Lilveggiepatch » race

NYRR Gridiron 4M Race Re-Cap

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:12:19 +0000

This morning we got up bright and early to get to Central Park for my first race of 2010, and Ari’s first race of his life!

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

Bed-Stuy Restoration Corp 10k Race Re-Cap

lilveggiepatch — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:25:35 +0000

My only hope for the race yesterday morning was to finish the 6.2 miles in under an hour. That would require a sustained pace of less than 10 minutes/mile. When I’ve run my 6.5-mile route in the past, I’ve usually come in around 1 hour and 10 minutes (an 11-minute mile). So, with the hope, but not the expectation, per se, that I would reach my goal, I quickly ate my breakfast (Ezekiel English muffin with almond butter, cinnamon, honey and a banana) and drank enough coffee to worry me about needing to stop during the race.

Ari and I drove into Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, to meet up with Judy at the registration booth.

There was already a refreshment table out; I grabbed some water while Ari went straight for the Swiss Miss.

I wore the same outfit I had on at the Komen 5K… don’t need any surprises!

There were only about 400 runners; a particularly good size considering I wasn’t too familiar with the area.

Soon it was time for Judy and I to start warming up (and it was a little chilly out); Ari said goodbye and went home to practice.

We got up to the front of the line and decided we would run together, but if one of us wanted to race ahead, she should. I didn’t want to overexert myself too quickly, but I wanted to set a good pace. Good thing I brought some good tunes!

Mile 1: 9:34

Mile 2: 9:00

We managed to maintain about a 9-minute mile throughout the entire race. Judy likes to start off slowly, and I tend to peter out towards the end, so we were a very good match and really pushed each other. There were times, towards the end, that I wanted to walk (or throw up), but I didn’t want to let Judy down. When we rounded the final corner and I saw the finish line, I sprinted to the end, finishing with an official time of 55:47. Judy was a mere two seconds behind, at 55:49. (The top female won at 49 minutes; she is the red-headed woman in some of the photos above.)

Total distance: 10K (6.2 miles)

Total time: 55:47

Maximum heart rate: 193 (97%)

Average heart rate: 182 (92%)

Calories burned: 696

After making a quick bathroom stop, I got on the refreshment line and picked up some fruit. They were also serving bagels, but I wanted to wait until I got home and could have a real lunch.

We hung around to watch the awards ceremony, and is it lucky we did! Look who won FIRST PLACE IN HER AGE GROUP?

Congratulations, Judy!!! The second and third places were about 15 minutes behind Judy’s time. In case I haven’t bragged enough about her in the past, Judy has done dozens of triathalons all around the world, often placing in her age group. This was by far not her first trophy, but it was exciting nonetheless. On the way home, she was stopped and photographed by strangers on the street, including a group of French tourists on the subway. C’est super!

It ended up being a huge gadinx to get home from Bed-Stuy, and by the time I got off the subway I was ready to eat my leg. I knew the pickings in our fridge would be slim, so I stopped at the health food store to get a sandwich.

I thought this look like the Whole Foods chicken salad I love, but it ended up just being a wedge of iceberg lettuce, two slices of Tofurkey, and vegan mayo.

Thanks, but no thanks. I threw out the inside, saved the bread, and plopped on a Trader Joe’s Masala burger with hummus and tomato sauce. Yes, it may have been a little strange, but I was too hungry to try to figure something else out.

I also had a Blueberry Chobani.

After lunch, I’d planned on getting some work done, but I was so tired that I passed out in bed for the next two hours. It wasn’t exactly a “restful” sleep, and the only indication that I’d even shut my eyes was the different time on the clock radio. When I woke up, I was starving again, and had a bowl of Kay’s Naturals Gluten-Free Honey Almond Protein Cereal.

I ate the cereal with skim milk and 1/2 banana. It tasted a bit like eating air. Sweet air, but air nonetheless.

Unfortunately, right after I ate this, Ari got home and decided he wanted to go out for a light sushi snack. Don’t you hate when that happens? I went with him anyway, and we split some hot sake. We were celebrating Sunday!

I also had a piece of his sweet potato roll. I wasn’t hungry, but these things are so good!

Then Ilana, Ari and I decided to go to the movies to see Whip It. Before we left, I had a kiwi.

Ilana and I liked it, but Ari did not. It may not have been “brilliant”, so to speak, but I thought it was a cute movie. I saw the Roller Girls once in St. Paul, and it was so much fun! I want to do that again. At the theater, I ate the better part of a box of gummy bears.

After the movie, Ari and I took ourselves out to Locale for dinner using our Coinstar winnings. (Yes, this may have been the cause of my food poisoning, and yes, I did order seafood again on a Sunday. So be it.) We started with bread and olive oil…

We shared a bottle of Washington Merlot.

We split the warm mozzarella and olive appetizer, which was delicious. I have to do this at home… it’s so simple!

For my entrée, I ordered the grilled swordfish with broccoli rabe, purple potatoes, and artichokes in a chimichurri sauce (this was a special).

This was delicious. I ate about 2/3, and brought the rest home. You might see it later on grilled bread as a panini, or in spaghetti as a fancy pasta.

Ari ordered steak! He loves it so much. My mom is going to teach me how to make it perfectly for his birthday. He looks a little like a vampire here, no?

It was a splurge night in every sense of the word, but we were celebrating The Upwelling‘s upcoming European tour (they leave today), my successful race, and just, you know, life. So, we ordered the Peanut Butter Bomba to split for dessert. This is what we call a “tartuffo” at the restaurant I used to work in: peanut butter gelato covered in milk chocolate, with a chocolate center, and drizzled with chocolate and peanut butter. One thing I can always count on Ari for his love of chocolate+pb together. (I scraped off the whipped cream so it wouldn’t ruin his evening… too much white and creamy.)

It was a great day. The band will be touring for the next 10 days, during which I will be watching Charley and getting my life in order. Tall order? Nah. I have to start that now… this is going to be a very busy day. I’m very behind on blog reading and commenting; I hope to catch up in the next couple days, but please don’t be offended if it takes me a little longer than that. I’m a little stressed out right now, but I love you all very much.

Today is the last day to enter my Chobani giveaway… I will be closing the contest tonight at 10 PM EST so get those entries in!

Have a great day.

Susan Komen 5k Race for the Cure Recap

lilveggiepatch — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:58:15 +0000

Good afternoon! Thanks to all of your wonderful support and comments, Ilana and I had a great race this morning.

Although we both managed to be in bed early- before 11:30- I had a terrible time trying to sleep, I was so excited! I woke up at 1:30 and thought it was time to go… I made the same mistake twice more at 4:30 and 6:30. When it was finally time to get up, I was pretty tired! I still bounded up, walked Charley, and sat down to a pre-race breakfast.

I had a piece of whole wheat toast with peanut butter, cinnamon, a banana and honey with a cup of coffee.

Ilana had a bowl of Mueslix, Puffins, and a banana.

We were tired, but ready to race!

We packed all of our necessities and hopped on the subway. We found the Museum of Natural History, and made our way to the starting line outside the front of the building… along with 25,000 other racers!

You can see that I decided to bring my camera after all… I ran with both my iPod and camera in my right hand, leaving my left free. Hopefully I’ll have a new iPod for the next time!

We played around a little…

Stretched…

Then we got in line. They were broken down by pace, so I decided to try and push myself and got into the 9-minute mile lane. Worst case, I’d fall behind!

We listened to speeches by breast cancer survivors, Uma Thurman, Gabrielle Union, Gov. David Patterson, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Cyndi Lauper (among others), who sang the National Anthem.

I started off pretty fast. Every article I’ve read about racing has said not to do this, but I couldn’t help myself. I was excited! I ran past the first mile-marker and saw that I’d been running for 9 minutes and 30 seconds. Woohoo!

I started getting a stitch in the middle of my right ribcage during mile 2, but remembered what K said and inhaled through my nose, exhaling through my mouth. It still hurt, but eventually went away. I finished my second mile at 17:30, making that an 8-minute mile. What?!

Although I knew the end was in sight and that this was not the longest distance I’ve run, my legs started getting tired. Adrenaline pushed me on, though, and I sailed through the finish line after 27:40, with an average pace of 8:55/ mile. That is definitely a PR for me!

Ilana and I found each other, sweaty but victorious.

We headed over to the swag tents…

Found out some more about the Susan G. Komen Foundation…

Sampled Fuze (too sweet for my tastes)…

… and came home with POUNDS of swag.

We immediately broke into our samples of Dove milk chocolate… I’m not a huge milk chocolate fan, but this was a pretty sweet reward.

When we got back to the apartment, we were tired and hungry. We decided to enjoy a celebratory lunch at Picnic! We sat outside to dog people watch.

In honor of my dad and grandparents, who are in Nice eating the real deal, I enjoyed a slice of baguette with butter.

Ilana and I both ordered the same thing: quiche & salad. I had the Alsatian Tarte, which was filled with potatoes, leeks, onions, and gruyère cheese. It was a great post-race treat!

When we got home, we fell into bed and slept for a couple hours. As Ilana said, “That’s what Sundays are for!” I agree.