Happy Thanksgiving!

Quick, name one thing you're NOT thankful for but you SHOULD be!

Me? I never think about how amazingly blessed we are to have such good health, but I should. I can't believe I complain about acne and fat thighs when I have only had to take an antibiotic twice in my life.*  My husband's ancient, like antique, and he's in brand-spanking-new condition. I need to be more thankful for our consistently good health!
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In an effort to keep that good health, we ran the local 5-mile Thanksgiving race this morning. When we arrived I realized we'd never registered for this race. I can't believe I forgot! But we've run so many races this fall I thought I had. All those check to the New Orleans Track Club are blurring together in my mind.We registered with the no-Tshirt option.
It was hot and humid today, upper 70's at the start and moist. It was 80's at the finish and the wet weather brought a brisk head wind. Not very good running weather, and I wore my Karhus, which have zero tread and would make great ice skates. I wanted to go slow today since I have a marathon on Saturday, but I started too fast - first mile under 7 minutes - so I had to slow down (not that I could have kept that pace up anyway). I finished in 37:40 but here's the big news - David ran 41:55! Super fast for him!

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The Saints game almost gave me a heart attack and made me quite hoarse. Hartley is returning slowly to my good graces.

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I want to buy these jeans but I'm afraid that, like all GAP denim, they'll bag out after a few hours of wearing. I don't like saggy-butt. Has anyone had any experience with this style? If I spend this much on jeans they better be awesome (my other jeans are $12 Forever21 and $9 Ross styles...).

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I talked little bro' Abe into running the half marathon this weekend while I run the full, but today he told me he might run the full. I love how he can just casually decide to run a marathon two days in advance.

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I hope you all had a stupendous Thanksgiving!!! I'm going to go roll onto the couch and vegetate now!

* This excludes the antibiotics prescribed for dental work that I never take. Don't tell my dentist.

New York Vacation

On our New York trip we did all the tourist things. This is because my husband has done all the NON-tourist things many times when a close friend lived in NYC and he used to visit all the time. This was before I entered the picture and began making all his choices for him.

We kicked the trip off with a Circle Line ferry tour, which was beautiful. I recommend a 4 pm tour if you go, so you can see the city in daylight, sunset, and night - three for the price of one!

After our brief Philly detour, we returned to NYC for several more days. We had purchased City Passes, so we were on a tight museum-seeing schedule. We were across the block from the Museum of Modern Art. One-sentence review: I hope you like Picasso. Our trip also took us to the Guggenheim (One-sentence review: If you don't want your walls and floors to crack, consider more angles in your building construction) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (One-sentence review: Go ahead and buy a year's membership and just sleep in the lobby if you want to have time to adequately appreciate the art).

The Metroplitan Museum of Art - at night

We went to the American Museum of Natural History briefly. One sentence review: I've been to small-town science fairs with better exhibits and fewer grammatical errors in the informative placards. I honestly could not believe the lack of quality and interesting displays, and I think I was actually less-informed when I left. Don't waste your money here. You'd do better to buy a train ticket to DC and go to the Smithsonian for free.

Of course we did the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I realized while I was there that I always associate Lady Liberty with immigrants embarking on a new life, but that perception does not accurately reflect the meaning behind the statue. It was originally meant to celebrate the liberty we have in this country (really more in a military sense), but thanks to its location it became a symbol to the thousands who entered the USA by Ellis Island.

Central Park was lovely and we got a run in and a few walks.

And we braved frigid temperatures at the top of the Empire State Building one night.

I indulged my addiction to libraries and visited the famous lions. What a beautiful library this is!

Best of all I got to see autumn again! I've missed having four seasons!
Later, I'll review the City Passes we bought for our trip.

What am I making for Thanksgiving?

The scenario: I fight the crowds of hemp-wearing, hatch-back-driving, green tea-drinking, bjorn-toting mommas in Whole Foods to snag this pile of ingredients:

Pomegranates, feta, creamed goat's cheese, walnuts, and spinach

The plan was a nice Thanksgiving potluck salad (with a white balsamic vinaigrette including THE SECRET INGREDIENT). But then the FIL called and told me that two others had already volunteered to bring salads.
The challenge: Turn these ingredients into another potluckable dish....and you can use any other ingredient already in my well-stocked kitchen (basically everything).
My first thought: Pomegranate-walnut mini pizza appetizers.
Start with a soft pizza dough. Form small circles, about 1.5" across, and top with several spinach leaves. Bake at 400 F for about 8 minutes or until nearly cooked. Spread with goat cheese (pre-mixed with a little balsamic and black pepper), then sprinkle with feta, pomegranate arils, and roasted walnuts. Broil for a minute or two to slightly melt cheese.
Or leave off the spinach and top with raw sugar crystals and vinegar before broiling to make a slightly caramelized top.
If you have a better idea...I will love you forever.
What are you making this Thanksgiving?

Christmas cards for charities

Sometimes I buy Christmas cards. Sometimes I make my own. Sometimes I don't send any, then spend the holidays in spasms of guilt each time a card arrives to me (I imagine the sender quietly pining away, waiting for my reciprocal card which never arrives).
This year I think I'll send Christmas cards that benefit a charity. Many charities and institutes design Christmas cards as a fundraiser, and you can find a large list here.
There are a few of my favorites:

Angel Covers, benefiting a school for deaf children in Narobi.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. How could you resist a triptych card?

Ten Thousand Villages supports third-world artisans - look at these beautifully crafted cards! This one is painted on papyrus.

MD Anderson features many cards, but I like this fun ornaments design by an aspiring graphic artist!

The question now is, which to pick?

Harrisburg Marathon: Race Recap #2

I survived my first day back at work and I'm here to finish my race recap!

My hubby - who insisted on accompanying me to the Harrisburg Marathon and went to mass while I ran! - took this picture from above. Aren't you feeling the short shirt?!

I left off eating Gu around mile 14 and had just decided to suck it up and finish the marathon. Around mile 15 two awesome things happened. I had been slowing down, but then we entered a spectator-filed parking lot and this little boy handed me a pre-opened Gu. Pre-opened Gu is the BEST! Who cares if it was a little gravelly? And then I passed this guy in front of me who was running with a Chinese flag in his compression sleeve. Ok, I am not an imperialist, I swear, but can I tell you that felt like winning the Olympics? I swear I felt like I had just single-handedly re-valued the yen. I sped up. I felt pretty good, and I actually glanced at my pace bracelet to see if I had a chance. Unfortunately, I had spilled on it and the ink had run. It was illegible. Brilliant. I tried to do the math in my head but decided to give up and just run at a pace that felt good.
Then I hit the hills. Now the Harrisburg course is advertised as mostly flat, with one hilly patch. Really, it was not bad - and you can read all about it in my detailed race review to come - but miles 17.5 to 20 or thereabouts are a pretty hilly section. I don't do hills at all. I lost oodles of time here and trashed the BQ idea. I considered a new goal of under 9 minute miles, but I was going so slow that I didn't think I could promise myself that, either. I decided to return to my original under 4-hour goal. I was slogged on, made it out of the hills, and headed towards the finish. I was definitely feeling tired again, and even though I had promised myself no walking (and I ran all the hills), I walked the water stops - until I came up to mile 23. As I approached the sign for mile 23 I read 3:17 and some on the clock. Wait, I thought, that's better than I thought! Could I possibly make the 3:40 cut-off? I tried to read my pace band... and couldn't because it was all covered in pink Cytomax. I roughly guessed I'd have to break 8 minute miles for the rest of the race. Was that possible? Was 3:40 even BQ time? It had been so long since I'd printed the pace bracelet that I wasn't even sure this was the time to beat. But what did I have to lose? I hit the gas and tore past mile 23. I was so tired by now but I basically sprinted the last three miles. As I neared the 26 mile sign I realized I was already at 3:40 - no chance now. I was disappointed, but I shrugged it off and finished in 3:40:50. I felt a little weak and crampy - in fact for the first time I actually felt like my legs might buckle at the finish - but David was there to bring me donuts and water! He was telling me how I had finished so much sooner than he expected and that cheered me up. In fact I started to realize that I'd cut 20 minutes off my marathon time, BQ or no, and I remembered that I hadn't planned to qualify and that had never been a goal of mine. So I decided to just enjoy the faster time. But I DID Google BQ times while driving back to our friends' house, and was distressed to realize that I really had missed the cut-off by less than a minute. I was mentally preparing a blog post about how that was ok, I was happy with my time, etc etc, when a Dailymile friend made a BQ comment. Wait...did Boston give a few extra seconds? I checked again, and they do! So I sort of qualified, if by the skin of my teeth. Personally, I think that's cheating. And it sort of robs me of any feeling of accomplishment. I like to set a goal, work towards, and achieve it - not squeak by and obtain a goal that wasn't even mine to begin with. Does that make any sense? I would have rather decided to qualify for Boston and worked hard towards that goal. Then I would be all kinds of gratified when I reached it. It's just more satisfying.
Thank you all very much for the congratulations, by the way. Not many people in my circle run or understand much about running, so it was so nice to read all those blog comments!
The recap summary (REDUNDANT!!!):
What I did right:
- Running tights. So comfy!
- Rested legs. I resisted the urge to walk all over NYC the day before.
- Perseverance. I always feel better several miles in.
- Water stops. I lost a lot of time at water stops in my past marathons. This time I grabbed two cups and drank as I ran, with the exception of two stops I walked towards the end.
- Gu grabbing. Everywhere there was Gu on the course I grabbed it, plus I had some oatmeal. I usually pass on the Gu and then I'm sorry later!
- Fast finish. Why not speed it up? Unless you're walking 15 miles to your car you might as well use up whatever energy you have left.
- Walking later. Following the marathon with lots of NYC walking practically cured the soreness!
Lessons learned for next time:
- Laminate the pace bracelet. Obviously.
- Plan better if traveling - for food, hydration, pre-race run.
- In retrospect flaming chicken wings were not an outstanding choice of food. In the future I'd bring oatmeal bars or something to eat before bed.
- Bring a starting-line garbage bag to avoid freezing to death.

Harrisburg Marathon: Race Recap #1

Well, howdy folks, I'm back from a week long vacation to New York and Pennsylvania and I'm brimming with photos, stories, and blisters!
Where I last left you, I had just finished running the Harrisburg Marathon, which I squeezed in to our trip last-minute. It was an hour and a half from our friends' house in PA, so I decided why not? I registered.
Those who read the last post will know that I actually narrowly qualified for the Boston Marathon at this race! But I didn't realize that when I first posted. And that wasn't my goal when I ran this race. Five weeks earlier, I ran a 1:46 half marathon that was my fastest half to date. I plugged that time into an online pace predictor calculator, and it predicted a marathon time around 3:45. The same website listed BQ times by age group and had a link to print a pace bracelet. So I did - for 3:40. Then I forgot about it, fell off the running band-wagon (which I do easily) and flew to Pennsylvania with a goal of running under 4 hours.
My pre-race behavior was typically absurd. We were staying with friends and the night before went to a party at their neighbors'. Instead of carb loading, I had a plate of chicken wings and several glasses of malbec. Then we went to a movie, and they wouldn't let me bring my water in. So I sat and dehydrated while watching Mark Zuckerburg be a rich and brilliant jerk. I went to bed late, slept through my alarm, and rushed out the door.
So Pennsylvania has these things called turnpikes, and they have no bathrooms. I discovered this as I got on the turnpike, and read a sing that said, "Next facilities: 102 miles". And I had just had a gallon of coffee. I was dying by the time we reached Harrisburg! The hubby had insisted on going with me, and he parked while I waited for a port-a-potty. It was cold at the start, and I decided to change into the long sleeved race shirt. It was far too short for me and the whole race my back was bare (Oddly, it is shorter in the back than the front, like a reverse shirt tail)! But it beat shivering in short sleeves. I had my BQ pace bracelet on because I found it with my race stuff I'd packed. What the heck, I thought, and taped it on. Actually I put it on because I thought it made me look cool. The coolness factor was negated by the belly-shirt effect, however.
Thanks to my awkward car ride and poor pre-race diet, I felt bad from the start of the race. Actually I immediately felt bad, but I remembered that I take 5 to 7 miles to warm up, and I promised myself I should get that far then reassess. At 6 miles I unexpectedly saw David, and I almost stopped then and told him it was time to go home. But I kept going and made the half-way point my goal. I wasn't looking at my watch at all; I was just feeling out of breath, queasy, and exhausted.
I hit the half at about 1:48, with a little push towards the end since I figured I'd stop there. Except I didn't stop, because I realized I had no clue how to get back to the start. As I pondered stopping or continuing, I decided I'd better have a Gu or something. I hadn't eaten anything since I planned on dropping out. Once I had a Gu, I perked up and decided to finish the race.
And eventually I will finish this post...but not now, because I'm tired and I have to go back to work in the morning! So see you in the morning for the other 13 miles!

Harrisburg Marathon

This is a mini recap because I'm on my phone which makes posting a chore. We're mid-vacation abd took a break to drive to Harrisburg, PA this morning for the marathon. You'll get a grueling blow by blow later, but I am just quickly posting to say that I shocked myself with a 3:40:50 marathon! Who knew! I've recovered nicely... But am I recovered enough to climb the empire state building stairs? We shall see!