Back on the Run and the Return of Wine Monday

I was forced into a week long break from running because of a nasty virus that held my body hostage, mostly via cough and sinus congestion.  Yesterday morning I finally got back to my routine and was pleasantly surprised with how good I felt. I did 5 miles at an 8:38 average and didn't have a coughing attack or any chest pains. In fact, someone called me fast! Me! Fast!

This triumphant return is all the more note-worthy because Monday night marked the official return of Wine Monday! I had not participated for over a month, giving it up for my last few weeks of training before the half marathon. During last week's Wine Monday I wasn't feeling great and didn't imbibe. This week however, I made up for lost time. With some help from Dutch, my partner in crime, I managed to polish off a wonderful bottle of Petite Syrah.

So to recap: sick for a week, drank a lot of wine, ran 5 miles. Fast!

SUCCESS!

Yesterday was the Pittsburgh Marathon and Half Marathon.  After running 13.1 miles I went to brunch, did some errands around town, cleaned, and made dinner and I can still walk today!  My goal was to complete the course in 2 hours or less.  According to my Garmin watch (I won't get my official race time until tomorrow), I ran 13.25 miles (must have taken some of the curves too wide!) in 1:53:20 which is an average pace of 8:33 per mile!  It got a little warm and I was definitely sore when I reached the finish line but I felt great overall.  A big thanks to all my donors who helped me raise $705 for the National MS Society.  Also a big thanks to my husband and dad who came out to watch the race.  My mom has a big test this week so she wasn't able to make the trip but my dad drove out from Illinois to take pictures and report back to her.  Now that I'm done, I'm thinking about tackling the full 26.2.  I would definitely need to find a race on a flat terrain - midewest somewhere - but I think I could handle it.  It's officially on the 2013 "to do" list!   

Tomorrow, Tomorrow

The half marathon is tomorrow!

Banana-rama

Bananas are a staple food for most runners.  I often enjoy one in my lunch as it is a perfect complement to my "gourmet" PB&J sammich.  Yesterday's banana had a sticker on it along with a bar/scan code (still don't quite understand how those work).  The sticker told me I could turn my banana into yonana.  Apparently there is a machine called the Yonana that makes frozen delights out of bananas and other fruits.  The frozen banana serves as the base and when processed, looks and tastes (allegedly) like soft serve ice cream.  The end product shares the same name as the machine, Yonana.  I assume the name, is a spin off of fro-yo despite not having any yogurt.  I get that this is healthy alternative to ice cream or frozen yogurt.  What I don't get is: why?  If I want to be healthy, I will eat the banana.  If I want dessert, Iamma get some 'zerts!  And PS folks, you can freeze whatever you want and shove it into that machine, but eating too much of anything will make you fat! 

In other banana related news, I made (what I consider to be) a hilarious banana joke yesterday.  Are you ready?  Here's the set-up: I was leaving for lunch, putting my banana in my bag, when a co-worker walked by my desk.

Co-worker: Is that thing loaded?
Me: Yeah, with postassium!