A rainy drive and Italian feast!

Hi everyone, I hope you had a great Saturday despite the rain!  Man was it pouring for lots of today.  I feel bad for all of the vendors, bands and everyone at Tulipfest today in Albany!  It's always a bummer when it rains on a fun day.  Like a half marathon, maybe?  :)

Anyways, I forced myself to get up and run this morning, even though my body has really not been feeling it's best lately.  Since the race, I've been really right and sore and just having a hard time moving.  I ran the one campus 5K and then did a 2 mile run on the treadmill, but that's really all I've been able to get in.

Today I ran a total of 2 miles.  Only going 1.3 miles after stopping and walking.  My knee really started to bother me.  It really hasn't been bothering me the past few days and I thought I'd be okay for a 3 mile run this AM but it really pained me.  I was wondering if maybe I'm now like an old person and the pending rain was making my joints ache?  Perhaps?  Anyways, exercising has just been tough and I was bummed at this excuse for a run this morning.

Afterwards I whipped together a quick breakfast of eggs and chicken sausage with some fruit on the side for a bit of sweetness.

I got a few errands done around town before making the drive home to my mom's in Rhode Island!  It was a crappy, rainy drive, but always good to see my mama.

Bad lighting. Pretty mama.

Once I got home I even got to see my bro and his girlfriend as we met up in Federal Hill in Providence for dinner.  My brother picked out the restaurant Costantino's to try for dinner.  There are so many fabulous italian restaurants in this neighborhood of Providence, it's fun to explore and try out different ones.  We hadn't eaten at Costantino's before, but they are well known for their ravioli sold in their shop, Venda.  It's so fun to see my baby bro grown up and settled in Providence, picking out a restaurant and making dinner reservations for us.  He also recently told me he has been experimenting with cooking and trying new foods.  From the kid who used to get mozzarella sticks and a fruit cup for dinner at restaurants, followed by a year after year stint kick on chicken ceasar salads... I can't tell you how happy this makes me!  I love when people discover the fun and excitement of trying new foods and cooking new recipes.  I'm a dork, but it makes me so happy to have other food lovers in my life!  I'm proud of him.  He is a cutie and his girlfriend is pretty awesome herself.

The meal started with some fresh bread and we ordered a margherita pizza to share as an appetizer.  As soon as it came out, I was excited because it reminded me of the pizzas that I used to eat in Italy.  Drippy and gooey in the middle, and only edible with a fork and knife.  The taste held up to its looks and we devoured it.  My brother and I fought over who got my mom's leftovers from her piece, it was that good (and we're that big of piggies haha.)

And the crust was just awesome too.  The pizza really reminded me of Italian pizza (Italian, as in, from Italy) and I could have eaten the whole thing myself!  Had I known how yummy it was, I may have done just that and ordered one for myself :)  The pic above was actually of my brother's slice as I dug into mine as soon as it was served and forgot a picture.  Woops.

Since I knew we were getting the appetizer and that my mom would likely let me eat off her plate, I ordered just a salad as my meal.  I ordered the spinach salad, and I have to say I wasn't really that impressed.  Granted, this is not a salad restaurant so I shouldn't have expected anything amazing.  However, the walnuts were huge and dry.  They didn't roast them or season them at all so they were pretty plain.  Roasting the nuts is so simple but brings out so much flavor.  There was also a weird amount of dressing... lots in some places and none in others, and just far too much cheese.

Luckily my mom's meal right next to me was a hit.  A really yummy eggplant manicotti dish that was my favorite after trying all of the meals around the table.

Of all the food on the table, I do think that the pizza came out the winner.  It was so simple yet so delicious.  The ingredients tasted fresh and the dough was just really really perfect with the right amount of flavor and chewiness.  I would definitely go back for the pizza but I'm not so sure about anything else.

Aside from my disappointing salad, the service at the restaurant just wasn't that great.  We were seated in the entry room to the restaurant, which was pretty small, and the other party in the room was a massive group of 16 girls celebrating a Sweet 16 birthday.  They were quite... loud... to say the least.

Now, I'm a very understanding diner in restaurants because lord knows my friends and I have been the obnoxious group more than once before!  However, we literally could barely hear each other talk over the commotion from the other group.  We asked to be moved to another table and our waiter told us that there was nothing else available.  Understanding why we asked he tried to sympathize by saying, "I know, I have to wait on them!"  ... which, just struck me as a bit of an odd comment from a waiter.

They also made a mistake on my brother's girlfriend's pasta.  She had requested red sauce and they served it in white sauce.  When we pointed out the mistake the waiter didn't have much reaction but asked if she wanted him to take it back.  Lauren was trying to be polite and said he didn't need to, and she barely got those words out when the waiter replied, "Okay. Personally, I like the white sauce better." Which, again, just struck us as a bit odd.  As Lauren replied after he walked away, "Personally... I don't really care."

It was sort of funny because it reminded me of the waitstaff in restaurants in Italy where the waiters are pretty blunt with you about what you order and offer their input even if you don't ask.  I once requested a basket of bread for the table while at a restaurant in Rome.  The waiter simply said, "No. You ordered a pizza.  You don't need bread."  Well, well, thank you very much for your input!

Although we were surprised by the service and the waitstaff's lack of concern for some of our requests... we still had a great time at dinner and enjoyed some delicious food.  After dinner we walked next door to pick up some dessert, because, well, you can't eat in Federal Hill and not have a cannoli. Or two :)

We shared some after dinner snacks (that did not disappoint!) back at my brother's apartment, with the company of these two goons.

It was a great night out with my family and I'm looking forward to more family time tomorrow when we officially celebrate Mother's Day!  My mom and I returned home early to do some baking for tomorrow. There was a last minute white chocolate chip emergency that had me out driving around at 10:00 p.m. looking for an open grocery store.

Although I bust on Albany a lot for being small, it is nights like tonight that make me appreciate the fact that I actually do live in a city.  I know of 3 different 24-hour grocery stores within 5 minutes of my apartment, yet it took a few failed attempts and some research to find a grocery store in the next town that was open until midnight!  However, mission accomplished.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Living it up in Chi-town!

So, be honest.  Did you miss me?  You didn't?  Damn.  I'll have to try harder then.

I disappeared for the past week for a pretty fun reason, I was in Chicago for work.  It was a really great business trip that also had a good amount of fun and delicious food mixed in!  The trip started on Saturday midday when I flew out of Albany.  It wasn't even an early flight but I was wiped.  A Starbucks iced passion fruit tea really hit the spot and what made it noteworthy to me was the fact that they spelled my name right!  There are so many different ways to spell Katelyn and I am really particular in that I think mine is well, the best.  I was happy to see my perfectly spelled name on the cup  because anyone who follows this blog, knows Starbucks isn't always accurate with names!

I first got to Chicago on Saturday night and met up with one of the long time loves of my life, Ms. Teenie.  Teenie has lived in Chicago since we graduated from college and I've visited her once before.  I was really excited to have work take me back to Chicago to see her new apartment and catch up with her live in the city!

Let me tell you, Courtney has one heck of a view from her apartment.

We ate that night at a great restaurant called Farm House.  It is a farm to table restaurant with a seasonal menu and local beers on tap.  It had a great country feel with all refurbished and recycled seating and tables and a friendly staff.  Since it's a farm to table restaurant and everything is made there, it also fell right in line with my recent kick of trying to eat more local, organic, unprocessed foods.  I loved it!

The meal started with some fried cheese curd and I followed up with a lamb pastie.  It was so delicious and all in all a really great meal.  It was fun to be able to catch up with Teenie, introduce her to one of my new friends, and catch up with her college friends who I haven't seen in a while!

Sunday started with a walk along the water with Teenie.

I had just received my "Boston Stands as One" t-shirt from Adidas the day I left for Chicago so I was excited to put it to use in the windy city.  I love the tee and recommend everyone go to Adidas and pick one up yourself.  All proceeds to towards the One Fund to help victims of the Boston marathon bombings.

After my walk I met up with co-workers for brunch at a restaurant called Yolk.  It was recommended to me by both Teenie and by another coworker of mine who lives in Chicago.  I was in charge of making brunch reservations for my team and knew that we had to eat at this place when I heard that Vince Vaughan lives in the building above the restaurant and frequents there often.  Not much can make brunch plans better just as they are... but a possible Vince Vaughan sighting?  I'm so in.

Well, we didn't end up seeing Vince but the food was DELICIOUS.  I am so lucky that my coworkers and I all get along so well and put up with my ridiculousness.  I am pretty sure I tried food off of every single person's plate.  Literally.  And my winner for favorite meal was not the one that I got, although that was delicious.  One of the girls got banana bread french toast that came with sliced banana and peanut butter.  OMG, so good!

We got really lucky because we had beautiful weather for the whole time we were in Chicago, which was nice because it made for the non-work time to be really fun and I got to experience a bit of the city.

I also had the opportunity to visit the Museum of Science and Industry and oh. my. gosh. is it amazing!!     Despite never having been since this week, I've been obsessed with this museum for a few years now.  In 2010 the museum had a contest I applied for called "Month in the Museum" where they picked a person to live in the museum for a month and promote their time (and the museum) with promoted blogs, tweets, videos, events, etc.  I thought it sounded like the coolest experience, but alas, I was not selected.  Some other chick named Kate was.  Pshhh....

Anyways, bitterness aside, the museum is awesome.  I loved checking it out and if you are in Chicago, I highly recommend it.

Another unique experience I had for the first time while in Chicago was visiting Wrigley Field for a Cubs game!  Only I didn't actually go to Wrigley, I went to a "Wrigley Rooftop" where across the street from the field, you can watch the game from one of many rooftop seating venues/bars.  It is hard to explain via pictures and words how neat of an experience this was, but it was an incredibly cool way to see a game, especially with a group, because you aren't confined to just sitting in a row of chairs.  And we had a beautiful night too!

One of the things that I find so amazing about my job right now is that I actually look forward to business trips and getting to spend time with my coworkers.  I work with really fun, smart, interesting people and I always have a great time when I travel for work.  The trip was for a conference that my team is responsible for planning and executing.  It was a successful trip for both work and play.

Oh, and by the way, it wouldn't have been a successful trip to Chicago if I didn't manage to get in some  pizza.  I actually had a mini crisis when I realized that there is a difference between "stuffed pizza" and "deep dish pizza" in Chicago and I hadn't tried the deep dish, only the stuffed.  But I guess there is always next time, and I had nothing to complain about when diving in to this...

Now that I'm back home, I have stocked my fridge with fresh, organic fruits and vegetables.  Lots of eggs, free range chicken, almonds, lemons, berries, brussels sprouts, bacon, and honey were also on my shopping list when I went to the grocery store.  I'm happy to have all these delicious foods surrounding me!  Tonight I made myself some brussels sprouts with panko and bacon and grilled some chicken.  I marinated the chicken overnight in a simple lemon, pepper and olive oil mixture I concocted.  It will be perfect for salads for the week!  Yum.

Oh, and I also made myself some citrus water to have in the fridge.  I sliced up two lemons and an orange and filled up a jug of water.  I've been drinking it like crazy and just filling up the water again.  So good!!

As for exercise... I've been having a hard time getting motivated since the half marathon.  I'll get back on track soon, I got a couple workouts in while in Chicago.  No runs.  But I'm hoping to now that it is nice out!  Have a great weekend everyone!!!

The half marathon is over. Now what?

So now that you fully know how my weekend in Nashville went and I recapped the race... what have I been up to this week and how have I been feeling?  Well, I have been spending a lot of the week taking it easy.  I was really really sore for Sunday and Monday.  And still have some lingering soreness today. I've been doing pretty much everything I've read everywhere to help in "recovery" so drinking a ton of water, stretching, foam rolling, yoga, massage, etc.

I ran for the first time on Thursday, participating in my work's semi-annual 5K race on campus.  I wish I could say I ran without pain but that wasn't the case.  The main thing that has been sore since the race is my butt/hip that bothered me throughout all of the training process.  The pain never lasted this long but I also never pushed myself as hard as I did at the race I guess!

My splits were consistent 10:30/miles which really surprised me because that was a lot better than I did in any of my training.  And I was consistent without really even trying!  I didn't look at my watch at all throughout the race because of the rain so I never paid attention to what my pace was.  I really was just in a zone I guess.

The other thing that amazed me after I loaded my Garmin information onto the computer was my heart rate.  I've never really paid attention to my heart rate while I run (should I? is that bad?) but when I looked at the data and saw the drastic change it really surprised me and had me saying "Huh?"

Check out that heart rate!  I honestly am not really convinced that my heart rate monitor didn't die or get water logged or something... because seriously?  Could that be right?  At 8.5 miles my heart rate just starts to drop!  When you compare it to elevation, I guess you can see that it correlates with when the course starts to go downhill a bit.

But really?  I feel like I either died and had an out of body experience for the 2nd half of the race or I really and truly -- mentally and physically -- hit that running "zone."  Isn't that weird?  The heart rate chart kind of freaked me out a bit.

Anyways, aside from rest and trying to get my butt/hip from stopping hurting, I spent a lot of time working and being outdoors.  Spring has finally arrived in Upstate New York!!  YAY!!!

In celebration I've been having a drink or two outside each night.  I've also been eating a lot of this really summery salad all week.  A mix of spring mix salad and bibb lettuce with strawberries, green grapes, blueberries, lemon chicken, and mesquite smoked almonds.  The almonds may sound like they don't mix with everything else but I swear, the savoriness of the seasoning goes really well with the sweetness of the fruit in the salad.  So yummy, and totally by accident on account of me throwing whatever I had in the fridge on top of lettuce.

I've been eating a lot of eggs and also trying to get back on track with eating real, non processed foods. Sometimes my logic makes sense to me and nobody else... like the fact that I can eat takeout pizza but I wouldn't eat a frozen pizza.  Or the fact that a massive piece of cake from a friend's surprise baby shower fits into my plan.  But, to each their own.  I'm trying to just maintain my weight and not lose right now and so far I seem to be doing okay with that.

I'm a little concerned about my butt/hip pains and have spent a lot of time this week Googling trying to identify what it is that hurts or diagnose myself.  Is it my IT band?  My femur?  My trochanter? Is is just stressed it?  Is it bursitis?  Is it my lateral rotators?  Or the gluteus minimus?  For some reason I feel like if I can identify it, it will help the situation.  But either way, I don't know exactly what it is and I don't know what to do about it.

Today I did some weights and jump rope and it hurt a bit but it has felt better than it did all week.  Because my butt/hip was hurting, it was somewhat bothersome to sit in my chair all week at work.  So I crafted myself a standing desk.  Pretty nifty, huh?

I think everyone that walked by asked what the heck I was doing. Apparently nobody has ever seen a homemade standing desk before.  Geez!

Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend.  I will sign off with three comments.

#1 -- Seeing this every day makes me happy:

#2- Happy birthday to one of my besties and former roomies.  Who apparently I pick up a lot :)

#3- Thank you all again so much.  Everyone's support, encouragement and excitement for me has been so amazing and so meaningful to me.  Thank you!

Nashville Recap Part 3: Post race celebrations!

Crossing the finish line and getting my medal felt so amazing. I sort of wandered around for a bit afterwards, not sure where to go or what to do. The rain sucked and I was cold.

I ditched my poncho to swap for one of those tinfoil blankets that you always see people wrapped in at the end of races. I’m guessing that they probably do a great job of keeping people warm in normal conditions, but in downpouring rain, it didn’t do a heck of a lot.

I didn’t really have anything to do after the race but I felt like it should be more of a climactic experience so I did stick around for a bit to see what would happen. I grabbed the free beer that was allotted to me as a registered runner and gulped that down under a tent that had tons and tons of racers squeezed into. I bought a couple extra “Run Now” bracelets. I checked out the merchandise. And then I was freaking as cold as I could handle and went to find the shuttle bus waiting area to get back to my hotel.

I was really anxious to look at my phone and see my splits, text messages, tweets, etc. that I knew were there but because of the rain I held off. It was a miracle that my phone was still working after surviving the race inside my sleeve so I didn’t want to push it by trying to text and chat in the rain.

I made some friends on the bus. Because that’s what I do. And realized what a small world it is as both the friends I made had connections to the places I had recently traveled or will be traveling. Small, small world.

Returning back to the hotel, I have to say again, how amazing the staff at the Courtyard Marriott Vanderbilt/West End in Nashville were. They had towels, water, and Gatorade waiting for runners as we returned back sopping wet to the hotel. They were just incredible.

I was so cold returning to my room, I first hopped into the shower and just warmed up. I then finally sat down and basked in what had happened and what I had just accomplished. I had just had the MOST fun running 13.1 miles in the rain and had achieved a goal I’d had for months. A goal that previously had been so far off my radar that it wasn’t even fathomable as a goal.

I texted, tweeted, and made phone calls to return messages and let people know I finished. When I am happy I am the friendliest person in the world. This is how I ended up chatting with the housekeeping woman who had come in to clean my room for a while. I asked for her help as to which picture from post-race I should post to Facebook. The one of me in my poncho? Or wrapped in the tinfoil blanket? 

She voted tinfoil blanket, which is why I posted this pic to Facebook. Although now that I am looking at them on the computer I think the poncho one is cuter?  I dunno.  I'm vain.

But you guys... I have to say... you are AMAZING! 117 "Likes" and 21 comments.  I honestly don’t know how to put in to words how incredible it felt to continue to see the amount of people who had “Liked” my photo increase. And read your congratulations. You all made me feel so loved.

And something also amazing that really surprised and excited me was receiving a tweet from someone who let me know she reads my blog. Someone I’ve never met before and who lives in a different state as I do, felt connected enough to send me a message to wish me good luck in the half marathon. To me, that is incredible!! Receiving that message just added to what was already an insanely satisfying and emotional day.

I met up with M and J after relaxing a bit and was so so ready to eat my face off and have a beer or two. The rain was pouring again as we walked to a restaurant so yeah, I got soaked again for the second time in the day. It was nice being dry for those few hours though! The place we went to lunch has the most amazing nachos that I could have eaten entirely as my meal. Yum.

And the beers weren't half bad themselves.

Picture of success!

Talking to the girls was pretty cool and having them to celebrate with made the trip and the race SO much better. They both agreed that when they saw me running at around mile 12, that I looked great. They said that I looked as if I had just left my house for a relaxing jog. I was totally surprised by that because usually I feel as if I probably look like I am about to keel over while I run. In fact, recently a friend of mine told me he saw me running down the side of the road in Albany and that I [direct quote] “looked like I was about to die.” Soooo yeah, it was cool to hear veteran runners say I looked good while I ran!

I also apparently also didn’t realize the extent of the rain while I was actually running. I made a comment about the heavy rain along the lines of, “At least it wasn’t raining this hard while I ran!” and they both stared at me and said, “Uhh what are you talking about? It was raining just as hard while you ran!” Woops. Rosy colored glasses, maybe?

I wore my race medal the whole day as we went from bar to bar and restaurant from restaurant checking out the downtown Nashville scene.

I was so excited and proud of it and proud of what I had accomplished that morning. The high that I was on was the most incredible and amazing thing I had ever felt in my life. I felt like I could do anything and be anything and nobody could hurt me. It was so fun to bar hop and just relax and enjoy Nashville. M and J were incredible friends to have with me and I just thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed the night.

Two of my favorite places we went to were first a bar called Legends, where they had great live music where we danced a lot and Elvis impersonator!

And later we went to a bar called the Wild Horse Saloon that had line dancing lessons and a great atmosphere. We had a really fun time.

Untilll.... we went to go home and saw that the rain was downpouring YET again. After trying desperately (along with the rest of the city) to get a cab, we tried to book it back to M & J’s hotel. Unfortunately my legs were shot at this point in the night and I just couldn’t run any more. I waddled/hobbled my way through torrential downpours (no exaggeration... we were getting flash flood warnings to our phones.) I felt like I had barely been dry for the entire day at this point.

My bed never felt so cozy that night but I had a hard time sleeping. I think it was the incredible adrenaline and excitement and pure happiness that was all throughout me at this period of time. It had been an amazing, amazing day. I kept thinking of how proud I was of myself and getting choked up. I kept thinking of the whole morning as being another life. It had happened to someone else. It wasn’t my accomplishment and I had just been an observer. But no, it was all mine. I had done it and achieved something that was really extraordinary for me. And nobody can ever take that away.

I know I’ve done some really great things and achieved things in the past that are hard for a lot of people -- losing weight for example. However, this feels different. Maybe it is because losing weight is something I always knew I could do. I’ve had varying success at losing weight since my earliest days of middle school/high school when weight became an issue. Managing my weight has been something that I have fought with, worked on, and achieved varying success with over the years. However, running a half marathon wasn’t something that was in the “achievable” category for me. It was in the “that’s for someone else” category. Not even attainable or reachable by myself. I always knew I could lose weight if I set my mind to it. I never knew I could be a runner.

And I feel I can confidently say at this point. I am. I am a runner. And one who is so, so proud. Proud to be able to say that. Proud of the running community I am a part of. Proud to be associated with such dedicated, persevering people. And mostly, as well as most importantly, I am seriously so so, inexplicably and truly proud of MYSELF. XOXO.

P.S. I plan to buy this pic, so please don't copyright sue me.  K? Thanks.