This past weekend was Maryland's homecoming game against Clemson. Homecoming is one of my favorite tailgates of the year because friends from out of town come in and we tend to go all out with the food at the tailgate.


Definitely the best picture from the whole tailgate

This year was no exception. The tailgate theme was "Southern-style" and the food spread was impressive. Pork and baked beans, mac and cheese, peach cobbler, etc. (Of course because I'm a bad blogger I don't have a single picture of the food. Just imagine a lot of deliciousness.)

Homecoming is also one of my favorite tailgates because it means Susan comes back to visit!

It's become a sort of yearly tradition for her to make a brief pit-stop at my tailgate before circulating around to see all her other friends.


Me and Susan this year.


Me and Susan last year.


Me and Susan at Maryland day a few years back.

Susan and I both went to UMD and we were there at the same time, but unfortunately we didn't meet each other until after we had both graduated and started our blogs.

I was also excited because Megan was stopping by for her first Maryland tailgate ever.


Bloggers everywhere!

Of course when you get a bunch of runners together we all geek out and start talking about races and training and PRs. My "real-life" friends appreciate this so I don't yap their ears off about running nonstop.



The tailgate was a smashing success and we all had a blast. I can't say the same for the football game though. Somehow Maryland blew an 18 point lead and let Clemson put up something like 39 points in the second half. We ultimately lost the game 45 to 56.

I have to say, Clemson fans are a classy bunch and didn't rub it in our faces, even though they easily could have. Lindsay texted me a bunch during the game, laughing about the state of our teams, but it was all in good fun. And the fans at the stadium who traveled up for the game celebrated their victory, but never got nasty about it. Must be that Southern hospitality and charm.

Absolutely choking like that though is not the best way to end an otherwise awesome day, but it's pretty much par for the course for Maryland football these days.

That's why it's essential for us to have an awesome tailgate...it takes away some of the sting when Maryland chokes.