark, my cousin Sara was working at the medical tent so she ran along with us for about a half mile and snapped some pics:  After mile 9 it became all mental. Everything felt great except my ankles - they were screaming! We just did everything we could to keep our minds off of the suck and finish strong. We finished in 2:26 and our goal was 2:30! And then the next day at the New York City Marathon (26.2 people!) the woman winner finished in 2:24! We may not be the fastest but we were happy to be running and having a blast. 

After chugging a chocolate milk at the finish line, we headed back to the hotel we were staying at for the weekend to shower and get some food. We ended up heading to Reading Terminal Market and stopping by The Original Turkey  for some fresh carved turkey club sandwiches. I inhaled mine in .000345 seconds. After refueling, we headed to the Field House Bar (home of the Philly Gator Club) to watch the Gators dominate the Bulldogs. 

We ended the night with dinner in Chinatown and I was passed out by 9:30. It was an awesome day and weekend. So glad that I could spend time with my family.

After SEVERAL jam-packed weekends, I'm totally looking forward to doing a lot of nothing next weekend :)

P.S. I didn't even end up listening to it, but I will share my half marathon playlist soon. I was really excited for it, but we had more fun chatting during the whole race.

XO -Rach

How was your weekend?

Have you run a half before? If not, would you ever want to?