No PR, but I did get a cheesesteak...

The weather for yesterday's race was perfect: low 40s at the start, going up to the 50s, and sunny skies. Despite this and 6 months of training, I still wasn't able to beat my 3:59:50 marathon PR. No 9:00/mile average. No negative split.

Things were going pretty well for me until about mile 16. I was going through a water stop and just about to toss my Dixie cup in the trash when my right foot stepped on a cup on the ground, twisted, and landed the wrong way. One of the volunteers saw me and said exactly what was going through my head: "Oh sh*t!" I've never had to stop to walk during a marathon but my ankle was screaming and I didn't have a choice but to stop. The medical tent just happened to be next to the aid station but I knew that if I went in, it would be the end of my race. Decisions, decisions. I hobbled along for about 30' to see how much weight the ankle could tolerate. My hobble turned into a Quasimodo-like jog and I decided to give it a try for a little further to see if the pain subsided or got worst. Fortunately, the pain went away so I decided to press on even though my confidence was pretty shaken. The last 10 miles were slower since I was being more cautious for fear that I'd twist it again. I managed to finish in 4:06 and some odd seconds. Not a PR but such is life.

On the upside, we had yummy Philly cheesesteaks at Sonny's Cafe, checked out Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, and wrapped up the evening with beers with some friends from the running group. In case you're wondering, the ankle I twisted feels pretty good today but the opposite ankle is super-tight. Maybe I ended up putting more weight on the non-twisted ankle to compensate? Who knows. Pass the turkey.

My Latest Addiction

Brussel sprouts. You heard me right and I'm not ashamed. I can't stop eating these little suckers that are hated by most people I know. Now I admit that my first encounter with them in October was not so pleasant. I made the mistake of steaming them and they stunk up my house and tasted like bitter, mini cabbages.

After filing a complaint with Al who raved about them, she suggested I toss them with olive oil and garlic salt and brown them in a pan. Voila! the love affair began. If I'm feeling lazy I toss them in the broiler for about 15-20 minutes like I did tonight. Mmmm mmm.

How bad is this addiction? Well, if I had to choose between brussel sprouts and chocolate right now, I'm afraid the sprouts would win.

Cheesesteaks, Soft Pretzels, and a Race

It’s tapering time. After an extraordinarily long training cycle (24 weeks) that started in June, the Philly Marathon is this Sunday. If all goes well, my goal is to beat my last PR of 3:59:50 AND not feel like a heart attack victim those last few miles. My stretch-goal would be to average a 9:00/mile pace which would bring me in around 3:55. My super-stretch-goal would be to have a negative split. A negative split is where you run the second half of the race faster than the first half; I’ve yet to pull this off during a marathon because I usually poop out and slow down between miles 20-26. A few of our other friends are also running Philly so it should be fun. No matter how the race goes, we’ll be celebrating with cheesesteaks and beer afterwards. This is why I run.

Fingerless Gloves: Part II

After several failed attempts to follow the directions exactly, I decided to throw caution to the wind. Since I didn't have the number of stitches to pick up as specified by the pattern, I just picked up whatever number of stitches I had across the glove. I then had to cast on the same number of stitches to make the finger hoodie.

"Why didn't I do this earlier?" you ask. Because I'm a law-abiding citizen that feels wreckless when she doesn't follow directions exactly as written. In addition, it might be because I get annoyed when someone asks my how to do something in an application that I've written an user manual for. RTFM.

This was a pretty easy pattern to make and while I do love this style of glove/mitten, I'm not sure I'll make it again. Why? (1) I find having to stop knitting to put stitches on hold rather annoying. (2) I find weaving in the yarn ends cumbersome when there's one end. With this I have to weave in the ends for all the finger holes, plus the hoodie, plus anywhere I had to re-join the yarn. (3) There are way too many patterns I want to try to make this one again.

Another Slouchy Hat

This one's done using seed stitch.

Fingerless Gloves: Part I

I think fingerless gloves with a mitten flip-top are the best. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's a pic:



They keep your hands warm, but let you easily expose your fingers when you need them. Perfect for when you're feeling around your coat pocket for change, trying to get an eyelash out of your eye, or any other task that requires skin-to-object touching. I decided to try knitting the glittens (gloves + mittens) above and have managed to finish the fingerless gloves portion of the pattern.


Now all I need to do is knit the flip-top mitten. Unfortunately it requires picking up stitches: a task I absolutely hate and suck at. I think I whined about having to pick up stitches when I knitted the cable cap a few weeks ago. Completing this project is going to require some serious motivation and patience on my part so it may sit in the "hibernating" projects pile for a little longer.