Sometimes I let race recaps be the star of their own blog post show, but this time, I don't think it was exciting enough. So I'll share all about the night before/after too.
First of all, Friday was my BFF Casi's 30th birthday. I've been celebrating her birthday since she turned 13!
Crazy, right? That means we've been best friends for more than half our lives. I think we can all agree good friends are hard to come by, and this long standing friendship was even more impressive when you consider that we met before you could even make friends on the internet. PLUS, we stayed in touch even though we went to college in separate states, and that was before Facebook and text messaging.
The race was Saturday morning, so Friday night we just enjoyed an early dinner to celebrate. Then we enjoyed 5:45am wakeups the next morning.
This is my fourth time running the Baltimore Ten Miler, my longest standing relationship with any race. It's hugely popular here, mainly for its sweet premiums. This year was really nice jackets.
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They only give them out after you finish to make them extra fancy
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Considering I've been struggling to hold like a 9:30 pace on 3 mile runs, I didn't really have high hopes for the race. The course is notoriously challenging - hilly and usually hotter than hell. We lucked out this year and the temperature was 69 at the start. I definitely am not yet recovered from back to back marathons last month yet. The first year I ran it, I surprised myself with a 1:25, and then have never been able to replicate that time (the next two years were 1:29 and 1:26).
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| Took this to remember where I parked, but then decided it's kind of pretty. |
Long story short - I ran the race hard, wanted to puke at the end, and got a new course PR for me - 1:24:16. I was pretty happy I could at least say I had some small accomplishment for my last race in my 20s!
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| I could title this: how not to run a smart race. |
Afterwards, we met up and hung out a bit. The race has watermelon, ice cold towels, beer and live music after, and one of my favorite parts is making my friends compete for my beer tickets.
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Then I went home and baked this. The inside is oreo/funfetti cake and oreo cream cheese frosting.
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| Not as good as it sounds....soooo much better. |
If you spend your morning baking a cake, it's only natural to split a cupcake for lunch, right? I'm normally opposed to splitting dessert, but we got smoothies too, and the cupcake is way bigger than it appears.
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| Orange velvet. Apparently every color can be a velvet flavor now. |
Then it was time for birthday pedicures, and getting fancy eye makeup done at Mac.
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| They even had wine! |
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| You can't really see the makeup....but it was there. |
Then I learned that the last 17 years of my life have been a waste. I had buffalo wings at Casi's birthday party and have no clue how I survived without them all this time.
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| Sorry so dark, we were in a bar, but it's buffalo wings, a meatball, and a chicken tender. |
This is really just the start of like 3 weeks straight of amazing food and celebrating. Bring it on.
What's your favorite meat? I haven't tried BBQ really yet, but I hate the taste of BBQ sauce, so I may be screwed there.
1. False, you had Facebook in college. I remember using it my freshmen year.
ReplyDelete2. Blue velvet cupcakes are a thing here, for the blue crabs. But I'd never split a cupcake, not even a blue one.
3. Taking a picture of where you park is genius.
4. Racing until you want to puke is admirable.
BBQ sauce is a way to cover up shoddy meat. We need to get you a good brisket, stat.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Kara...I had FB in college, so I know you did too ;) What about AIM? That's how I stayed in touch with everyone in college.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the course PR! That race is tough!
And try BBQ babyback ribs. But only babyback ones...the other ones aren't nearly as good. Oh man, we make ribs multiple times a month. They are DELICIOUS.
Yeah, I had Facebook in college too. It was towards the end, but I definitely had it. Isn't Facebook almost 10 years old? I still can't believe you'd never had a buffalo wing. You ate meat for 12-13 years, right?
ReplyDeleteI need that oreo cake. I also now need to try Orange Velvet, which I never knew existed.
ReplyDeleteMy college didn't have FB til midway through senior year. Dan knew about it sooner because Cornell was one of the earlier big early schools they tried it with. (Kara, Maybe GMU was one of the early schools too?)
Congrats on the unexpected PR!!
I don't know if I'm just ancient or what, but I definitely didn't have FB in college! I remember hearing of it right after I graduated but I didn't even have an account till after I came back from S. American in 2006. I'm so lame. And wait, why do they compete for your beer tickets? Do you not drink beer?!
ReplyDeleteThat cake looks RIDICULOUS.
ReplyDeleteFB was just starting when I was in college. It didn't really catch on until I was well into my mid-20s.
I had Facebook in college, but it wasn't until my sophomore year. Looks like Kara doesn't remember that colleges were added to Facebook really slowly, so you couldn't get on unless you were invited or they added your school.
ReplyDeleteAwesome job on the race!! I tried BBQ ribs when we were in Tennessee and I still can't stand meat...except for pepperoni.
Be careful with chicken wings. Sometimes they are disgusting and slimy and tendon-y. Other times they are really delicious. It's basically a crap shoot.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite meat is red meat. All of it.
Have you had a steak yet? If you thought you were missing out on life by not having chicken wings, then you are in for a real treat!!