Hot Tips from a survivor...

Hey guys!

So funny story...I was drunk on Saturday night. Catherine can attest to this as she was texting something funny about drinking 3 steins in her running clothes and at one point I wrote back, "haha, I go now." Ahh, beer...and goldschlager - GROSS ME OUT. Don't do it. I can still feel the gold in my stomach.
Anyway - the point of this story is that I was out with a group of friends/friends of friends and one of my good friends, Kari Schuster, wants to do the Vegas marathon next December and she was saying, "Oh come on jillboo, you'll be done with the beast and can just do it!" Then one of her friends says, "wait, what beast?!" A little explanation and suddenly her eyes lit up - her colleague just did the Louisville ironman this past year! So she said she'd email me her email address. Sure enough...I got her address on Monday. So yesterday I got up enough guts to do a cold-call-email and introduce myself and try and give her some insight as to why I'm stalking her (aka - scared out of my mind). She was SUPER nice and wrote me back this long email ALL about it. Of course, that just sparked a million more questions in my mind about the race so I think after the holidays I definitely will meet up with her and bring a notepad. But she wrote a lot so I'll put the whole thing in here. Some of it is specific to Louisville and other parts are just good to see some of her strategy. AND BETH - she did Madison the year before! So without further ado... notes from Val:

Well...turns out I can't copy and paste in here. That was anticlimatic. I'll have to just forward the email.

Which leaves me a bit more room to answer Beth's last question...life outside of training! (There still is one at this point!)
Not too much is new, but life is juts crazy with the holidays and trying to get to the holiday parties, host a couple, make batches of cookies and food galore, shop (ICK), wrap christmas presents, decorate the house, etc. etc. Jake and I cut down our tree and I absolutely LOVE it! I don't want to take it down...I think it should be a permanent decoration in our house. I signed up to take a community ed Spanish class this winter so we'll see what I can pick up there. ANNNDDD...that's it? No buying puppies, no having babies...I'm just plain 'ol boring. What about the rest of you? Beth - how's Colorado been treating you this winter? Have you been out skiing yet? And C. Eastman - what's shaking out in Portland? Have you found a lover? :) Shefali, my dear Indian friend, I miss you...how's Bryan? Work? Are you still swimming with Natajsa? How is she doing?

Miss you guys and I'll forward you that email right now! I read it twice yesterday...some parts get me pumped up and other parts scare me. Oh and one word about this girl - she loves God.