minutes per mile

The only thing sadder than a perfectly sit-able, yet abandoned couch…Or a perfectly useable, yet abandoned vacuum cleaner…

Is a perfectly eatable, yet abandoned, QUESADILLA. I saw all three of these orphans yesterday and the quesadilla really broke my heart.My spirits were kept high, though. Because I checked off my 16-miler and felt pretty good about it!

It was super windy and cold, which meant I had a lot of the trails to myself.

With the exception of when I met up with the DC Road Runners for three miles! I’m helping coach a Nike Women’s Half Marathon group for the next 12 weeks or so.In addition to meeting new runners and having a nice break in my long run, I got some free snacks courtesy of PowerBar. I typically don’t bring gels or chews on runs shorter than 18 miles so these gummies were a nice surprise — especially the strawberry banana chews which basically taste like candy.

With the stops, snacks, and chats, I was out and about for about 3 hours. One of my favorite things about long runs is that they’re more of a journey or adventure rather than a quick jog. I never know what or who I’ll run into or where I’ll go!The go-ing continued when I met Melissa was in town for DC’s Cupid’s Undie Run! I thought I was cool for covering 16 miles of the city; but she’s cooler because she covered two miles… IN HER UNDIES, and for charity. Unfortunately I can’t post a picture of her outfit on the blog but here’s a shot of us celebrating after her scantly-clad adventures.

Melissa and I met as roommates at Johns Hopkins. Yes, I am a nerd. Which means that Anthony and I were totally psyched to attend DC 9′s Nerd Nite last night.The monthly event hosts speakers who entertain nerdy audience members with presentations on the most interesting-yet-uninteresting topics. Last night we learned about cosmic dust formations and how being bilingual affects your brain. We loved it! In addition to learning a lot (but not toooo much for a Saturday night), I especially liked seeing how passionate the presenters were about their topics.

We really wanted to stay for the third presentation on insects and viruses, but we had to drop the bugs for buds. It’d been way too long since we saw Will and Kristen! Kristen just got an internship and of course Anthony and I are still ENGAGED so there was plenty to celebrate.

And THEN we got to celebrate even more because Leah aced the LSAT yesterday! Clearly my camera was just as exhausted as I was by 11 p.m. Either that or Leah and Anthony turned into phantasms.Busy Saturday indeed! Which means that I’m going to enjoy this lazy Sunday even more. Have a good one!

• How often do you eat gels on runs?
• Would you consider yourself a nerd?
• Have you ever run in your underwear?!