Saturday, August 15, 2009

Miles and Smiles

Today dawned sunny, hot and humid. We were scheduled for long miles ... 18. Or so. I guess I must have been a little out of it. I was thinking it was a 7:15 AM liftoff. Got there about 7:05 and everyone was already reading the maps and Dave Morrill was going over the route ... the RAC, to Holiday Inn Downtown, then the Rochester Half Marathon Course, and back to the RAC. 19-20 miles. My bad ... summer start time is 7:00. I guess I haven't been there enough this season! I think there were 65-75 runner this morning as best as I can count from the photos, and those not showing up in the photos.


So minutes later, we were off. First water stop (thank you Marilee!) ...


was at Holiday Inn Downtown. Then we headed up the nice long uphill first mile down 4th St SW. Really not that bad, I thought, but I'm used to running lots of hills. Then around Pill Hill, Plummer Circle (spotted an off-white wrought iron bed frame at a yard sale that I would've liked to have purchased), spotted my buddy Kirk mowing his lawn :-) ...

Soldier's Field where I spotted another friend, Brad Miller out on his roller skis (a good day for spotting friends!),


and along the river and past the Farmer's Market ...

to Mayo Field for water stop #2 (and 3 and 4).

I was REALLY thirsty by this point, hurting for fluids. Then off to Quarry Hill (thank you to the gal who told me as we passed that she just started reading my blog and loves it--you made me smile ... BIG!) and the turnaround there (Scott, Drew and Dan--spent most of the run with them and Trevor and Duane and Eric ... shortage of girls today I guess ... BTW Dan's trying to convince me to do an international distance tri September 6 with him ... said he'd even drive me there. I'll consider it. :-) ...

and then back to Mayo Field for more fluids. Totally necessary today, even though this stop wasn't scheduled. Then around Silver Lake and back to Mayo Field for a third time, where I took my one GU. Feeling the heat and humidity, but felt like I was having a good, solid run. Then back to the RAC with Trevor (helping Marilee below at the last water stop).

19.45 miles by the time we got back. Trevor said we averaged 8:25. I was very pleased with that. My last mile was 8:32. I of course had to do a little out-and-back to bring me to 20.15. :-) Yes, I'm compulsive!! Trevor told me on the way back that he was already preparing his "I'm-not-going-to-run-any-extra-miles-today" speech because his nasty blister,

which he got on last week's rainy 20-miler, was bothering him. Totally valid reason, Trevor. You're off the hook!!

My splits: 8:49 8:17 8:34 8:10 7:48 8:06 8:17 8:39 8:22 8:29 8:01 8:10 8:58 8:50 9:20 (ouch--must have been caught in traffic!) 8:53 8:41 8:32. A good run on a very sticky day. I wore my little black running dress and I think it was 3 lbs. heavier and 6" longer when I was done. It was wadded up in my hand for a few miles. I was tired of it flapping around as it was sopping wet.


When we got back it was time to enjoy some cookies. Thank you to Maja,

who I just met after the run, who said the cookies were "the best cookies I've ever eaten in my life". You TOTALLY earned brownie points with that comment!! She was very nice. :-) Made another friend today, Paul. (You can never have too many friends.)

He's training for his first marathon (TCM) and this was his first run with us. He thought Med-City (half) was very exciting, that he was hooked on distance running, and we told him that the big-city marathons would really blow him away if that was the case. He ran VERY well. He's going to rock the marathon, I know it. :-)




A morning well spent. And I was well spent. :-) In a good way, though. 69.38 miles for the week. That more than I've run in a L-O-N-G time.

After a delicious bowl of oatmeal with raspberries and a little 10-minute catnap it was soon time to head to the Civic Center with my niece Kaleigh for a girls' afternoon out.

We took in the sights and sounds of Sesame Street Live. Very fun afternoon. Brought back memories of all the years I'd brought the boys to the show.

After supper I decided to can peaches in wine since the peaches are pefectly ripe today.

The pan in the back contains the syrup, a mixture of sugar and riesling and muscado wines.


I'm anxious to try them. There was a half peach left over so I dipped it in the wine and ate it. Delicious.

Margo reports that yesterday's Blueberry Bread was "fantastic" and wants the recipe. So here it is:

Blueberry Streusel Breakfast Bread (from King Arthur Flour's The Baking Sheet)

Streusel
1/2 cup granola
1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/8 tsp. salt

Batter
1 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 c. unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 c. lightly packed brown sugar (use 3/4 c. for a dessert bread)
2 large eggs
1/2 c. whole milk yogurt or sour cream
3/4 cup granola (the loose toasted oats kind, not the big glob kind)
1 1/2 c. frozen or fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2" loaf pan.

For the streusel: Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.

For the batter: Combine dry ingredients in a bowl; set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing wella fter each. Add the yogurt and mix well.

Add the yogurt mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix just until combined. The batter will be fairly stiff. Do not overmix. Fold in granola and blueberries.

Spoon batter into pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Sprinkle the streusel on top in an even layer.

Bake 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove pan from the oven and cool 10 minutes then turn out on a rack to cool completely.

This weekend is the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. Totally useless trivia: I lived in Woodstock, NY in 1965 and went to kindergarten there. A very quiet, sleepy town actually. :-) Except for one particular weekend ...

Time to close this out. Quote for the day: "The only new thing in the world is the history you don't know." --Harry S. Truman

I'm feeling very thankful for friendships today. There are many of you. Thank you for being a friend. :-)

Good night.

1 comment:

roentgen said...

I can totally identify with the sopping wet running attire. I might as well have been swimming after my run today (although it was halfway across the globe from yours) :D