Good morning, my friends!
I had a great run last night with my college friend Tom. He was in town for a quick work trip and is also training for a marathon, so we decided a run would be a way better (and cheaper/healthier) way to catch up than dinner/drinks! (If you’re new to the blog, I’m running the Richmond Marathon in November as my first full! Here’s my marathon training plan & some talk about running nutrition.)
Matt was hoping to join us for the run but sadly got stuck at work, so we were on our own. We set off around 6 p.m. and I took us on one of my favorite routes in the area, showcasing D.C.’s finest for my guest. 🙂
It was a perfect night for running! Sunny but low humidity. Running felt a million times easier than it did on Monday morning at the beach!
I love this shot I snagged as we ran by the Lincoln memorial. I took all these photos while we were actively running (using my trusty point and shoot camera) and totally didn’t plan to have the sun setting so beautiful to the side of the photo like that! 😉
Here’s an action shot of Tom as we ran past Lincoln & the reflecting pool:
Tom has been a runner most of his life (he’s crazy fast and was a cross country star in high school), but broke his ankle after college and then stopped running for years just because he got out of the habit. He just recently (last year) started running again after a runner friend convinced him to get back on the wagon. He’s since lost 30 pounds and is aiming to BQ (Boston Qualify) at his marathon in January! Obviously, he dialed the pace wayyyy back to run with me. 😉
We ran back along the Mt. Vernon Trail on the water and then our last mile was the lovely hill of death up from Rosslyn to Courthouse on the Custis Trail. He said he doesn’t get much hill training in Portland (Maine) where he and his wife live… I told him we had plenty to go around. 🙂
7.25 miles – done and done! Average pace of 8:45, too, which was great considering that factors in the big hill at the end.
Splits:
- Mile 1: 8:37
- Mile 2: 8:46
- Mile 3: 8:30
- Mile 4: 8:39
- Mile 5: 8:48
- Mile 6: 8:44
- Mile 7: 9:21 (great pace for the hill of death!)
- 0.25 nubbin: 8:19 pace – sprinting up the very end of the hill!
Thanks for the great run, Tom! Good luck with that BQ in January. 🙂
When I came home, I found Matt just about to head out for his own run. When he was back, we threw together a late dinner.
Matt made us a variation of my Corn Flake Encrusted Chicken Fingers, using similar seasonings but with a mixture of bread crumbs & ground chia seed (it’s a flour-like consistency!) instead of crushed corn flakes since that’s what we had on hand. They were great with ketchup for me and hot sauce for him! On the side, we had some leftover roasted potatoes and sautéed zucchini. Tasty dinner.
Time to get to work – I have a few in-person AnneTheRD clients today which will be nice to mix things up since the rest of the client meetings I had this week were via the phone or Skype. I meet local clients at a coffee shop in the area since I don’t have an office yet. It works out nicely on days like today when the weather is beautiful since we can move our meeting outside!
Have a wonderful day, my friends! I’ll leave you with some fun reading:
- The 10 Best Fall Races (Still Open for Registration) – via Runner’s World. I was happy to see the Richmond Marathon (which I’m doing as my first full marathon on Nov 16) was listed!
- Check out my guest post on my friend Gina’s blog today: 15 Tips to Make a Meal or Recipe Healthier
