Running In Memphis - The Easy Part

Original title, I know. I think the blood from my brain is being rushed to my legs in attempts to walk in heels, so forgive me.

Thursday night Matt's parents treated us to dinner before picking up the birthday beast. I felt bad leaving him, until I heard he was sleeping on the recliner and having Happy Birthday sung to him in perfect harmony by the Searson's. Coming home will be a thrill.

For a post race treat, they brought us this. Have you ever seen the likes of half pound Reese's?! They are everything you think they could be, and like most good things, are available at Target.

Yes, that's a 12 inch dinner plate.

In the spirit of not changing anything, we stopped for our normal Friday Thai Noodle lunch. It hit the spot.


Just in time for a 4 hour drive to run 4.5 hours. The irony was not lost on me.

If you plan on driving down corridor x anytime soon, take some snacks and a catheter. It is desolate. And I'm confused, is this highway ever going to get a name?



Race Guide -check.
Gatorade - check.

We made it to the expo and found a parking space right out front. Next to a car with a UA tag. I considered this marathon and BCS luck. Just call me intuitive.

It was a weird feeling heading to the full marathon line. I always look that way and pity those people.

Race bag in hand! Am I sweaty or is that just the lighting? I'll leave you to wonder. Are you glad you're reading this post yet?

Look who was at the expo! If you've ever trained for a race, chances are you have at least looked at a Hal Higdon plan. I was pleasantly surprised that he looked less corpse like in person. Is that a nice thing to say about someone? He should fire his web site photographers.

We checked into our hotel and changed for dinner. In case you have been wondering what Jesse Spano is doing these days, she's managing the Hilton in Germantown. Check out that rad neon lighting! We had some time to kill before our reservations, so we had a drink at the bar. And one at the restaurant. Someone strip me of my asics. Scandalous!

Oh, don't you worry. I will.

I think I trained better in the art of carb loading than actually running. You don't think it's an art? Fine. No home cooked spaghetti for you.

After a run to Target for some throwaway gloves, I meticulously laid out my outfit for the next day. The fact that I got an even number thrilled me. I don't like odd numbers - even down to the volume number on the TV or the thermostat setting in my car.

One sleep until race day. I tried to warn my poor legs what was coming. If only I had known. I will warn you what's coming though - super cheesy post.

Number Six

Happy sixth birthday to my favorite four legged.


We've been through a lot in six years. Glad you were along for the ride.

You make us laugh and bring us a lot of happiness.


Here's to six more. That's an order - and we know how well you follow those.



Happy birthday!!!

In Which I Try to be Domestic

Due to some scheduling snafus, for about five minutes I was going to cook Thanksgiving lunch for me and Matt. Luckily my mom caught wind of this and remedied the situation quickly. In a fog of relief, I decided to do some baking. Namely, Pioneer Woman's famous cinnamon rolls. From scratch. You make the dough. I was pretty impressed with myself.

I began my journey at Publix. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Do you see a theme running through this post? Hint: poor planning. Occupy Publix was in full force.

I got out alive, made it home, then proceeded to drop $4 of almond milk all over the floor. Whoever said there's no use crying over spilled milk has never cleaned it up with a bulldog fighting you for his fair share.

Seriously? Seriously.

Luckily, mexican heals most things. After a chilli relleno, I garnered the strength to start the dough.

They weren't the prettiest rolls, but man were they good. If you've ever made these, you know the original recipe makes tons. Like seven pans. If you have the space in your freezer, that's great, but since we don't, I used this adaption for a small batch.

I also couldn't find maple flavoring for the icing, so I used vanilla instead. We had no trouble eating them.

The only thing I would change would be to use less sugar sprinkled on the dough. It was a LOT of sugar. I think I angered my pancreas, among other organs.

Finally, to go in the coffee, homemade coffee creamer. Much less impressive than it sounds, but it was good and a lot less chemicals then the really good stuff you buy at the store and you know, real milk.

My pants are fitting a little tighter this week, but we had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Hope you and your family did as well.

Turkeys and Tigers

Excuse my absence. I know ya'll were on the edge of the seat waiting for my return. I've had nothing to say, and even if I did, my mouth has been too full with every form of processed sugar and thanksgiving food I could get my hands on. My hands are now swollen and my face is broken out. I'm sure these things aren't at all related. And, yes, this is definitely the way to prepare for next weekends marathon.

Hopefully all this gluttony will pay off with a few good recipes to share. Until then, we'll be hanging out with this turkey, who has been spending his time mastering the art of yoga. Those are his hind legs.

Getting ready for the Iron Bowl, which again has the BCS title game on the line.

Roll Tide Roll.

Friday Favorites - Christmas List

There is nothing I appreciate more in the gift giving season than a detailed list of what my family wants. Even better if you include a link taking me directly to the product. My brother started doing this years ago, and in my young 20's naivety, I thought it was SO boring and took the magic out of Christmas.

And then I got an 8-5 job. As much as it pains me to admit he was right, it's such a relief to knock out those lists and know they are going to like what you picked. Using the word picked loosely here, of course. Especially since MS family does subscribe to the whole magic of Christmas theory, it helps to only have to do the guesswork on one side.

So, I've been working on my own list and have hit a rough spot. Suggestions welcome.

I've heard great things about Bare Escentuals. Does it live up to the hype? It gets rave reviews, but any makeup with a DVD instructional video might be too complex for me.

I would also love a new devotional book. I got one last year and it was very....basic. Any books that you have loved?

Any must haves that need to be on my list? Help a girl out.

Recovery

There was little I wanted to do after our last long run than cook a big pot of soup and enjoy a cold beverage. One of the perks of adulthood is getting to eat whatever you want for dinner. Be it an entire pack of Little Debbies, or white chicken chilli. Fortunatley for my scale, it was the latter.
MS was kind enough to handle the chicken nastiness.

Not sure why this picture is so washed out, but if you look closely through the back door, you can see the kitchen of our neighbors across the pool. Rear Window anyone?

I intended to take pictures of all the steps.

Then I got distracted. MS makes a great apple cider rum drink. It quieted my screaming quads.

Then I spent the rest of my evening here, in what we've dubbed The Cloud.

Namath tries to steal it for himself, but lucky for him it's big enough to share. He loves to share.

The recipe, in case you opt for soup over Little Debbies any time soon. I only used 4 cans of beans. We live in a small apartment. I blended two of them in the food processor to make the soup creamier.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 cooked, boneless chicken breast half, chopped
3 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
2 (4 ounce) cans canned green chile peppers, chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
5 (14.5 ounce) cans great Northern beans, undrained
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute for 10 minutes, or until onions are tender.

Add the chicken, chicken broth, green chile peppers, cumin, oregano and cayenne pepper and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low and add the beans. Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, or until heated thoroughly. Pour into individual bowls and top with the cheese.

Hitting the Peak

Saturday was our last long run, unless you count the actual 26.2 miles, which I don't like to think about. The novelty has all but worn off, and I really could have stayed on the couch. But, Coach gave me the side eye, so we got ready to head out the door. At a glacial pace.
At some point last week, all 4 of my brain cells started working at the same time, and it occurred to me to look up the marathon on facebook. Found all kinds of helpful information I had looked everywhere for- (well, clearly not everywhere) like the flavors of Gu provided on the course. This may seem trivial, until you try something new on race day and are actually wanting to find a port a potty. Everything must be the same. Don't change anything.

I breathed a sigh of relief when, for the most part, they were the same flavors we had been using.

That's about as far as my brain took me this week, since the following happened Friday:

1.chips and cheese dip

2.draft beer

3.mapping a run starting at a wine bar

We'll call this run 20 miles -glutton for punishment edition.
Things weren't too bad the first half of the run. The scenery was unreal, as was the real estate. I would have snapped some pictures to share, but I thought taking pictures of people's houses I don't know is probably borderline creepy.

A little torture at mile 12.
Saw this bat at our second gatorade stop. I remembered from somewhere someone using a champagne bottle as a foam roller, so I thought, why not a plastic bat? Felt nice on the quads.
Things turned dark (literally and figuratively) around mile 15-16. I went from taking it 3 miles a time to 2, and then towards the end, even the tenths of miles seem to be taking AGES. I thought my watch was broken the numbers were turning over so slow. It was our longest run, it was our slowest run - but we finished.

In the spirit of the glass half full, I was a little glad to have at least one rough run, and still make it through. Most of our long runs to date were so smooth, I think looking back on a hard run will provide a mental boost at some point in the marathon. Which is a mere 18 days away. Time to taper...