Tag Archives: NYRR

Run As One Race Recap: Awesome PR!

Posted on April 29, 2012 | 2 comments

Week 14 of training went okay. I was supposed to run 34 miles this week and I managed 32.66. I ended up running more of my runs later in the week (Friday and Saturday) than I originally wanted. I like to give me legs a little bit of rest before I actually “race” a race on the weekend.

And that was my plan for today. I was going to push really hard in this race and see what happened. I always get a little more nervous when I know I’m actually racing a race and not just working it into my long run as a training run.

I left the house around 7:45 this morning and logged a few miles before the race. I was aiming for four miles before the race, but ended up only getting in 3.25. Then I headed into my corral because things were getting pretty busy.

Run As One – 4 Miles
It was a brisk morning – 48 degrees for the start of the race. I wasn’t sure what to wear, so I went with capris and a short sleeve shirt. It was the perfect combination. It seemed like a lot of people were in the race, although NYRR doesn’t have the number of finishing runners posted yet.

I listened to the starting announcements and was again surprised by what I already knew – lung cancer (which this race was run to raise money and awareness for) kills more people in the United States than any other type of cancer. And approximately 50% of the people who get lung cancer do NOT smoke. I actually know someone from college who was diagnosed with lung cancer and she is one of the healthiest people I know. She beat it, but catching it early is SO important. So I was very happy to support and run this race.

Source

So back to the race. I was in the green corral, so a little far back, and that worried me about trying to race this race hard. The start is always so crowded if you’re not right up front. But so be it. And the race began.

I managed to get moving pretty quickly right from the start and tried to stay toward the inside as much as possible. In my head, I was really hoping for a sub 7:30 overall pace. The first mile went by quickly even though we were going up Cat Hill. I ran it in 7:29. A little too close for comfort…

So then I really started to pick it up during mile 2. Things started to clear out a bit and I pushed my speed pretty much to the max. As I reached the second mile marker, I was shocked to see my time was 7:01!! Holy fast.

So that was kind of amazing, but then I got really scared that I pushed too far and was going to lose steam. For mile 3, I knew that the rolling hills were coming and my goal was just to try to maintain a pace under 7:30. I tried to tackle the hills hard, but as always, they were rough. As I passed mile 3, my split was 7:18.

The final mile is here – time to push. I pushed hard. I love this last mile of the course. It is almost entirely downhill and you can really watch your speed increase. My mile 4 beeped before I hit the finish and it showed my pace was 6:59. So the last few seconds, I just pushed super hard. Here are my splits:

My official NYRR time on the site is: 29:07!! Average pace was 7:17!!! Woohooo – that is SUCH a major personal record. My previous best was 30:35 with a 7:38 best average pace. I am pumped!!

And as I was walking through the finish area, an older gentleman next to me wearing a team singlet congratulated me on my hard finish. He said I “flew right by him” at the end. Who knows, maybe I even had more to give?! Although, all day today after that race, I’ve felt pretty pooped, so I’m not so sure.

It was a great race and I’m happy to finally crush that PR that has been lingering around for sooo long. Also, this is my last race before our marathon on May 27. I am feeling pretty ready!

Happy Sunday!

 

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Week 11, 20 Mile Run, Scotland Run and Veggie Casserole

Posted on April 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

Wow – that might be my longest, most boring title ever. But it’s a pretty accurate depiction of my past few weeks.  There’s been a lot going on over the past two weeks and I’m going to try to cram it all in this post. Hubby and I just finished up week 11 of marathon training and it was a tough one.  Here is a snapshot of the planned week vs. the actual week for running (err slightly different):

 

So I ended up hitting 40 miles, but it was NOT exactly the way I had planned it. The top white row is what I actually ran: 4 miles on Monday, 8 on Tuesday, 5 on Thursday, 3 on Friday and 20 on Saturday. But that was not at all how I planned the week out. Oh well – in my mind all that matters is the total weekly mileage and the long run. 

Speaking of Saturday’s 20 mile run…

Scotland Run & 20 Miler

I headed over to Central Park for the Scotland Run (10k) a little bit earlier than normal so I could squeeze in about 4 miles before the start of the race. Then I found my corral and a few seconds later Bill found me and we started the race together. There were more than 11,000 people signed up for the race, but I think only about 7,500 finished the race. Either way – it was a lot of people which equaled a lot of weaving around. Awesome.

My first mile was understandably tough because of the amount of people around me. I ran it in about 7:53. I tried to pick it up on mile two and managed to push it a little bit despite the rolling hills, running mile 1-2 around 7:25.  I ran mile 2-3 in 7:19. Mile 3-4 was especially tough because of Harlem Hill. It was a rough climb up that hill and my legs were feeling pretty tired after my somewhat high-mileage past weeks. Finally reaching the top of that hill felt amazing. Then miles 4-5 and 5-6 were just okay. My overall splits were:

After I finished and found Bill, we stuck around for the raffle drawing. I don’t normally do this when I have to run more mileage, but last weekend when we stuck around after the Colon Cancer Challenge, we won theater tickets! Nice. Unfortunately, this week the crowd was much bigger and we didn’t win a darn thing. After that, we dragged ourselves back onto the Central Park outer loop to run 10 more miles. Ohh yeah – it does sound like fun doesn’t it? And…it…was…tough. Taking that long break did not help and the last 10 miles of my 20 mile run were pretty painful. I made the mistake of eating too much post-race food and had a stomach ache pretty much the whole time. All in all, it was kind of a grueling 20 mile run, but at the same, a pretty good race. I actually ran a personal best 10k time – the official NYRR time was: 47:40.

So that was yesterday and Hubby and I spent the rest of the day recovering. He ran 18 miles in total and had a high mileage week as well. And now today is Easter and I am in full on Easter dinner mode. I am making my first official Easter dinner at home and I feel super grown up. But that will be my next post.

For now, I will leave you with a delicious recipe that I made last Sunday – a veggie casserole that supplied me with lots of lunch leftovers.

Veggie Casserole

It was modified from this recipe: Zucchini Herb Casserole
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/zucchini-herb-casserole/detail.aspx
Ingredients

  • 1 cup uncooked brown rice
  •  1 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 pounds zucchini, cubed
  • 1/2 cup of green peppers
  • 1/2 cup of mushrooms
  • 1 cup sliced green onions
  •  2 cloves of garlic minced
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons garlic salt
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 1/2 cups seeded, chopped or canned tomatoes
  • 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided

Directions
Combine the rice and water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes, until rice is tender.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a shallow 1 1/2 quart casserole dish.  Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat, and cook the zucchini, green onions, and garlic 5 minutes, or until tender. Season with garlic salt, basil, paprika, and oregano. Mix in the cooked rice, tomatoes, and 1 cup cheese. Continue to cook and stir until heated through. Transfer to the prepared casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.

Bake uncovered 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

——

If you are looking for an easy, filling meal to help fuel your training, you should definitely give this one a shot. And that’s all for week 11 of marathon training. I can’t believe I’m already at my 20 milers. I have a scale back week this week which means a lovely easy 12 mile run next weekend, which I am VERY much looking forward to. And then it’s on to the next 20 miler. 🙂

What about you – are you a fan of marathon training plans that scale back in mileage every few weeks? I follow Hal Higdon’s plans and love that he gives those little breaks. I find my body always needs it.

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My First Fifth Avenue Mile – Race Recap

Posted on September 24, 2011 | 1 comment

I’ve never been a sprinter, never had much speed, never liked the pressure. And as I toed the line of the Fifth Avenue Mile start today (okay, well quite a ways back from the line really), these thoughts circled through my head and I asked myself again why I decided to sign up for this race.

Specifically, I really hate the pre-fast-race-feeling. You know it. It screams that you need to bolt out of the gate and push your hardest because this race is too short not to. Oh the pressure. And I knew I wasn’t alone in feeling this as I eavesdropped on other conversations where girls talked about nerves and tightness in their legs. It leaves me asking the same question I did in high school: Who the heck wants to be a sprinter?! Not this girl!

But I tried to push those thoughts aside as I readied myself for the race ahead of me. And then it was go time. There was a slight pause at the start and it took a few seconds to get “out of the gate” but then the crowds pretty much dispersed. This was probably because I’m so OCD that I showed up to the start super early and was pretty close to the front. So all the speedy ladies around me took off.

To be fair, I wasn’t holding anyone back. I got going at a pretty good clip right from the start. I propelled myself forward by some unknown force and told myself it wouldn’t be so bad. And the first few hundred feet weren’t!

And then I think just before the half mile point my body realized how fast I was asking it to go and abruptly went into revolt. I glanced at my watch to see a 6:20 pace!! Holy crap.

Just keep going I told myself. Thankfully, there was a slight decline that helped a little. But then it was back to pain. I actually think I started to get dizzy at one point. And then I felt like I was going to pee my pants. This people, is why I’m not a sprinter.

But I didn’t pee or faint. I pressed on and finally saw the end ahead of me. I’d like to tell you that my pain faded away and I was able to really kick it in at the end.

Not so. I finished and it wasn’t pretty. My watch tells me I ran that one atrocious mile in 6:28. Fine by me. I was shooting for 7 minutes and I didn’t pee myself. All in all, I’ll call it a good race.

What about you – are you a sprinter or more of a long-run, endurance runner?

Now it’s decision time. I signed up a LONG time ago for the 18 mile tune-up tomorrow. Dare I do it? My last long run was 15 miles…3 weeks ago. It would be nice to run a long run tomorrow with water stops along the way. I could always drop out at any time – it’s not really a race…

Mmm – did I just talk myself into it?

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Running, Racing and Baking!

Posted on January 9, 2011 | 6 comments

Hello all. It’s been a few days since I last checked in. So here’s a brief recap of my week:

Things started off reasonably calm on Monday at work and then proceeded to progress to crazy and hectic by Friday. I had dinner with some girl friends on Wednesday night at Galway Hooker. I thought the space was really warm and friendly, unfortunately the waitress not so much. She was kind of cold and seemed like she really didn’t care about whether we were happy or not, and didn’t really want to be there. The food was also just meh – nothing to write home about. I turned a salad into a wrap and it was just okay. They were also changing all the beers out, so my craving for a Blue Moon went unmet. I had wine instead.

On Thursday night, I headed to O’Hara’s for a goodbye happy hour for my supervisor. Her last day is next week, hence some of the recent hectic days and higher levels of stress. This bar did have Blue Moon available, so I fulfilled my craving a day late. However, after having three Blue Moons without any dinner, it was definitely time for this lightweight to head home. Thankfully Hubby met me out and drove my tipsy butt home.

Finally, on Friday Hubby and I headed to Wicker Park, a local bar in our neighborhood for a 1-hour free happy hour. My friend who lives upstate had won the happy hour a few weeks ago when he was in town and wasn’t going to be around to take advantage of it, so he passed it on to me (thanks Neil!). So we met up with a few friends for some free drinks and made it back home around midnight.

On Saturday, I picked up my race packet, cleaned the apartment, watched the news about Tuscon, made dinner and made cookies (more on those below).

Running Week in Review
I’ve also been pretty successful with running this week, despite all the craziness. On Monday and Tuesday,  I hit the gym for a quick 4 mile run each day on the treadmill. On Wednesday morning I ran another 4 miles along the city streets (which stunk, literally, because of all the huge piles of garbage), on then on Thursday morning I ran 6 miles pre-dawn with Kelly and Megan. I was supposed to run my long run on Saturday, but because of the snow forecasted, NYRR changed the race from Saturday to Sunday.

Race Recap: Fred Lebow Class – 5 Miler
On Sunday morning I woke up around 6 a.m. and began my prep process. While the race was going to be 5 miles, I wanted to run a total of 11 miles for the day, to stick with my training plan. So I headed out around 7:15 to get a few miles in beforehand as a warm up. I got in about 3.5 miles, met up with Kelly, and we headed into our corral. It was COLD. Once we stopped running, all my warm-up quickly slipped away. We jumped around to try to stay warm and then finally we started.

Kelly and I managed to stay near each other for a few minutes, but then the crowds engulfed us and we were split up. My legs felt a bit heavy throughout the race, but especially between mile 2-3. It seemed to take forever. At one point, I also could not manage to get away from a man who was grunting and snorting like an angry dog. It was sort of distracting.

I don’t really have my splits because I left my Garmin running during my warm up miles and the race, so things were a little off. Mile 3 felt slower than normal and mile 4 was rough. However, then all of sudden we were almost done! So  I tried to kick it in harder and power through the finish. According to NYRR’s results page, I ran it in 38:49, which is a 7:45 minute mile average pace. I just can’t seem to get below a 7:41 average pace!

How have you increased your speed? Or what do you tell yourself during a run to make yourself push harder?

After the finish, I caught up with Kelly again and we ran a few additional miles. My total mileage for the day was 11.16 miles. Total weekly mileage was: 29.29 miles. Hit my target again!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Rewind just a bit…on Saturday night, while Hubby watched the Jets, I decided to make some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I used this recipe, but  substituted white flour for wheat flour.

They were very chewy and yummy. I actually almost ate one as pre-race fuel, but waited until after the race. 🙂

How was your weekend?! Do you run outside during the winter or do you stick to the treadmill?

Hope you had a great one!!

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Casellula Review and Race to Deliver Recap

Posted on November 21, 2010 | 12 comments

Good evening blog world. How was your weekend? Mine was very good and busy. Saturday started off with some much-needed cleaning. But not before I had a decent breakfast. Banana oatmeal with peanut butter and flaxseed meal.

Later in the afternoon I had a light lunch after my cleaning and before heading out for dinner.

I decided not to run on Saturday in order to give myself some extra rest before Sunday’s race.

Around 4:30 I headed to my friends’ apartment in Hell’s Kitchen to meet their two new little kittens. Sorry no pics, but they were absolutely adorable. Then we headed out to dinner in their neighborhood. It took some searching before settling on Casellula, a wine and cheese bar a bit off the beaten tourist path. Hell’s Kitchen definitely has a TON of restaurant choices, but I get a bit frustrated with the really touristy places. This place was located between 9th and 10th Ave. on 52nd  Street. It has a really big wine and cheese list. Two things I love.

We started off sharing the Endive Salad, which had crumbled blue cheese and pear.

It was a very unique taste and I enjoyed it.

Next we moved on to the Chistorras in a Blanket…

These little guys were a wee bit spicy, but delicious nonetheless. After finishing these off, we shared a cheese plate.

We ordered Willow Hill Farm La Fleurie and two other kinds that aren’t shown on their online menu, but were delicious.

And then lastly, we saw another table order something that looked divine. We decided we needed to try it.

My apologies, it is an awful photo of the Ricotta Crostini with Orange Blossom, Honey, Hazelnuts and Lemon. This was so good. I’m very happy we ordered it. It was my favorite by far. Next time around, I would love to try the Mac N’Cheese! All in all, this meal was very good. With three of us sharing three different dishes and a cheese plate with one glass of wine each, it came to about $30 per person – not too bad for tapas actually. However, we did notice that they gave us only 3 portions on each plate, while others seem to get 4-5 portions even though there were only two people. We thought this was a bit unfair to charge us the same price when we were getting less food. What is the standard with Tapas?

Race to Deliver (4 miles) Recap
I headed home early last night because I had to be up pretty early for the 4 mile race in Central Park on Sunday – the Race to Deliver.  I went to bed around 11:00 p.m. and had a tough time falling asleep. Then things got much worse when a bunch of either college kids or young 20-somethings were outside drinking in the backyard area behind our building until 4:30 in the morning! And they were not quiet. There were girls screeching and cackling all night long. I think I was able to sleep through most of it until about 4 a.m. when they got REALLY loud. Finally at 4:30 a.m. I think my first-floor neighbor had had enough. I heard someone come out and scream angrily at these kids. At first one guy tried to yell back and, I don’t know, I guess assert their right to be obnoxiously loud. However, once I heard the mention of police in the conversation, things got significantly quieter very quickly. I was able to go back to bed until about 6:45.

Then I got up and had some oatmeal for breakfast as some pre-race fuel. I jogged over to Central Park a little before 8:00 a.m. and found my corral. This was my very first 4-mile race. For some reason, I thought I’d run one before, but I think it was actually the race I skipped out on in the summer. I was excited to give this new race length a try.

The race began and very quickly we were headed up Cat Hill. Not fun. However, I told myself to stay strong because it was really going to be the only big hill during the whole race. I made my way up the hill a little slower than I wanted, but was happy to have it behind me. It was around 40 degrees outside, which made for a chilly pre-race, but was perfect for racing.

Mile 2 went by in a blur. I felt like I was moving really fast. I decided not check my Garmin until around mile 3 – I just wanted to push hard and see where that took me, regardless of what Garmin said.

I felt really great throughout this whole race. When I finally looked at my Garmin at the 3 mile marker, I was pleased to see it showed around a 7:42 minute mile. I started to push a bit harder as I neared the end.

My official finish time was 30:48. Average pace was 7:42 minute mile. Here are my splits per my Garmin:

Mile 1 – 7:59
Mile 2 – 7:26
Mile 3 – 7:42
Mile 4 – 7:22
.05 – :17

Total mileage – 4.05 miles in 30:48

It was a really great race and I was happy with my time. I’ve got another 4-miler in December that I’m even more excited about now.

After the race, I showered quickly and then headed out for a blogger brunch. More on that in the next post!!

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Excellent 18 Miles & Race Recap

Posted on March 29, 2010 | 18 comments

Good morning all. Sorry for my brief hiatus, but this weekend was pretty busy and tiring. But good at the same time! How was your weekend? I have minimal photos to share from the weekend – apparently snapping pics was not my priority.

Friday night was low-key – the Hubby and I ordered pizza and watched Inglourious Basterds. Gotta say – not a fan of this movie. Has anyone else seen it – did you like it? Maybe I just didn’t get it, but I wasn’t impressed.

Saturday was busy with laundry and cleaning and then visiting with my old boss, who just had a baby. The baby, Julia, was the cutest thing ever. She is a little peanut.

Saturday night I made a nice pre-race dinner of chicken with rice.

I ate a big mound of rice. One of my fastest runs lately was fueled by rice, rather than pasta – so I figured I’d give it another shot. What carb do you prefer to fuel with?

Sunday morning I was up early – about 8:00 a.m., but the Colon Cancer 15k Challenge wasn’t scheduled to start until 11:15 – holy late! I am used to my long runs always starting at 8 a.m., so it was hard for me to sit around and wait. I tried to make sure I didn’t eat too early. I had my usual English muffin with peanut butter and banana, two big glasses of water and a granola bar. Finally around 10:30 a.m., I headed out to meet Liz and Katherine for a slow jog over to the start.  

We worked our way over to main area, hit up the bathrooms quickly (no lines!) and then headed to our corrals. Katherine was placed into a faster corral, one ahead of Liz and me, so she came back into ours. We talked times and tried to figure out how fast we wanted to run, but that all went out the window once the race started.

Our first mile was at a very manageable and reasonable pace, but after that things started to really pick up. Liz and I managed to stick together throughout the whole race, which is always a difficult thing. Around mile 5-6, I realized that we were still running pretty fast, with no signs of slowing. So I decided to just go with it – even though I knew my long run afterwards might be a bit painful.

We ran two of the 5-mile loops in Central Park, cutting off the very top north portion of the outerloop – a.k.a – the section with the ginormous unbearable hill. I was happy to avoid that area, but we still had to run the East Side hill (from about 72-79) twice. Not fun.

Once we entered the finish area and I saw on my Garmin that I was somewhat close to beating my PR, I pushed it full speed ahead and flew through the finish. Alas, I was a few seconds off. My PR (from the 2009 Boilermaker) was 1:17:03. My final time for this race was 1:17:15. Oh so very close! Still – I had no intention of running that fast, so I’m very happy with that time. 

After the race, I grabbed a quick drink, celebrated a bit with Liz  and then headed out to finish up the last 9 miles of my long run. And surprisingly, I felt okay. I had planned to head south from the 72nd Transverse on the East side, but decided to go north instead. Just after I made it up the huge hill at the very top of the loop it started raining. But nothing was going to deter me from finishing my 18 mile run. If I could run a fast race and keep running, then I could certainly deal with the rain.

One of the nicest things about running the rest of the 9 miles after the race was that they were just starting to clear off the water stations on the West side when I came around again, so I was able to grab a drink as I reached about mile 13-14. Very helpful.

And I did it! I managed to finish my 18 mile run after running a 15k and almost PR-ing, contending with the rain, and pushing through exhaustion.  Here are my stats from my Garmin for the whole shebang:

Mile 1 – 8:53
Mile 2 – 8:01
Mile 3 – 8:23
Mile 4 – 8:18
Mile 5 – 8:06
Mile 6 – 8:22
Mile 7 – 8:06
Mile 8 – 8:29
Mile 9 – 8:02
Mile 10 – 11:20 (finished the race, stopped for water)
Mile 11 – 8:52
Mile 12 – 9:00
Mile 13 – 9:19
Mile 14 – 9:01
Mile 15 – 8:41
Mile 16 – 9:05
Mile 17 – 8:29
Mile 18 – 9:34

Total mileage – 18 miles in 2:38:13. Average pace – 8:47

I got home just as the rain started coming down harder. I did a LOT of stretching right after and used my marathon stick. Okay – I have yet to mention my marathon stick, but I bought it awhile ago. I have a foam roller, but I bought the wrong size (too fat), so then as I was searching the web for a smaller foam roller, I stumbled upon the marathon stick.

The Stick has a website with a bunch of different stick options, but I went with the marathon stick because it’s smaller, easier to handle and I’m very petite.

According to the website, the stick provides the following benefits:

Prevent & Predict Muscle Injuries
Dramatically improve strength, flexibility and endurance
Rapidly prepare muscles for physical activity
Disperse the effects of lactic acid following activity
Accelerate muscle recovery

I use it primarily after running for “Enhanced Lactic Acid Removal.” From the site: During exercise, lactic acid can build to critical levels where optimal performance is sacrificed, Intracell Technology expedites the discharge of lactic acid from your muscles and encourages its conversion into glucose by the liver. Intracell Technology appears to be very promising in the arena of enhanced sport performance. Look for more research along these lines in the future.

Has anyone else heard of or use any of “the sticks”?

I also like it because I can roll my legs while sitting or standing. I don’t need to have space to lie on the floor, like I need with the foam roller.

After I stretched, used my marathon stick a bit and showered, I took a mini nap. When I woke up, Hubby started dinner. As my marathon training has gotten more intense, with longer runs during the week and weekend, I have been lucky that Hubby has been cooking dinner more often. Thanks Hubs!! He made a pasta dish with a meat sauce (using venison meat).

It was yummy and filled me right up. After dinner I immediately grabbed The Help to read. I had been reading it on and off all weekend and finished it last night right before I went to bed. I totally agree with everyone who has commented on this book – it was really great. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone. But now I’m way behind on my reviews. Now I have to post reviews for both Angela’s Ashes and The Help! However, you know whenever I read a book that fast it’s a good one.

So – all in all – a great weekend! I wasn’t able to pace myself like I wanted for the race. Like others, it seems that if I’m running a race, my inclination is to race it rather than maintain a reasonable pace for training. But thankfully, I’m not hurting too bad today (knock on wood).

How was your weekend?!!

P.S. – I can’t believe that I’ve already run my 18 mile run! I have a bit of a decline in mileage this weekend (13 miles) and then next weekend is my first 20-miler! How did it come up so fast?!!

You can check out my training so far here. Have a great day all!

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Enjoying Some “Choice Eats”

Posted on March 23, 2010 | 10 comments

Good morning all! How is your Tuesday going so far? Mine is already busy, busy. I also have a feeling the rest of this week is going to be a little bit crazy.

But first, let me do a quick recap of my busy day yesterday. After missing my morning run, I finally dragged myself out of bed and ate some Kashi Heart to Heart Cinnamon cereal for breakfast.

My workday was very busy – I was tying up loose ends and prepping for a big training later this week. What I’m trying to say is that I forgot to take photos of my food throughout the day. I know – I’m a bad blogger. I had a granola bar as a my mid-morning snack, my regular salad for lunch and a pomegranate Chobani yogurt for an afternoon snack.

But the monotony of my daily foods was soon overshadowed by my “dinner” fun. After work I met my friend Katie and we headed to the Village Voice’s Choice Eats Tasting Event. This event featured 50+ restaurants and food from over 35 nations, including Vietnamese, Italian, Uzbekistani, Brazilian, Cambodian, Russian, Tunisian, and Cajun/Creole among many others.

Katie and I dove right in and tried so many things. Here are just a few snapshots:

This meatball, mashed potatoes and drizzle of cranberry sauce was delicious and came from Smorgas Chef.

We then had some delicious mac n’ cheese and I forgot to write down where it was from.

One of both of our absolute favorites was this mini salad with sweet glazed pork on top, along with pickled shalots and cilantro. Yum! This was from Xie Xie:

 I took this kind of cool action shot while we were walking around. This place was über crowded.

 
Despite the many, many vendors and food options, there was a clear winner in our book. We tried a whipped cheesecake with blueberry on top and it was divine. In fact, we went back to Spot Dessert Bar’s table twice! 😉

Yes, technically this was a sweet, but it was eaten for the sake of taste testing.

All in all, Katie and I had a great time. The event went until 9:30 p.m., but they began to run out of food around 8:00 p.m. At that point, we’d had our fill anyway and couldn’t eat anymore. I also sipped on three mini cups of wine…seriously mini. There were tons of beverage stations as well, but we were more focused on the food. Here we are at the end of the night:

There were definitely some way-too-crowded moments with a bit of bumping and pushing, but overall the amount of people was tolerable. I definitely think I’d hit this event up again next year.

One of the best parts about the event is their charitable partner: Slow Food NYC. “Slow Food NYC is the local chapter of a national association that is part of an international movement. Slow Food USA, with over 200 chapters in the USA, is dedicated to achieving a good, clean, and fair food system, where good means food that is real and culturally rooted, clean means food that is produced sustainably and humanely, and fair means that those who produce our food are treated fairly and that everyone has access to good, clean food. 

A portion of the Choice Eats ticket sales will be donated to Slow Food NYC. The donation will be used to maintain and expand these important Harvest Time Programs.”

Have you ever attended a tasting event like this?

This event was absolutely huge, but also a lot of fun.

I headed home in the pouring rain – not fun. I made it home by almost 9 p.m. and watched some of Dancing with the Stars and then headed to bed.

I expect a busy day today and then probably a 5-mile training run on the treadmill since the rain has continued. I’ve got a 15k race coming up this weekend which I’m pretty excited and nervous about. I won’t be racing it, but I’ll run it as a training run. I need to run 18 miles this weekend, so the 15k will be the first 9.3 miles of that long run. Fun, fun – right?

Have you ever run a race as a training run? I’ve seen a few other bloggers mention doing this (like this lady and this gal). And they are both pretty darn speedy, so maybe there’s something to the idea. I just have to focus on not running it too hard and getting caught up in the racing atmosphere or else my long run will turn into a painful run.

Have a nice day all!

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