April Marathon Training

I figured I would continue with this theme until the end...

April was a VERY hard month for me.  It has been very frustrating, painful and depressing.  I have tried hard to keep my spirits up but it has been HARD.  Injuries suck.  There is no other way to put it.

I spent the first two weeks of April in my lovely boot.  When I saw my doc on the 17th he decided that we would try using crutches for a while.  You know what sucks even more than injuries?  Crutches.  Oh, and having to use the elevator in my office. 

I had one really good day, April 24th, where I felt really like I was on my way to recovery.  I left the crutches in the car and went without the boot.  I felt great most of the day but by the evening I was feeling my leg again.  Might not have been the best idea to go to the grocery store.  I spent the next two days back on the crutches and on Friday I switched back to the boot.

So now, I can't decide if I am feeling pain, if I am having phantom pain, or if I am just too sensitive to every little thing.  I go back to the doctor in a week and I hope that my body can work this dang thing out.  I AM SICK OF IT.

I decided last week that I needed a break.  After spin and Pilates last Wednesday I was exhausted.  Not sure it my body was exhausted or if it was my brain but I felt emotionally drained.  I banned myself from the Y for four days.  It has been extended to five, maybe six.  I am now having some weird pinched nerve numbness in my left hip.  Maybe it's from walking around in the dang boot for most of the last six weeks.  I do love my Brooks Adrenalines, but I am sick of wear only one.  It's the only shoe that makes me feel like I am walking on the same height shoes.  So I am going to go see if my chiropractor can straighten me out.  I have had the numbness, and yesterday morning when we got up to get ready to head to the race I had a very sharp pain that almost took my breath away.  Not fun.

I will write more about the OKC Memorial Marathon in the next couple of days and I am hoping to get a guest post race recap or two out of my friends.  We shall see...

How awesome were those signs?

I like to think of Abby and I as the best race crew ever.  We had chairs that we only used once, signs that smeared on our hands, and tons of supplies that no one ever needed.  We almost forgot to feed ourselves.  We did try to stay hydrated.  This was our set up at mile 2.5.  We saw almost all of our group here.

Me, Patti and Abby at mile 7.

This was mile 7, Patti ran over and we got a quick pic.  The humidity was killer if you were running so we filled the role of much needed excuse to stop and chat for a minute.  So glad we could make ourselves useful.  I don't know if you can tell from this picture but Patti is the best coach/mentor/supporter ever.

I make this rain jacket look good.

This was stop number three, mile 17, right after the runners came over the overpass from Lake Hefner.  So glad we got to see everyone still feeling good after the killer hill.  I'm not sure you want this girl cheering for you though, she kinda looks like a maniac.  That awesome rain jacket saw tons more rain at last year's Marathon.  I think I'll wear every year I run OKC, no matter what.  That umbrella I was holding, I left it at our next stop.  Feel very bad about that, it didn't actually belong to any of us, it was borrowed from Ross and Rochelle's neighbor.  Josh is on a mission to pick up a replacement this afternoon.  Lesson learned; keep track of your crap.

After all the frustration of April, Abby and I had a great time during the race.  I like to think I impressed her with my mad navigation skills and got us to every stop in time to see everyone.  I am sure the people that were running around them each time thought we were complete lunatics.  It is nice to leave a lasting impression though.

So tomorrow is May, and I will be running again in May.  I just have to wait and see when.

There will be more talk about the Memorial and lots more pictures soon.  For now I am sure glad that April is finally going to be over.

April Foodie Pelpal...

This was my second month of the Foodie Penpal program, and I'm so happy I stuck around for another month.

This month my penpal was Ashley Lang.  She sent me a wonderful box of goodies.  I love that I get a box full of new things each month.

 The box came on a night that I went to the Y from work so my girls had to sit and start at it for a couple of hours.  They really wanted to open it for me, but it was still sealed tight when I got home.

 I love that it's just a surprise each time.  My treats this month were both yummy and healthy.

• First the Go Raw Super Cookies are good.  I just love a cookie that packs a healthy punch and this one definitely does.  I have not heard of this brand before but I'm on the lookout for more.
• I love apples, and the Crispy Apple Chips are just what you would want when you want something crunchy but not as bad for you as a bag of potato chips.
• The Goji Berries Almond Crunch was my favorite.  I always claim to not be a big fan of almonds, but this made me rethink that assertion.  I ate the whole bag, and only shared a little with my family.  Sometimes it just has to be like that.
• I don't usually eat Clif Bars, I usualy go with the related Luna Bars, I love that they say they are for women.  :-)  I took this as a sweet end to my lunch the other day.  I was surprised at how big it was, I ate about half of it and got my sweet tooth fix for the day.  It was chewy and yummy.

I think my favorite part is the note explaining all the stuff in the box.  It's nice to get a glimpse into why the items were selected for you. 

I can't wait to do it again in May.



Dreaming of Cheesecake...

I am completely addicted to pistachios.  The first step is admitting you have a problem, right?  Well since Carson and I discovered that we love pistachios I have had them pretty much daily.

(I am sure this should slow down eventually, it's a pretty expensive habit.)

So when I had lunch with a few of my favorite girls on Friday, the day before one of them became a new mom, we went to Local.  It was really good.  If I were a better person I would have take pictures of what I ate, instead I'll have to just give you pictures of the menu.

We started with the truffle chips, the three dipping sauces were awesome.  I can't remember what any of them were called but one had blue cheese, one was green and one was red.  Kinda looked like ketchup, but it was so not ketchup.

I had the Farmers Market salad, and it was yummy.  I could do without the asparagus, but that's just me, I did fine someone else at my table that was willing to eat them.

Every once in a while rather than sticking with my usual vegetarian diet I will have shelfish or fish.  This was one of those times.  I hate to say that this was yummy, but it really was.  And there was a ton of food.  Two tacos and some veggies on the side.  I could only finish one.

 And then there was dessert.  I actually had a dream about this cheesecake last night and I can't stop thinking about it.  I might need to go get a piece to go later.  It's a good thing there were four others at the table and we were sharing it, or I might have eaten the entire thing.  It was like heaven on a plate.  Really.

I really liked Local and I can't wait to go back.

I Need a Break…

Tonight I did a Pilates class and then the 5:30 spin class.  I am tired.  I feel like I have been frantically working for the last six and a half weeks to make sure I can stay in the same shape I would be in if I had been running for all these weeks.  I am tired.
I have decided to take the rest of the week off.  I’ll go back to spin on Monday but I think this mini vacation from the Y will do me some good.  I still get to immerse myself in running.  We are having a pasta party at Kelsey’s on Friday so everyone running on Sunday can get some carb loading in.  I will be working the OK Runner booth at the race expo on Saturday.  I love expos.  I think I might have said that before.
I don’t know what my definite plan for race time on Sunday is but I’m still working on it.  I am so excited to go support Josh and our friends as they race on Sunday.
I think there is a little concern about the weather:
    Not much of a temperature swing on Sunday, that’s for sure.  40% chance of rain kind of sucks, but this is Oklahoma and it’s probably too early to really tell.  For all we know it could be snowing by Sunday. 
Only time will tell.

WIAW…

Technically it’s What I Ate Tuesday, but there is no bloggy group for that.  We are supposed to have lunch at the Festival of the Arts in OKC tomorrow and I don’t know that I want to tell anyone what I will be eating there. 
So here’s my WIAW post, with foods that I actually ate on Tuesday.
For breakfast I had one of my homemade English muffins, with an individual frittata and a fake sausage patty on it.  I put a little bit of Laughing Cow spreadable cheese on the English muffin first.  I got the recipe for the English muffins here.  I am still working on perfecting these, this last batch turned out pretty well I think.

This is a picture of my breakfast sandwich on my desk before I ate it.  I don’t think the picture does it any justice.  It really was tasty, I plan to have another one tomorrow.  So you could say this is a What I Will Eat Wednesday post too.
That orange in the background is a Cara Cara orange, it is my new favorite and it was my mid morning snack.  I wish I could pay someone to peel the oranges for me.  It’s an awful lot of work and it’s hard to keep typing on my computer at work with sticky fingers.
For Lunch I had one of my old favorites, it’s what I like to pack for lunch if nothing sounds good.
A little steamed broccoli with a little salt pepper, fake Buffalo Chick’n nuggets and  Pink Lady apple.  Josh keeps telling me that it’s been so long since I ate chicken that I don’t remember what it tastes like, so that’s why I like the fake Chick’n nuggets.  I think I just like them.

I tried this Cliff Bar for dessert, and I must say it didn’t really satisfy my sweet tooth.  I think it was because it wasn’t chocolate.  I got it from my Foodie Pen Pal, so I’ll talk about it more on that post.  I am not gonna lie.  I had some pistachios that I didn’t get a picture of.  I think I ate them too quickly.

Because we went camping this weekend I didn’t get to the grocery store.  I went tonight on my way home from work.  We had run out of chocolate almond milk, pistachios, bread and a few other essentials.  I really don’t like grocery shopping during the week, but it was nice that Target was not crowded at all.
I picked up this soup which I had for dinner.  I don’t like to go to the grocery store and cook dinner all in the same evening.  I had soup, and a grilled cheese sandwich.  It was yummy.  The soup was good, but I had to add a little salt because it was the low salt variety.  I don’t want to eat tons of salt, but for me salt=flavor. Dessert was one of my Nutella chocolate chip cookies.  I am running out of cookies, I’m gonna have to get to baking some soon.
I only got a little more than 60 ounces of water today.  Gonna work on that tomorrow.  I’ve got Pilates and spin on the calendar for tomorrow afternoon so I need to hydrate.  I’ll probably pot some Nuun tri berry in my water tomorrow.  I love that stuff.
So that’s my WIAW for this week.  Maybe I’ll actually take some pictures of what I really eat on Wednesday and share those too.  Crazier things have been known to happen.

So Maybe I Was Wrong...

I decided to leave the crutches in my car all day yesterday.  I was celebrating the fact that my leg was feeling great.

Today is a different story.  Don't get me wrong, it doesn't hurt like it has in the past six weeks, but it just feels like I should still be using the crutches.

In other news, I didn't get chosen to be part of the Nuun Hood to Coast team for this year, so I'm kinda bummed about that.  But I did win something yesterday.

I picked their new Peanut butter strawberry bar.

I can't wait for this to show up in my mail box.  It'll be like eating a pb&j.  I love my Luna bars.

Time to get on with Wednesday.

Cautiously Optimistic…

So after a week and a half of pain, four weeks in a boot, and a week on crutches, I am walking on my own today. Man it's been a long six weeks! I still have my crutches, but I left them in my car. I am really hoping that I won't need them.

Maybe our weekend camping trip to Robbers Cave did me some good. After our 2+ hour drive home, I had the crutches when we went to the hospital to meet the new babies. After that I didn't use them around the house. Yesterday I used them when I got to work, but by the time I was leaving to go to the Y I was realizing how good my leg was feeling. I left them in the car and went to spin, afterwards my legs felt tired but it was from the class and not from the injury.

After six weeks of being able to feel my leg all the time to it just being normal like my left one, this feels huge to me. Finally, progress! Yeah!

Don't get me wrong, I am not going to be running until after I see my doctor again in two weeks, I'll stick to the spin classes and elliptical and other low impact activities. It just feels so good to feel good after all this time.

So for now I am crutches-free. If I need them again, I will use them; I am not crazy. I do want to be better. So we will see how it goes.

What a great day.

So this Happened…

We went to Robber’s Cave to camp this weekend and it was pretty busy here in Norman while we were gone.

First of all, this little guy showed up…

Brayden Lee Woodard, got here on Saturday.  He weighed in at 7lbs, 15 ounces and was 19 3/4 inches long.  We all thought he would wait until Thursday to come when they had planned to induce Kendra, but he had to make it exciting.  He is such a cutie!  I am so excited for Kendra and Matt!

Tommy and Tara went up to the hospital to greet this little guy and shortly after Tara’s water broke and this morning Abigail Grace came into the world.

She is beautiful!  She has so much hair, and such a sweet little face.

This is not the first time these two little cuties will show their parents that their lives will never be the same.  It kind of makes me sad to think back to when my girls were that little.  Oh where did those little babies go?

They are only this little for about half a second.  I hope they enjoy it while it lasts, and I sure hope I get to babysit.

WAIW...

Well it's Wednesday again so I'll do another WIAW post.  In case you forgot, it stands for What I Ate Wednesday.  So here we go...

Breakfast was yummy!  I had a homemade breakfast sandwich, with one of the English muffins I made on Sunday, a little Laughing Cow garlic and herb cheese, a Morningstar maple flavored "sausage" Patti, and one egg white with some Chia seeds...

 Looks pretty yummy, right?  I just made it and wrapped it up and brought it to work with me.  I love a breakfast that can be portable if you need it to be.

I was going to go with my usually Greek yogurt with Chia seeds and homemade granola, but I woke up starving this morning.  Might have something to do with the two Flirtinis and a heavenly chocolate dessert at Blu.

The flirtini just called to me from the drink menu:

flirtini

vodka/triple sec/spumante/pineapple juice

I had two, and on a school night!  But since this isn't What I Ate Tuesday, let's carry on...

To go with my breakfast, I went for what I am trying to make part of my usual morning routine.  A cup of dark chocolate almond milk.  I could go on and on about this, it's so yummy.  My cholesterol likes it too, which is always good.  Plus it's got twice as much calcium as regular milk and in light of my recent (and never ending) tibia stress fracture, I am really making an effort to get my calcium every day. 

Now I am just working on my water bottle, which has some NUUN in it.  Triple berry flavor, so good.  I am hoping it'll make me feel less like I had a couple of drinks on a school night.  I am hoping to get in 40 oz of water before lunch time.





So for lunch today we walked over to Iguana Mexican Grill.  Well the girls I went with walked, and I crutched my way over there.  If that is not a word, then it should be.  I didn't get a picture of my lunch, but here's what I had:

  I, of course went with the spinach and mushroom, and I chose the black beans as my side.  I was a little disappointed in the black beans though.  I thought they would have a bit more flavor.  Overall it was very yummy.  They have the best salsa there.

I drank a ton of water, and I'm working on my second 20 bottle of water at my desk.  It's kind of a pain to have to pee so often though, the two doors that I have to go through to get to the bathroom are heavy and it's not so easy on my crutches.

I headed from work to the Y where I did 15 minutes on the arc trainer, and then my new favorite class, Donna's hour long spin class. 

On the way I had this Luna Bar, I love Luna Bars!  When I got home I ate the rest of these Everybody's Nuts Pistachios.  Some were salt and pepper, some were sweet chili flavored.  Yum!

For dinner we had Vegetarian American Chop Suey.  It was leftover from Monday night.  I changed it up since I didn't think there was enough pasta in the dish the first time.  We ended up adding cheese tortellini to it, so it felt more like a pasta dish.  With a salad and some garlic bread I was stuffed.

I had one chocolate chip cookie and at 8:45 I just had to go to bed.

So that's it.  Sure seems like alot when I put it all down.

What the Heck is a Tabata?

I’m learning all sorts of new things in the weeks that I have been spinning instead of running.  While I don’t think I’ll ever love spinning as much as running I am sure hoping that it will help me get right back after it in a few weeks when my leg is healed.

Have you heard of Tabata?  I had not, but now I have.

Here’s what it is:

Specifically, the session consists of six to eight maximum-intensity sprints lasting 20 seconds apiece, with mere 10-second passive recovery periods between them.  (source)

Let me just say how hard this is.  Eight of these sprints feel so hard that I can never keep track of how many we’ve done.  When we did them last week Donna had us crank up the tension on the bike and then go as hard as we could, during the recovery periods it was like not moving your legs at all.

Another fun aspect of spin is the level 4 intervals that we do every class.  Level 3 is where you feel like you are working, but you aren’t so much out of breath that you can’t talk while you are there.  Level 4 feels like the start of a 5k, when you are out of breath and you feel a little out of control.

This seems to contradict all that I have done in my running training the past year.  I love to talk when I run, and I hate feeling like I can’t control my breath enough to carry a conversation.  Even when we feel like we are working hard and running fast I like to be able to maintain control over my breathing.  In spin it just isn’t possible.

I am sure hoping all this spinning will pay off and I will be a stronger runner because of it.  I guess only time will tell.

---

Back to the doctor tomorrow.  It’s been four weeks in the boot and I still am not sure when I will be out of it.  Guess we’ll see what Dr. Hines says tomorrow.

---

I listened to the  Boston Marathon at work today.  Sure made me feel like I wanted to be running.  How crazy that it was 80 degrees out there.  What happened to spring?

Tornado Saturday…

Well the weatherman was predicting “Maximum Destruction” on Saturday.  Thankfully, the weather didn’t turn out like the weatherman said, but it was a pretty fun day.

Here’s how the day shaped up:

After I kicked Josh out of bed to go meet Kelsey for a run that she didn’t show up for at 6 am, I got up and got around and got to the Y for the 8 am Pilates/Sets & Reps class.

The class is a combination of two classes, you alternated doing exercises from each type of class.

After an hour of that fun, from which my shoulders are pretty sore today, I headed over to the Super-Sized Spin class.  I went with Kim, and she hates the bike.

This is a picture of us from Wednesday night’s spin class.  Can you tell that we are both completely covered in sweat and that we had spent the previous hour spinning our booties off?  It is a hard class, and I am hoping it’s keeping me as fit as I need to be for when I start back to running in a few weeks.

Anyway, we headed to Donna B’s hour and fifteen minute long spin class after an hour of weights/Pilates.  We seriously must be insane.

So we sat our booties on these:

And we worked it for an hour and fifteen minutes.  Did I already say that?  Well it was meant to be a little impressive, so it bears repeating.

On a side note, when I looked for this picture, which I found here, I found out that these bikes are worth big bucks.  Like $1,500 on sale.  I had no idea.

So after all that working out and sweating, we had to go sit in the sauna.  There comes a point that you just can’t get any wetter. (Name that movie, okay it’s Four Weddings and a Funeral)

So we got a little more sweat on, and then since we were heading here we decided it would be a good idea to try off our sweaty shirts with the hand dryers in the women’s locker room.  We are all about being classy.

This is my favorite store, I swear I always find things in here that I would love to have.  Lucky for Josh I hadn’t brought my wallet with me.  We were going in to try on a cute tank top that we are all getting for the Memorial.

Josh actually asked me why I need the shirt if I’m not running.  I am still part of our imaginary running team, and if I’m going to be out on route support on race day, I sure need to look the part.

And besides, how cute is this top?  I don’t usually run in tank tops, but this would sure be cute, and very nice to run in this summer.  I have a feeling it’ll be a hot one.

So after we visited at my favorite store with Kelsey, who apologized over and over again for standing Josh up for their run, I headed home.  As I said before, the weatherman was saying it was going to get bad yesterday, so I wanted to be prepared.

I started first by making these:

What do you need if you could be spending part of your evening in the storm shelter?  Chocolate chip cookies, of course.  Plus we thought the Browns might be coming over again, and I know that Austin and Avery just love cookies.  It’s always nice to be able to be that aunt or friend that has great baked goods and is willing to let you have as many as you like whenever you come over.

After the cookies I decided to make some more of these:

My first batch of English muffins didn’t turn out as perfect as I would have liked, so I decided to give it another go.  This batch turned out wonderfully.  I didn’t make them too big and they mostly all turned out shaped like an English muffin should be.  I had a fake chicken English muffin for dinner, and then I had two over easy eggs with an English muffin for breakfast.  I did refrain from having one for lunch this afternoon.  And I will be sure to not have one for dinner tonight.  I should probably keep the maximum number of English muffins in a day to one.  I’m not gonna lie to you, it’s hard because they are really good.  Even if I do say so myself, which I do.

The Browns did come over and we hung out and watched coverage of tornadoes in the northeastern part of Oklahoma.  There were no trips to the storm shelter, and we didn’t actually get to see if you can fit four adults, four children and two dogs in there.  It is springtime in Oklahoma, so I am sure we could get another opportunity.  There was a little Rock Band, although I was only a spectator. 

We did get up and run some errands today.  We even bought a tent!  I can’t hardly believe it.  Big camping trip for Jeff’s birthday next weekend.  I never thought I’d be a tent owner.  Guess on the bright side, we will never be homeless.

Technorati Tags: spin,English Muffins,chocolate chip cookies,tornado,OK Runner

This is Springtime in Oklahoma…

So the weatherman has been talking about springtime weather happening around here the last few days.  Apparently it was going to roll in this afternoon and then there is a high likelihood that tomorrow afternoon could be worse.

Well I don’t know if that is possible.  I was supposed to be home this afternoon baking cupcakes for Beer Sprocket.  With the possibility of severe weather and the fact that the event was going to be outside in a covered pavilion, they moved it back to May 12th.  I decided to not take this afternoon off from work since there would be no baking going on.

Josh and I talked this afternoon about him leaving work a little early.  The kiddos get home from school at 4 and I didn’t want them to be hanging out if the weather was going to get bad.  He left work about 30 minutes early.  I talked to Carson at 3:45 and told her he was on his way, they were still on the bus and she said it was raining.

They got home at 4, right about the time a tornado hit Norman.  Camy was talking to Josh when the sirens started going off and he told them to get the dogs and get in the storm shelter.  She said they didn’t want to, which I can understand it’s dark and smelly down there.  Their call got cut off.  The circuits at this point were pretty jammed and it was hard to get a call to go through.

When he did get ahold of her again, before they got cut off again, he said that he heard a man’s voice in the background.  Thankfully our friends Ross and Rochelle live in our old neighborhood, which happens to be about a mile from our current neighborhood.

    Well apparently when there is a tornado coming they can make it to my house in under 45 seconds.  They got here, pounded on the door so my kids would let them in and they rounded everyone up, including the dogs and got down in the storm shelter. 

    This is the shot that Ross took down there.  I cropped Ro out of the picture, because it was not a very flattering shot of her, and I’ve got her back like that, That is Avery’s curly brown head, Camy appears to be on her phone {no shock there, she better have been trying to text her mom and tell her they were alive}, Austin is in the back playing with the demon-eyed Rocky who was probably about to have a heard attack at this point, and Carson who I hear didn’t handle the whole situation without tears.  I can’t say that I blame her, I almost had tears and I wasn’t even there.

Gotta be thankful for friends that will high tail it over to your house and rescue your kiddos in an emergency.  The tornado wasn’t a huge one, but it did do some damage to Norman, and not very far from us either.

    (source) 

This is a shot of damage that is only a couple of miles from where we live.  It is not very far from the girls’ school, and I haven’t heard a report on damage there yet.

What a crazy day!  The Browns stayed and we got Pizza Shuttle for dinner.  We thought there might be a second wave of storms, but so far there hasn’t been.  Tomorrow is setting up to be just as interesting, and we are thinking about heading to the OU football stadium to hang out with some friends and have a little tornado watch party.  We shall see.

First up tomorrow is a Pilates & reps class, followed by a spin class.  Just because there could be bad weather in the afternoon doesn’t mean I shouldn’t get my workout on in the morning.

Technorati Tags: tornado,Browns

Nutella Cookies…

I have seen many recipes lately for baked goods that have Nutella in them.  I had never tried Nutella before, but when we went to the grocery store on Tuesday and they had a display at the end of the aisle I decided to give it a try.

I thought I was going to be baking 300 mini beer flavored cupcakes tomorrow for Beer Sprocket this weekend.  Since there is probably going to be some severe weather on Saturday they have postponed the event until May 12th.  So I decided to get my baking therapy in tonight

I saw this recipe for Nutella Cookies and decided to change it up a bit.

Here’s my recipe for Nutella Cookies:

Chocolate Nutella Cookies

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Cook Time: 10-11 minutes

ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/3 cup Nutella
1/3 cup almond milk

directions:

1. Whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and cocoa, set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter and sugars. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about two minutes. Add the vanilla and almond extract and beat until extracts disappear. Add the Nutella and mix until batter is smooth.

2. Add the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternately with the almond milk in one batch, mixing well.  {I added a cup of semi sweet chocolate chips at the end.} 

3. When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place on baking sheets and gently press down on the dough ball. Continue making dough balls until the cookie sheets are filled-leave two inches in between cookies.

4. Bake cookies for 10-11 minutes or until soft, but starting to set. Remove cookies from the oven and let cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

These cookies were wonderful.

    Man, can I take an awesome picture.  They tasted way better than what this picture looks like.  Kinda looks like little piles of poo, right?  Well they are awesome.

Here’s a better picture that I stole from the blog that had the recipe…

I just love finding a new recipe and having it turn out well the first time.  I’m going to have to be careful with these, I could just eat all three dozen all on my own, they are that good.

Technorati Tags: nutella,nutella cookies

Rock n Roll Race Recap…

It has been almost three weeks since the Rock n Roll half marathon in Dallas.  I’ve already talked about the expo and our race weekend fueling.  Now it’s time to talk about race day.

Truth be told, it’s not the most fun race recap for me, but I have some great friends that ran the race in Dallas and it was a pretty fun day.  After taking an 800 mg ibuprofen on Saturday night I must say I got a great night’s sleep.  It was too bad I wasn’t running on Sunday.

We got up, at a pretty normal time on Sunday.  One of the advantages of staying at a hotel that was a block from the start is that everyone got to sleep in.  That made the hotel worth every penny.  Everyone got ready and we headed down to the starting line.

  One of these things does not belong here.  Can you tell which one of us was not running the race?  Patti, Kelsey, me, Rochelle, Abby and Brian.  I did have my matching OK Runner shirt on under my long sleeved shirt.  It was a little chilly at the start if you weren’t going to be running.

I just love this picture.  Rochelle wanted to climb on top of the statue but we were a little pressed for time.

Rochelle was sporting some rocking awesome shorts to go with her OK Runner shirt.  Full disclosure, I loaned her those shorts. I was not the only person in a boot that day.  This was Brian’s aunt, she was supposed to race that day too.  Damn boots.  We both bought these awesome Brooks Rock n Roll shirts.  We didn’t even know that the other person had bought it at the expo until we showed up for the race.  Injured minds think alike.    So here’s a funny story.  This is Patti and Kelsey with Jerry Faulkner.  Do you remember my store about the Cowtown marathon?  This is the Jerry Faulkner who’s race bib Scott wore when he won and then was disqualified from that race.  Jerry ended up running this half in about 1:09, he got sixth place.  Apparently, at about mile eight he just wasn’t feeling it.  I just think that’s awesome that he can just know that it’s not his day and be okay with finishing 6th.    And they’re off.  I left them getting into their corral and waited for them to pass me at the start.  If feeling injured has felt like everyone is running off and leaving me, this is surely what it was like when the gun went off and they headed off for the race.

I walked back up to our hotel room, had a good cry, and then headed down to the train station to catch the train to the fair grounds and the finish line.  I meet some very nice people on the train, lots of people navigating the public transportation of downtown Dallas.  I am a huge fan of public transportation.

I meet this adorable little guy at the finish line.  He was like Penny but huge!  So friendly.

I staked out a spot at the finish and waited for everyone to run past me.  I didn’t do a very good job of getting pictures of everyone.

    I did catch Kelsey and Patti running past for Kelsey’s PR finish.  She did so good.  The conditions were not ideal, it was a beautiful morning, a little cool at the start but there were no clouds in the sky and with the blazing sun, by the time they all finished it was in the 80s outside.

    Can you tell that it was hot out there?  This is Kelsey and I hanging out at the finish.

The best part about the finish was the free beer.  Rochelle got two.  I say she deserved it.

    Me, Abby and Rochelle.

So we made the long trek back to the train station, and waited for the train, and squeezed on and made our way back to the hotel.  From there we packed up all of our stuff and got ready to head out, to lunch.

 

Kelsey and Patti, waiting on everyone so we could go eat lunch.

It really was a great weekend, and even though I didn’t get to run the race, I was very glad to be able to support my friends while they did.  I can’t wait to go back next year.

Technorati Tags: Rock n Roll