You are here: Home / 2011 / Archives for May 2011

How to (ABSOLUTELY NOT) Practice “Healthy Living” in Vegas

May 31, 2011 By 26 Comments
vegas2

So I blog under the guise of “healthy living.” Regardless of how healthy my behaviors are, this is the blog community I belong to. I blog about running, training, eating, body image, life musings, and stuff like that. When I sat down tonight to blog about Vegas, I realized that it was not going to fit into ANY remotely “healthy living blog” type of post (“Everyone went for pancakes but I brought my own steel cut oats in my freezer bag all the way from home with my organic bananas!”) so I present you with a play-by-play of how to ABSOLUTELY NOT have a healthy time in the city of sin.

Friday, May 27th

10:00AM—2:00PM: Struggle to get any work done while consumed with anticipation.

2:30—2:45PM: Swear to myself I am not getting drunk in Vegas. Friends arrive.

3:15PM: Pound Gin & Tonic before getting on plane.

3:45PM: Buzz sets in. Look around in wonder at Virgin America’s “mood lighting” and sexy boarding music.

3:55PM: Plane takes off. Have to pee already. Don’t want to disturb cute older couple sitting next to me watching tv. Distract myself with seat-to-seat chat with my four friends scattered around the plane.

5:20PM: Land Vegas. Crave Frappuccino. Wait in taxi line; swear to friend I am NOT drinking Fat Tuesday’s this year.


6PM: Drop stuff off at swanky Palazzo suite. Encounter a variety of drunk friends and find out we’ve already received a noise complaint.

6:45PM: Buy Fat Tuesday’s.

7:30PM: Watch Bellagio fountains (my favorite place in the world). See “Con Te Partiro” (my favorite show). Is amazing. Wait fifteen minutes for the next show. Which turns into 30. Then they play the same song over.

8:30PM: head to Chipotle with drunken group for a relatively healthy dinner. Abandon long line to buy piece of (actually very good, not greasy) pizza instead.

9:00PM: Pre-party in suites. Pre-party turns into actual party.

10:00PM: Actual party makes it downstairs to casino floor.

11:00PM: Go into Lavo restaurant to dance. Realize that I cannot actually feel my feet and that the stilettos are making it impossible to actually even move.

2:00AM: Head back to room barefoot. Pass group of friends headed out to gamble. Cannot walk another second after walking around in heels for a few hours. Give myself HUGE puffy blisters on the balls of both feet (pretty much the only area left where I DIDN’T have blisters yet).

2:30AM: Drown sorrows, pre-hangover and stinging feet in pub mix.

3:15AM: Curl up on couch. There are no extra blankets, so I wrap a tiny towel around half of my legs and try to keep warm. It doesn’t work.

3:30AM: Sleep. Interrupted every 15-30 minutes by waking up shivering and with a headache.

Saturday, May 28th

7:30AM: Wake up to jarring alarm. Make it over to suitcase to grab running clothes before I realize my head is pounding and spinning, my mouth is dry, and EVERYTHING hurts. Recognize that running 14 miles is probably not going to happen.

8:00AM: get out of bed suffering from extreme guilt from not running. Who has hangovers anymore? Nurse hangover in shower. Attempt to drink water.

9:00AM: Crave Frappuccino.

10:00AM: Head to pool to soak up potentially very dangerous UV rays. Succeed in burning only the area under both armpits and also my cleavage, with everything else staying pasty white.

11:00AM: Wonder why Palazzo strategically placed their pool in a place that’s pretty much shaded by the hotel for several hours of the day.

12:30PM: Realize in Venetian food court that being a vegetarian in SF is way easier than in the LV. Settle for portabella sandwich. Crave Frappuccino.

2:00PM: Wander strip with one of my best friends. Go shopping. Kind of.

2:30PM: Finally buy Frappuccino. Debate going balls out (regular + whip) or “healthy” (Light, no whip). Go for light + “smaller dollop” of whip. Consider it success.

4:00PM: Watch hundreds of UCLA students perform 8-clap. Chip in halfheartedly as I no longer know anybody. Mourn my youth.

4:40PM: Stop for snack. Think about how bad I need veggies or fruit. Think about how I never drink soda. Buy soda and cookies instead.

6:30PM: Return once again to food court. Settle for greasy Asian food this time. SWEAR I will eat a real, decent meal at some point in Vegas.


8:00PM: Attempt to get dolled up. Bounce around to make sure that leopard print strapless dress does not fall off.

9:00PM: Preparty again. Drink only one glass of champagne. Feel proud that I no longer feel the need to drink. Vow to not wake up hungover, so I can run. Yay.

10:00PM: Leave to go to hot dance club that we might somehow get into. Almost tear up because due to my blistered feet I’m wearing flats surrounded by hot girls in 4-inch heels and I feel ugly.

10:45PM: Have been on my feet for 45 minutes outside the club. Now very happy that I wore flats. Abandon club plan and hail cab to New York New York.

11:00PM—2:00AM: Dance up a storm at Nine Fine Irishmen (THE BEST PUB IN VEGAS).

11:30PM: Take first (and last) irish car bomb. Have issue with any alcoholic beverage that you have to “chug before it curdles.”

12:00AM: Making up words to all the classic irish songs being played by the live band. Step on lots of people’s toes.

2:00AM: Abandon Nine Fine in search for another $5 piece of pizza.

2:45AM: Take taxi back to hotel.

3:00AM: chow down on more pub mix because I “have to run tomorrow.”

3:40AM: Head to bed, extremely proud that I will not wake up hungover.

Sunday, May 29th

7:30AM: wake up hungover.

7:45AM: Don running clothes. Actually make it outside (GASP!). Intend on running 11-13 miles.

8:40AM: Have run to Stratosphere (2 miles) in 18 minutes super easy. Feel smug that on a flat course (nothing I’m used to in SF) that I can run a 9-minute-mile as a super easy pace.

8:41AM: eat words when I turn around into a howling wind that leaves me unable to hear the music on my iPod or run any quicker than a SLOW walk.

9:30AM: Have hit UNLV campus. 7 miles.

9:35AM: Recognize that I’m hungry, out of water, being blown over, and that there’s no way I’m going to run another 7 miles this morning. Quit at 8.5 miles and resolve to “run 14 tomorrow.”

11:00AM: After getting up early to celebrate fitness, end up taking cab back the half-mile to my hotel because “it’s far” (and cold).

12:30PM: nearly pass out while wandering strip after running/walking  >10miles that morning on some gu and a luna bar.

2:00PM: somehow end up at the SAME DAMN VENETIAN FOOD COURT. Realize that one of my few goals for vegas (as I am a foodie and no longer a boozer) was to go to champagne brunch and/or Serendipity and that I’ve actually just been eating fast food the whole weekend.

3:00PM: go gamble the penny slots. Win three dollars. Get really excited.

4:45PM: meet current UCLA tourguides for sh*tshow dinner. All you can drink table wine (which just tastes like vinegar), amazing garlic bread, and otherwise crappy food.

5:00—7:00PM: good times with good people. Eat weight in garlic bread.

8:00PM: Pre-party at Club Flush. AKA one of our Palazzo suites.

10:00PM: head to Jet nightclub.

10:30PM: realize that once again we aren’t actually going to get into the club. Blink and somehow I’ve ended up at King Ink Tattoo Parlor and Lounge. And that there’s an open bar.

12:00AM: dance on stage.

12:30AM: Abandon King Ink to go home alone.

1:00AM: Buy “second dinner” or “first breakfast” of a hot chocolate and stale bear claw at Coffee Bean.

2:30AM: Sleep. Still on couch. Now have blankets.

Monday, May 30th

7:30AM: Wake up. Pack bag.

9:00AM: Head to airport. Very happy to not be hungover. Swear no more fast food. End up buying TCBY and a soft pretzel at the airport.

12:45PM: Land at SFO. Tell myself I need to run when I get home.

2:00PM: get home. Make filling pre-run breakfast.

4:00PM: pass out during my second episode of Sex and the City.

And there you have it, my friends. Welcome to my life in Vegas. Please don’t do anything that I did. Somehow, despite barely drinking days 2 and 3 and even walking a lot and exercising, I managed to be as unhealthy as possible. Here’s to blogger honesty. What happens in Vegas, goes on pancakesandpostcards.com apparently.

I hereby recommend that the next healthy living blogger’s conference happens in Vegas. Because Lord knows. someone could teach me a thing or two!

Until next time, LV…

Have you ever been to Vegas? Do you ever let loose on vaycay?

  • SIMILAR POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE . . .

    Share
    • Filed Under: Pancakes (Food), Postcards (Travel) Tagged With: , , , , ,

    27 Dresses

    May 27, 2011 By 8 Comments
    Dress1

    20-something different dresses to choose from for a little weekend trip to Vegas…

    …AND ONLY ONE PAIR OF SHOES.

    I must have been watching too much Sex and the City lately, because while 99.9% of the time the runner in me refuses to wear anything but comfortable shoes because the fashion just ain’t worth the pain, this is VEGAS, and having only one pair of shoes (that hurts like hell to wear, no less) is nothing less of a fashion emergency. *Wipes back of hand across brow dramatically*

    Sigh.

    It doesn’t matter, I’m off to Vegas.

    So every Memorial Day weekend, my group of friends heads to Vegas. Just a few of us! Like, 50-60…

    But the last two years I couldn’t make it. Tragic. That whole “living in Africa” thing… The first year I was gone I at one point stooped to Kayak-ing (can we make that a verb?) tickets from Africa to Vegas. Very sad.

    I missed it so much I even wrote a Flashback Friday blog post about it about this time last year.

    But this year I’m GOING! I’m currently in SFO’s new terminal (where Virgin flies out of), enjoying the blogger/remote-worker paradise here. Yesssss.

    40 minutes to boarding. Cheers to that.

    Have a wonderful Memorial Day, everybody!

    What are your weekend plans?

  • SIMILAR POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE . . .

    Share
    • Filed Under: Postcards (Travel) Tagged With: , , , , ,

    Your New Go-To Chocolate Cake Recipe

    May 24, 2011 By 8 Comments
    cakepiece2

    I don’t really like chocolate cake.

    So sue me. But I LOVE chocolate itself, chocolate brownies, chocolate chips, hot chocolate… but chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream, I could normally take or leave. But everything changed this weekend.

    You remember Talia and Julia that I introduced in my last blog post about book club. (Still time to enter my giveaway for supplements–just leave a comment–or to join my bay area foodie book club, email me at pancakesandpostcards at gmail dot com!).

    Well, Sunday Funday started out with a day at the races…

    And ended with this.

    The girls love to bake, so we set out to make a delicious layered chocolate cake, recipe hailing from somewhere out there via Julia’s baking class that she took recently. (Who else would die to take a real baking class? *points thumbs to chest* THIS girl!) We were at Julia’s house in Oakland, and the view from the kitchen wasn’t so bad.

    We prepared snacks for baking.

    We divyed up responsibilities. Talia got the cake.

    I got the buttercream frosting. And I’ve never really made buttercream before, so this was exciting.

    Julia prepared the caramel sauce. No pictures because making caramel is stressful.

    My sister helped frost the masterpiece.

    It wasn’t the most beautiful cake you’ve ever seen. But this recipe creates THE fudgiest, moistest cake EVER. I hate dry cakes so much, this was more like the love child of a devil’s food cake and a fudgy brownie. With the frosting and the caramel drizzle it was almost too good. The buttercream from scratch can take a while, but the cake recipe itself is SO easy. There’s coffee in the mix, which you do NOT taste, but which perhaps adds a distinct richness to the flavor. And the fleur de sel on top and in the caramel creates the best tiny hint of salt that balances the intense chocolate perfectly.

    I most highly recommend this recipe for a very decadent, moist, fudgy chocolate cake that is sure to please pretty much any chocolate fanatic. And I think if you’re in a pinch, a can of Betty Crocker icing would do just fine. : )

    ***

    Layered Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting & Caramel Sauce

    Cake:

    • 1 ¾ cups flour
    • 2 cups sugar
    • ¾ cup good quality cocoa powder
    • 2 teaspoons baking soda
    • 1 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
    • 1 cup buttermilk, well shaken
    • ½ cup vegetable oil
    • 2 eggs, room temp
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla
    • 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

    Frosting:

    • 6 ounces good quality semi-sweet or bitter-
    • sweet chocolate, finely chopped
    • 2 sticks butter, room temperature
    • 1 egg yolk, room temp
    • 1 tsp vanilla
    • 1 1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar
    • 1 tablespoon instant espresso, dissolved in 2
    • teaspoons hot water

    1 teaspoon fleur de sel (to sprinkle on top of the frosted cake)

    Caramel Sauce:

    • 1 ½ cups sugar
    • 1/3 cup water
    • 1 cup heavy cream
    • 6 tablespoons butter
    • ½ teaspoon fleur de sel

    Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 8-inch round cake pans, then line them each with a circle of buttered parchment paper.

    For the cake, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Take the bowl off the mixer and stir in the coffee just to combine, using a rubber spatula to scrape any dry bits from the bottom of the bowl. Divide the batter between the two pans and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out without any wet crumbs. Cool the cakes, on a rack, for 30 minutes in their pans then turn then out onto the rack and cool completely.

    Meanwhile, make the frosting. Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pot w/ 1-inch of barely simmering water. Stir gently until the chocolate melts and remove it from the heat. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium high speed until it is light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add the egg yolk (if using) and vanilla and beat 3 minutes more. Turn the mixer to low and gradually add the powdered sugar. When all the sugar is in, increase the heat to medium, scraping down the bowl as needed, until the mixture is light and fluffy. At low speed add the chocolate and coffee and mix just until combined.

    To make the caramel sauce, combine the sugar and water in a medium saucepan. If any of the mixture is on the sides of the pan, brush it down with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. Cook the sugar over medium-high heat until the sugar has dissolved, without stirring.. Continue cooking, without stirring, until the syrup is a dark golden color. Remove pan from heat and slowly add cream and butter. The mixture will bubble up quickly at this point so be sure your pan is big enough. Stir to combine and let sit for a few minutes to thicken.

    Frost the top of one cake, spreading about 1/2-inch layer of frosting all over the top, leaving about 1/4-inch border around the edge. Top the cake with the second cake and use the remaining frosting to cover the sides and the top. Sprinkle the cake with the fleur de sel, cut, and serve with a drizzle of caramel sauce.

    ***

    MAKE THIS CAKE! You will not regret it. And enter the giveaway if you want some free superfoods. : )

    Have a great Tuesday, everybody!

    What’s your go-to dessert?

  • SIMILAR POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE . . .

    Share
    • Filed Under: Pancakes (Food) Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

    Foodie BOOK CLUB and Superfood Giveaway!

    May 20, 2011 By 11 Comments
    perfect

    Dear P&P readers…

    Meet Talia.

    Talia is a rad, fun-loving San Francisco dweller who enjoys baking, exercising, Disney movies, and hanging out with her awesome cat.

    Now meet Julia.


    Julia is an adorable East Bay resident who recently traded in the exotic life of PR for a new exotic life of law student come fall. She loves hiking, baking, and wine.

    You know me already. I’m old news.

    Talia, Julia, and I met at Gracias Madre, a Mexican vegan restaurant in SF’s Mission district, for food, gossip, weak margaritas, and to kick off a new exciting event in our lives.

    Book club!

    Sure, we all like to read, but what else are book clubs for? Making time for cool people to do cool things, or just to hang out. We all love food and cooking. So we are going to be alternating our monthly (ish) meetings with either 1. Going out to a cool SF (or even east bay… WOAH!) restaurant we haven’t tried yet, or 2. Meeting at one of our places to cook and bake. I think next up is molten chocolate lava cake. Who doesn’t like that?

    I want to invite any cool 20-something female bay area residents who love food and meeting cool new women to join our book club! I’m serious. It’s not going to be a huge thing, but it’s going to be a fun thing and maybe there’s someone out there who thinks “hey that sounds fun!” If so, please leave me a comment or email me at pancakesandpostcards @ gmail dot com. Our first book is How to Bake a Perfect Life by Barbara O’Neal. Read about it here.

    We are meeting on June 18th. It’s a quick read. Let me know if you want to join us. : )

    I feel like this book club of sorts will be one of many “new beginnings” for me over the next few months. But that’s for my next post!(I’m vowing to try this thing where I post more than 2x a week and the posts aren’t a bajillion pages long each. Let’s see if it works.)

    Now for a review and a giveaway!

    At the end of February, someone from Sun Chlorella USA emailed me and asked if I would do a review of their projects. I said yes, and then moving to San Francisco at the exact same time, this product along with one other were lost in the mail. But what has lost has been found! I finally got the products in my hands about two weeks ago and am finally posting a review now. (I received these items for free from the company, but everything written here is my own opinion.)

    I had never heard of Sun Chlorella before. It’s a whole food supplement derived from Chlorella pyrenoidosa, according to the company, which is a type of algae (!) that is super nutrient dense. It has potassium, B vitamins, amino acids, and chlorophyll. I for one tend to be super skeptical of supplements. I don’t know why, but I just am—I like the idea that you can get everything you need from a healthy, well-balanced diet. But I appreciated having this product to review this week, because it made me do some research.

    The company sent me a variety of products to try: tablets, granules to mix in with drink or food, and another product called Sun Eleuthero which they say gives you a boost without caffeine’s negative effects. I also received a few bags of tea and some samples of cream made with chlorophyll.

    The verdict?

    Interesting! They call it “nature’s perfect superfood,” and it definitely fits that in my mind. For one, it’s made of algae! Upon opening the bag of tablets, the first thought in my mind was “fish food.” The granules that dissolve in water are dark green and unless you love wheatgrass or green juices (notice I didn’t say green MONSTERS) you might be a bit turned off by it. But I’m sure there are smoothies and/or stir-frys or other dishes you could stir it into and be none the wiser.

    The tablets are small and easy to take, the only issue I had with those is that they recommend a minimum of 15 a day. To me, that is a bit crazy. 15 to 45 pills a day for a voluntary thing? Perhaps this is why I’ve always stuck with just a multivitamin. The lazy girl’s supplement? :)

    Supplements may not be my cup of tea, necessarily, but I think they are great for people who have trouble getting in the necessary intake of vitamins. Sure, in an IDEAL world we’d get everything we needed from our perfectly organic and unprocessed diets, but that just does not always happen as we know. This kind of supplement could be great for someone trying to beef up the nutrient value in their diet. My verdict: the jury is still out, but it definitely couldn’t hurt. And there’s always the placebo effect of feeling healthier, right? : ) I didn’t necessarily feel more energetic, but there’s probably a lot of external factors playing in as well.

    Now you be the jury! I’ve got a pack of granules, a pack of tablets, and a pack of Sun Eleuthero (the energy one), plus some cream samples (The cream is BOMB) to give away. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post by Thursday, 5.26. I’ll send it to you and you can tell me what you think!

    And I’ll also throw in some Ghiradelli chocolate from my hometown, because you know, being healthy is about moderation.

    Hope everyone had a great night. Comment below to enter the giveaway, and if you’re in the area… join my book club! : )

    Have you ever been in a book club? Have you read any foodie books that you would recommend?

    Do you take any supplements? Why or why not?

  • SIMILAR POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE . . .

    Share
    • Filed Under: Musings, Pancakes (Food) Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

    Costumes, Cocktails, and Just Cocks: Bay to Breakers Race Recap

    May 15, 2011 By 26 Comments
    B2b39

    So some of you probably know that I ran the Big Sur Marathon a couple weeks ago and couldn’t stop talking about it (recap here).

    What most of you probably DON’T know is that today I participated in a race that was even more epic in its own right. And for the runners today, clothing (and sobriety) was optional.

    Bay to Breakers is one of San Francisco’s great traditions. Basically, it’s a 12K footrace from the Embarcadero area (the SF Bay) to the Pacific Ocean (the “Breakers”). Though, being in San Francisco, the event is much more than a footrace. Sure, there are “legit runners” who chug their way across those 7.4 miles like champions, but they must do it by weaving through a massive crowd of up to a hundred thousand people, many of them drunk (yes, at 7AM) and many of them wearing costumes or perhaps nothing at all. In addition to that, large chunks of the rest of the city’s dwellers come out to the race route to watch the madness and party all day and then end up in bed passed out at 3PM. Some people love it, others hate it. But regardless, you can’t deny the power of the Bay to Breakers.

    This was the 100th running and I signed up to actually participate in the race (rather than just getting wasted and partying) with my sister. I headed to the Expo yesterday to pick up tshirts, some drinking paraphernalia and to meet Dean Karnazes. I love living in a city like this. I can just meet people like Dean on the weekends. Now if only I could sublime the ability to run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days from him…

    Costumes were readied. I decided to go cheap and easy and wear my dance team (aka cheerleader, by all appearances’ sake) uniform from HS. It doesn’t fit quite as well as it did when I was 14, but I was still just happy that I could wear it at all… I just couldn’t breathe TOO much. And that’s fine, because I wasn’t exactly going to be getting an aerobic workout.

    Part of the deal with my sis was that I would walk and drink, embracing that aspect of the race, rather than go all runner-ape-ish on it and actually attempt to navigate the swirling, cavorting crowd at any more than a 20 minute mile pace. I may or may not have taken a shot at 6:30am on the way out to kick off the day. I’m too old for this, but hey, it’s B2B.

    The mood in the morning was pretty much exuberant, not just because of the excitement of the day, but also because of the blue sky over us. See, SF weather kind of sucks even when it’s sunny. It looks nice out your office window, and when you run outside to enjoy it, you’re immediately shivering slash being bowled over by hurricane winds. On top of that, until late the night before B2B, the forecast was rain, thunderstorms, and/or hail. We woke up to a sunny day. For once, the SF weather gods had provided.

    The start line was covered with tortillas which were flung about like frisbees in a festive manner for about the first mile. (This was a B2B tradition I didn’t know about). Being back in Corral D, we got to see a LOT of costumes.

    The most common costumes of the day were superhero variations and crayons, but my personal favorite was the school of salmon “swimming upstream” (aka running through the beginning of the race… the wrong way).

    We got to see a lot of birthday suits, too. B2B is also known for the runners who occasionally come out wearing nothing but running shoes and a hat to attach their bib to. Fun Fact: It’s not illegal to be naked in public in this city. Caitlin and I started a dicks/boobies count. At the end of the day I had counted 50 of the former (MY EYEEES!! They’re scarred for life!) and only 11 pairs of the latter. Where the women at? Well, that’s just uncomfortable, let’s be honest. I need my sports bra.

    After walking through SOMA (the district where I work) and then down Market Street (SF’s main drag), we headed up the Hayes Street Hill. This is a typical SF hill of about 11% grade which would be grueling for a runner but as one of a mass of walkers and after a vodka cranberry or two it didn’t seem so bad. It also started raining on us, but it was only about 15 minutes and it wasn’t too bad.

    After Hayes Valley and the hill, we started moving into my neighborhood, what I consider to be in some ways the heart of the city–the Haight/Ashbury area. We walked on until we entered Golden Gate Park, where I run in the mornings before work (when I can drag my lazy ass out of bed).

    The walk was basically me and my sister trodding along, starting random conversations, counting naked men and trying not to actually see their genitalia, and taking pictures with random people in cool costume and/or mounted cops.

    Eventually we hit mile 7 and soon thereafter could see the ocean. At this point it has been over two hours and I start thinking that if I had run a half marathon instead this morning I would have been done already. In fact, I haven’t gone on a long walk for a while, and by mile 5 my feet were actually tired! I guess you just don’t notice when you’re running because you have worse problems.

    We finally arrive at Ocean Beach and the Great Highway and head to the finish line. My sister even wanted to jog the last 0.1! Okay, maybe it was the last 0.05… she beat me across the finish line. I wore a D-tag but I don’t know what my time was and I don’t really care to look it up. We crossed the start at 7:30 and I think we finished at about 9:45  or so.

    Pace: (just barely) under 20 minutes/mile! YEAH! New PR for the 12k! ;)

    After getting through the finish line, the organizers had this great idea of putting Footstock, the celebration/afterparty, en route to which you could get snacks and your coveted medal, about 1.25 miles away from the finish line. Maybe farther. We passed it before mile 6 on the way out. And then after finishing the 7.4 had to walk all the way back. I was tired, man! Whatever. We got our medals (special for the 100th–they usually don’t have them!) and our bags of potato chips and pouches of chocolate milk and headed up.

    Once at the thing, I put away a protein bar and a plate of chow mein noodles. It’s crazy how hungry walking 9 miles can make you. Okay, and consuming alcohol before 7am probably didn’t help either, but who’s counting?

    After hanging out there for a bit, I headed back to my hood, the Panhandle area of Golden Gate Park, which at this point was completely taken over by roudy revelers. I grabbed a patch of grass and hung out with some friends and enjoyed the afternoon.

    I think it was around 3PM that I started to fade. The day had been fun, but just a bit overwhelming. I figured it was time to head home and take a nap.

    When I woke up at 7, I felt like I’d just gotten up from a night at the bars where I stayed out a few hours too late and had a few too many drinks. But it was 7PM on a Sunday, and I’d had about… two drinks. Epic tolerance fail.

    I was so glad I got to actually participate in B2B. It really made me feel more like a part of the SF community. It was really cool to see people coming together to do something like this. Also, it was a great day for self-acceptance, too. Everywhere I looked, there were people in skimpy costumes, weird clothes, just letting it all hang out (sometimes literally) and there was really no shame. Everyone was owning it. I love that about this city.

    Sure, there’s the public drunkenness and the ridiculous trash and the traffic gridlock which give this race some enemies, but I don’t think you can deny the awesome feeling of community celebration that was going on.

    My medal’s hanging up next to my Big Sur one. This was my afterparty.

    Thanks for giving me a fun and occasionally eye-scarring walk, Bay to Breakers. Starting tomorrow, it’s time to start training again.

    Hope everyone had a great weekend! Stay tuned this week for a product review and to hear about my new project. :)

    Have you ever participated in a “silly” race? If you ran in a costume, what would it be? Or, would you EVER run naked?

  • SIMILAR POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE . . .

    Share
    • Filed Under: fitness, Postcards (Travel) Tagged With: , , , , , ,

    Five Faves Friday.

    May 13, 2011 By 6 Comments
    FF4

    I haven’t written a five faves Friday post in a while so here’s a few gems for you.


    1. The Glee version of that HORRIBLE “Friday” song.

    [source]

    Gotta get down on Friday    … okay that song totally sucks. And the music video is like seared into my eyes. (They still hurt.) BUT, I really believe the Glee cast can do almost no wrong, and this one is pretty catchy. Now I can hum the tune at work and not completely hate myself.

    2. Vanilla tootsie rolls.

    You know those flavored tootsie rolls… there’s blue, pink, green, mustard-yellow-ish? Well some people like all the flavors, but cool people (like me) only like the vanilla ones. In fact, I love the blue ones so much I lament the fact that you would have to buy a whole bag of flavored ones just to get the vanilla. Then I walked into a dollar store in the Mission yesterday and found this.

    Yes. It. Happened.

    Three dollars later, I was a happy person. Who cares that these banks are probably “limited edition” from like 1915. They’re tootsie rolls. Still taste the same. Just slightly chewier.

    3. Vegan San Fran restaurants.

    One of the BEST things about living in San Francisco is the amazing food. It’s a foodie paradise and that is well known. Also, the number of vegan and vegetarian restaurants is ridiculous. I’ve been semi-vegetarian (meaning I eat fish about once a month) for coming up on six months though and it’s amazing to go to a place where you can get all vegan food. I went to Herbivore recently and got this baby. This would be a lentil loaf. Sounds nasty, right?

    You know, I could probably cut it as a vegan in SF. But there’s just a few points of conflict. For example… Tofu milkshakes I just can’t get behind. I don’t really care if they taste really good. Girl’s gotta draw the line somewhere.

    4. My new two-dollar hot pink Target lunchbox.

    Okay, this thing is seriously a piece of crap. It collapses in the middle, it isn’t ACTUALLY insulated, everything seems to squish itself, etc. But I just really like bringing my gross and repetitive salads in a hot pink, two-dollar Target lunchbox.

    5. The Event of the Century happening this weekend.

    Okay, it’s more like the event of the year in SF. But since Sunday is the 100th anniversary, perhaps century might be accurate.

    [source]

    This is going to be epic. Stay tuned for the race PRE-cap!

  • SIMILAR POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE . . .

    Share
    • Filed Under: Musings Tagged With: , , , ,
    Next Page »