Racing through NYC - Part I

This past weekend I took a whirlwind trip to the east coast to run the More | Fitness Magazine Women's Half Marathon with my sister. 

See, about a year and a half ago (maybe 2?), sister asked me how she could get into running and I directed her to the best newbie resource I knew of: Couch-to-5k. Next thing you know, she's running her first 5k and nerding out about running and then the half marathon seed was planted. Muahahaaaa!

Y'all should know by now that I loooove sucking people into the world of running. It's a hobby of mine. Imagine how amazing it was to hear that my (older) sister was getting psyched to run a half marathon?? It's like double the fun. 

She settled on the More | Fitness Half because it was an all women's race (unlike Nike, this race is completely closed to men) and pretty close to home. At first I thought about flying out and cheering, then I realized the race fell in perfectly with my training schedule and felt compelled to register. In my haste, I failed to recognize how rough traveling would be (on the bank account and body) and debated just eating the registration fee and cheering from afar...very far.

Apparently the airfare gods were on my side as I found reasonable last minute airfare and my 36 hour trip to the east coast was in the works. Here's how it all went down...

Saturday

7:45am EST

Wheels down Newark. Delayed. Did not pack for 37 degree weather. Begin worrying about my sparse packing job and how I plan on surviving on 2 hours sleep. 

9:00am EST

WARMTH! Choux Factory breakfast with friend and her friend. Loopy and plane infested. I do not recommend meeting new people in that state.

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Itty bitty spot near the UN that serves tasty creme puffs (I recommend the original) at all hours. I opted for a chocolate choux (that I did not enjoy), an egg white veggie omelet (blah), and a massive coffee. It can get a little claustrophobic in there since it's a super narrow space with room for 2 small tables. Definitely get your choux to go!

9:45am EST

Bright idea to kill time by getting manicures/pedicures/massages. While this seemed like a great idea at the time, we soon realized that we didn't know of nail salons in the area. Ah well. Found one eventually. I love massage chairs.

12:30pm EST

Meet up with sister and race packets. Race swag was pretty good. Reusable drawstring bag, delicious smelling Lady Speedstick, nifty 34-oz water bottle w/ice insert, cotton t-shirt, calcium vitamin chew, lady products, and a kazoo. Hm. 

2:00pm EST

Wandering the streets of NYC. Checking out weird bear sculptures.

Late lunch with friend #2 at Chop't. 

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I miss Chop't. Full review here. My fave: Santa Fe Salad - fried onions + turkey (or grilled chicken), Tex-Mex ranch on the side. *drool* 

3:30pm EST

Trek to hotel to check in. Stock up on water, snacks, caffeine. Veg to horrible late afternoon hotel TV. No sleeping allowed!

6:45pm EST

Dinner with friend #3 that trekked in all the way from NJ even after a monster lunch (hooray!). 

Tasty sushi at Nomado 33 (full review here).

9:00pm EST

Race prep begins! Lots of pinning, outfit laying out, D-tag attaching and water drinking. Still not as tired as I should be. Wruh-wroh!

10:45pm EST

Eyes begin to close. Who knows if they actually stay shut.

Sunday

5:45am EST

Sister up and perky. Eyes pop open for some reason. Begin long wake up period. Snack on pretzel breakfast. Take 10 minute pauses between putting on items of clothing. 

6:30am EST

Freak out. Temps in mid-30s. Do not have enough clothes. No throw away clothes. Wind. It's official. Packing/planning fail. 

7:30am EST

Arrive at Central Park. Greeted by hoards of ladies decked out in pink and blue. Sister and I are in black/lilac and yellow/blue. 

Wonder how we will stand out for our cheerleaders. Cold. I moved to California for a reason. 

8:15am EST

Aaannnd we're off! It took about 10-15 minutes for us to actually cross the start line and it was CROWDED. Once we got moving, the cold and wind didn't feel so bad. Game plan - run together for first couple miles. Meet up after race.

8:40(ish)am EST

Spotted: our cheering section - nephews and brother-in-law equipped with signs around Mile 2! Wish I had gotten a picture :(

8:45(ish)am EST

Weather is now perfect for just sleeves...though I do look like a fool now that I see the picture.  

Zoom. Rocked headphones for the first time and they definitely helped me charge through the hills, which weren't as bad as I remember them being! I still wish other people didn't rock the headphones since I found myself saying 'excuse me' really loud and no one budged. Meh.

The crowds didn't let up at all during this race and there were even walkers and runners that would run/walk 3 abreast and some would hold hands! So frustrating, especially when we got to the bottleneck-y parts of the course. Also, the finish chute was literally a chute. I do appreciate all the spectators cheering on, but they spilled out into the course and made the narrow lane even narrower. Plus, I found myself zigzagging a lot during that last stretch to the finish. 

I know, I know, this was supposed to be an easy long run, but it's hard to not get all fired up at the end!

11:30am EST

Post-race glow.

I wanted to cocoon in the pile of mylar blankets it was so cold. Not sure how I'm awake at this point...must be the proud (running) momma in me! Nothing like seeing a newbie excited about finishing!

Tired yet? Yeah, now you know how I felt! There's more to come in Part II!

Longest bike ride to date!

Exactly how long is a long bike ride?

As a newbie coming from the world of running, it's tough to figure distances out. I know 10 miles of biking is not quite the same as 10 miles of running, but what's a long ride? You know, the equivalent of a weekend long run?

On Sunday Jamie and I set off for what I mapped out to be a 20 mile ride to ice cream. I learned why I took that spill the other weekend (apparently I missed the side of the street without the Muni tracks where I should have been riding) and we zoomed through the Panhandle and Golden Gate Park. Aside from a mini mapping fail on my part (I forgot the Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon was going on and we ran into a bunch of runners), we made it through the park a lot faster than expected!

We coasted along the Great Highway, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather, until we reached our final destination - Lake Merced.

Funny, it's not such a horrible trek when you're on a bike ;)

We parked ourselves on a sunny patch of grass

enjoyed a leisurely lunch, people watched, and I took random pictures.

After awhile, we decided ice cream just wasn't in the cards, so I came up with an impromptu route home...adding a little over a mile to our original route. Ah well. At least we were outside!

Check it out:

Total mileage: 21.1 - not too shabby!

Once we were home and clean, I decided I needed to whip up Ina Garten's Roasted Shrimp & Orzo. A friend made this for book club a couple weeks ago and I thought it was absolutely delicious.

I kinda threw it together without looking at the recipe and as it turns out, I was pretty close! I ended up poaching the shrimp instead of roasting them and I wish I had roasted them. I also subbed in a shallot instead of red onion and fat free feta because they didn't have the reduced fat kind I usually use. Note: full fat feta is totally necessary for this dish.

Beers, Bacon, Bikes and Bao!

To celebrate Jamie's arrival, we met up with a few friends in the Haight to check out Magnolia Pub & Brewery. I came across it on Yelp after searching for beer-heavy places for happy hour. The reviews intrigued me and I was looking forward to sharing a new neighborhood adventure with Jamie. Ta da!

It was a 2-bus trip, but I thought it was worth it. We were dumped off right across from the bar and it looked pretty cozy from the outside. We walked in and it reminded me of an old diner/coffee shop more than a bar. It was standing room only, so we moseyed on over to the bar and waited for friends. I started with the Kalifornia Kolsch and Jamie got the Piper Pale Ale. Mine was kinda wee for some reason and our total came to $9. Enh, maybe no happy hour special??

I really liked my second beer - the Proving Ground IPA. They offered it as draught or cask and I went with draught mostly because I had no idea what cask was. Later on I found out that cask beers are a little warmer and are a little less carbonated. Interesting. Personally, I enjoy a chilly, bubbly beer.

We eventually decided to do dinner so we grabbed a table in the small dining area. To kick things off, we ordered some Devils on Horseback (goat cheese-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon).

DELISH. Perfectly crisp on the outside and the dates were massive. Just a note, they came 2 per order, but they are able to work with odd numbers.

Jamie and I split a 1/2 lb Prather Ranch burger with pepperjack cheese. It was beefy and paired perfectly with the Blue Bell Bitter (my favorite beer of the night...it was like a Boddington's with just a little bit of a bite). We also split the Seafood Boudin Sausage (bay scallop, rock shrimp, nutmeg with dirty rice), which was pretty bland. I wasn't into the texture of it or the lack of flavor in the dirty rice. Meh.

Overall, I really liked Magnolia. Turns out they have a pretty sweet Tuesday happy hour deal...I'd definitely check it out. Totally worth the 2-bus trip!

We were up bright and early this morning and headed off to High Trails Cyclery to pick up Jamie's Christmirthday present. We had such a great experience while buying my bike so it seemed only natural to return for Jamie's.

He was determined to get the guy's version of mine, but after a couple test rides, he went with one just a step up from mine. Fancy.

We immediately headed off on our crosstown adventure that was supposed to take us approximately 6 flat-ish miles to lunch and then another 4 miles to Ocean Beach and along the Great Highway. Sometimes I have mapping fails. We all know this by now!

After biking downtown and through the Castro, we made our way through The Wiggle, a mile long zig-zag that is known for being fairly flat and biker-friendly. Perfect!

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The Wiggle dumped us out at the eastern-most side of the Panhandle and we made our way through the quiet bike path and took a quick pause. Then we had to take a little detour to deal with a flat tire (thankfully we rocked the smart phones and found out The Freewheel Bike Shop was just a couple blocks away). A few minutes later we were back in action and on our way through Golden Gate Park.

Then we hit a random slew of hills as we were mere blocks from our destination - Shanghai Dumpling King. I could just taste the xiao long baos! SO HUNGRY! After huffing and puffing up a large hill, I just wanted to sit and enjoy a piping hot, savory, meaty soup dumpling. It just wasn't in the cards. The wait was much longer than we were willing to deal with so we biked a couple blocks over to Shanghai House. I've been here before and they have delicious xiao long bao, but I just had my heart set on trying SF's 'best shanghai dumplings'. Ah well, maybe next time.

In addition to these little nuggets of soupy goodness

we also ordered the Vegetarian Goose

It's an odd name for mushrooms wrapped in tofu skin, but I LOVE IT. I didn't love this one, though. I'm used to it being served chilled without sauces. This version was warm, fried crisp on the outside and with some sauce drizzled on it. It was good, but just not what I was looking for.

We also got the Green Onion Pancake

Standard order whenever we're at a Chinese restaurant, but not a favorite of mine. These were a little greasier than I'm used to and they just weren't that exciting.

And to close things out, we had some Pork and Vegetable Dumplings

They smelled very cabbage-y and just paled in comparison to the flavors going on in the soup dumplings. I'm pretty sure they were boiled and the skin was super thick. Yeaahh, not going to order these again. Honestly, I would have been content with two orders of soup dumplings. I love them that much. *drool*

Bellies full of food, we began our trek back to my neck of the woods. We basically back tracked with a few little detours (apparently we went down a few one way streets the first time around) and then we encountered some not so friendly hills. Eeeh.

When we got home, I mapped our little adventure and instead of the planned 10 mile ride with a bus ride back, it turns out we rode 15.3 miles. DANG!

That elevation profile is no joke either. Kinda crazy for someone that's only gone on 3 long-ish bike rides as an adult and someone who hasn't ridden in awhile!

I'm proud of our excursion and the fact that I actually rode in heavy traffic - a first for me - and survived! :) Woohoo! Perfect Saturday afternoon (perfect weather too at around 65 degrees!).

The hills are alive

With the sound of thousands of Nike Women's Marathoners!!

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This particular race will always have a special place in my heart since it was my very first marathon and my first visit to San Francisco. I was absolutely thrilled to cheer for some pretty awesome ladies this morning :)

Did I mention this was my first time as a cheerleader? Yeeeah.

Since I was cheering on a bunch of half marathoners (real life friends and a Twitter/blogger buddy!) and a super speedy solo marathoner, I needed to do some serious planning. Naturally, I ran to the cheering spots (gotta multi-task!) and managed to rack up 8 miles with a few pauses here and there. Not too shabby for my first post-Chicago, post-sick run.

On my way to cheering spot numero uno, I managed to see one of the first runners as she zoomed past the 4.5 mile mark.

So fast, you can barely see her! I thought it was kinda cool since I've never seen the front of the pack before :)

I veered off the course for a bit to run along the Crissy Field Promenade before cutting across to the runners' giant climb. I really really wanted to park myself at the top of this hill because I remember it being the steepest, longest, most brutal climb of the race. I also remember thinking the hill was totally worth it for the view.

Amazing. I only wish it was a clearer day!

This was also the last major incline I remember from running the race. Seriously, everything else was a speed bump compared to that monster. Three years later, I ran up a dirt path alongside the runners and it was still tough!

SO, my sign said 'Last Hill'...though, now I know I probably should have specified, last super steep hill. Some people were really not nice about it. I got called liar a bunch of times and some people were REALLY snippy. Meh? So I kept yelling 'I mean, last big, steep one!' Ah well. You win some, you lose some.

I had a tough time spotting people, but luckily I told friends what to look for and they ended up having to shout my name so I could see them!

(yeah, I braved the chill just so they could spot me and maybe so I could finally rock my gear from Chicago ;p)

Wooo! Two out of four rockstars charging it up the never ending incline!

I hung out until a little before 9am and started my run toward Lake Merced to cheer on my full marathoner buddy. I ran back down toward Crissy Field and saw more runners as they started their ascent (so many runners!).

Rocked out to the song that was stuck in my head all afternoon because someone had it on repeat at the bottom of the hill...

I might need to add it to my running mix. haha.

One hour to make it to Lake Merced...it was a tough call. Run? Cab? Take a chance w/the rerouted bus routes and then run?? I planned on running to a major street and hopping into a cab, but I managed to get to a bus stop just as one was pulling up. Sweet!

See, Lake Merced was another rough spot for me when I ran 3 years ago. It's a 4.5 mile empty stretch along the lake's perimeter and you run right next to traffic. Since it's so far out, there aren't a ton of spectators out there...and it pops up right when you need people the most - miles 19-23.5!

A friend of mine agreed to come out and cheer with me so she parked herself with a sign around mile 22 just in case I couldn't get there in time. We were equipped with water and Chomps just in case our runner needed them!

My bus dropped me off just north of the lake and I ran along the eastern side...little did I know I would be running alongside the marathoners for TWO miles. Flashbacks!!

Everyone was looking great and so strong, despite the change in weather (at this point, it started raining and the temperature dropped a little)! So many purple TNT singlets...so proud of everyone for fundraising AND rocking the challenging course :)

I eventually made it to mile 22 and we waited for speedy to come by. We saw her after awhile and it was like we were two proud mommas! She looked FABULOUS for 22 miles in...chipper and fast! We ran with her for a minute or two, but she was too fast for us...we were worried that we were slowing her down. Still waiting to see if she made her goal of 4 hours :)

Congratulations to ALL the half marathoners and marathoners!! You guys tackled some serious hills and bad weather and still looked amazing. I loved watching you all and taking a little side trip down memory lane :) Enjoy the recovery and the sweet necklace...you earned it :)

It's heeere!

Race day is so close I can smell it! :)

So I'm definitely suffering from training burnout. How do I know this? Well, I'm no longer looking forward to my long runs...I just want race day here. NOW. Who knew I'd get so antsy?

How am I maintaining sanity? Apparently by doing some speed and hill work. Hill work?? Meh...it's pretty tough to avoid at this point. I'm going to embrace the hills. It'll only make Chicago seem easier, ya?

Tonight's run was FABULOUS. I met up with the running group for a breezy 5 miler that went over Fort Mason, through Fisherman's Wharf, along the Embarcadero and back. My legs were feeling particularly speedy and I whipped that puppy out in 44 minutes! Woooo! I even closed it out with a charge up the Fort Mason hill. Definitely feeling it in the booty, but nothing a little extra stretching won't fix!

And I had the pleasure of closing the run out with this lovely view:

Now the important question...who else, aside from Val and Jessica, is running Chicago??

WTF!

Am I suffering from runner burnout? Ugh. SO frustrated right now.

I attempted an 8 miler today since the weather decided to return to normal and failed miserably. WHY O WHY?? It's like everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong...

1. Even though it was no longer running shorts weather, I put on the shorts I laid out for yesterday's effort (that didn't happen because it was way too hot). I forgot to rock the Body Glide and I wore the looser pair of my favorite shorts. ANNOYING. Bunching, riding up, ARGH. I had to adjust every 2 minutes!
2. Apparently I need a haircut because even the tightest ponytail holder won't hold my heavy hair up. On top of having to adjust my shorts, my hair was constantly loose and coming undone. Had to fix it at every stoplight.
3. Dropped iPhone twice while fixing situation #2.

I don't know...maybe it was just one of those days. My stride felt off, my shoes didn't feel right, terrible. I ended up just running 3 miles and walking the rest of the way home. As usual I got bored and charged up a couple hills at the end. Ech. Disappointed. Big time.

A return to long run Saturdays

I had a 12 miler on deck for this morning...a 12 miler that took us across the Golden Gate Bridge and back.

At first I was really excited since I've never run across the bridge before and this was my first 12 miler in a long long time. That all changed once we got started. Oy.

So I learned the path to the Golden Gate Bridge is not a flat one. In fact, there are a bunch of inclines.

Oh, and the actual bridge very not flat. Go figure. So much for trying to keep the calf/achilles happy by doing a bunch of easy flat runs. Meh.

Also, mid-run I found myself really really angry.

Like really worked up. Why? UM, perhaps it was the hoards of tourists that found it necessary to walk like FIVE abreast and not pay attention to the runners coming toward them. Or maybe the tourist bike posses that weaved their way through pedestrian paths and hills. For real? I feel like I spent a huge chunk of time dodging! I guess it's one of the drawbacks of living in a major tourist destination? You figure I'd be used to it by now...

Sorry for the rant. It really wasn't a terrible run...my calf was fine for the majority of the run. Tightness kicked in around mile 10 or 11 and I played it safe by not running up the Fort Mason Hill on the way back. I thought it was a good idea and the legs did too ;p

After the run everyone headed over to Fleet Feet for some breakfast and mimosas...yum :) On the walk over, I sampled some GU Brew for fun. I've been intrigued by these little packets ever since I saw them pop up at PRR a few weeks before I left. Today I experimented with the Strawberry Watermelon Recovery Drink

I dumped the packet into my water bottle and shakey shake shake, sippy sip sip...

UH? WHAAAT? What are those multicolored particles?? I dunno. I shook that bottle for awhile. Oh well. Flavor-wise, it wasn't bad. It tasted sort of like a piece of watermelon bubble gum. I don't really know how it worked recovery-wise...

After arriving at the breakfast, I put my name on the very long sign up list for the ART specialists. This time around, I found out my left hip is only slightly higher than the right AND apparently the heel lift the orthopedist gave me...NOT COOL. It could be throwing me totally off, especially since my left hip is already higher. D'oh!

How were your weekend runs?

La Di Dah.

How was your 4th of July weekend? Not long enough? My thoughts exactly ;p

I woke up Sunday morning well rested and popped on over to the Fort Mason Farmers Market for some produce. I ended up with just a few fruits...grapes, peaches, nectarines and a bag of mixed greens. I guess some of the vendors took the weekend off. *sigh*

I grabbed some sweet potatoes and brownie mix at Safeway and got to work on some delicious picnic treats. Plan was to bust out the mandoline and make some baked sweet potato chips. I googled how to bake sweet potato chips and it seemed easy enough...

See how pretty the potatoes were post-mandoline? Gorgeous!

Popped those puppies into the oven at 400 degrees (most of the recipes said 350-450) and set the timer for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, I opened the oven door and my taters were black. WTF?! They weren't even black and crispy. They were black and soggy!

Refusing to admit defeat, I tried another batch at 375. Again, FAIL. At this point, I gave up on the sweet potato chips and just packed up my brownie bites for our Stern Grove picnic since I was running out of time. Unfortunately I had a giant bowl of raw sweet potato that I didn't want to waste. In the fridge you go.

By the time we got to Stern Grove, I had forgotten about my kitchen disaster and soaked up the gorgeous weather and scenery. It was a little cloudy as we descended from the parking area to the concert meadow, but I loved how we trekked through this nifty path

It made me forget I was in a city...just for a little bit :)

Then we arrived at the concert meadow:

It was definitely packed when we got there (an hour before showtime!), but we had a sweet picnic table reserved. Hooray for not having to search for grass space!

So Stern Grove (in case you didn't catch it in the pictures) is an outdoor music venue in the middle of the city that offers free concerts in the summer. Our reserved picnic table came with wine, non-alcoholic beverages and some table service. We each brought a selection of goodies to share...cheeses (lots of cheeses), brownies, cookies, bread, chips, dip, you name it. A wonderful afternoon in the sun :) We picnicked to the sounds of the San Francisco Opera for a couple hours and then skipped out to prepare for dinner.

Dinner, a mere 2.5 hours after our massive picnic, was in Cow Hollow (I think?) with phenomenal views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Crissy Field and the Bay. I must admit that I wasn't quite prepared for a San Francisco 4th of July. I brought a hoodie and scarf with me, but apparently that wasn't enough to keep me warm once the sun went down. It got COLD. Cold enough to light a fire and cold enough to light up some heat lamps. Say whaat? SO different from DC.

The chill in the air wasn't the only difference. I had been given a heads up about the fireworks show and the fog. Let's just say it was more of a colorful sky show. No matter, a good time was had by all...also, I'm not a big fireworks fan.

The next morning was pretty rough. I was so tired from staying up past my bedtime (yeah I'm a huge nerd) and from feasting so much the day before. It was one of those days where I actually stopped to buy a coffee while running errands. Woah.

I walked down to Polk Street to grab stuff for a fruit salad and was reminded of this little tidbit I stumbled upon the other week:

You've all seen What Would Brian Boitano Make, right? Well, I never saw the sneak peak video until recently. Um, that's totally my new 'hood...Loving Cup!! and my favorite hardware store! Nerd alert!

I grabbed a kiwi and a champagne mango from the Real Foods in the video and picked up some berries and cereal (can't forget breakfast!) from a favorite of mine that he doesn't visit - Polk Street Produce. I've mentioned this place before and it's become my go-to place for fruits (well, the ones that I don't find at the farmers market) because of its convenience, price and selection. Two thumbs up.

I quickly threw together a fruit salad in a tupperware and headed out to Muir Beach for a hike with friends. We took a super windy drive (so windy, I sorta got a little queasy) to the beach, parked and set off on our hike to Pirate's Cove.

The first 10 minutes or so was quite a steep climb, but the views were totally worth it.

Since we got to our destination faster than planned, we decided to keep walking...hey, it's not like we had to get back to work ;p

On the way back, we climbed up a mini side peak and yep, gorgeous.

The chilly weather and clouds didn't even bother me that much (once we were moving, of course)! I'm sure these views are even better on a sunny day...