Update to My 13 Halfs

My list of half marathons has changed:

1. Manhattan Half (Jan) 2:28
2. Austin Half Marathon (with JC in Feb)
3. National Half Marathon (with TK in Mar)
4. 13.1 NYC Half Marathon (not to be confused with the NYC Half Marathon, which I did not get into this year) (Apr)
5. More Half Marathon (Apr)
6. Still have to find one for May ODDyessy Half Marathon in Philly with MLJ (May)
7. Virginia Wine Country Half Marathon (Jun)
8. North Face Endurance Half Marathon DC (June - I still have to sign up for it) I never signed up for this. As much as I want the arm warmers, after the two halfs in one weekend in April, I cannot bring myself to do that again. Plus Post Hunt is that day, as is MW's 1st birthday party....oh and I have to work.

My additions:
8. See Jane Run (Seattle in July)
9. San Francisco Half Marathon 1st half route (July)
10. Still looking for August
11. Run to the Beat (London - Sept)
12. Baltimore Half Marathon (Oct)
My ".1". ING NYC Marathon (Nov)

Only two half-marathons left to choose!

How Not to Make Whoopie Pies

I've spent months finding baking recipies I've wanted to try and I finally found time to make one of them: Chocolate Stout Salted Caramel Whoopie Pies. It was not what I would call a resounding success. But take a look for yourself!



If I ever try this again, I promise I'll write a script and not do the audio on the fly.

Yesterday's run was theraputic. Some parts of Thursday were incredibly frustrating and it carried over through Friday. This short run with T got me outside and enabled me to release some (not all) of it. On the positive side, it helped me go faster!

No Running Where There's Lots of Running

I run around the Mall a lot. In fact, I'm doing it tonight. There are certain places you're not supposed to run. For example, to get to the Tidal Basin path, I run through about 40 feet of the FDR Memorial. That's a no-no.


A Park Ranger once stopped me and T from running those 40 feet. Another place you're not supposed to run is up the steps of the Lincoln Monument, where T and I ran past just a couple of weeks ago. It was early morning, there were only a few tourists around, and there were even two security guard looking types at the top. And of course, there were other runners, some of whom were running down the steps. T and I took this opportunity to run up! It was fun. A very Rocky moment at the top where we lifted our arms, and in my case, the Rocky theme song was going through my head. (Getting Stronger, not Eye of the Tiger) And it was a great moment. The sun was going through the columns in such a way that it illuminated good ol' Abe, but left the the sides in the shade.

I've been focused so much on the running part of this blog, you might have forgotten why I actually started running in the first place....to eat! I did some baking today and that shall be my next post.

As for whether I ran the other day or not. The answer is here.

Motivation or Get Your Butt Off The Couch

A beautiful day should, by itself, be more than enough motivation for me to go out and run. I've been doing this awhile now. I enjoy it enough to keep doing it. But actually getting out the door has always been a problem for me. I know I should run. I know I have to run to prepare for my upcoming races. I JUST DON'T WANT TOO!!!!!

Right now, I'm having the debate I always have:
Devil: You're not meeting anyone to run. It's not like you're letting anyone down.
Angel: It's good for you, and, if you really want company, the Pacer's Running Group is at 7pm!
Devil: That group always runs faster than you. You're the little pig that got left behind.
Angel: That's not true. Someone always stays with you --
Devil: Yeah, you ruin another person's run!
Angel: You give someone else an excuse to run slowly.
Devil: There's ice cream in the freezer! Yummy, chocolaty ice cream.
Angel: All the more reason to run!
Devil: Hasn't your ankle been hurting?

You get the picture. So will I run? I guess we'll all find out in about 30 minutes.

Japan Day Run

Today was a perfect day for a run in Central Park: sunny, cool, good positive energy. Although, I wasn't feeling so hot, to be honest. My mom made my these Korean buns for breakfast and I couldn't say, "No, I'm about to head on a run." I ate and an hour later I could feel the buns slowly expand in my stomach as the race progressed. But despite that, I still managed to PR! Four miles in 37:40.


I even did one mile in under 9 minutes. I actually feel like I've earned my pink bib. It was worth the very short visit home (which, sadly, I spent sleeping since I was transitioning back to days).

On a serious note, NYRR has done a Japan Day run for a couple of years now, at least that I've noticed. This year they collected on-site donations to support earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. That's not all. They are doing a virtual Run/Walk to Benefit Japan. Between 1 May and 22 May, you have to run or walk four miles and just submit your result using a Garmin/Nike+/mapmyrun/etc. I signed up and am hoping to best the race pace I did today, but I doubt it will happen. Still, it will be fun to compare my Central Park 4-miler to the Mall 4-miler.

There was one funny thing of note. As I was driving over the GW bridge into NYC, there were hundreds of cyclists on the other side of the bridge heading into NJ! It was the starting (and end) point for the Gran Fondo New York Bike Race -- just a little 100 mile bike ride. At least I'm not that crazy!

Volunteering at the ACLI Capital Challenge

This rainy and cold morning I woke up at 5:15am, got my running clothes on and looked for a cab. Then I remembered, I'm in DC and finding a cab would be difficult. Still, I waited for five minutes and then ran to Haines Point. I was going to be a parking volunteer at the ACLI Capital Challenge. It's a fun race idea. It's a three mile race for teams representing Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches of the federal government and the media.

It was a nice run down to the start, about 3 miles. But I was assigned to the parking lot that people forgot. I basically stood around in the cold rain for an hour and a half to direct 6 or 7 cars to park. Still, someone had to do it, right? But instead of heading to the start of the race and watching the runners finish, I decided to run home. I was cold, wet and tired.

A Run to Clear the Mind

It was a busy weekend at work so I didn't really run. When I woke up this afternoon, I remedied that with a quick afternoon run. I thought I'd only do 3 miles, but turns out I stretched it to 4 in about 45 minutes. It was fun and helped clear my mind. I was trying to figure what to do regarding my future housing: to buy or not to buy, that is (or was) the question. On my run, it occurred to me that I wouldn't mind if I lost out on the apartment. It's a sign that I should not buy. I just feel bad because my realtor, K, has done a lot of work with me. But I think I've come to a good place with my decision.