Coolest Caesar Salad and what the runners didn't see.

My mom had a big birthday this week, and last night we went to out dinner! If you know our family, you know that this is a very, very rare occurrence. We went to one of my mom's favorite restaurants and we all had wonderful meals. I started my dinner with a caesar salad (I love salad and try to have some once a day), but this was no ordinary caesar salad! Before the actually plate of lettuce, etc, came out, a plate with five spoons was brought to the table! Each spoon had an ingredient (capers, egg, salmon, onion, and bacon) and then the actual salad came out with cheese and dressing. Then I was able to add the ingredients that I wanted!!! What a cool way of serving a dish (and it was probably the yummiest caesar salad I've ever had).

After dinner, we declined desert because we had a big cake waiting at home, but the waiter brought out these tiny oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for us while we waited for the check! Adorable!

Ended the night with chocolate raspberry crunch cake. Yum.

On another note, I was scrolling through some more photos from this past weekend from my mom's camera, and found some interesting aspects of the marathon that the runners probably never really see. 

For example, have you ever seen so many bananas???

 

Or finisher's medals???

My mom also found some cool downtown Cleveland sights.

Rock and Roll!

...and steam ships!

I think it's cool that she found the inner-workings of a giant marathon and got to watch the set up for the finishers. I'm sure someday I'll be a race volunteer and hopefully help with stuff like that! She also got to see cool things that the runners couldn't see, like the steam ship and Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame!

Chocolate Cream Cheese and another running book.

I have found a new obsession. It is called Philadelphia Milk Chocolate Cream Cheese:

Seriously, that's a great invention. I love it on my whole-wheat mini bagels but it would make a great sandwich and go well on pretzels. Wayyyyy better than Nutella (sorry Nutella). 

I recently finished a new favorite running book: The Extra Mile: One Woman's Personal Journey to Ultrarunning Greatness by Pam Reed. It's sort of an autobiography/memoir. I'm really glad I plucked this off the shelf because it turned out to be an amazing read and taught me a lot about ultrarunning, a sport which (like most people in the world) I knew nothing about about. 

Pam does a great job of introducing the sport and talking about her experience with it. She's actually a triathlete and wrote a book about her experience doing Ironman Triathlons as well (that'll be my next book!!!). In this book, however, it's really interesting to read about her experiences in 300-mile races and her experiences at Badwater. This woman loves desert races. She "invented" and is the race director of the Tucson Marathon, too. I've always talked about how much I'd like to be the director of a really big regatta like the Head of the Charles...or maybe a organizing a race someday for a cause that it close to my heart. 

Anyways, back Pam!!! I had no idea how amazing she was....I had no idea who she was. But she was the overall winner for Badwater at least twice and was the women's winner more times. She regularly wins these extremely long distance races and creams EVERYONE, even all the men. One time she ran the London marathon and a few days later she ran the Boston marathon back-to-front and then front-to-back (in other words...she ran the entire course TWICE). I found her stories and work ethic really inspiring. If you want to know about all the biggest distance races and ultramarathons, this is the book to read. I was just inspired in general, and I never even really considered ultrarunning. 

The only problem I had with this book is that sometimes she seems to brag a little bit (and I get the impression that other people have this problem with her too). To be honest...I know I can be a little braggy if I'm not careful too, and it makes sense: you want to tout your accomplishments! If you tout them too much though people tend not to like you. So be careful! Overall the book was just really great and I think most people wouldn't even notice the braggy thing. I completely recommend this book to every runner, especially ones who are looking into doing ultras. Personally...I don't know if I will ever really want to do ultras. I can barely get my mind around the half-marathon! I know I want to do a full-marathon, but who knows how long that will take me to build up to! In my mind I really want to be super awesome and do an ultra. I think the shortest ultra you can do is a 50k (31 miles) so if you can do a marathon, you probably have it in you to hustle on for a few more miles. I can't help thinking that I would get to the marathon point and be like "HAVEN'T I DONE ENOUGH???" So...it's probably safe to say that I have years before I really think about doing ultras. I do think that reading about them can be inspiring to any runner or even any athlete; it just reminds you about the mental toughness and endurance that you have to have to get your body to do these things (even if it's not a long run or a run at all! Maybe it's rowing or cycling or walking or swimming). All athletes have to have one thing in common to be successful and to keep going, and that's mental toughness. Pam does a good job with talking about this and it's importance. It's a good thing for us all to keep in mind.

A day of R&R.

Today I did a lot of relaxing on Alex's family's new speed boat. We (Alex, his friend, and Alex's dad) headed out to Lake Erie to just sit and relax (which I soon learned means "go really really fast for awhile") and enjoy the view. It was a GORGEOUS day and I was sure to lather up with lots of sunscreen!

 

We sped around the lake for awhile and admired several sailboats and life houses, and then we returned  shore to pick up Alex's mom. We passed the start and finish of the Cleveland Marathon. We sped over to the mouth of the Cuyahoga at that point, and motored into the opening that I'd rowed out of so many times. We followed the river around its many bends and past our boathouse, and up to Collision bend (where we were stopped because a freighter was going through). We saw many rowers and eights out, along with a few fours and singles shells. I was sad not to be among them. It felt weird to be with the "enemy" (a pleasure craft). I saw many familiar faces among the coaching staff that was out. The experience pushed me to decide that I am going to continue on with my endeavor to begin coaching this summer. I had been planning to do that, and then sort of backed off of that plan because I was having (mostly internal conflict) with my high school team. I was told that they didn't want me around so much. Mostly, I think that the teams leaders are afraid of more power, and the possibility of losing theirs. It was enough to make me disinterested in coming back to help. I think I need not to be a baby though; I need to toughen up and do what is really right and do what makes me happy as well. So as soon as work settles down, I'll be working on coaching.

We docked and climbed up to a restaurant that looks upon one of the bridges I've rowed under hundreds of times!!! I've never gotten a picture from this angle before!

After dinner we headed back to the launch and called it a day. I think this was a great way to distract ourselves from the post-marathon pain! It was a lot of fun and I always enjoy spending time with Alex's family.

Little goslings going for a swim with mom and dad as the sun was setting.