Yesterday was Saint Patrick’s day. A lot of people celebrated and a lot of people drank a lot of beer. Not me (unfortunately). I did not even one beer yesterday. Not even a sip of beer. What did I do instead, you ask? I ran a very slow half marathon. I finished the race, and to be honest I was not looking at this half as a race at all. I was looking at it as a training run with some water stops along the way. This winter I felt like the only way I was going to get out and do a training run anymore than seven miles, I needed to sign up for an organized event – so that is what I did.

I love my medal:

I definitely enjoyed the fact that I had a long run scheduled this week, I was able to eat a little more than normal to prepare for the run. It is hard to run more than a few miles when you are on a diet. So I took advantage of the fact that I had to run 13.1 miles on Sunday.

On Saturday morning I ate a bagel. It was funny to eat a bagel – and stranger still that I was not even that hungry, but I knew I needed to store at least a few extra carbs so I really needed to eat this for breakfast. Dinner was even better – I made spaghetti, turkey meatballs and marinara sauce. I had two slices of Italian bread, too. Everyone in the house enjoyed Saturday night’s dinner:

Pasta is definitely the dinner I have most often the night before a race. The second most common is pizza. I definitely try to stay away from a ton of vegetables the night before a race. (Two nights before the race I had a great dinner that consisted of cooked vegetables and grilled chicken – it was a great dinner! I will post on it the next time I make it.)

The race was cold – but at least it was not snowing or raining. We ran a lot along the water, and it was windy. I am not sure if I wore enough during the race. I really thought it was going to be warmer – the weather forecast had been in the mid forties, and I always get very warm when I run. So, I ran in shorts, shin compression socks, a tee shirt, arm warmers and a vest. For the majority of the race (I think…) my knees were hurting. This was really stinky and made me very unhappy. I had a good stretch from mile three until mile seven (which was also the warmest stretch of the race – I wonder if my knees were too cold??) and from mile 8 I was literally counting down the miles until I would be done with the course. I hate being so negative during a run.

I don’t know about you, but for me this winter has been really hard. It has snowed almost every weekend which has made it really difficult to get outside for a long run. By the time I get home from work during the winter it has been dark for a couple of hours. The weekends are usually when I get my long outdoor runs in. This year I have been relegated to the treadmill. Yuck. I wonder if my knees were in shock when they started hitting the pavement during this 13.1 miles. Oh well, Spring is (supposed to be) just around the corner – so hopefully I will be able to get outside for at least two longer runs a week – that is the plan right now.

After the race my running buddy and I were disturbed to see that there was no real food at the post race area. We were pretty hungry, and this made me thankful that I had eaten a good amount of food the day before. We walked back to the car, drinking water along the way and started driving home. Thankfully my running buddy had the foresight to order pizza and boneless buffalo tenders that we picked up right before we got home. I wonder if I have ever enjoyed pizza (I had two slices) and chicken so much. The food tasted so amazing and I could feel myself refueling.

When I got home I ate a banana for the potassium. Later my mom made me a plate of amazing leftovers – more pasta, another turkey meatball and great sauce. We also both enjoyed some No Pudge brownies and low fat vanilla bean ice cream 🙂

Today I decided I would get right back on track with my eating. For breakfast I had a smoothie with 1 whole banana (my muscles needed it!) 1/3 cup of blueberries, 1/3 cup of 0% plain greek yogurt and a scoop of protein powder. This smoothie was simple and delicious. Four hours later I had a Kashi granola bar for a snack as I ran errands. My last errand was Whole Foods – and I hit the salad bar after I had finished grocery shopping. I made a great salad for myself:

A couple of hours after the salad, I was still hungry. I decided another banana wouldn’t be a bad thing during my 13.1 recovery, so I made an amazing snack. I was not going to go all out and eat a ton after my run yesterday – so this was a real treat:

One banana, cut up, a tablespoon of peanut butter, 1/3 cup of plain 0% Greek yogurt, and a sprinkle of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Wow, I loved this dessert!

Well, that about wraps up the last couple of days. I have to start thinking about making dinner. I hope you all had a great weekend and I’ll see you soon!