July 13, 2012

Noah's birthday

I had another very humid long run today, but thankfully I learned some lessons from last time that were helpful.

Surprisingly, I didn't wake up at ALL during the night--which is so strange! I almost always wake up about every hour or two, because I'm such a light sleeper. But at 5:55, I looked at the clock and thought, "Shit! I better get ready to go!" I wanted to beat the heat and get out early for my 11-miler.

My schedule said "7 miles easy + 4 miles at marathon pace". I'm choosing a goal for the marathon that should be pretty easy--I really want this to be my last full marathon, and my only real goal is to have a time that starts with a 4 instead of a 5. Yes, that was my goal for the last marathon, but I wasn't factoring in my knee injury + the heat index of 95 degrees that day. So to finish sub-5 hours in the fall, I will need to run an 11:24/mi pace. Very do-able. I'm going to be training faster than that by about a full minute per mile on my long runs to ensure that I will be able to do it.

I drove about 20 minutes and parked at a community center to use the same trail that I always use. This way, I would be running into the sun for the first half of the run, and away from the sun for the second half--the opposite of what I did last time (Lesson #1 that I had learned). I also brought Powerade in my hydration belt (Lesson #2).

I felt much less pressure this time, because I had decided that my pace didn't matter. I wanted to run by feel alone, and forget about what my Garmin said. I had to go pee almost immediately, but I figured I could hold it until the turn-around point at mile 5.3 ish. It was hot running with the sun beating down on me, but I was really glad that it was the beginning of my run instead of later at the end, when I was tired.

I must have seen at least 1,000 rabbits. They were everywhere! A couple of miles into the run, I kept hearing a clicking noise coming from my shoe. I looked down and noticed that my foot pod was still on my shoe. I stopped for a second to mess with it and get it to stop clicking. Ran a few steps and it happened again. Then I realized it wasn't the foot pod, but the plastic part of my shoelace hitting the top of the foot pod--so I tucked the shoe lace under, and was good to go again.

I stopped at the bathrooms at mile 5.3 for a minute, then kept running. At mile 6.5, I stopped at a water fountain to refill my water bottle. Then I didn't stop again until I was back at my car. I didn't have to take a single walk break! It's been a long time since I've been able to do that--either the heat or my knee made me walk a little here and there, but today I did fine with the whole 11 miles. And I was very happy with my consistent splits.



Today is Noah's 8th birthday! Jerry is off today, and Noah requested to go to Chuck E Cheese's--so the four of us went there before lunchtime. There were only about three kids total in the place, so it was nice and quiet! :) After the kids spent their tokens, we went to a bakery called "Just Baked" for cupcakes. I'd never been there before, so I was excited to go.

However, when I saw the cupcakes were $3 each, I changed my mind about getting one for myself (so did Jerry). It actually wasn't very hard to turn them down, because with the exception of the bumpy cupcake, they didn't have a lot of frosting--and you know that the frosting is my favorite part! Each of the boys picked one out and Noah asked if we could have lunch at Red Robin. I was a little worried about leaving the cupcakes in the car, but Jerry said, "Oh, they'll be fine--they might get a little soft, but we'll stick them in the fridge when we get home."

I was really excited to see that Red Robin will substitute a veggie burger on any of their burgers for no extra charge--so I chose to get a cheeseburger (Gardenburger) with the works. It was delicious!
 After lunch, we headed out to the car, and I discovered (what was left of) Noah's bumpy cupcake:
That is NOT what it looked like when we bought it. All of the ganache had melted away as well as the buttercream frosting inside. Noah was bummed, and because it was his birthday, I said we would go get him a new one. We went back to Just Baked, and I was kind of hoping the girl who was working would take pity on Noah and give him a free one, but no such luck. We paid $3 for another cupcake:
On the way home,the peanut butter frosting on Eli's was starting to fall off, so I pushed it back on--making a mess in the process:
At that point, I held the cupcakes up to the air conditioning, hoping to keep them in one piece until we got home. What a disappointment! I have no idea why these were so melty. I've never had a problem with my cupcakes from Whole Foods melting on the way home.



Despite the cupcake issues, it was a fun family day and I think Noah was pleased with his birthday :) Tomorrow is his birthday party--and I'm a nervous wreck that nobody will show up. We sent out the invitations and almost everyone said they couldn't make it. I got two "yesses", so I am praying that those two boys actually show up. I didn't hear back from 2-3 more people, so who knows!

19 comments:

  1. Mess or no mess, they still look delectable! Have a great time tomorrow, no matter who shows up!

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  2. Hi, Katie! Just wanted to chime in on the frosting issue (I'm an obsessive baker myself...). Most grocery stores (not sure about Whole Foods) use a shortening based frosting which has a very high melting point. I'm guessing this bakery uses real butter which melts much quicker! But tastes so, so good :)

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  3. I ran my first 11 mile long run today. I also tried my first ice-bath today. The run wax a success, but I couldn't handle the ice-bath and opted instead for a cold bath. I just wanted to let you know that it wasn't until I started reding your blog that I thought I could ever run a half-marathon! 2 more weeks and I'll have that goal checked off. Thanks for being such an inspiration.

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    1. Hi there! I'm just butting in here to tell you how motivated I am to read these comments! I have a 10-miler scheduled for tomorrow and have been dragging my heels. No more! Thank you for inspiring me. :)

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    2. Melisa,
      Thanks for hitting in. I just started reading your blog and you inspire me as well. I live in WA too. Keep being who you and and who knows how many other you and Katie might inspire. :)

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  4. I went to Just Baked yesterday for the first time. I was happy with it. I got a 'chubby hubby' with peanut butter frosting and chocolate in the middle ... soo good.

    I hope people show up for Noah's party! I'm sure he'll have fun anyway, but it'd be a shame if no one showed.

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  5. AnonymousJuly 14, 2012

    Wow, 11 miles with no walk break!!! Amazing. I recently ran 2 miles with no walk break for the first time & felt like the strongest woman in the world!:-)

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    Replies
    1. Just chiming in here and wanted to say, YOU GO GIRL! Good for you! It IS a great feeling, isn't it??

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  6. Hey Katie! Congrats on your run today - those splits are awesome! LIke I was saying above to a couple of your readers, I have a 10-miler scheduled tomorrow and thanks to them (and you, of course!) I am so motivated to get out and do it. I have put on some weight since my last marathon and can definitely feel it in my running - but one day at a time!!

    Also, happy birthday to N and my heart goes WAY OUT for you, mama re: the birthday party. After so much planning, and wanting to make it a special day for him, I know that anxiety feeling!!! It is the worst. BUT, it is going to work out great regardless and the biggest take-away for Noah will be that he has wonderful people that care about him!

    P.S. Sorry about those darn cupcakes!

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  7. Happy birthday to noah. We are having my 5 year old's party tomorrow and I am worried about the same thing. I hope kids actually show up! It's also supposed to rain here and everything is scheduled to be outside. Ahhh! It is what it is. Hope y'all have a great day!

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  8. Congrats on your run and Happy Birthday to Noah!

    Both my boys have July birthdays and it is so hard to get anyone to come to their parties since everyone is out of town or busy. I hope the two boys that RSVPed do show up...it is so stressful worrying about it for us Moms!

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  9. Good choice not to eat at Chuck E Cheese--bad pizza and over-priced! Happy birthday Noah!!

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  10. Happy birthday to Noah! That's awesome about Red Robin, didn't know that. And man, disappointing cupcakes! Good luck with the party tomorrow! I have a summer birthday too, and often kids were out of town during my parties :(

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  11. Happy Birthday Noah! We are doing our first "big" party this year with school friends. I have a couple weeks, but so far no RSVPs. **Sigh** Too bad we aren't closer because my boys would totally love your boys and happily party it up!

    And congrats on hitting Chuckee Cheese on a slow day. We did it once and I can officially mark it off the bucket list for life. lol

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  12. I feel for you with the birthday party thing, both my boys are summer birthdays. My oldest is 10 we did 2 parties when he was 4 and 5, barely anyone showed up. I think I was more upset than he was but since then we haven't done kid parties, to heart breaking if no one shows. We've let him invite a friend to the movies or we just go to the movies as a family he's been fine with that. My youngest just turned 5 we did a party for him this year, but I think it might be the only one, 6 out of the 10 people invited did show up, but we had it a month before his birthday to avoid the summer thing.

    I hope all goes well, and I totally can relate to the how heart broken you feel as a mom.

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  13. Happy Birthday to your son! I also wanted to tell you, at the Red Robin around here, you can substitute either a Gardenburger (I think it's actually Boca) or a more homemade veggie burger on any burger. And the homemade veggie burger is much more tasty than the packaged Gardenburger! Something to look into if you find yourself at Red Robin again!

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  14. Mmm mmm! Those cupcakes look yummy but good on you for passing one up.

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  15. That's the one thing I love about red robin! You can also get your burger wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun and substitute steamed broccoli or a side salad for fries (which my heartburn appreciates!)

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