Wineglass Half Marathon Weekend!

Runners are supposed to eat pasta the night before a race, right?  Well, not this runner.  :-)  This runner's magical pre-race dinner includes a burger, fries and beer.  Not sure when I discovered this but it's worked for me for several relays and half marathons so I figured I might as well keep up my tasty tradition!  So with that in mind, my friend Michele and I went to Market Street Brewing Co. in Corning, NY for dinner.  My burger was very tasty and much to my delight, the fries offered were sweet potato with a maple dipping sauce.  Because you know, sweet potato fries made the meal (feel) healthy.  Washed it down with two of their Wheelhouse IPAs.  There are carbs in beer after all and runners need carbs.  ;-)  Maybe one day I'll figure out a healthier sounding pre-race meal, but in the meantime I am happy to indulge in my burger and fries knowing I'll torch them off the next morning!

It's not that I don't eat pasta though.  Last week I was gifted some tomatoes, an eggplant and a giant zucchini.  Recently having been told by my sister in law that there is a super easy way to make a tomato sauce by simply roasting tomatoes and smashing them I decided to give it a try.  Put a healthy swirl of olive oil on my pan, placed the halved tomatoes on it, added a few cloves of garlic and seasoned with S&P.  Normally you would roast this at around 400F.  But I was also doing the eggplant and zucchini which would roast closer to 450-475F.  So I split the difference and roasted at 425F which resulted in some burnt stuff on my sheet.  I didn't let that upset me though, I simply removed the tomatoes and garlic then added some red wine to help deglaze the pan and added that to my sauce for a nice deep color and extra flavor.  I might burn my tomatoes on purpose next time.  I ran the tomatoes through my food mill to remove the skins, added my roasted veggies and boiled a little bit of pasta.  The pasta wasn't the star of this dish - the veggies were!  I love making simple meals like this using fresh ingredients.  I just long for the day when I have my own garden and fresh veggies to experiment with in the kitchen.  :-)

Ok, enough about pasta...how about this amazing glass sculpture I saw at the Corning Museum of Glass where the Wineglass Marathon/Half Marathon Race Expo was held?  I can't imagine being able to create something like this.  Bums me out I wasn't able to catch the Chiluly exhibit when I was in Seattle a few months ago.

After grabbing a delicious dinner (see first paragraph :-) ) we checked into our hotel.  Umm...I usually don't complain about hotels but this one, well, I will NOT be staying there again.  Not sure the bathroom had been cleaned, ever. 

Regardless, I managed to get a good night's sleep but we decided to cut, peanut butter and eat our bagels in my car instead of the hotel room - it just seemed cleaner.  (Hehe...they JUST sent me a survey...)

We were really impressed with how well everything was run by the race organizers and were totally surprised when, out of a few thousand people, friends from my Ragnar team wound up on the same shuttle to the half marathon start line.  It's always good to see familiar faces, especially when those faces reassure you that you can do this (thank you Kevin G!!!).  The start line was a little chilly but I took the opportunity to raid my Goodwill bin and snag a fleece to keep me warm until it was time to run and then drop it.  Many races take dropped clothes and donate them.  I was happy to contribute to that and it made my wait much more comfortable because you all know how I feel about cold!

We totally lucked out with the weather. It rained ALL day the day before.  But sometime in the night the skies started to clear and we were treated to a beautiful sun rise while waiting for the gun to go off. 

The race itself, well, it's a little silly for me to call it a race.  I placed 688th out of 2,381.  That doesn't really make me competitive.  Unless you are an "elite" runner though, it is rarely about the race.  It's about your own accomplishments.  Running faster than you did last time.  Farther than you did last time.  You learn things about yourself during all the miles leading up to the event and during the event itself.  I learned that with a little more training, I'll be able to run a sub 2 hour half marathon.  I learned that when there are 3.1 miles to go, I can dig deep and find more speed in me.  I learned I want a do-over to do it better.  I won't be happy until I break 2 hours. 

You also learn a lot about other people.  Runners are some of the most caring and supportive people I've ever met.  One of the gals I met last weekend (Ragnar ADK) organized a finish line welcome wagon for another one of the guys I met last weekend who was running his first full marathon.  It should be noted that last weekend during Ragnar, this guy also ran the toughest leg of the entire relay...a week before a full marathon!  Talk about an inspiring runner.

Apparently Swedish fish are THE marathon running power tool.  


Being a part of his finish line welcome wagon though, shoot...there was a little water in my eyes.  Whether it was from the sheer emotion of the day (a text message my husband sent me seconds after I crossed the finish line also made me cry!), the feeling of being there to witness someone accomplish one of their goals (and crush it!), or being a part of something so great and supportive - I was all warm and fuzzy inside.  Seriously.  No joke.  

After a little parking lot tailgate with our fellow finishers, Michele and I wandered around Corning a bit, visited the Rockwell Museum for a little wine tasting and then hopped in the car for the 2 hour drive home.   I unpacked, and then related in the hot tub with my Stick and the champagne/wineglass we received with our race registration.  Perfect end to an amazing, hectic, and physically demanding weekend.

How do you unwind after a crazy weekend?  

I love the Stick for helping with muscle recovery...do you have any favorite tools you'd like to share?