Pat's Run 2014 Recap

I'm not sure that it was wise, but I convinced the ortho to give me clearance to participate in Pat's Run when I went in for my post-x-ray consult for the sacroiliitis.  He said that as long as I took it easy and walked if I had to, I should be OK.
(My physical therapist was not as thrilled to hear that and has since put the kibosh on running, but more of that in another post)
So, on a lovely and unseasonably cool April morning, I met up with about 32,000 of my closest friends for the 10th Pat's Run.
It was ten years ago that Pat Tillman, a former ASU Sun Devil and Arizona Cardinal, was killed in a still-controversial incident in Afghanistan. In the decade since, the Pat Tillman Foundation has helped support military scholars across the country.
This year, Husband stayed home with HRH, and I met up with a few of my girlfriends for the race and post-run breakfast and cocktails.
I'd signed up for the event before I got injured, so I estimated the time based on my performance the past couple of years with an allowance for my recent shin splints episode. However, when I was told by the ortho to slow down, I opted to start in a later corral with the girls and see how things went. All I knew was that once I hit the stadium, I'd be running even if I had to walk the entire way up to that point.
Thankfully (for my sanity), I was able to run most of the way. We walked the first half of the Mill Ave. bridge, all the way up Curry, and over all of the Rural bridge. I suggested that I may walk up the incline into the stadium, but I didn't. I was too excited/happy to be there at that point, and I took off without even telling my friends that I was going to do so.
Oops.
But then we found each other quickly, and all was right in the world.

Of course, then it was time for pictures.

Devin (56) and Evan Goodman, both OLs

Getting this close to a mascot - even my beloved Sparky - was a HUGE deal for me.
#mascotsarecreepy

I loved this year's shirt - it actually fit like a technical shirt should.

Official time: 51:35
Place (overall): 14,598
Place (women's): 6164

Looking at my splits, my first mile was the fastest, but all of them were significantly slower than what I was used to running. However, I was glad to finish in under an hour; I felt like that was something of a victory in itself.
I'm not sure when my next race will be; nothing is going on the calendar until I get a clear green light to run again AND the pain has abated. But despite the achy hip the next day, Pat's Run, as always, was a wonderful - and extremely well organized - event that was worth the aches and pains to honor a fallen hero and support our military scholars. Here's to hoping I'll be healthy enough to run next year.

Reverb 13 · Prompt 8 · Adventure

#Reverb13 is a prompt-a-day series for the month of December that is meant to give participants the chance to reflect on the past year and take the opportunity to write down some hopes for the coming year.

Prompt 8: Did you go on an adventure in 2013?  What sort?

ADVENTURE (according to Merriam Webster)

ad-ven-ture    noun    \əd-'ven-chur\
 1. a. an undertaking usually involving danger or unknown risks
    b. the encountering of risks <the spirit of adventure>
2. an exciting or remarkable experience <an adventure in exotic dining>
3. an enterprise involving financial risk

Reverb is turning out to be an exercise in redefining those words that I'd thought were already defined.  Challenge.  Victory.  Adventure.  To be able to make those words applicable to my workaday, everyday life is...refreshing in its own right.  We tend to think - not incorrectly - that adventure takes place in faraway places and require runaway boulders or ancient treasures.  But in all reality, anything that is, as the second bullet above notes, exciting or remarkable, can be an adventure.  And I hope that all my friends and readers have experienced something exciting, remarkable, and new this year.  If they didn't, I hope that 2014 holds many of them.

An argument could be made that my running has been an adventure this year.  But I think I've already talked about that plenty, and I'm sure that the opportunity will arise for me to talk about it again (and again...).

Because Going on An Adventure also means Board the Hound and maybe even Find a Weekend Sitter for the Kid, adventures aren't commonplace in the Philistines household.  But in the past few years, Husband and I have started to make our anniversary weekend as an opportunity for some sort of adventuring, even if it's just a restaurant in town that we haven't tried yet.

This year, I insisted that we once again take up what we had enjoyed while we were in Michigan, and go away for our anniversary.  While we lived in the Mitten, we drove up to Traverse City (if only for the day) and spent a long weekend in Chicago.  We also spent one anniversary in Washington, DC, while Husband was working in an externship for the district.  Less footloose and fancy free now, this year, we drove up to Jerome.

Like many rural towns in Arizona, Jerome came into being as a mining town.  There were copper in them thar hills!  But, like many other mining towns, Jerome's renaissance has really come and gone, and today, it's hard to imagine that it once was the fourth largest city in the entire Arizona territory.  It's now known more for its "ghost town" tourism, for, like other mining towns, many sites, including the Jerome Grand Hotel (which used to be the hospital), are considered to be haunted, which attracts paranormal hunters as well as artists of all kinds.

I admit: I love ghost hunting shows.  I watch... most of them.  Husband, on the other hand, scoffs at the mere idea of the paranormal, so I knew if we were going to spend a weekend in Jerome, I needed to make sure that we were NOT there to be amateur ghostbusters.  This proved hard for me to plan, since the Jerome Grand Hotel offers a ghost hunting PACKAGE.  Be still my beating heart.  To make sure I didn't cave to temptation, I opted to stay at a bed and breakfast "downtown" instead of the hotel.  And thankfully, the Verde Valley in Arizona has one more thing that we both enjoy to offer - vineyards.

As such, we dropped off the hound at the doggie hotel, dropped HRH off at my mother-in-law's, and headed north.

Just as a note - the weekend we were in Jerome, a lightning-sparked fire started outside the town of Yarnell, a fire which ended up taking the lives of 19 of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a team of 20 firefighters who had special training in fighting wildfires.  As we drove to Jerome, we saw dozens of lightning strikes, which at the time, were as beautiful as they were frightening.  Arizona, as a desert state, suffers many wildfires each year, and I am grateful to those who risk - and sacrifice - their lives to fight these fires.

Our first stop was Page Springs Cellars, which is in Cornville.  Not totally on the way to Jerome from the Phoenix Metro Area, but not that far out of the way, either.  The tasting room offered nibbles on the patio, and once we were finished, we took our glasses and meandered through the vineyard.

Arizona Chenin Blanc
(Husband enjoyed the Mule Mistake)

Easy way to drive your spouse crazy:
say "It's a party with Havarti."
Every time you eat Havarti cheese.

This was my first time as an adult spending time in a vineyard.  The last time I'd been to one, as a pup at the Ste. Michelle winery north of Seattle, I was scratched by a squirrel.  (my dad has suggested I try to feed the damn things).  Walking, with no timeline, through quiet rows of grapevines, glass in hand, no rodents in sight, was therapeutic.

But since you can't spend the night in a vineyard (I mean, I suppose you can, but I have a feeling that it's frowned upon), so we eventually made our way back to the car, the proud owners of a few new bottles of wine.

Now, Jerome itself is tiny.  One can see everything (I am not exaggerating - EVERYTHING) in town over the course of a long weekend.  And we did.  We went to the different tasting rooms (I was saddened that the Jerome Winery tasting room, where my mom and I had gone last year, was closed), walked to the state park - housed at the Douglas Mansion - and back (apparently, not too many people walk to the museum, less than a mile from our B&B, as we got plenty of odd stares from passing cars), lunched with different Arizona beers, and had our anniversary dinner at the Jerome Grand Hotel (sadly, I didn't see any ghosts while we were there - maybe next time).

The Jerome Grand Hotel, from below

Dinner view

Amber Ale from Sedona's Oak Creek Brewery

Grand Hotel to the left - the rest of Jerome to the right

The town of Jerome was named after the uncle of Winston Churchill

Beer in a mason jar - even more refreshing
(the beer was from Nimbus Brewing in Tucson)

Flight from Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards,
owned by Tool's Maynard James

The view from the Jerome Grand Hotel's steps

The view at dinner.
The rusted out car at the bottom was, at one time, a gorgeous model.

 Our last morning offered time only for breakfast before we headed back down the hill to Phoenix.  Jerome itself is on a hill, and that combined with the less than stellar Arizona soil, not much variety grows in Jerome.  However, apricot trees were in full fruit, and our last stop, the Flat Iron - one of the smallest restaurants into which I have ever set foot - offered these amazing waffles with freshly made apricot compote.

Husband was, truthfully, reluctant at first to head out of town for the weekend, especially to a place where he feared I might geek out over the possibility of ghost spectating.  But as we drove home, exultant and appreciative of being able to spend a weekend together as a reminder of why we got married in the first place, we started talking about where we can go and what we can do next June for anniversary 12, and he was just as engaged in the idea sharing as I was.

Certainly, then, 2014 will host at least one more adventure for the books.

To the Top (Someday)

This weekend, after giving myself two rest days,  I got up earlier than should be legal Saturday morning and left Zooey at home (I know - I'm a horrible dog momma) to go on a group run at South Mountain.
Everyone met up around 4:45; I had never been to that part of the park before, so I held everyone up after getting lost and confused.  Thankfully, these women, among whom are Dana of RunningMomAZ, Allison (awesome name, right????) of Parents on the Run, Ashley from She Runs Strong, and Missy over at Sugar Coated Athlete, are not only running bad asses (marathoners and Ironmen... and then me), but they were also gracious with this newbie.
The plan - run as far as you want up the hill and back, and then meet back at the parking area to head to breakfast.
Because basically, it was one, extremely long, never-ending hill.
I haven't run hills since April or May, so can I just say "OW."
I had thought I was doing OK keeping up on my running, but I admit that I was wholly unprepared for the ascent that lay in front of me.  I sucked wind.  And I just kind of sucked.
Originally, my plan was to attempt 8 miles.  Four miles up, and four miles down.  I wanted to take it nice and easy and take my time, even if I was slower (I already knew going into it that I'd be bringing up the rear).  But that was when I thought "hilly" meant multiple, shorter hills, not just one long endless one.  At some point, I just knew that 8 would not be in the cards that day, and I made up my mind to go as far as I could before turning around.
Which was, apparently, about 3 miles up the hill.
That distance offered me this view:

Good morning, Phoenix.

After I caught my breath and decided that I was, in fact, NOT going to die, I headed back down.  The temptation to pick up the pace was constant, but I worked hard to keep one that was faster than going up (I think some centipedes passed me heading that way) but that was constant and appropriate for the long, slow weekend run.
Even though it was hard and my stomach was upset (thanks, sleep apnea machine) and I felt like I was going backwards sometimes, the Running Gods were out in full force that morning, and they sent me this to remind me why I was up at 3:30:

I love you, too, Running.

I had only been back at the car for a few minutes when the rest of the group started to trickle in.  Everyone else went between 8 and 14 miles, and since they had a faster pace, they rocked it in just a little bit longer than it took me to carve out my 6.  

Here is what I noticed: everyone looked SO strong when they finished.  All of them.  It was already hot, even though we stepped off when the first rays of the sun were barely peeking over the horizon, and it's still been horribly humid for Arizona standards, PLUS we were on a hill, yet these ladies were crushing their workouts.

L - R: Me, Stephanie, Ashley, Allison, Dana, Jill, Kristi, Shelby, Missy
Photo credit: that girl in the parking lot we got to take our picture and Missy,
from whose Twitter feed I jacked this snap.
Also, no memos were sent out about wearing pink/black. That just A Thing That Happened.

I suppose that on some level, there was some frustration and even humiliation that I didn't go as fast/far as everyone else.  But that wasn't the main feeling I had while I watched everyone else come in.
I was in awe.
These women were kind enough to advertise their training run to the Twitterverse (which is how I found out about it), they were gracious enough to wait while I drove past them and had to turn around, they gave words of encouragement as they ran by me (thanks especially to Dana on this one), AND they were some of the strongest finishers I've seen.  And this was just a weekend training run!
I want to be just like them when I grow up.
More than being awed, I was inspired.  That hill totally owned me Saturday, but instead of giving up, I just decided that at some point in the near future, I'm going to make it to the top of the hill and make it MY bitch.

Of course, long runs mean breakfast shortly thereafter.  Seven of us headed over to Crackers and Co., where we demolished multiple carafes of coffee and at least two dozen eggs among us as we staved of the runger.  It was over breakfast that we got to know each other, as many of us had been complete strangers, save for a handful of tweets back and forth, until dawn.  For total strangers, we gabbed like we'd been friends for years.
These ladies are just lovely people, and I'm so grateful to them for shooting out the message and inviting all to join in their reindeer games.  It was a blast, and I can't wait to have that hill for breakfast like the pros.
And then go grab second breakfast with the ladies.

Favorite Food Friday - Black Rice Summer Salad

It might not officially be summer, according to the calendar, but once we hit 100° here in Phoenix, it's summer.  Period.

Summer means many things to many people: lemonade, picnics, maybe vacation.  A few of the things it means for us is "Ugh, what can I make that doesn't involve the oven?" and "I guess I can make something on the stove if it doesn't take too long."  

Of course, with The Husband working late some nights, summer also means for me "What is fast and easy and not that messy but that I don't have to heat up the house to make?"

Enter summer salads.

This particular beauty was inspired by Kat, who, for several days this past month, was texting us about her "regular" lunch of strawberry, mango, and avocado salad.  My mouth was watering, and I knew that would be a perfect starting point.  When I realized that I still had some delicious black rice in the pantry, I had a winning combination.

This salad is ridiculously simple, and it's easy to change up the ingredients as you have them.  And unless you want to add a sprinkling of feta (which I have twice in the five times I've made it), this healthy recipe is vegan as well as gluten-free.

Black Rice Summer Salad

• 1/2 cup black rice (you could probably sub any long grain rice if you can't get the black rice)
• 1 ripe mango (or a ripe peach/nectarine - also amazing)
• 1 ripe avocado
• 2 green onions (or a shallot or red onion)
• red wine vinegar
• olive oil
• salt
• cracked black pepper

Cook the rice according to package directions.  If you need to, drain out any remaining water before tossing with the onions, chopped fairly fine, and the oil and vinegar (to taste - I only used about 2 Tbsp of each).

Cut up the avocado and mango into bite sized pieces and toss in with the rice.  The rice should still be a little warm, which will make the avocado get a little melty.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve immediately or chill for later - this recipe serves one as a meal or two as a side.  It's delicious any way you try it.

Through the Eyes of My Preschooler

Since I'm on Spring Break this week, Her Royal Highness and I have been spending a LOT of time together.  We've been every slide and swing at the local "big" park and have made what seems like a metric of art projects.  But of course, her favorite thing has been going to the zoo.
If you're like me, you might find yourself taking the same snaps of the same animals at the zoo every time you go (and we go quite a bit) and then having a bazillion pictures of giraffes eating.  So, while I couldn't help myself with some of the animals, this time, I handed HRH the camera and asked her to take pictures of our day.  I was satisfied to take a few pictures of her and just enjoy our time together instead of seeing it through a lens.  While I did ask her if she wanted to take a picture of each animal, I only assisted her in holding the camera strap, but all of the photos were taken solely by HRH.  I have to say - and yes, I'm sure I'm biased - that I'm truly impressed with the way she centered her pictures, and I'll tell you that she was very careful in timing the pictures she took of the sting rays as they swam by so that she'd get a photo of them and not just the water.  Someday very soon she'll master the zoom feature.
HRH does have some toy cameras, and she also sometimes pretends to take photos using her toy phones (only a 21st century baby would do that, huh?), but I have given her our old cameras to use, and she just loves being able to take actual photos to show to people.  If you have a little one, I encourage you to toss him or her your camera while you're out on an "adventure" to see how it's recorded from a child's eyes!

The sidewalk at the entrance

Vulture and desert tortoises at the entrance

One up high

This is Sheena, one of the (Asian) elephants.
The kids got to toss carrots into the enclosure, and even though the
keeper said that Sheena's the shyer of the elephants, she came over
for a snack and some great photo ops!

"Say 'fuzzy pickle,' Mommy!"

At the Komodo dragon exhibit

Letting a sleeping dragon lie

The larger Komodo dragon, giving us his best side

Fence up close (this was supposed to be a picture of the giraffes, I think)

Tree house - all kids love it; all parents hate it.

Do you see the tiger?
We even got to hear him roar!

"Shadow People"

Lions (Or, Lazy A$$ Cats)

"Stroller in Motion"

Giving a keeper the finger?

Sting rays!

More sting ray madness

Find the ram (bighorn sheep)

OTTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(these are spotted neck otters, and they were pretty talkative)

More otter shenanigans

Rhinoceros