I made us a quick breakfast of whole wheat toast, almond butter, honey, cinnamon, and half a banana. I’ve eaten a variation of this before every race, and didn’t want to jinx myself by changing it up! Right after I took the photo, I misplaced my camera somewhere in the apartment… after a few minutes of mild panic, I found my old one in a drawer. Excuse the recycled photo and poor quality of the images to follow!
We got to the park and caught up with Danielle, who looked far more stylish than I did. Good thing I didn’t check the weather- 17 degrees!- but we both layered up anyway.
We stashed our bags and coats and headed to the starting line (where we bumped into Caitlin, who was right next to us!).
As this was Ari’s first race- and the first time he would run more than 2 miles at a time- I looked at today as our first race together, and just a fun way to spend a Sunday morning. If we had to walk the whole way, so be it!
It was really cold. My legs were completely numb and my hands hurt before we even started running, but we started off at a steady pace and held it all the way through. I asked Ari multiple times if he wanted to stop- or even slow down- but he kept moving. We maintained at 10:39 pace the whole way!!! We finished in 42:38; I was so proud.
Total distance: 4 miles
Total time: 42:38
We made the frigid trek back across the park to claim our bags and catch up with Danielle (who finished in 36:58!)…
… then headed over to Arte Cafe for brunch with a 14 lovely ladies (an 2 gentlemen).
It was fun to catch up with so many bloggers… I don’t know if I’ve been in the company of so many like-minded folk at once since the Summit!
Among them were Ada, Melissa, Heather & Mark, Ashley, Meghann, and many more. Ari and I got to catch up with our favorite college gal before she jetted off to triathalon club.
Before she left, she gave us Chobani’s new kids’ yogurt! I can’t wait to try these guys.
Instead of bread, we were given berry muffins. This was probably my favorite part of my meal (other than the company)… the black coffee wasn’t so great.
I ordered an egg white omelet with spinach and goat cheese; the muffin really filled me up so I didn’t have any of the toast or salad (quite unlike me!).
Thanks for a fun time, everyone! (Photo courtesy of Meghann.)
After we all went our separate ways (with plans for future meetings), Ari and I made our way home. We took a little pit stop at Grandaisy Bakery for a small hot chocolate, which we split on the subway ride.
After I was showered and warmed up a bit, the rest of the day was devoted to work. What else is a Sunday for, eh? 
For some reason, I was hungry all day. Only a little after we got home, I tore into the 18 Rabbits Belle Bananas Foster bar (review to come).
And some grapes to keep me going:
Ari had plans tonight so I ended up eating an early dinner with him. I made Tomatoey Spiced Chickpeas which has easily become my go-to quick dinner (it requires almost no active cooking time) when we eat together. Ari is a die-hard meat lover, but for some reason he’s really taken to this vegetarian dish. I served it with Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains Pilaf and steamed cauliflower (which also was consumed without complaints!).
Later, I made a chocolate peanut butter cup for Ari and a dessert plate for myself using dried fruit, a macaroon from Gina, and chocolate hazelnut spread from Liz (more on that later).
Now it’s off to bed… it’s going to be another 5AM morning for me tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m going to clean out the closet and find my camera… until then, please be patient with the fuzzy photos!
Hope you had a great weekend, and have a very happy Monday 
Great recap! Ari did amazing for his first distance more than 3 miles, it’s so funny how guys can just do that. I have my recap ready to go but I’m waiting on Meghann’s in case she has pictures of me I want to take!
I actually looooved my coffee today. Jealous of the hot chocolate though! We’ll get some of that at The Lite Choice in 2 weeks, see you then.
Congrats on the race:D I’m impressed you braved the freezing weather!
Good for you and Ari for completing that race! Running in the cold is just so painful. I can’t wait for it to get back to at least the 40s.
I’ve heard good things about those 18 Rabbits bars. If you give it a thumbs up, I’ll definitely have to check them out.
you guys are so cute! none of my guy friends like to run at ALL! i wanna try that bar! =D
aww yall are adorable! congrats!
Congratulations on completing your race! I can’t believe how freezing you must have been today. Honestly, I could barely go for a walk today and it was 50 degrees in the morning. You are brave!
It was so nice to catch up with you and to meet Ari! Awesome job on the race yesterday and congrats to Ari for finishing it:)
We should definitely hit up Peacefood soon, hopefully before March, but if not that’s OK too;) It will be fun to have you in the hood for an entire month! You have to show me the best restaurants around there because, other than Symposium, I have a hard time finding a good place to eat.
Good job again and I hope you have a nice Monday:)
I’m sorry, but the only thing I can comment on in this post is me stuffing my face in the background of the cute picture of you and Ari. Awesome.
Oh and congrats to Ari – he wooped Mark’s butt.
Congrats to every single person in the race. Thank goodness it wasn’t too windy. You guys are great. Why black coffee? Tableclothes/plastic stirrers? Looks like a wonderful, rosy-cheeked, healthy, happy group. I don’t know this cafe, but it’s now on my list, along with a note to take milk and a spoon.
Congrats on the race and congrats to Ari too!!! I love the pic of you and him, so cute!!!!
So nice you got to meet up with other bloggers for brunch, and the new kids chobani looks delish!!! I heard they were coming out with those, I need to try them!!
I hope you have a great day and hope you find your camera! xo
I can’t wait to here about the 18 rabbits bars, those things have been giving me the eye lately at the store!
And can I just say how adorable you are!
Chobani kids yogurt! I can’t wait to try that! mmm honeynana. Do you know when they’ll be on supermarket shelves?
Congrats to you and Ari on the race!
Congrats to you and Ari!
<3 <3
Congrats to you and Ari! Looks like such a fun day- I’ve never heard of Arte (at first I thought you meant Artie’s deli, then saw the muffin instead of a huge vat or Artie’s pickles…hehe)
Congrats to both of you on a great race!
Sounds like a great race! So glad you got to hangout with so many cool bloggers!
Sweet pic of me right before I ran head first into that poor woman…I’m such a klutz!! Such a fun day!
I love your Blue Plate!
It looks like a cold day.. and the blogger meet up looks like a lot of fun!
awwwwwwwwwww! How fun! Love that you and Ari ran this together! The blogger meet up looks like so much fun- lots of awesome ladies! Great go to dinner. It has to be that TJs blend- Josh LOVES it too! Hope your week goes well!
Amazing…the run the food the friends….we were shoveling! But we all had warm hearts.
Love,
Babby
aw, it looks like you guys had so much fun!! Congrats on the race time
you did an awesome job!
congrats on the good race with your man!! together you 2 did awesome! heck ya for kicking off racing season 2010! I can’t wait until it warms up…starting races in freeezing cold HURTS!
I hope you have a great monday! xoxo!
I’ll be interested to hear what you have to say about that 18 rabbits bar–I have one in my stash that I haven’t gotten around to trying yet!
YAY!! What a great Sunday! Big congrats to the both of you on your race and what a lovely brunch!
That’s it, I have got to try your tomatoey chickpea dish!
awwww i LOVE the little dessert plate you made yourself
what a fun little meetup! and such a perfect breakfast for after a great race and cold weather
CONGRATS TO ARI! that is amazing!
annnnndddd chobani kids yogurts? ummmm, i need to find those. like now.
Congrats on the race! Looks freezing. I hate running in the cold.
You guys are super adorable:)
great job on the run!!! and what a fun meet up + breakfast
Congrats on running that race! Someday I wanna run a marathon
Your chickpea creation looks delish. I love chickpeas in any form but that just looks nom worthy!