Martha's Vineyard on Valentine's Day

Kevin and I standing in front of the infamous Black Dog Tavern.

Back in November I emailed Kevin at work and informed him that he was running a 20 mile race with me at Martha's Vineyard on Valentine's day. He was not really all that thrilled, but when I explained to him that we could call it a celebration of our 15 years of marriage together and the fact that I could not run the race all by myself on the day of LOVE he agreed.

I have to say that this was by FAR the most enjoyable race that I have ever ran. We decided the training would be a good thing to keep us in shape throughout the winter months and that we would just run the "race" very casually and just make it a sight seeing tour on foot. We hit a few obstacles throughout our training. I got pneumonia in mid December and had to stop running all together for 3 weeks. (Kevin didn't want to make me feel bad so he took that time off as well.) We have had injuries (IT band, foot arches, knees) but just blame it on old age and trying to force the miles a little too quickly.

Finally the day arrived that we left the kids with friends (Ginger and Sam watched them on Saturday night) and got on the ferry to take us across to the Vineyard Haven Harbor. We left our car on the mainland in MA and when we stepped off the ferry we just walked a couple of blocks to our hotel. It was absolutely fabulous. The hotel was gorgeous and had a swimming pool, workout room, hot tub and spa. We just hung out and walked over to the Black Dog Tavern for dinner that night. I had the prime rib and lots of mashed potatoes (carb loading) and Kevin ordered a wonderful scallop fettuccine. We ate lots of yummy bread and drank a lot of water to hydrate. We then just took a little walk around the part of the island that we were staying. There was a cute little grocery on the corner and a few restaurants. The theater changed to a different movie each night. A local woman on the ferry informed us that "off season" is nice and quite with only 15,000 people total living on the island. At "peak season" the summer months are around 100,000 people that live there.

On the dock by the ferry.

Kevin hanging on the ferry. We bought a deck of cards and played "golf" there and back. I won the first round and Kevin won the second.


Picture of the Black Dog Tavern from the ferry.


Kevin in front of our ferry. It would leave every 1 hour and 15 minutes throughout the day. We arrived around 6:00 pm on Friday and departed around 1:00 pm on Sunday after visiting a few shops and the Black Dog Bakery for hot chocolate.

Our fabulous "Mansion House" hotel. I recommend this to anyone who wants to spend a luxurious time on Martha's Vineyard.

It has a fun "cottage", relaxing feel. We definitely needed the relaxing after the 20 mile trek.

Comfy, CLEAN, king size bed.

Our room was not upgraded to the flat screen just yet, but it was still nice.

We woke up on Saturday and went down to enjoy a great continental breakfast where we had muffins, banana bread, apple juice, toast, bagels, cold cereal and fruit. The race did not start until 11:00 so we got to stretch and chill until then. We loaded up on pain relievers and got all of our gear on and we walked the 2 blocks back to the ferry terminal which was the actual start of the race. I loved how everything was so convenient and that we could walk everywhere. The weather was 35 degrees and a little windy. The sun was shining the whole time. We ran the first 10 miles together which take you right along the coast and I had put together a "Love song" playlist on my ipod and listened to love songs the whole time. Kevin thought I was a little crazy, but I thought that it was so romantic. All that was missing was us holding hands. :) At mile 10 Kevin said that the arch on his right foot was bugging him too much and that I should just go ahead without him. He needed to be able to walk it out and stretch it when he needed to and did not want to hold me back. I felt bad leaving my honey on Valentine's day, but decided that it would be better for me to be able to run my own pace. At that point I felt really great and had a lot of energy so I started passing people. It was fun to just keep someone in my sites and pass them and then go on to the next one. I finished the whole race doing that and did not have one person pass me the rest of the race. I finished around 250 out of 500 runners, right in the middle of the pack. The last 3 miles I have Kelly Clarkson to thank. I had just downloaded from itunes her new song, "My Life Would Suck Without You" and I just put it on repeat for the last 3 miles and she took me all the way to the finish. I was singing the song out loud the whole way. I had a really fun time and it made me forget about all the pain I was in. My IT band on the upper part of my right leg was really giving me fits. It makes me really sad that I felt so great otherwise and could not go faster. I finished at 3 hours and 16 minutes (I wanted to finish around 3 hours) and I felt great. I did however have to limp to the t-shirt pick up and food line. Kevin came in around 3 hours and 45 minutes and said that he was not going to get on the sag wagon no matter what. His arch in his foot really gave him a hard time and I felt bad that he had to endure all of that pain. But he finished and that is all that matters.

We both think that it was a great experience and one that we will always remember. I gave Kevin a movement watch for our 15 year anniversary and he gave me a beautiful diamond journey necklace. The diamonds grow larger symbolizing that through all our years of marriage our love has grown as well. We went back to the Black Dog Tavern that Valentine's night for dinner, Kevin ordered the Surf and Turf (steak and lobster) and it was oh, so good and I ordered the 1/2 rack of ribs and mashed potatoes. I failed to mention the dessert that we ordered and shared both nights. It was a chocolate mousse blob of heaven. Mousse on chocolate cake and fudge on top. So yummy. What a fabulous get away.