Let's Run

I might be the last runner in the world to find this, but LetsRun.com is the most fun I've had online since I found Oddee. 

The site has all the running news, told from a runner's perspective (none of that nonsense from a typical news site, which might say something like, "Smith won a coveted BQ in his Sunday marathon" etc). It also has some really lovely message boards.

The message boards are great.

The topics vary, but many actually do have to do with running. Some you might even care about. There's a lot of "I'M A RUNNING STUD LISTEN TO MY OPINION!" stuff out there, but there is also really good advice from seasoned runners. 

Plus, message boards are just fun to read. They're like blog comments without the blog.  

Ever been to LetsRun.com? Ever posted a question?

I actually have. Not that long ago. I'll let you find it. First person to find it buried in the threads wins.

Foody Friday: Chocolate-orange cake

It's easy, it's delicious, it will make you fat.

Garnish with orange peel if you are so inclined

For the cake:


1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup milk
1 orange, mineola, or tangerine
water

For the filling:
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
Triple sec

For the frosting:
1 bag semisweet chocolate chips
1 tub sour cream (you can take the 1/4 cup for the cake out of this tub and you'll still have enough).

To make the cake, mix all dry ingredients. Grate the entire orange peel into the batter, then squeeze the orange to extract all juice into a measuring cup. Add enough water to make 2/3 cup. Add to dry ingredients. Add other wet ingredients; mix. Batter will seem watery.
Bake in greased 8 or 9" pans for 30 minutes. Let cool. For best chocolate taste, remove cooled cakes from pan; wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

To make filling, cream butter and powdered sugar. Add enough triple sec to create consistency of frosting. Fill generously between layers.

To make frosting, melt bag of chocolate chips on low heat. When completely melted, remove from heat, quickly stir in sour cream, and beat until glossy. Immediately frost cake, then allow to set (15 - 30 minutes).

My cake is loaf shaped because I wanted to sneak a little batter out to make myself my own little cake (I was bringing this one for someone's birthday). However, the frosting ratios presented here are for a standard round cake. 

Try this, you'll love it.

Teeny tiny wine glasses

I hate this fad.

This is a typical modern red wine glass, and it is an astonishing 10" tall and holds 18.5 ounces! EIGHTEEN! A serving of wine is 5 or 6 ounces! 

The "in" thing is to have big, tall, unwieldy wine glasses. The stem is 10 inches tall. The bowl could house a goldfish - or double as a gladiolus vase. The design tests the laws of physics and tempts party goers to send glasses toppling.

It's a terrible design. I prefer a shorter, stouter wine glass.

L: My old, still reasonably-sized wine glasses. R: My new, smaller wine glasses  that hold 7 ounces and are about 7" tall.

For one thing, I am a klutz. These sturdy little fellas are much safer for me. For another, I like the greater exposed surface area a rounded bowl provides. The new tall and rather narrow design prevents aeration that improves the wine. Plus, I associate these smaller glasses with family-owned Italian restaurants and delicious food.

A few weeks ago the hubby and I went to a restaurant supply store and bought 2 dozen lovely, squat little wine glasses. I'm loving them. My whole house feels like an Italian restaurant now!
Question for you: Forget big wine glasses. Don't you agree that martini glassed were DESIGNED to spill? I think it's a ploy to get you to buy another drink. 

Crazy things that happened to me in Boston.

You know weird stuff happens to me. So here it is. 


- When we got to the airport for our flight out of New Orleans, the entire place was packed. We looked at the thousands of people and realized that they were in line for security! Earlier that morning a suspicious package was discovered and security shut down during the threat. They reopened as we waited, but the airlines were not holding flights. Amazingly we still made our flight, though we cut it close.


- The average BMI on our flight from ATL to Boston was like, oh, 19?

Chi party! 

- I met Danny Dreyer, of Chi Running fame, at the expo. I cheerily explained to him that "spilling your chi" has become a running joke in my weekly Bible study after I shared his book with another runner in the group. I really didn't mean for it to come out that way. However, he took it as a compliment!

Nice elbow

- I got in this car at the expo and some random stranger wanted to get a pic, too. Of me. In the car.

- Someone at the start village was thrilled to see me. Thrilled! I have no idea who it was. He told me his name. He's from New Orleans. He said, "Remember we ran that race together?" Eh...what race?

- The starting line was just oozing confidence! It was amazing! None of that "Oooh, I don't know if I can do this, fill in plausible excuse" stuff you often hear. These runners knew they rocked!

-Yet I've never seen people walking in a race that early or in such numbers. It was so weird. I saw the first walker drop at MILE THREE. By mile 10 we were catching earlier corrals walking. I bet the later waves passed a lot of wave one walkers!

- In this "slow" Boston, the lead men hit 18 miles in my half-marathon PR. WTH.

At the Atlanta airport cross-stitching and showing off my wounds.

- The smaller skinned areas on my elbows hurt way more during the race than my badly bruised and bloody knee. A lot more sweat got into them and it stung.

- When I made the decision to slow down or die, I scrolled my Garmin down so I couldn't see my pace. Good thing, it was freaking all over the place! From 7:01 to 8:36! (That must have been the badminton).

- I ran a Garmin 26.48 which I think is pretty good considering the crowds and the way I ran all over the course trying to get water. I'm still the queen of tangents, these were just extenuating circumstances.

- I purposefully slowed down so the heat wouldn't kill me. Didn't matter. The heat was STILL getting to me. My head was cooking. I should have run in a jog bra, but I wanted to rep Varsity.

- When I finished the race, I sat a curb and scarfed potato chips from the runner's food bag. Nearby a woman rushed to aid her ill and exhausted husband, who was sitting next to me. She forgot she was holding an umbrella chair and CRACKED me over the head with it. I was seeing stars and everything! Now I have a big egg. She was so apologetic I felt bad for her - especially since she was also trying to open Gatorade for her husband, etc.

- An ultra-runner named A.D. (cryptic, no?) I never met before Sunday made a sweet trade with me. I met him Sunday and picked up a huge bag of special gels and fuel; he planned to run from the finish to the start where I'd hand him his fuel for the second half of his ultra. In return, his family let me use their shower in their suite at the Lennox, right at the finish.

- Best shower ever. I was the only runner walking around Boston all afternoon in capris, a blouse, and heels! I even remembered to pack earrings (I forgot makeup and a brush, though. Nice.).

- So the Lennox. While I was waiting to be let in for my shower, I timidly asked the doorman if I could go in. He said certainly, all marathoners are welcome, whether they have a room or not! So - in I went and everyone clapped. Then they handed me a cold beer. What the. They did this for every marathoner who entered the hotel! Awesome!

Stolen from Runninghood

- After meeting Amanda for fries, nachos, and beer, David and I walked around a little before heading to dinner. A runner staggered past us, stopped, and puked all over the side walk. Two girls nearby and I offered aid, and I found myself once again giving first aid after a marathon - this time to a man who spoke only Romanian. Luckily he remembered his hotel name and room number, and the girls called his wife! I hate these electrolyte/osmolality emergencies. They could be minor - or fatal.

The bright flash in the dark restaurant was making me squint! 

- We had a post-race dinner at The Parker House and I finally tried the original Boston cream pie (it was unbelievably good). Just about everyone in the hotel was staggering around with a post-marathon shuffle. If you listened in to the conversations at other tables, you could pick up words like "splits", "Gu", "hamstring" and "wall". It was hilarious.

- Flying back to New Orleans we ran into some TSA trouble. These guys at Logan probably fly out thousands of marathoners every year, yet they could not identify my leftover Gu. They searched me and my bag, and cut open a Gu to scan it. Then they tried to give it back. Really? Like I want to fly with a sliced open gel?

- When I returned to New Orleans it was 20 degrees cooler than Boston. By the next morning it was 30 degrees cooler. Seriously.

A weekend I needed

This Sunday I didn't set my alarm, slept in, and woke up about the time we'd normally be leaving for Sunday school.
All I can say is, I needed that. After Boston on Monday, our Tuesday flight left at 6:15 am. David left me at our Atlanta layover to attend a memorial service for our late friend Alfred (this service was a dedication of a conference room at his workplace, named in his honor). I got home alone and slogged through clean up and laundry, then went straight to work. Have you ever taken a short vacation, then returned to find heaps of work saved up? That was my Wednesday. Unfortunately I could barely catch up; I had an off-site meeting on Thursday and was teaching a class Friday. The result was one rushed, exhausting week - and my body was protesting on Sunday!

I was actually already feeling tired on Friday night. As I headed to bed early, David said, "Don't forget our race tomorrow." WHAT?! Dude had signed me up for a 5k for charity weeks before and forgot to tell me about it. So Saturday I had a surprise 5k. I had been only doing easy running, so my legs were stiff and I wasn't warmed up; plus my toes are in kind of bad shape. The combination of Boston's downhills with my consistently water-logged shoes had my feet sliding around, and I have deep blisters and several black nails. Since I didn't know about the race, I picked at all the blisters, and they were kind of killing me. Despite that, I was first female out of a very, very tiny field with a 19:50. I hope I can do better than that in fitter shape, but 5ks are very hard for me so if I want to improve I need some serious work.

Focus on the right wrist.

I got a little surprise when I got home. There was a wrapped present on my desk! David got me this beautiful silver cuff. I love cuff bracelets, and gifts for no reason make me so happy!

On the deck of the Wasp

One of the tall ships

The rest of Saturday was fun: it's Navy Week in New Orleans and even though the Blue Angels show was canceled, we got to tour several ships (the USS Wasp and two tall ships). Because of the drizzly weather, there were no lines or waits, and we missed Sunday's large crowds.

Sunday the rain cleared and we had an amazingly beautiful day: sadly, it was still windy. so not only was the second Blue Angels air show canceled, so was the Ochsner Ironman 70.3 swim (it was replaced with a 2 mile run). I didn't ironman (can't swim, refuse to buy a bike half the price of a car), but I did play football with David after our picnic lunch in the park. Then later I went for a run. I ran ten miles in 1:07 for a 6:42 pace - and felt fantastic. Obviously I have leftover energy and speed that should have been used up in Boston but was untapped in Monday's slow run.
And that brings me to an interesting observation. I'm not sore. I never was sore. I think some hills actually prevent soreness!

And that brings me to another thought - my knee. Last I posted about it, it was enormous, hot, red, and swollen. The problem is that I wake up ok, but at the end of a day of standing and running around, the knee is swollen, stiff, and burning. It feels like it's on fire!
After I took the last picture, the pain was so crazy that I decided to see if I could drain it in case it was infected (do not try this at home). I used a large sterilized needle to probe the scabbed area - I was just trying to see if it would produce pus - and immediately it started gushing fluids. Unfortunately it seems like most of the swelling is retained fluid - perhaps synovial. I mean, I hit it pretty hard. There was no blood in the fluid, but there was a little infection, so I alcoholed it left it uncovered. It is much smaller now, and definitely improving, but it still fills with fluid at the end of the day and still feels like it's burning.

Now that this rushed week is over, I should be able to settle down a little. Once I do, the big question is: how do I spend my running summer? Something tells me my 5k needs some work!

Boston marathon pictures

David and I picked up ultra-runner A.D.'s special gels for him at his hotel right by the finish line. A.D. took this picture of us. 

It was so crowded at the finish line you couldn't get a pic by yourself for love  or money.

I hadn't seen David yet here...I ran near this girl Bridget most of the way; she finished just seconds behind me so I heard her name a lot! Look at my poor swollen knee :(

Hi David!!! This was mile 17. My clothes are soaked with sweat . All those lumps are stashed gu's in my back pocket and bra. 

Blowing a kiss as I ran off!

David caught some of the elite action - does anyone know who this is?

The elite women breeze by

Warning: gross picture

My knee's not getting much better, especially the swelling. Can't bend it again. Is it infected or just very full of fluid?

If I actually had a doctor I'd call him.