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And the site is http://www.areyoukittenme.com/

Are You Kitten Me?

I wrote more of an introduction over there, so you should check it out, leave me a bazillion comments about how pretty the blog is, then add it to your google reader. Ok go!

Once again…
Are You Kitten Me?

Friday night we did a holiday bike bar crawl with some of Eric’s friends.
There was a lot of this:

And a whole lot of this:

Which meant that I spent all day Saturday looking like this:

Don’t judge.

Moving along, Sunday morning we were up way too early and left Philadelphia at 6am so we could get to Eric’s cyclocross race, Limestone Cross at the Kiln, by 8am.

The season is winding down and despite the early wake up call and below freezing temperatures, I was excited to see Eric race again.

There were only about 40 guys in his field and Eric started towards the front, then moved in to the lead, and dominated the entire race.
See how NO ONE is around him?

He was all smiles crossing the finish line and snagging first place!

I had told him that if he didn’t podium he was riding home, so good thing he did.

And I am really happy and proud that all of his hard work this season paid off and he finished it on a high note.

After the race we stopped by Vegan Treats to celebrate.

Their cases were filled with Christmas themed desserts. We grabbed some donuts and a red velvet cake. Not a bad way to end the weekend.

We didn’t see each other much last week so Eric and I decided to go out to dinner Friday night. We went back on forth on a nice dinner or pizza, and of course pizza won! I don’t think I will ever grow tired of the Yukon Gold pizza at Blackbird. It’s like all my food dreams rolled into one.

Saturday morning we went back and forth on going out to brunch or cooking at home. Cooking pancakes at home won out. We always use the perfect pancakes recipe from Vegan Brunch, it never lets us down.

We spent a good part of Saturday seeing how far north we could walk from our neighborhood until it got too sketchy. Also known as, how far north can we go so that homes will be cheap and inexpensive but we won’t get killed.

We have 2 windows in our kitchen and during the afternoon there are two very bright patches that the cats take over. This happens every single day.

This might be my new favorite photo of Grissom. He looks so regal.

Grissom in the front, Kitta Marie in the back.

I headed out on Sunday to try to get some Christmas shopping done.

But all I bought were a pair of Hansel from Basel knee pad tights. Shopping Fail.

We stayed in Philly and spent yesterday cooking and eating.

The cats even got special food and were completely zoned out all day.

Eric did most of the cooking and I did a lot of uhhh…

We had a small piece of Texas.

And then it was time to eat.

We loaded out plates with green beans, brussel sprouts, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, seitan, tempeh, rolls, cornbread muffins, mac n cheese, dressing and kale.

Our overhead kitchen light went out so we had to move the table into the living room.

All in all it was an epic feast.

With MCM I had so much other stuff to worry about that my mind wasn’t really worried about the race. With Philly I had nothing to worry about except the race.

Eric and I woke up early on Sunday morning and rode our bikes to the start at the Art Museum.

My corral was pretty far back so I just hung out for a while. I promise I was actually in a good mood.

Miles 1 – 7: I had a blast running through the city and was just kind of on auto pilot. I got to see Eric a couple of times and Krista once which definitely helped my spirits!

Miles 8 – 11: This was through West Philly and Fairmount Park, the only “hilly” part of the course. But these hills had nothing on me this time. I ran them well and even talked to a guy from Texas who is running the Dallas marathon in a 2 weeks.

Miles 12 – 14: I was most worried about this part of the race. This is where the half and full split and I thought it would be really hard mentally. I wanted to get in a really good place mentally for this part of the race so I put on my favorite song and took note that nothing hurt on my body and I felt good and I could get through this. I saw Eric right before the split and was able to power through without any problems.

Miles 15 – 18: This part of the course was along Kelly Drive. Eric was able to ride next to me for all of it which was great. I got to see Leslie which was a huge boost. The course does a weird back track over the Falls Bridge and I hit a big wall mentally at this point. I was tired and my stomach was bothering me and I was burping a lot. I just wasn’t in a good place.

Miles 19-25: Right after the Falls Bridge my friend Kirin was standing to the side ready to meet me to run. She was my saving grace for this race. She ran with me to Manayunk and all the way to mile 25. She encouraged me and kept me going and fed me pretzels. I owe her so much for what she did during the race. Once we got back on Kelly Drive I felt a lot better and knew I would be able to finish the marathon.

Miles 25 – 26.2: Right after Kirin left I got a surge of energy and cruised through to the finish, which was the best feeling to have.

I am so happy I decided to run the Philadelphia Marathon. The best part was getting to see so many friends along the way. I finished in 4:17, a minute faster than MCM. But I didn’t hurt as bad during the run as I did at MCM.

I think next year I want to focus on quality over quantity (if you can call 2 marathons a lot). I am really excited to take it easy the next few weeks then buckle down with some serious speed work next year.

Oh yeah, remember how I rode my bike to the marathon? Well that meant I had to ride my bike home. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, but seeing cabs drive by was really tempting and in the future I might just take a cab.

I have spent the past 2 weeks fighting off an annoying cold that despite all my efforts to get rid of it, it just won’t go away. Then to top it all off Friday afternoon I came down with the flu and spent most of the weekend shivering in a ball on the couch complaining to Eric.

On Sunday I was definitely still sick, but decided to get out and run. Which sounds really stupid, and was stupid, but see, I am signed up for another marathon that is this coming Sunday. And even though I just ran a marathon 2.5 weeks ago, I feel severely under trained for this one. Because I have spent the past 2 weeks sick.

I am kind of at a loss as to what to do on Sunday, although here are my options:
A: Not run.
B. Run the half marathon.
C. Run the full marathon.
And I really, really want to choose option C because I want to experience that high I felt 2.5 weeks because it was kind of addicting. And probably the closest I will ever feel to a superstar athlete even though I am a mediocre runner who drinks too much beer.

If you are in Philly you should definitely check out the marathon on Sunday and perhaps you will see me running (I’ll be wearing a shirt that says Lauren on it). And then everyone should eat pizza and drink beer with me.

uh, my black and white skills are definitely lacking. i need to get back on top of that.

After riding we ate, talked, then it was game time. Neither Ellis or I had ever been to the beer store/mecca known as Shangy’s. Needless to say we were both excited. Luckily it was all cases so we didn’t get too wild, but we spent over an hour there pondering our next move. They have cases of four loco to slyfox to $300 cases of mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel. Anyways it was dangerous and too much to choose from. After seeing Jeff come in, spend 10 minutes and pull the trigger on various cases of Belgium goodness, we decided to go ‘cheap’ and stay domestic.

New to me.

Took a bit of finagling but theres always room for a case or two/three.

Im thinking next weekend of doing Spring Mountain Crossasaurus Awesome, not sure if I’ll race the C race or try out the B race + SS race… hopefully learn how to use the GoPro for a sweet video as well.

We met up at Pine Box Rock Shop, an all vegan bar in Bushwick. How rad is that? If only Philly had one (to add to our all vegan pizza shop and coffeeshop).

I stayed with my bestest friend forever Rachele and Saturday morning we rolled out of bed and headed to Champs Bakery for brunch. Rachele is always game to hit up NYC/Brooklyn vegan places with me which is why is she is so rad. I was excited to go because since the last time Eric and I went they have added a food menu.

We both ordered pancakes and shared a side of potatoes and tempeh bacon. The food was really good. I can’t wait to go back with Eric.

I had plans of getting back to Philly early but the subways were taking forever and the bus was late (I guess that’s what you get for $10).

I’ve been fighting off a cold for the past week but am still planning on running the Philly marathon in 2 weeks so I set out for a long run. I spent the rest of the day cleaning, doing school work and doing work work. Then celebrated by drinking a mid-day beer.

Earlier this week I saw the cutest photos of Melted Crayon Pumpkins and decided to get crafty. It turned out as an easy project.

Fingers crossed this cold goes away so I can get some more confidence in running another marathon!

My parents stuck around and on Monday we got out and did some sight seeing. My legs were still pretty sore and tired, but walking and moving really helped them.

Me and my parents in front of the White House. They are pretty awesome and I am still really happy that they came to DC to watch me run.

We did a hop on, hop off tour and went around the city. DC has such pretty buildings.

To wrap up the day we headed to Arlington Cemetery and took a short tour.

And watched the changing of the guards, but my parents missed it because they are slowpokes.