Nurse on the Run

So I’m officially the worst blogger known to man, but apparently when you’re too busy having a good time, you don’t blog.  Which is why I’ll probably never be one of those people who are paid to blog.  Oh well, I’m not in this for the money!

Last we heard, I had a fabulous run with Betsy and Megan, and then I left you hanging by saying that I had more running awesomeness to share with you.  Wellll, let’s get on with it!

Saturday night was full of more runners, of the Runner Army variety, as bunch of the ladies met up at Elyssa’s apartment (Brooklyn!!) for some girl talk, wine, and good food.  It was potluck style, so we had some delicious appetizers with crackers and some olive and artichoke spreads, stuffed peppers, spinach salad, chili, jalapeno cheddar biscuits, and red velvet cupcakes for dessert.  I’m probably  missing something, hence why I’m no food blogger.  But the food was tasty and the talking was fabulous.  You can check out Elyssa’s recap for some snapshots of the food.

After dinner, the running ladies headed over to Baker’s birthday celebration, which was in this bar in the back of an office…it was a little bit odd, but it was cool.  (Quite literally…Erica hugged a space heater all night!)  There were drinks, dancing, and this fabulous sign for the little boys’ room:

If only my hospital had the BOYZ room.

I’m jealous.  Also, the hospital does not have a secret room where people go and drink.  That’s probably for the better since it’s a good way to lose your license, not to mention cause some major trouble….oh well.  Happy birthday Baker!

runniversary!

Most of the runners headed home a little on the earlier side because we had BIG PLANS for Sunday.  I was not aware of this, but apparently most of my main running crew in NYC met for Valentine’s Day run last year, so they wanted to celebrate their “runniversary” together.  Naturally, this involved running for food, and the planned location was City Bakery in Chelsea.  Well known for it’s hot chocolate (it’s hot chocolate month, after all), it seemed like a good place to refuel after a long run and to celebrate with friends.

The run to City Bakery from Central Park (meeting spot of choice!) is about five miles, and I wanted to squeeze a long run in, so I did 12 by myself in the park before meeting up with the crew.  I hadn’t gone long in awhile so I wasn’t sure how it would feel, but it was just natural once I got out there.  It was a fabulous day for running…cool, but not too chilly.  Lots of people were out and I was able to eavesdrop on other runners’ conversations, which is a great way to pass the time!  I was privy to some wedding talk by some men, which is fun to hear the flip side of running talk since a couple of my (girl) friends are getting married and I get to hear all their chatter.

Of course, in an attempt to listen in on various conversations, I lost my pace and probably ended up running too fast, but it felt fine sooo I’ll take it for now.  The highlight of the run was when I was running past two guys, and I saw one nod his head over at me as I passed…then I heard the other guy say, “Yeah, she’s moving!”  I’ll take that as a compliment any day. 

The first twelve miles ended well and I met up with the group for the last part of the run.  We divided up into our various paces and set out…I ran with Elyssa and Eissa, as Elyssa was doing a workout for her upcoming half marathon and Eissa helped her with the first part…they had 7:30’s on tap so I hopped right in!  It was a nice way to break up a long run, especially since more motivation is needed at the end than at the beginning!  We rocked the last bit of the run and had a collective easy run through the streets of Chelsea since much of the group met up waiting for stoplights…perfect!  I had to add on about 0.75 miles at the end to finish out my 18 miles…added a little loop on with Claire and we were good to eat!

Sunday, February 13
18.19 miles in 2:19:03, avg pace of 7:39
Mile Splits:  7:39, 7:40, 7:17, 7:36, 7:48, 7:30, 7:17, 7:36, 7:16, 7:34, 7:43, 7:19, 7:24, 8:08, 7:47, 7:32, 8:46, 7:42, 1:21 (7:00)

Looks good to me!  You know what looks even better?  Hungry runners!

Hey there, City Bakery!

Hot chocolate, yummmm.

Runner crew!!

  Hot chocolate cups. 

Homemade marshmallows?  Yes, please!

Baked goods…and the workers thought we were nuts!

It was like drinking liquid chocolate…

   Refueling!

Runner Table #1…Maura, Sharon, Matt, Steph, Robin, and Elyssa!

Running Table #2…Abbe, Erica, Maria, and Claire!

A few others joined us as well, but I missed their pictures!  What a fabulous day…awesome long run finished up with great friends and food?  I’ll take it.  Next time I should take less time to blog about it too. 

Can’t wait for next time when it will be MY runniversary…so glad to have meet all these runners here in NYC, especially since they share my love for food!