Hooray!

Minimal butt pain while running! :)

Jamie and I were out of the apartment by 6:30am to meet first time marathoner friend (for the sake of brevity, I shall refer to her as V) at Union Station by 6:45am. We were all set for this morning's 15 mile downtown run, which I made sure incorporated some elements of the MCM route.

A few lessons were learned this morning:

1. Always remember to bring Body Glide home from the office. Thighs will hate you if you forget.
2. Vaseline is always something good to keep around the house.
3. The bathrooms at the Washington Monument are fairly clean and are open at 7am.
4. Running on the Mall past 7am is always a bad idea.
5. Tourist dodging should be a sport and we are champions.
   

Now, please keep in mind that V and I were both dealing with some minor injuries/comfort issues this past week and only put in about 4 miles before this run. We were going to take this slow in hopes that we wouldn't aggravate any of our old lady problems. Plus, I wanted to make sure that V was able to finish ALL 15 miles no matter how long it took. Um, hi PDR.

We settled into a comfy pace and enjoyed the scenery. Our run took us along the Mall (while it was still cool out), around the Washington Monument, along the Reflecting Pool, around the Lincoln, up Rock Creek Parkway past the Kennedy Center and Georgetown until we crossed the Key Bridge into Rosslyn. We enjoyed some shade along the Mount Vernon Trail before heading toward Arlington National Cemetery and back across the Memorial Bridge. There was a brief hello again to Mr. Lincoln before we headed out to the dreaded Hains Point. I purposely put Hains Point late in the run so we could get a better feel for it (it shows up around mile 12 on the race route and mile 10 on today's run) and I like to think we crushed it! I mean, it wasn't fun, but it wasn't as bad as it has been in the past! Wooo!! This was also V's first time running Hains Point...not sure she was feeling the same way, but I'm proud of her for chugging along! ;)

By the time we came back around the Monument and Mall and back to Union Station, the sun and tourists were out in full force. Not cool! We ended up finishing just over 3 hours, which is still slower than I'm used to running, but whatevs. I'm in this for fun. I want to make sure V gets all her mileage in and enjoys doing it. Plus, it's not fun to run alone at any speed. C'mon now ;p

Jamie left with our car (yes, we drove even though both our apartment and Union Station are metro accessible) so I metroed back home. As usual, the Red Line was an absolute mess, so I didn't get home until 11:10 and had to be at work by Noon. Yikes! Fastest shower and shoving of leftover lentils EVER!! Even faster than last week. Thankfully, it was pretty busy today so I kept moving. I was SO hungry toward the end of my shift, I couldn't even handle it! Jamie walked down to meet me after work and we grabbed dinner at Paragon Thai.

This might be one of my new faves. Paragon Thai has yet to disappoint me. Everything has been really good and well worth the price! Tonight we split the Duck Roll appetizer (essentially a duck spring roll with hoisin dipping sauce).
They were good, but I dunno if my tummy was really into the friedness.

Jamie went with the Panang Curry (pork simmered in savory curried peanut sauce, combined with coconut milk and sprinkled kaffir lime leaves)
That thick white stuff is the coconut milk and this was a super spicy (even though it only had 1 hot pepper mark on the menu) and rich. Delicious, but half of the portion would have been enough.

I went with one of the evening's specials - Paragon Noodle (wide rice noodle sauteed with seafood combination, mixed with egg, celery, onion, mushroom and yellow curry)
I really liked the flavors going on in this dish. The curry wasn't as overpowering/noticeable as I thought it would be...in fact, I forgot it had curry in it! The seafood combo was squid (perfectly cooked, btw), scallops and shrimp, but with the texture of the wide rice noodles, I think it would be even better with pork, beef or chicken. Something to contrast the squishiness of the noodles. I loved the crunch of the celery and carrots :)

For dessert, because sometimes you need dessert after only eating some lentils and half a banana nut muffin all day post 3 hour run, we happened to wander into Yogiberry where I got...
Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce you to the cup that made me yak. O yes, I've come back to it. Why? Because it's f-ing DELICIOUS! Um, chocolate yogurt, Reeses and toffee bits? Need I say more?? Trust me, you'll be the first to know if I'm up later on tonight hugging the toilet.

Ok folks, I'm off to rest the butt and feet. They're not happy after that run and 7 hours of standing. Any fun Sunday plans?