Visiting Ash- May 2017

Last weekend I visited Ash. I got there on Cinco de Mayo so our first stop was a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Cancun Inn Chester, NY is a family restaurant and they kindly got us a table even though they were all booked and we had no reservation. We took it easy on Friday night though because we were running a 5K in the morning.

Sangria on Cinco de Mayo! 

Saturday morning we ran the Hard Cider Run 5K at Warwick Valley Winery. It was my third and hardest 5K yet. First of all, it rained a lot Friday so the running path through the vineyard was muddy and I was a bit afraid of slipping or twisting my ankle. Second, the vineyard path went uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill, over and over again. It was never-ending! And the downhill was steep enough to worry about slipping so it didn't fully make up for the uphill. On the plus side though, the view was crazy beautiful.

View of the mountains on the run

Uphill and downhill through the vineyard

Ash and I ran separately, but Ash came back for me when she was done

More beautiful trail

After the race with our bottle opener medals

After the race, we got one complimentary hard cider, but we bought another two bottles and lots of food-- more food than we could eat, though we did fine with the cider. We had so much fun just being ridiculous.

Cider waiting for us

Cheers! Regular hard cider and cranberry hard cider

After some recovery time at Ash's, we walked around Warwick a little and then went to meet Kate and Cristin for drinks and dinner. We can't resist the pull of sushi, so we didn't. On the way home, we were too stuffed for dessert but we had ice cream anyway because the Bellvale Farms Creamery is amazing and it's worth it.

Warwick flower fountain

Flower fountain selfie

Cristin, Kate, Ash, and me at Seven Lakes Station

Sushiville in Sloatsburg, NY

Bellvale Farms Creamery

Right before I started spilling ice cream

Basically the perfect weekend, and if only we didn't live so far away we could do this more. Sigh.

Girls' Weekend at Dewey Beach 2016

For Girls' Weekend this year we went to Dewey Beach for the Dewey Goes Pink 5K and walk. Ash, Megan, and I were going to do the 5K and Janice and Christina were going to do the walk but poor Christina got sick. We had a lovely roomy Air BnB condo by the beach, which we enjoyed despite the rain. The 5K was scenic, but the best part of the weekend besides the amazing people participating was the after party. Holy cow, Dewey knows how to party. There were mixed drinks, beer, roast pig, mac n' cheese, and cookies, though the cookies went very fast. Live music! Group toasts! Just so much fun and all for a good cause.

Pre-race picture in the rain.

The three that have been to all the Girls Weekends.

The three in the 5K

We were sad to split up from Janice when she went to the walk area and we went to the walk area. And we were jealous when she texted us that she was already done.

Getting ready for the 5K. Do you see us? (Hint: close to 1A sign.)

And we're off!

Yes!

After the race, we met at a designated location so we wouldn't all get lost.

The three that were done first, grabbing many beers.

Toasting with Crush mixed drinks at the after party. Woo!

There was so much delicious food.

Sorry Porky.

The band was really good.

It kept raining on us, so we decided to go back and have Megan's Magic Hurricanes. Which we did. Which then rendered us unable or unwilling to go out and party. But we had a lot of fun at the condo and did ultimately get dressed to go to dinner.

Heading back post-race with extra Hurricane orange juice.

Next year, if it's not raining, maybe we can drink at the beach?

Post-Hurricane-drinking dressed and posing with Seahorse Christina (we missed you!)

Selfie where Megan made a funny face so she got cut out.

Making pouty faces because Janice went home early because she's a new mom!

We ended up back at The Starboard for dinner. Dinner was yummy but the hurricanes started catching up with us, and we started feeling ill. So we walked back after dinner, now in the POURING RAIN. We felt grateful it hadn't rained in the 5K. We swear.

Megan and me before the Hurricanes caught up with us

Ash pretending to hug Janice and Christina- I promised I'd photoshop but nah.

Sunday morning, we were recovered, so we went to Greenman Juice Bar & Bistro in Rehoboth, and then we tried to do a little souvenir shopping but everything said Rehoboth so I guess it's just going to be the race shirt. I'm super excited for the next Girls' Weekend. Soon I hope!

Brunch at Greenman Juice Bar & Bistro was extra delicious!

Dewey Goes Pink raised $65,000+ this year (Almost $300,000 in the six years it has been held.)

*My Race Stats:
Time: 43:09.9, Pace: 13:55/mile, Place: 888/1207
37 F, Bib #197, Division 30-39 F, Division Place: 116/150
Worse time than last 5K, but the ranking made me feel less bad, haha.

My First 5K 2016

Last Sunday I ran my first 5K!

How do I explain my (non)history of running? In high school when the gym teacher forced us to run the mile to measure our physical fitness I always tried my hardest, even though I hated every second. I watched the cool girls just walk nonchalantly around the track, but I just couldn't bring myself to not care. I cared about everything. That said, my personal best mile was about 8 minutes... which, in case you're not a runner, is very slow for a mile. That's a young, thin Ericka trying her very hardest for maybe a year... 18 years ago.

Since then I've rarely run except for some brief flirtations with treadmills, but even that ended over a decade ago.

Looking dubious pre-run

So one morning, after many years of pondering why my friends run half-marathons and marathons, I decided to do it. I registered for the shortest race in close proximity. Janice gifted me sneakers for my birthday- thanks Janice! And shortly after that I signed up. I had enough time to do an 8-week training schedule, which I turned into 10 weeks with a 1-week Japan break. This plan was possibly flawed because it wasn't enough time, it was interrupted by Japan, but mostly because I couldn't even do what the training program required. When I asked my doctor why I couldn't run for 30 minutes, he said maybe I needed more training time. But after he inquired about my high school running, he shook his head slowly and said maybe I'm just not built to run.

The starting line. SPOILER ALERT: Shirtless tall teen guy on right was the winner.

Whatever. My goals were simple: 1- Beat my practice times which were about 43 minutes for a self-timed 5K (3.1 miles), and 2- Not come in last. Nonetheless, that morning I was freaking out. I felt a little ill. It didn't help that I went alone. I even encouraged my family to stay home because I was concerned about Kevin entertaining the kids for a big stretch. When the race director gave a moving speech about the hometown hero who had passed away at a young age and in whose honor we were running, I cried. I suspected the race director was actually the mom. I was not off to a great start.

My position on the starting line was behind these guys.

I achieved my goals: 1- I beat my practice times (coming in at 41:10) and 2- I didn't come in last! I was still kind of mad about how slow and almost-last I was. Evidenced by this below:

Woman pushing stroller beat me. Seriously! And almost all the other runners too.

At least I got to run by the beautiful harbor.

Working hard

Perhaps I could have shaved off some seconds or even minutes by not taking pictures while I ran, but I could no more hold my pictures than hold my breath. Actually, Chrissy said the one thing that made me feel a little better: "But you were so much faster than all those people sitting on their couches." Truth.

Pre and after party in the gym

After the race I walked home... about 3 miles... in just a little more time than I ran 3 miles. Sigh.

Stats:
Time: 41:10.2, Pace: 13:16/mile, Place: 220/234
37 F, Division 35-39 F, Division Place: 9/10, Gender Place: 106/117