Race weekend in Baltimore/Annapolis

Hello hello!

Friday and Saturday were kinda boring food days. I'll make up for it with 4 fun new dinners this week :)

Saturday night I was Baltimore-bound for a pasta dinner/sleepover with the ladies before the Zooma Annapolis 10k and Half Marathon. I whipped up some Bow-tie pasta with Chicken Apple Sausage, Zucchini, Mushrooms, Shallots, Spinach and Roasted Grape Tomatoes. Super easy and tasty. Susan was in charge of salad and made this really awesome dressing which I'm hoping she'll post the ingredients for (even though she told us like 3 times last night)!

Since I was still congested and Susan's foot was bothering her, we made a Rite-Aid run for some quick fixes. I decided to experiment with Breathe Right Strips. They worked pretty well during the night so they were definitely coming with me to the race. At 5 AM we began our journey to the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis and HELLO RAIN! We're talking thunder and lightning - definitely not the sunny and 77 degrees I anticipated. We parked and braved the cold cold rain (none of us were properly dressed for it) and ran for cover under the start arch.

Me and my nose strip in the warmth of the car...
Pre-race/in the rain pictures:
We were like the second row back from the start line so we got going quickly. Ran through the rain (which had let up a bit) for about 3 miles before it cleared up and turned into a perfect running day. I was feeling pretty good and when I checked my watch, I was easily rocking like 9 - 9:30 minute pace - not bad considering I didn't run for a week b/c I was sick and STILL sick. Woo! Somewhere between mile 8 and 9, my stomach started feeling a little funky and I'm not sure why. I'm thinking it was either because I ate half a bagel this morning (I usually don't eat before a race because I just can't eat that early) or because I ate those Clif Shot Bloks. Either way, I made 3 pitstops at the porta potties along the way (also unusual for me). After all that, I finished in 2 hours and 10 minutes. Not what I was hoping for, but not bad considering the circumstances.

Here we all are post race, somewhat dry :)
The two ladies in the middle were both first timers! Dorothy ROCKED her first half marathon and Susan did awesome for her first race EVER...even with the hobbly heel! Yay! Such a great day and a great race. The course was fantastic (even with the hills!) we ran over the scenic Severn River and made our way through a shaded, quiet, paved trail that I was able to zone out on. There were only a few instances that we ran along traffic (one of my least favorite things) and the last 200 meters or so were all downhill :)

We got a fun necklace once we finished (sadly, I think it might be of better quality than the one I got from running Nike - hi, easily tarnished "Tiffany necklace"), free wine samples from Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, and a lunch box (sorry, it was a deep box!)
I got the Chicken Salad (it was a cup of chicken salad w/some celery and carrot sticks, some pita triangles and an apple) and everyone else got the Hummus (same extras). It was the perfect post race snack before crabbies! Hidden in the top left corner is my sample of the Barefoot Muscato. I usually don't like sweet wines, but this was surprisingly refreshing! We sat and ate outside of this...
...enjoying the live music and sun!

Soon we were off to Mike's Crab House in Riva, Maryland (a mere 15 minutes away) for some crabs and beer!
CRABBIES!!! I love sitting down with crabs, a mallet and a pitcher of beer! This is totally what I've been craving for so long. MMMM.

Everyone after the destruction:
Ahhh, such a wonderful Sunday! I'll post dinner this evening...Coconut-Lime Chicken & Snow Peas :)