Birthday Blog

Hello Eveyone! This is my first EVER blog, so I'm not entirely sure how this is going to go! But basically I want to treat this as a digital journal of sorts! 

This blog is my birthday weekend blog!!

On October 11th, I ran 20 miles in preparation for the Dublin Marathon that I will be running on the 26th. And let me tell you something, rather than feeling so confident and ready, I think that this race made me shit my pants a little. To start, I felt super super strong, and the race had pacers for the half marathon that they also had that day. I ended up running with the 2 hour half marathon pacer to begin with however around mile 10ish, I got dropped... real bad. I think this is when the race really took a turn for me, as I began to doubt that I would run the half marathon in under 2 hours. Now, did I have to run the half marathon in under 2 hours? No. Did I want to prove to myself that I could? Fuck yes. 

And in the end, guess what. I ran that stupid half marathon in 1 hour and 58 minutes. My total time for the 20 miles was 3 hours and 10 minutes. Not my best. But definitely a good metric to go off of for the marathon. I'm really hoping to finish the marathon (which will be my first) in just over 4 hours, or as close to under as I can make my legs move. 

My birthday was also last weekend, and my boyfriend and I went to stay at the K CLub. Which for those of you who do not live in Ireland, is one of the fanciest resorts there. Think of the swankiest and nicest country club you know, and then add about 2000 years of old money. That is the K CLub. And when I tell you that this is the most insane hotel I have ever stayed at, I mean it. The room itself was soooo luxurious. There was a writing desk, a massive table, a double couch, and I'm pretty sure that the bed was KING sized. My boyfriend and I didn't even touch each others when we slept that night, and honestly, if I could have that bed in my room, I so totally would!! Not only that, but the bathroom was massive too, and the bathtub looked so good that I even took a bath. I can't lie, this was probably one of the best baths I've had in a while. 

While we were at the K Club, we also got massages, and enjoyed some time in the pool area. To be honest, I was a little let down by these amenities. The pool was ok, and the best thing that they had there was the outdoor hot tub. The massages were also only ok, but that could be my fault as we were a little late. The relaxation room post masssaged was glorious, and I'm glad that we were able to sit in there for a few minutes! 

Post massage, we went back to the room and got ready for dinner! We ate at the South bar and grill. We went all out, and did a full three courses. For the starter, we got wings (ofc) and tbh they were not my favorites. I thought that they had a slightly blue cheesey flavor which I did not love. Then for dinner, I got a steak with peppercorn sauce and chips, and my boyfriend got a burger. I loved my steak. The streak was perfectly cooked, and instead of just leaving the peppercorn sauce to do all of the heavy lifting, they had also put crunchy onions on top. I feel like this just added a whole layer to the flavor of the steak with the sauce. The chips were also really nice, even though they were pretty standard. I had a bite of my boyfriends burger, and I thought that the burger was a little soft. I would have also liked a few more toppings or sauce on the burger, as I thought the whole thing was a bit plain. For dessert, I had their soft serve ice cream, which was creamy and had a lovely vanilla flavor too! My boyfriend had the sticky toffee pudding, which was amazing, so rich and caramely! 

Did I mention that we were taken in a private limo to and from dinner?! Yeah that's how fancy this place is! 

On Sunday, which was my actual birthday, my boyfriend and I got up and did presents! He got me the best presents ever this year and I am, so grateful to have him in my life! He is literally the best person that I know. Then we got up and got ready for the day, and went down to breakfast, which was all included! We ate SO much. I was kind of underwhelmed by the a la crate food. I had the mini full Irish, and he had the full Irish. I thought that the meat (some) was kind of plain, but what can you do. I did love the white pudding and the eggs! I had scrambled eggs, and frequently in hotels, they under scramble them and they end up wet and gross. But these eggs were perfectly cooked and not wet at all. In my opinion though, the star of the show were the pastries! The continental breakfast had a selection of MINI pastries, and wow these were really really yummy. I don't remember exactly what I had, but I know that I tried them all and loved them! 

After breakfast, we walked around (10,000 steps are necessary even on rest days) and then we met my boyfriends parents for lunch in a different restaurant on the grounds! For lunch I had a roast with gravy, roast beef, and a Yorkshire pudding. This was the first time I had ever had a roast of this kind, and I will be having roast again! A very simple but very yummy meal!! We finished off the afternoon with tea and cake in the library, which had soft seating and a gorgeous fire going. By this time, the day was nearly gone so we decided to high tail it home! 

That's all for my birthday blog! Thanks for reading, and I'll chat to you soon!

xx Maeve