Tag Archives: boston marathon

Five Things Friday {11-09-2012

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1. Earlier this week I received my confirmation of acceptance card in the mail for the Boston Marathon. I have to admit, even though my name has been on the entrant list since a few days after I registered I always get nervous that something went wrong during registration or somehow my name was left out etc. It was nice to get a reminder in the mail– if only the Goofy Challenge/Disney Marathon would do the same!

2. On Tuesday night Ian decided that he wanted pizza. We usually keep frozen dough and other ingredients on hand but we were all out so after a quick trip to the convenience store in our building, Ian returned with a DiGiorno. Unfortunately, we do not own a circular baking sheet so we had to get a little creative and used a flipped over circular casserole dish (so the solid side was up). Obviously neither of us really thought this through because as the dough softened it molded to the pan making a nice pizza casserole!

Ian said it tasted the same but the crusts were doughier. Hmmm….

3. I almost never go out to lunch during the week– in fact, yesterday was only the second time I’ve purchased lunch since starting my current job in late-July. Yesterday morning I was not feeling packing a lunch so I decided to pick one up from the fancy grocery store salad bar near my office. I felt like a kid in a candy store (flashback to college cafeterias) and I loaded up my salad with the most random things (raisins? ok! marinated mushrooms? sounds good!).

When I got back to my office though I was disappointed. First, my crazed put-everything-on-salad mindset hadn’t created a coherent meal and second, it did in fact taste like a college salad bar (nothing wrong with that but for almost $5 I should have picked up a salad elsewhere).

4. This week was a good week for mail. On Tuesday night I was informed that I had received a package and I was in no way expecting one (while I was/am but I knew it couldn’t have gotten there by them). Yay surprise package! I walked over to the package pick-up place in my building and found a large and somewhat heavy box. I was so excited to open it!

Turns out it my Muir Glen Tomato Gift Basket that I won from Blonde Bostonian. Yay, chili for everyone!

5. You know when you have a good idea for a meal so you make it and it looks good but unfortunately it doesn’t taste half as good as you thought it would? Yeah, that was my breakfast this morning.

I toasted two gf waffles and topped them with pumpkin mixed with protein powder, honey, and pumpkin pie spice, banana slices, and pb2 sauce. It looked so good but tasted kind of bland. Boo.

What are your plans this weekend? Ever won a blog giveaway?

Marathon Monday Recap

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Instead of waking up at the planned 4:30 a.m. to run the marathon on Monday morning, I slept in until 7:30 and headed out for a 3 mile run around the hotel. I had no hamstring or heel pain (yay!) but was surprised by the already warm temperature. I don’t tend to sweat all that much but 3 miles left me a sweaty mess. I can’t even imagine how hot it was for the marathoners!

Breakfast was the hotel buffet and I had my usual oatmeal, granola, and muffin combo. I skipped on the yogurt because my allergies were acting up and dairy just seemed like a bad choice.

After breakfast, we took the T downtown and plopped ourselves about 100 feet from the finish line. I’ve never spectated at a marathon before and was really excited to see the elites finish.

I also couldn’t believe how hot it was just standing still. We actually saw two spectators faint before the marathoners even approached the finish line. At least there were tons of medical personnel near us!

We only could take so much of the heat so after about an hour of cheering on runners, we headed out to the Sam Adams Brewery.

The brew tour was okay, I mean it was free, but the best part was the tasting. We got to sample three brews- the lager, the summer ale, and the 26.2 special brew (my favorite!).

We were having so much fun tasting beers and chatting that we decided to take the free trolley over to Doyles, the first bar ever to serve Sam Adams beer.

We were told that if we ordered a Sam Adams beer we could keep the glass (umm ok!) so we all indulged in another beer (26.2 for me) and ordered some appetizers to share.

As this was our lunch, I insisted we order a veggie plate, and we also split beer battered onion rings and garlic fries. The onion rings were fantastic and I’m not usually a fan so that says something.

Ian and my mom wanted to see Fenway, so we decided to head over in that direction and watch some of the last marathoners finishing up.

We also got to see a lot of drunk fans stumbling out of the ballpark ;)

We were all pretty tired after being in the sun all day but we had been told not to leave Boston without eating at Neptune Oyster House so to another meal we went!

Ian and I tried our first oysters. I enjoyed the sweet one the most, maybe my palette isn’t quite ready for oysters?

We also split a bowl of their clam chowder. It was really good and surprisingly light!

For dinner, I ordered the lobster roll (I’d never had one before!). It was incredibly rich but really tasty. I will admit that after our lunch, I was sick of fries and avoided these like the plague :P .

Bellies full we took the T back to the hotel, finished up the Mike’s Pastry’s in our hotel room, and crashed.

On Tuesday, I woke up and headed out for another 3 mile run. My hamstring and heel have been feeling okay so I think I’m ready to base train again. I can’t wait to start increasing my miles (but all in due time!).

I had a very similar looking breakfast at the hotel and then we headed off toward the airport.

We had a lot of time to kill so we got off the T at South Station and found a deli to grab lunch.

I had a greek salad and a piece of pita bread. I pushed about half of the feta off the salad and only ate about half of the piece of pita. I just wasn’t feeling anything too heavy.

Everything went fine at the airport and on our flight. I watched Friends (love JetBlue), munched on some Terrablue chips, and worked on my thesis. Unfortunately, while Ian and I arrived in Chicago in one piece, our bag did not. We ended up spending almost half an hour filing a lost bag claim before leaving O’Hare.

Fortunately, JetBlue allotted us $30 to spend on toiletries, so a quick trip to CVS later, we had toothbrushes, shampoo, and contact solution in hand. We also stopped at Trader Joe’s to do our weekly grocery shopping and to pick up a quick dinner.

Not wanting another salad or sandwich, I tried this sushi. Verdict? It was pretty good- although by 9 p.m. anything would have tasted amazing!

Desert was an unpictured corn tortilla with white chocolate wonderful, banana slices, walnuts, and chocolate chips microwaved for about 15 seconds. Delish!

And then after a crazy weekend of travelling and sightseeing, I crawled into bed and crashed hard!

WIAW: A Sunday in Boston

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Most of you know that I was in Boston this past weekend. I was supposed to run the Boston Marathon but due to injury and the heat, I deferred until next year. Anyway, I was in Boston over the weekend and here are my eats (and sights!) from the trip- enjoy :)

And thanks again to Jenn for hosting!

We started our morning with breakfast at the hotel like we did on Saturday.

I had a packet of instant oatmeal with banana, granola, and blueberry yogurt. I mixed about half of the yogurt container into the oats to make yoatgurt and had the other half on the side with granola. I also had some coffee.

After breakfast we took the T downtown and checked out the marathon finish line. At this point I was still planning on racing and wanted to time how long it would take to get to the shuttle buses (to the start line) from the hotel. The finish line area was crazy busy so we quickly made our way over to Newbury street to do a little window shopping and avoid the crowds.

We also looped back over to Beacon Street and finally checked out the original Cheers!

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous in Boston so we spent a lot of time just sitting and relaxing in the Commons. Let me tell you, if I lived in Boston, I’d spend so much time just reading and unwinding in the Boston Commons. I LOVED it!

Eventually we started to get hungry for lunch and walked over to North End looking for Il Panino Express. Unfortunately our directions misled us and after searching for the restaurant we decided to give up and check out Hot Tomatoes instead.

Honestly, I’m not too upset. I ordered the green monster sandwich and fell in love with the amount of veggies and high quality cheese in the sandwich. It was AH-mazing!

We also wandered into a little gelato shop looking for something sweet. I had a small cup of pistachio and hazlenut. It was really good and fresh and I figured the splurge was fine because I was running a marathon in the morning!

We wandered around the city some more while making our way to the Museum of Science to catch our scheduled duck tour.

I have to say that as cheesy as the duck tour was, I absolutely loved the experience. It was great to have a tour of the city and we could all sit down and rest our legs. Plus, we got to go out on the Charles River, how cool is that?

At the end of the duck tour I checked my phone and saw the marathon deferment option. I totally missed it at the expo (no surprise due to the crowds) and I became obsessed with calling and texting friends/family trying to figure out what I should do. It was a really confusing couple of hours!

We had planned on checking out Harvard Square and grabbing a pre-race dinner there so even though I was debating not running the race at all, we headed over to the campus to check it out.

The campus was pretty but I hardly noticed, I was way too obsessed with making my decision about the marathon.

We ended up wandering into Cafe Sushi for a late dinner (yelp recommendation) and I started my dinner with a green salad with ginger dressing.

And then Ian and I split 3 rolls (can’t remember now what was in them). My mom’s in the back with her veggie roll, she’s not the biggest fan of raw fish.

On our walk back to the T, we stumbled across J.P. Licks, an ice cream shop that I’ve read about many times in blogland. Not wanting to miss out on an opportunity for good ice cream, we decided to check it out.

I was way too bummed at this point to take my camera out but I enjoyed a small scoop of peanut lace ice cream made with hemp milk. It was really good (and only slightly green) and not too sweet. It literally tasted like natural peanut butter. Yum!

When we got back to the hotel, I made the final call on the race (not running) and we all crashed into bed after a long day.

How do you handle indulgences on vacation? Do you let yourself indulge a little bit?

Defering

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As many of you might have heard, temperatures are expected to reach near 90 degrees tomorrow in Boston, yuck! Given the incredibly warm weather, BAA has issued a deferment policy for 2012 entrants who decide not to run the marathon this year.

I found out about this option around 5:30 tonight when we were getting off of a duck tour and I have been mulling it over in my head since then.

I was already planning on running the race slowly and taking lots of walking breaks but I was still predicting that the race was going to be incredibly hard on my body. In fact, the only reason I was even attempting to run this year was because I didn’t want to count on the future. I’m hoping to requalify and to break my marathon PR in the next year or so but you never know what could happen and I really really wanted to run a Boston Marathon. I didn’t even think to factor extreme weather conditions into the equation.

But then an opportunity to run next year presented itself and as incredibly frustrated as it will be to put off the Boston Marathon, I have to admit that I would much rather run it fit and in running shape than hobble through 90 degree weather and then have to take 2-4 weeks off from running just to recover from both injuries and dehydration.

I feel like a wimp and a wuss for deciding not to run this year but in reality it was a stretch for me to be running in the first place. Another part of me figured that I should run the race because I’m here, with family, and we’ve spent a lot of money on coming to Boston but both Ian and my mom have been amazing and supportive and want me to do whats best for my health. They’ve both agreed to come back next year (albeit for a shorter trip) and watch the race when I’m better able to run.

I’m trying to think of the deferment as a gift, a chance to run the marathon when I’m in my best shape, but I can’t help feeling disappointed. I’ve been looking forward to this race for so long!

So as of right now my plan is to defer my entry until next year (unless the weather changes drastically overnight–very unlikely, then I might hop in the race). As per the deferment policy, I will have a reserved spot in next years race but I will have to pay another race entry. As annoying (and $$) as that is it is only a small fraction of what my health is worth. Plus, I’ve really enjoyed Boston (I’m about ready to pack up and move here) so I’m looking forward to being back in the city and running in top shape next year!

But I want to thank all of you for your amazing support and kindness over the past few months as I’ve been training and battling injuries. In a weird way I feel like I am letting all of you down by not running tomorrow (I know this isn’t true but still…). I have to listen to my body and do whats best for my health and I know that running tomorrow would not only be hot and exhausting but would also delay my return to uninjured running and I am ready to get back out there RUNNING.

So that being said, good luck to all of you running tomorrow- please stay hydrated and slow down :)

What would you have done given the circumstances?

En Route to Boston

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Last night I finally got my act together and started packing. And guess what? It didn’t take nearly as long and wasn’t half as painful as I though it would be.

I made piles on my bed of different types of clothes so I could see and count all of the shirts, pants, running, clothes, etc. I was planning on packing. I also started a small pile of shoes and a seperate one of electronics, running, gear, and travel snacks (very important!).

Then came the hard part, packing Sonic up to go to Ian’s sisters house kitty camp. I’ve only left Sonic once before (last summer for a couple of days) and I don’t like doing it. I’m not sure if Sonic just hasn’t outgrown his kitty tendencies yet or if he’s an abnormality but he is the most co-dependent cat ever! Seriously, he follows Ian and me around the apartment and gives us panic-eyes whenever we leave. Just look at him with my carry on stuff, “please mama take me too”.

Also look at him sneaking in the freezer, he must have jumped up when I wasn’t looking… crazy cat.

After we left him at kitty camp we finished up packing, checked into our flight, and crashed. We had an eaaaaarly wake-up call!

So, as you read this Ian and I will most likely be en route to Boston either via el to the airport or in the air on our way to Boston. My mom is flying in from Detroit and we will be landing within 15 minutes of each other in Boston. We’ll meet at the airport before heading to our hotel.

Can I say how lucky I am that both Ian and my mom wanted to come support me this weekend? I know that they are looking forward to having a weekend vacation but I also am aware that its not always fun to stand around and watch runners for 3 hours. I feel very lucky and I really appreciate their support :) .

Anyway, thats all I have for you right now. I plan on blogging throughout the weekend and I’ll do my best to keep you all updated in one way or another!

Have a wonderful Friday!