Silicon Valley Half Marathon race report

My first half marathon!















Course:
Downtown SJ to Los Gatos High School, via Willow Glen & the Los Gatos Creek Trail





Miles 0 - 7
Piece of cake. Most of it was on flat pavement, and I was doing about a 10:15 mile. Not so bad for a slowpoke like me.

Miles 8 - 12
One of the toes on my left foot starts to cramp, so I had to run/walk with my toes curled up. Not very comfortable. Also, the trail was HILLY. I enjoyed the first ten hills; the rest were not so much fun. And it was really strange to run by the Pruneyard & over Hwy 17, which both seem really FAR from San Jose.

Miles 12-13.1
I sucked it up and ran it, even though by this point I thought I had broken my toe (it's fine now, go figure). The last final bit was on grass, and I was so tired I couldn't lift my feet above the grass, and the bottoms of both feet started to cramp (if that's possible). I ran it, though.

Chip time:
2:36:09
Not great, but not terrible.
















Lessons learned: If you're going to run a half, you should actually RUN 13.1 miles sometime BEFORE the actual race. Ai yai yai.









Next: a 10K! Easier than a half!

Snacking Richmond

So, enough about the folk festival. What did we eat?

Everything.


At the festival:




























































Dinner with the Yoon family. An unbelievably awesome homemade Korean feast!




































Perly's, a downtown Richmond diner.


















Their jalapeno sauce, made in house.

Adam would've loved it. We polished off this bottle in his honor.












Brunswick stew, the chicken version.

The original contains squirrel. This, luckily, did not.





Pecan pie (it was warm & pretty good; mine is better), rice pudding, chocolate chip cookies.






And this was next door:



It was closed and empty, except for a few bare tables and small piles of signs.

Hm.

Richmond Folk Festival

I've participated a few amazing festivals, but the Richmond Folk Festival was the best, by far. (Sorry, Tanglewood, PMF. Take that, Aspen.) Amazing artists, fabulous food, and the festival staff and volunteers are just about the nicest people you'll ever meet. And the most enthusiastic 185,000 audience members, ever.






































































































































The Saturday night party, which we thoroughly enjoyed:


















Here's a slide show with more photos.

And a blog with photos from the after party.

Out & About in DC

Seeing the sights in DC!














My friend Amy was in Washington Opera's production of the Pearl Fishers. Before going to the opera, we had dinner at Heritage, an Indian restaurant in Dupont Circle.







































We had chickpeas, eggplant, chicken tikka masala, & veggie curry. The eggplant was heavy on the cardamom, which I liked, and the tikka masala was awesomely salty.


At the Kennedy Center:



















After the show:
















The next day, Amy and I hung out on the mall, then went to dinner.



Snacks at the Museum of the American Indian.
I had an apple tart. Not too sweet, apples still firm, nicely balanced flavors. A pretty awesome snack, and from a cafeteria, no less.












Dinner at the Afterwords Cafe at Kramerbooks Bookstore in Dupont Circle.

I was feeling veggie, so I had the farro, quinoa, and barley salad, heirloom tomatoes, and asparagus. Cute and yummy. I would have this again, for sure.

Endless hours in the car

When we are in the car for hours at a time, we like to entertain ourselves by trying new snacks.

Snack #1: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups with Caramel



















Verdict: Too sweet. Ack.










Snack #2: The contents of this box.


















The verdict: Crickets! To be used as bait. Not as snacks (for us, at least).








Britt finds other ways to entertain herself.

Arkansas eats

Fayetteville, Arkansas. The home of the Walton Arts Center, and a college town with surprisingly excellent snacks. And really friendly people. (I am an east coast girl and not used to such things.)

A breakfast sandwich from Stone Mill Bakery - fresh bread, salty sausage, cheddar, and eggs.

They grind their own flour. 'Nuff said.

Ozark Mountain Smokehouse. I had the "Man-dude" sandwich, which was smoked pork, bbq sauce, and jalapenos. And they had a real chicken pot pie, which to us Pennsylvanians is chicken soup with thick homemade dumplings, which everyone else thinks are noodles.

Smiling Jack's Fresh Foods - fabulous stuff made from local, organic ingredients.

I had the prosciutto, fresh mozz, basil, and tomato sandwich. Yum.

The people of Fayetteville understand good snacks.

Beverage du jour

8:00PM, Central Time. Watching the debate on MSNBC.

Our beverage of choice:












And no, there was no drinking game. We have to work tomorrow. We'd be pretty tipsy if we had!

2008 Fall Tour

First concert was at the beautiful Manship Theater in Baton Rouge, LA. The theater provided a fabulous hotel, amazing Whole Foods snacks, and we had cajun eats for lunch.



















On the roof at the Shaw Center/Manship Theater, overlooking the Mississippi River.


At Poor Boy Lloyd's, around the corner from the theater.

Awesome read beans & rice, poor boys, and gumbo! A no-nonsense Cajun diner, and judging by the lunchtime crowd, a neighborhood favorite.

Poor Boy Lloyd's
201 Florida Street
Baton Rouge, LA






Second stop: the gigantic Walton Center (yes, as in Wal-Mart) in Fayetteville, AR.


There's really nothing but fast food on our drive from Baton Rouge to Fayetteville. So we stop for dinner at a Sonic.

Most of us have never been to one before. We're a little confused.








Alex is pointing to a menu item called "Ocean Water."

???

















Walton Center, Fayetteville.

Our old poster is still in the green room...



...and our new poster is outside the theater.