Running Friends

Last night, after track practice, a bunch of us met at Carlsbad Tavern for our friend Jan's birthday. (We were a smelly bunch, luckily we were on the patio!)
Jan is one of the sweetest women I have ever met, and a really good runner too! She sets state records in her age group and is really fast! We had so much fun and feel so blessed to know such a great group of people!
We got her a pink running skirt!

Us girls

All of this extra time...

So, I made a promise to myself to NOT run on the weekends (Except for races) this summer as I am starting pretty tough training on August 9th and I want to be fresh and ready to run! So, I have some extra free time on the weekends to dabble into other things. For the second weekend in a row, I have made a Sunday dinner. As you may know, I am NOT the cook in the family. Matt is just so awesome at it and has a passion for it. Me, not so much. :)

But, I have really enjoyed cooking these past 2 weeks, so maybe it will grow on me!
I love seafood and since Matt is not accustomed to cooking it, I like to make him some seafood dishes when I, once in a blue moon, cook. (We are on a seafood kick apparently, see post below)

Tonight, I made Linguine with spicy red clam sauce. It was really easy and was so good!
If you would like the recipe, I would be happy to share!

Happy Father's Day!

Every time that I am home to WI, my dad makes his special shrimp for us. As a nod to Dad's day, Matt and I decided to make it for dinner last night. The shrimp is marinated for 6 hours in butter, parsley, green onions, garlic, and white wine. Then the shrimp is grilled and the marinade is boiled down with Frank's red hot sauce for a dipping sauce.
Oh. My. Gosh. It is the best shrimp you will ever have. The sauce is amazing and I can eat an entire loaf of french bread dipped in this *super healthy, low fat sauce*!

Dad teases us and says that there is a missing ingredient, and for some reason his shrimp always do taste a little bit better. hmm.....

To drink we made these strawberry wine coolers. They were really good!

For desert, we had a Door County, WI strawberry-rhubarb crisp. I was going to make a peach cobbler, but the peaches were not quite ripe yet.

We had such a great meal and talked about how wonderful our Father's are! We love you and hope you are having a wonderful Father's Day. Next year, we will be making this for you!

Scottsdale BBQ Company Review

Scottsdale BBQ Company

I woke up yesterday morning and really wanted some BBQ food. You know, pulled pork, beef brisket, cole slaw... the works. So I jumped on the computer and started looking up good recipes. I ran into a few problems: a) Those things take about 8 hours to make... except the cole slaw. b) You normally cook about 3-5 pounds of meat at a time (we don't eat that much). c) I unfortunately only have a baby grill, a left over from living in an apartment, which is not nearly large enough for 5 pounds of meat. So... I took the much much easier route and just looked up BBQ places instead. :)

I originally found Honey Bears BBQ, which is supposed to be the best in Arizona (the slogan is "You don't need no teeth to eat our meat"). However, it was too far away, (there is a limit to my BBQ craving). Then I remembered that there is a BBQ place about a block away that I have been eyeing for a long time. It happens to be right next to a grocery store and I need to do some shopping... so the excuse was set! Off we went to Scottsdale BBQ Company.

The BBQ joint is set deep in the corner of a strip mall, so you have to follow the little signs to find it. I knew I was going to like the place as soon as I walked in to the smell of smoked meat. It's a small quaint place with the typical checkered table cloths and a flower right next to the mondo napkin holder on each table. Any BBQ lover knows that an abundance of napkins are a must. It features free wifi and had magazines hanging on a wall, which was a nice touch. After taking a quick look at the menu (I knew what I wanted before I even went in) we wandered up to the counter and ordered from the owner/cook. It appears to be a one man operation, and he seems to do quite a bit a business. I ordered a pulled pork sandwich with some slaw and Ariana had a smoked beef sandwich.

The food came out fast and both sandwiches had about a pound of meat each! The BBQ sauce (which comes on the side so you can add as much as you want) was delicious! The pork was melt in your mouth tender without being mushy. There was no dicernable fat, which doesn't mean there wasn't any, it was just cooked perfectly so you couldn't tell. The BBQ sauce was a spicy Kansas City style sauce, done really well. The beef was equally tasty, cut thin and layered on a bun. It was very tender, juicy, lean and slightly smokey. To wash it down Airana had Carolina sweet tea and I had fresh squeezed lemonade, perfect for BBQ food. The slaw was very good as well, though not the best that I have had. If you couldn't tell... we loved it and know that we will be back, many times. Out of four forks, we give it a solid three and a half! Mmm..mmm I love BBQ!

Matty's wonderful cooking

We hardly ever eat meat, but when we do, Matt makes the best dinners with it. He made this steak salad with his own dressing, and grilled and braised artichokes. It was amazing.

New haircut

So, after swimming today, I could not comb through the knots in my hair and decided it was time for a change. I have not cut my hair in 18 months. Not even a trim. (GASP!) So, as you can imagine, it was getting pretty gnarly. Went to my favorite salon, Aveda Salon Tru in oldtown today. It is the best, and I heart my new short 'do. I think the loss of hair weight will make me faster, LOL!!!

The day has come....

I knew the day would come when I would not PR at a race, and yesterday was that day. I had my second summer series race at Phoenix Reach 11 Horse Park. It was a trail run. I felt pretty good, did a 5 mile warm up. The gun went off and I went out WAY too fast. My first mile was 6:09! There was no way I could hold on to that! My pace slowed a lot for miles 2/3 and I kicked it in the last .2. My ending result was 20:04, an average of 6:28 a mile. I was 4th woman and 1st in my age group out of 46, so I still got a medal!

In the evening, Matt and I joined some road racer friends for dinner. We had the best time! It was so nice to spend time with them. We chatted and laughed the entire time. We also said prayer before dinner which made our time together even more special. They are just the friendliest, most supportive group of people you will ever meet! Also, us Scottsdale ladies are tough to beat, Terri and Jan came in first in their age groups too!

RoadRacers Summer Series #2 results

San Diego Rock And Roll Marathon Race Report

Wow, what a fun weekend! We arrived in CA on Friday and met with Matt's family. We had a great time visiting! I went to sleep at about 8pm to try to get as much rest as possible. It was a long, busy week! Saturday I did my 2 miles, we hit the expo, went back to Marisa's and relaxed for the rest of the evening. I purchased a 3:20 pace bracelet at the expo just for kicks. Matt was encouraging me to go for it, but I still did not feel strong enough to run that pace so close to Boston.

On Sunday morning, we left for the race at 5:40. It was grey and misty outside. It was good to leave so late, I didn't have time to sit at the start and make myself nervous! The gun went off at 6:30am and we were on a roll. There were a ton of people running, so my first few miles were not as fast as I would have liked. However, I felt AWESOME! I think all of the rest paid off. Last year, at mile 6 I was feeling bad! I felt great until about mile 21. I wanted to walk so badly. I also was really craving a coca-cola. I almost stopped at a med-tent to ask for one! But I just kept on going. I ran through all 3 of the areas that I had to walk in last year!

Mile 10


At mile 25.75 we entered the Marine Base. It is so awesome and inspiring. I LOVE ending there. This is the last year ever that the marathon will end there. I am so glad I got to be a part of it.

Marine Base


So close!




I saw the finish line and it did not reach 3:20 yet and I know I was almost there. I was going to break 3:20!!! I kicked it in and crossed the finish line at 3:19:23!
I cried at the end. Never, ever, would I had thought I was going to break 3:20, especially on a course as hard as San Diego. I honestly believe it is harder and hillier than Boston.

After the race, I got my 2 free beers, purchased a long-sleeve tee as my reward for PR'ing, and we went back to Marisa's to rest and shower. I was EXHAUSTED!!!

Calling Mom and Dad






I am so motivated to start training again. My next 5k is on 6/14. Should be interesting!

Amanda, Marisa, me, Lukas at the finish


Here are my official results. I was 15th in my age group, the 46th woman to cross the finish line! That is huge! My name was in the newspaper for top female finishers! There were 13,377 finishers and 6509 females.
I am really, really happy with my performance!

Run strong friends!

Matt and Lukas at Karl Strauss post-race


My Splits-
Mile 1-7:55 Mile 14- 7:29
Mile 2- 7:24 Mile 15- 7:30
Mile 3- 7:17 Mile 16- 7:33
Mile 4- 6:57 Mile 17- 7:27
Mile 5- 7:15 Mile 18- 7:31
Mile 6- 7:25 Mile 19- 7:31
Mile 7- 7:32 Mile 20- 7:41
Mile 8- 7:32 Mile 21- 7:51
Mile 9- 7:47 Mile 22- 8:04
Mile 10- 7:33 Mile 23- 8:01
Mile 11- 7:02 Mile 24- 8:08
Mile 12- 7:30 Mile 25- 7:44
Mile 13- 7:23 Mile 26- 7:41 386yards- 7:09