Run Eat Date: Catching Up...

Here's some happening from the last two weeks...

Friday Birthday
I went to a birthday party two Fridays ago with every intention of leaving early...but happily left about an hour after I was thought I would...our hostess is a fabulous cook! And the conversation was so much fun. We even got one of our friends to join us via conference call. It was so nice to see everyone. I forgot my camera...which is a food shame...We started out with a cheese platter and sampled a triple cream brie, triple cream camemberet and a truffle cheese. By far the camemberet was my favorite. First course was the most awesome butternut squash soup, with a perfectly fried sage leaf in the middle with a drizzle of sage butter...with a few bits of bacon. Second course was a pasta course. It was great as well, broccoli, which even though I don't like I didn't mind, penne pasta and chick peas...and I'm pretty sure some bacon. Main course was chicken and sausage, mashed potatoes and the most beautiful zucchini pancakes. I think I ate another zucchini pancake after dessert. And dessert was my cupcakes. I think it was a great recipe, so I'll post later this weekend.

22 Miler
With my new found enthusiasm for running, I tackled the 22 miler with gusto two Saturday's ago. I was fortunate to start the run with these three great folks from the running group.

My pace group leader and I are training for the same marathon, and she nicely agreed to get her 22 miler done on this day as well. Even though the run was actually on our schedule for this past Saturday, but I was in Lake Placid with my family for a belated family holiday gathering. We lost half our small group after mile 5.5 but we supported each other and got it done. It was a fairly flat course, which was a nice change of pace to last week's long run.

I learned a lot on this run. I'm really not that good about fueling. And I definitely felt it from mile 12 to 14 and again from mile 17 to 19. I was ravenous at mile 18, but I couldn't convince myself to eat anything I was carrying (one fig newtons and some gels). And so my running buddy and I decided at Mile 19.5 to make a short pit stop at the most unlikely of places...

Yes. That's right. McDonalds. And yes, I had the most awesome cheeseburger ever, with a small coke. And the last 2.5 miles were the best miles ever - they went by so fast! In addition to the cheeseburger, I had one gel, about 16 ounces of gatorade, one fig newton, 120 calories worth of pringles, a few starburst gummies and water. And we were out there for the same amount of time as I was for my first marathon. Clearly not enough fuel pre-cheeseburger. For my next race, I can't get to a point where I'm ravenous. I tested out the pringles, and they were great for breaking up the sweet taste, which makes me nauseous after mile 15. But I can't carry around a tube of pringles during my next marathon! So I need find some salt based foods that are portable.

Dates
I had a few dates since the last I wrote. I have to admit that I'm quite smitten with a bachelor I've gone out with two times now. And also smitten with a different bachelor and we've been out five or six times. I did say goodbye to one bachelor. Our third and last date just didn't feel right. I really struggle with how to say goodbye. I decided to do this via email and he was gracious in his response. It doesn't feel good no matter which side you are on...I have another date Thursday with a new bachelor and on Friday with a bachelor I've been out with a number of times. Its fun, although I need to be better about drinking less and protecting my sleep time.

Cooking
Before I left to Lake Placid...I made White Bean Burgers. They were really yummy! I'll post the recipe with the cupcake recipe. The ingredients were really basic...