We “slummed” it Friday night for dinner.  No gourmet restaurant for us.  We wanted family, relaxed yet good food.

We enjoy the bar area at Uno’s and the food isn’t too bad, with a lot of options.

For starters, a Mediterranean pizza

It was so good, I could have eaten 2 or 3 slices because the crust was thin.  But there was a race to run the next day and over stuffing my belly wasn’t a good idea.

Garden Salad was a must.  It was crisp and fresh.  I tried the fat free blueberry pomegranate dressing with blue cheese crumbles on the side.  A new favorite!

Dinner had to be fish.  My pre-race ritual which is usually a light white fish such as haddock.  This particular option was baked haddock in a light cracker crust with sides of broccoli and rice pilaf.

I have to admit, I did have 1 1/2 glasses of a Hess Chardonnay.  I planned on 1 glass but Ted knocked the first glass over and we got a full freebie.  Can’t go with out my wine and if it’s free, it always tastes better, kind of like stolen apples.      A good bold cup of coffee followed dinner then the movie

It was a little slow but the ending was good.  I enjoy watching Jennifer Anniston.  Justin Bateman wasn’t too bad either.  Jeff Goldblum was pretty funny as well.   Then to bed at 10:30 pm.  I slept SO good. I even slept through the 3 AM “episode” of Shane having to go out and Ted getting up to take him.  That’s not normal.  I usually wake up at the drop of a hat.  Saturday was going to be a good day – it was a perfect set up to SUCCESS!

SATURDAY – Confidence Building Results

Oh happy day!  A warm up run with Shane for 2 miles had me wondering how Saturday’s 10K race would go.  As I trotted along, my hamstring was bugging me. It had been fine all week. Why today?! There was an hour to spare before we left for Rome, NY so I stretched and massaged and tried to calm that aching muscle down. 

We left for the race at 8 am.  The three of us were running: Ted, Teddy, and myself.  The day was cold, a bit breezy but by race time at 9 am, the sun was shining. Turned out to be perfect running weather. 

I didn’t think I was any where near as nervous as I usually get for a race which didn’t make sense because I really wanted to run well.  After all, this was my last fast paced race until Boston on April 18th.   However, my last trip to the bathroom proved I WAS nervous since my left leg was shaking uncontrollably.  That’s my nervous “twitch” before a race.  Weird, but it’s me.

There was a great turnout and all runners, 5K and 10K started together.  It was a new start from previous years. We began at Rome High School and went just under a mile down the hill before the 5K and 10K split.  Everyone was THRILLED with the new venue.  It was accommodating and a good course.  The sunshine made it all that much better. 

The first 2 miles were tough for me as usual.  I start out wondering.. how will I ever finish the race, why did I sign up in the first place, can’t wait until it’s over…. yadda, yadda, yadda.   Everytime!  It’s not until about 2 1/2 to 3 miles when I start to get a rhythm, feel good and build speed.  I never saw Teddy on the course but did see Ted as he turned in towards the Fort as I was running away along the road.

Coming into mile 5 I felt good.  I was pushing it a bit and couldn’t wait to finish this thing.  I kept thinking we would finish on a down hill since I THOUGHT I knew the route.  Not so.  We had to finish up hill.  It was a great finish in spite of slowing for the hill and….. A  10K PR FOR ME!!!!

47:14 was the clock time.  7:37 pace.  AND…. I got 1st Place in My Age Group!  

But the fun didn’t end there.   We high tailed it home, made some quick egg omelets then took off to meet Angela, the new baby Alyssa, Nicholas, and Teddy for the ventriloquist act at Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute. 

It was a GREAT show but unfortunately Nicholas was a bit too young for it.  He did however, enjoy playing on the fold up theater seats.

Super – duper Saturday!  The 10K race built some confidence going into Boston.  I know I can’t hold that pace in a marathon but ZOWY!  That was a good run for me.

First, a little superstition to pass along:   Don’t do laundry on New Years Day. You could wash someone right out of the family.

Our washing machine is taped up for “safety” reasons.

Now for the Hangover run.  It was a 5K for Ted and a 10K for me. No great times were logged but it was a super winter day for running. 45 degrees and no wind. YahOOOO!

Shane and I did our 2 mile warm up.

Ted and I left for Barneveld at 9 am.  Race start was 10 am.  It was a very friendly casual run, out and back over rolling terrain. 

Registration was in Andees Tavern, a nice large bar in the village of Barneveld. 

We saw several people we knew and had some nice New Year chats.

Ted ran the 5K in 29:16  and beat his last time on Thanksgiving day. Go Ted!

I ran a crappy 10K (not happy AT ALL with my time):  53:16

Note the distance:  The race was actually 6.35 miles(some say 6:34). Still, not my best time.

Splits:

• 8:03
• 8:19
• 8:28
• 8:33
• 8:23
• 8:26
• 3:01

I swear I was NOT the only one running… it just looks that way.

Bad time but GREAT way to start the New Year. Now we are off to visit with family in Syracuse.

Hope you have a great weekend. Time to celebrate all good things that are going to happen this year!

We start with the pre race meal.  Ted wanted to “slum” it again. See what happens when guys have a few beers together?  They forget anything fancy and gourmet.  

Well, we didn’t actually slum it and, I have to say, my salmon was one of the most perfectly cooked pieces of salmon I’ve had in a very long time.

We went to Ninety Nine Restaurant

 The bar tender explained that the cooking time is automated but some of the cooks use their own judgment over the automated timer.  I had one of the good cooks.

Oh look!  The Ninety Nine supports our local race!

Speaking of races, today is the Fort to Fort in Rome, NY.   I was up about 4 times last night. Not sure why, just didn’t sleep well.   Too much water, wine and coffee I guess. 

Finally, at 6:25 I got up. That’s sleeping in for me.  Shane and I went on a 2.15 mile warm up run at 6:45 am.  Slow pace, just to get the blood flowing.  It was such a wonderful morning, dry and cool with the potential of warming up to the perfect temperature at race time, 9 AM.  I decided to wear my low mileage racers: 

They are super light and great for shorter runs. Yes, they are very orange.  The inside is blue.  Hey! They’re true Orangemen sneaks!  Go Syracuse!   Ok…back to the run….

I left the house at 8:05, about 10 minutes later than I had planned.  Still, I knew where I was going to park and I knew the routine I would follow once on the race grounds.  Since when do things go according to plan?

When I arrived at the Geiger Rd. facility (the start of the race location), they had changed the parking lots.  I couldn’t park in my usual spot. Nuts! That put me farther away from the registration.  I hustled, picked up my number and timer, a shirt (which I exchanged for an XL figuring Ted might want it), and headed for the bathroom. The line to the bathroom was SO LONG.  There was 20 minutes until start time.  Oh boy!  It was now 5 minutes to start and I was about 6 away from the stall. I said to the gal behind me, lets go to the men’s room. Ok – we were in. There were more women in there than men. It was gross. Never use a men’s room ladies, if you don’t have to.

Hustled up to the start.  Luckily it was about  5 minutes late going off. What a crowd.  By the way, I didn’t take my camera so, unfortunately I won’t be showing you what a glorious day for racing it was.

We started. My heart was pounding and my stomach was in knots from being delayed at the gym.  What happened to Ted’s shirt?  Well, I tucked it into a corner just outside the gym and hoped for the best.

I started fast because it was a gentle downhill start.  Then I began picking out people for my pacers.  I felt good. I felt like I was going a bit fast for me, but kept thinking “keep going at this pace until that point”.  “THAT” point would come and I would still keep going. 

As we were approaching Fort Stanwix, I saw the leader coming back, behind the police car.  He was quite a bit ahead of the 2nd placer.  Then zooming along in third was Richard Cohen.  I gave him a yell and a wave “Great Going Richard!”  He flashed me a smile.  Geesh – that guy is fast!

We went up the stairs to Fort Stanwix – This is a photo off their site.  There was NO SNOW today. It was hot!   A gal stands at the top of the stairs telling runners to watch their heads – low ceiling.

Through the fort to the left and over the bridge

Another photo from their site.  I love running through the Fort. It breaks up the run perfectly. 

Now it’s the run for home.  I checked Garmin at about 4 miles and my pace was 8:02.  I thought that’s fast for me, and almost INSTANTLY my legs went heavy.  After the race, I told two other girls about that and they said the same thing happened to them.  NOTE TO SELF:  Don’t check your Garmin in the middle of the race.

I passed a couple of the people I was using to pace myself.  Then one gal passed me. 

“100 METERS TO GO”  they were yelling.  I turned on what I had left (which surprisingly felt good – could have gone faster- SHOOT!), passed the girl that passed me, and crossed at 50:37 minutes.  My Garmin said 50.42 and indicated a pace of 8:08.  I’ll take the 50:37 because every little bit counts.   Cool!

Scrambling for water….pant, pant, pant 

I ran up to get my camera from the car, leave a message for Ted, and eat the other half of my banana.

I took a photo of other finishers just desperate to cross that line

Someone said “They have quite the spread in there” so naturally I checked out the food.

Sandwiches: Vegetable, turkey, or ham

Bananas, oranges, and yogurt

Assorted cookies…

That’s all great, but the only thing I can eat immediately after a race is half of a banana.

Then the results were posted. 

I was SECOND in my age group. Yay!   Should I stay to collect my medal?  I tried but time was getting on and I wanted to get home to Shane

The result:  After a complete upset of plans at the start, it turned out to be my best 10 k yet.

Whoops! Forget to tell you. We have a bunch of honest people around Rome because the shirt was still in the corner waiting for me. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a Ladies XL and not a mens. Oh well. Ted STILL doesn’t get his running shirt.

My first 10K run of the year.  The temperature showed 17 degrees when I took Shane out for a warm up at 7:15 a.m.  The run began at 10:00 a.m.  I took a few sips of water, put on a wicking shirt with a high neck and my thinner, but insulated white running jacket.  The jacket is light weight and always amazes me at how warm something so thin can be.  

We went for a 2 mile slow paced warm up.  I got hot and decided I would run the “Beer & Chili Run” at 10 o’clock in something even lighter, my violet Spring/Fall running jacket.  I realized the start would be cold but hoped the lighter jacket would allow me to maintain a comfortable temperature throughout the run. 

Ted decided to accompany me with Shane on this adventure and we left the house at 9:00 a.m.  I had a banana with peanut butter as we walked out the door.  It would take us just under 30 minutes to get to Newport, New York and then I would take an Everlast Energy Shot.

The night before the run, we had a delicious meal at Perugia’s.  First, I sampled all the different breads in the bread basket and even made an apple sandwich.  The apple slices came on my fresh greens salad with walnuts and sliced green apples.

When I was about 8 years old, my mother would put slices of apple between two pieces of buttered bread. It was my favorite!

A delicious shrimp cocktail with Grand Marnier cocktail sauce (sweeter and less horseradish flavor than typical cocktail sauce).

We were served a rose sorbet to cleanse our palates. The taste was bursting in our mouths. It was so fresh and so clean tasting. I’d never enjoyed a sorbet quite so much.

Dinner was served but that was after I enjoyed a glass of red wine and went through 2 glasses of water. 

Dinner presented the sweetest tasting scallops served with endive, over couscous.   A brilliant meal.

Ted was kind enough to leave Shane a sampling of his salmon and the server wrapped it up just too nicely for us.

When we arrived home and I was walking Shane for his late night romp, thoughts on running popped into my head. 

• “I love the way my legs carry me and they just fall mindlessly one in front of the other. How blessed”.
• “I like running when the streets are empty and the quietness of the morning is “loud”. 
• “I’d never wear head phones when running with Shane.  I know he can’t hold a conversation but he doesn’t deserve to be ignored”.
• “It’s odd that I’m not nervous about the run in the morning.  I hope that lack of nervousness continues through tomorrow”.

Those were my thoughts as we walked along the dark, quiet street.  What are some of your thoughts the night before a run?

Saturday’s run: The Beer and Chili Run

I picked up my shirt and stood in the long line for the toilet.  I overheard the guys talking about the challenging hill facing the 10K runners.  “It’s not a nice hill.”  “It’s tough but I’m going to try to get over it”.   That didn’t make me feel good.  I thought to myself, “if I get to the 3K turn around and don’t feel good, I’ll just make it a 5K race instead of a 10K”.   I think I knew that wouldn’t happen.  I’d have to go for the challenge.  How hard was this hill anyway?

We met up with Richard Cohen, his father and now him have been my lawyer on a  personal and business level for years. Good thing we took this photo of Richard and me because……DRUM ROLL PLEASE…… RICHARD WON THE 10K!

Does that make me a star as well?!!!

The walk to the starting line was cold and negative thoughts were leaving my head because there was no backing out now. 

The whistle blew. The run began.   It wasn’t even before completing the first mile that I was thinking “I’m tired”.   That wasn’t good.

I saw Ted and Shane pass us in the car.  That was something to look forward to because I knew he would stop somewhere up ahead.

The 5K runners were turning around at their turn point. Should I keep going?  It didn’t look so bad ahead. Go for it.

The hill.  The hill wasn’t good.  I had to walk 20 paces, run 20 paces about 4 times to make it up. It was long and steep.  I needed Shane to pull me up it.  i wondered if there was a person behind me with a cell phone to call 911 if I dropped.  Finally, at the top, I thought it has to be all down hill. Well, it was for the most part but then at 3 miles, when I saw people turning, they kept us going straight. I wanted to turn!  We had to go PAST the turn to the 3.1 mile point then back track.  The worst part?  It was down hill about .1 mile so I had to run back up the hill.  Not very long you say, but at this point, any hill, no matter how long, how steep, looked painful.

In front of me, an older gent. stopped to relieve in the woods.  I took the opportunity to walk a few steps.  As he immerged from the bushes, I began running again.  It was all down hill or flat at this point. 

I don’t do well on down hills.  I don’t let myself go.  I tried…but my feet were slamming so hard on the pavement, it was painful.  I slowed it down.

At 6 miles, there was Ted again and he took my gloves from me. My hands were too sweaty to wear them.  I even had thoughts about getting into the car at that point instead of finishing.

The finish line in sight.  My final time:  55:36.  Pace:  8.56.  I was pleased with that since I really thought that hill was going to put me over an hour. 

Ted and I enjoyed the chili and beer.  They had vegetarian chili as well as a meat version. Lots of rice and Ted liked the beer.  No photo because we forgot the camera in the car.  Sorry. But just picture a paper bowl of chili covering a heaping  half a cup of white rice, sprinkled with extra hot sauce.  A cool, foam topped beer on the side. 

First 10K of the season down.  Not sure I want to think about the next one quite yet.