Well, my friends – it’s official!!!! I will be running my first full marathon on November 16 in Richmond, VA. 🙂 I just registered this morning. Eek!
Thank you all SO much for the enthusiasm and helpful tips on my “Never Say Never” post – your excitement was contagious. 🙂 Let’s do this – bring it on, marathon!!
Regarding location, we were originally thinking the Savannah Marathon on November 9, but my running buddy Karen realized she had a potential conflict for that weekend, and a TON of you guys recommended Richmond as a great race with awesome crowd support. A lot of you also recommended the Marine Corps Marathon, which I would LOVE to have done given that I’m such a DC girl, but unfortunately it’s in October and only 1 week after I’m scheduled to do the Tough Mudder with a bunch of friends. Um, yeah. That would be a terrible idea. So given all that – Richmond it was! My brother hadn’t signed up for Savannah yet so he’s going to come to Richmond with us instead, too. Hizzah! I can’t wait to share my training adventures with you guys. Thanks, as always, for your support and love! 🙂
In other news, it’s been a busy and fun week! Amidst all sorts of blog/freelance work and AnneTheRD clients (some new and some follow ups… both in person and virtual), I also made time for some fun friend outings. On Wednesday night, I met up with my girls Heather and Gena for outdoor yoga in Dupont Circle!
Every Wednesday night at 6 p.m. starting in May and ending in August, Lululemon Logan Circle hosts an outdoor hour long yoga class in Dupont Circle! It’s free and awesome. This Wednesday was the first night and the weather could not have been more perfect. Outdoor yoga it was!
It was so fun doing yoga outdoors! I’ll definitely be back. It certainly wasn’t as zen as a studio class would be (there were some rather distracting/hilarious characters in Dupont Circle that night), but it was so awesome to be outside on such a gorgeous night.
Here are Gena and I rocking out in pigeon pose – one of my favorites, especially when I’ve been running a lot!
After the class, Gena and I said farewell to Heather and headed over to Sweetgreen for dinner! We brought our salads back into the circle to dine al fresco. Lovely night! My salad included mixed greens, spinach, crispy kale, chickpeas, tofu, broccoli, quinoa, sweet potatoes, and balsamic vinaigrette. So good!
I also got in two great runs this week! The first was a 4 miler on Thursday morning with my friend Lauren. My first run since the Nike Women’s Half Marathon on Sunday and it felt great to get back out there!
And the second was a 5 miler this morning with my friend Kathleen!
We ran down by the river and onto Roosevelt Island – one of my favorite routes.
Blurry trail action shot:
The miles flew by. 🙂
The other fun thing I did this week was a couple dinners out! Matt was out of town for business for most of the week so on Tuesday night I went out for happy hour with friends, and last night my mom and I had a fun girls night out dinner date at Juniper in Foggy Bottom!
Look, a picture of me in normal clothes with my hair down! I know, I don’t recognize myself either.
Juniper is located inside the Fairmont Hotel – I’ve been there once before and I love it.
They have a beautiful outdoor courtyard where you can have dinner or just get drinks/appetizers, so we sat out there. Perfect night for it! There are Christmas lights on the trees that get turned on at dusk – so pretty. And I love that it’s in a courtyard so you don’t have all the loud city traffic.
We started with one of their summer Beetinis – that’s honeycomb on the stirrer from their rooftop bee hives – cool, right?
And we ordered some of their Whole Wheat Walnut Honey Bread, too. That’s honey butter on the side – amazing. We had them wrap up the leftover bread and I finished it off this morning for breakfast with some PB&J!
For my starter, I couldn’t resist the oysters! I LOVE oysters in summer. Slurp.
And for my entrée, I had the Cobb Salad, which had bacon, avocado, steak, lobster salad, tomato, and mixed greens. Um, yes – it was as epic as it sounds.
My mom had a really good salmon entrée – no picture of it but it was awesome. I’m a big fan of the menu at Juniper – lots of variety with a focus on fresh, local, and seasonal. They also offer a lot of varied dietary options – they have a whole section of the menu for specialized diets like vegan, macrobiotic, diabetic, heart healthy, raw, and gluten free. Cool, right? I’d highly recommend this place – especially on a beautiful night when you can sit in the courtyard!
My mom and I also shared a small dessert but we ate it before I thought to take a picture. Oops! 🙂
Time to get back down to work – and then to pack up because Matt and I are headed up to Pittsburgh this weekend! We’re excited to see his parents, to hit up the Nationals vs. Pirates baseball game tomorrow, and to relax! We might bring our bikes up, too – looks to be beautiful, weather-wise.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
