a few more days!

Wow!

I leave for San Francisco in two short days! I am excited and nervous and already missing my TNT family. But I am SO ready to have my weekends and legs back to normal :-)

On Sunday I run/walked the Staten Island Half Marathon. I really did not want to do this. 1st of all, we are supposed to be in our "taper" mode, and not run more than 6miles for our long run. BUT my friend Lauren and I have fun all 4 of the other borough half marathons, and needed to do Staten Island to complete the half marathon "grand prix." We receive a special prize if we do all five. Which means, I woke up at 5:15 on Sunday morning to make the (chilly!) trek all the way to Staten Island. One aspect of these Grand Prix races is I get to explore areas of the city I would have never thought to visit. Some of these location (ahem, Queens) I will try not to frequent ever again at 5 in the morning. Staten Island was beautiful though. I loved the ferry ride, and was able to spend some quality time with my original TNT running buddy, Lauren. Oh, the things we will do for a "special prize" (which happens to be a patch. don't judge me. It's pure stubborn-ness).

The Run/Walk was very slow. It was fun! I took this race very leisurely. It was fun being in the back of the pack. I got a lot of alone time, and there was very little pressure. It was a little embarrassing to come in at the end...but I had a good excuse! I'm taking my taper very seriously!


I found this great website! runningraw.com - A guy named Tim VanOrden decided to start the "Running Raw Project:" the question was "Can one be an athlete while eating a 100% raw vegan diet?" and the conclusion he came to was yes! His website is very inspiring. He has accomplished so much with this lifestyle, and has some very impressive athletic accomplishments under his belt. I am interested to try to use some of his more natural dietary options as fuel instead of traditional running nutrition. Maybe I'll wait until AFTER the marathon to experiment....remember- Nothing new on race day!

Tuesday night I had the pleasure of trying New York City's epitome of fine-raw dining: Pure Food and Wine. I have been so excited to try this restaurant after months of hearing rave reviews. It did not disappoint. Everything at Pure Food and Wine is raw-vegan (not cooked above 118 degrees). It is incredible what the chefs can do with those kinds of limitations.

We ordered:

King Oyster Mushroom Scallops with Hijiki Seaweed
chive crème fraiche, wilted watercress with black garlic, tomato broth

for our main courses:

Zucchini and Local Hothouse Tomato Lasagna
basil pistachio pesto, sun-dried tomato sauce, pinoli ricotta

and

Sweet Pickled Beet and Rosemary Cashew Chevre Ravioli
wilted spinach, grapes, saffron cream, green olive tapenade

and for dessert....

Mint Sundae
chocolate, fresh mint, and mint chip ice cream, with mint chocolate cookies and vanilla cream


Keep in mind....all of this was RAW! isn't that amazing?

I wasn't such a big fan of the appetizer, but I loved the ravioli and the sundae was out of this world!