saunter, sourdough bread, and sunflower cookies

Saturday did a 5k walk with running friend and we walked it, catching up on life. Goal wasn't on time, but friend time. It was soo windy and at 32F, it made it feel so cold.  Last year it snowed during the event. It is about memories! 

Experimented this last week. 

Sour dough starter and bread. Will exhaust this starter, bake, freeze, and go on. Am reminded that while SD is fine, I don't love it as much as other bread can make. It is fun to make though. 

Used King Arthur flour's recipe for gluten free sourdough starter. 

Used https://joannaoverly.com/gluten-free-sourdough-bread/ recipe for bread, but don't use psyllium and instead added milled chia to bread mix after letting the milled chia sit in the water a little to absorb the liquid. 

First loaf was baked 60 min (as recipe said) on a cookie sheet. It wasn't done in middle so it fell after a while.  

Second loaf baked yesterday and poofed wonderfully. Baked for 75 minutes in my Staub ceramic pan, so held its side shape and poofed up. 

Today I'm letting another loaf set, and also two long baguettes. Will bake tonight (after collegiate women's basketball final game).

Yesterday made up Sunbutter cookies, recipe from Sunbutter which cuts baking soda for a good reason! Refrigerated dough overnight. Baked those up today. Yummy! Plenty to freeze for snacks.

Day 2, race 2, Rhode Island. Dining out and race day

We continued our direct/non-direct course to Newport on the winding roads of the northeastern states.

One of the few 'state' signs I managed to see and photograph. It's amazing how fast those signs come up and disappear when on the interstate system.

The first view as we arrive near/in Newport. Up and over one large bridge (on the left) only to see the one on the right in the distance we'll be on shortly. 

Once we got to the lodging location (RV parking spot with a great star rating) where there was maybe three feet between RVs in their system, we got bundled back up and headed out to the registration site to pick up the packets, and then find food. The packet pickup was at "second beach" I suppose to not be confused with the first or third beaches in Middleton as well, ha ha. 

Registration pickup was close to the Atlantic ocean, in the party tent (below).  It looks huge from here, but the line was stretched out for about fifty yards in the nice brisk ocean breeze. Brrrr. 

While we meandered through tables to the registration line inside, our fellow vacationers took part in the sand and surf. 

We had the option of three colors for the official race shirt, Black, blue or green, and they were all short sleeve shirts, with the race name on it. I didn't get one, on purpose. 

This is the shirt I picked---it's not even the official race shirt!  

Wait--why did I pick this one, you ask?  This shirt, for their Triple Crown event, has the main sponsor's name on it "United Healthcare". I figured if my health care premiums were going in for main advertising for a race, I wanted a shirt that advertised for the healthcare company!  Strange logic sure, but this is also a pretty sea/ocean blue color that just screamed "Atlantic Ocean" to me. 

Protected sand dune

Gorgeous view of the unending ocean.

After we got our friends from the surf and tracked down a runaway three year old --who was having fun playing hide and seek with the adults who weren't playing--we loaded up the car and went 'downtown' to Smoke House Cafe which we found on the Find ME Gluten Free app (which you can also use on a computer).

Reviews called it 'family friendly'. 'know their gluten free', 'large menu'. and more.  

Boy, were we shocked when we got to the place, 5:30/6pm.  The part near the street is one large bar with pull down clear tarps.  We weren't sure where the 'family friendly' part was until one of our party went in and found a complete lower room, with real doors to close out the bar noise.  

We decided to stay. 

The gluten free menu: 

Did you see how much was on this menu? WOW.  

We were there as the afternoon drinking crowd was winding down (there were a few people in the dining section, waiting for the restroom, who looked like they thought it was 2am on a Friday night). 

The 11th was a long day for the feet. Ready to repeat it all in the morning! 

Race morning came and we drove to a bank parking lot to ride a bus to the race start.  The race starts on a small strip of land between Newport and Middletown and there is no parking there race day---as its staged in the parking lot of Easton's Beach.

I watched the marathoners and those half marathoners who wanted more course time take off, and then walked around by the beach.  

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I was not going to take any photos, I was going to run/walk this race to the best of my abilities. No matter how sore I was when I awoke, by the time we got to the race start, my muscles were relaxed, or the adrenaline was pumping again. . .whichever way you want to view it!  

Run/Walk I did.  The course starts out fairly flat, but by half a mile you're going up a hill and warming up the body. Then it was up down and around some intersections to a point where we turned right, went up and up a boulevard street to reach Ft. Adams' State Park, where we looped around--there was a bathroom in the park as well for those who needed it--and then ran back down the boulevard entrance  where we had a car trying to pass all of us runners. Not the smartest driver!  

I kept up the running on the level areas, but did stop to take a photo of this gorgeous  Coast Guard building Castle Rock.   

A bit more of running and I passed the halfway marker and decided I'd given it a good run, but needed the loo and to stretch the legs for a bit. 

I was surprised to see this monument to the Portuguese--not really knowing much about discovery of this nation.   It is a gorgeous monument and highlighted on the course. 

Around this bend, I caught up with my event mate, who started with the 26.2 folks. She was walking with another competitor and I decided to walk with them for a bit. . . and then it turned into the 'I don't want to run again' mentality.

Great views at relatively modern homes along the ocean front.

A sign I hadn't seen since Hawai'i. 

And then the race course dumped us into the historic home section of Newport:  Gorgeous homes, it was a pleasure to go past at a walk and not a run, and not in a car. 

The Breakers.  The guard let us dash inside the metal fence just to snap an unobscured photo. Beautiful place. Wish I'd had time to visit it later in the day. 

The Breakers 

There were other houses being renovated, some completely--save the street facing.

Then, knowing the finish was near, my body was wanting to run again.  I took off, and my race friend took off as well. The 26.2 walker stayed steady.

We came down to the finish at Easton Beach the same way we started, so down a hill land then a straight away for about half a mile. It really messes with a person to know the finish is "RIGHT THERE" and the downhill pull is working to make you want to run that downhill faster than you should, but knowing that you have to still preserve enough energy to run that flatland ahead.  

While the race folks do as much as they can, it was still a bit of shouting "runner coming through" "racer coming up" to adults and adults with children who decided to cross the path without looking as to why it was partitioned off to start. 

I went through the finish chute and had to ask for a medal--although there were plenty of young adults standing with them on their forearms. Perhaps I don't look like a racer in a running skirt, tank top and **race number** on my person????  

I got a bottle of water and made it to the racer finisher/food area and found this: 

water, water and water, bagels and that was it. No fruit, no milk.  Apparently there was pizza coming, but as a gluten free, soy free runner, that wasn't necessary for me.  

We were getting ready to head back to the bus area when my race friend noticed my medal was different from hers. . . I managed to be given a 26.2 instead of a 13.1 medal. The difference was the fabric loop and the medal itself was slightly larger. Back to the medal folks I went.  

Back home, it took my 'rarely drinks a beer' hubby The Mike, to point out that the medal was also a beer bottle opener!   

The dune vegetation: 

It was sad to see people walking over this dune instead of making time to walk around the edge. Erosion happens in many forms. 

The sea wall markers.

The buildings at Easton Beach, same day race entry was occurring in the parking area under these buildings, as was same day bib pickup, and people who wanted to avoid the wind.  

Pre-race hanging around was a choice of being in the shade out of the wind,  or being out in the sun and getting *some* warmth, but being in the wind from the Atlantic Ocean. 

After the race, we rode the bus to the car/parking lot which was greatly cleaned out, changed our clothes, stopped at Wendys for the drive-thru and headed out of town. 

Baked potato and cheese, plus milk and a frosty!  

Heading back to Mass state, we stopped in Providence RI for the Brighton store, so I could add a few more charms to my race bracelet. 

Providence, RI bridge. 

34505 yesterday, 35745 to day. 

End of the weekend. . .but wait! There's more!  A 10K tomorrow in Boston, or is there? 

June's race--Hospital Hill Run --Kansas City

How I found HHR: 

Hospital Hill Run is an event I discovered three years ago.  The Mike was doing Dirty Kanza for the second time and he told me to get lost and do something else that day--that race for him is to be an "unsupported" event meaning that the rider is in charge of their food, hydration, pit stops, repairs, etc, all on his or her own. The first year The Mike did this event, I knew of the three main towns they were going to be stopping in and went to each one to cheer him on. I did some sight seeing. I attended garage sales and town fundraisers that year and did some shopping in antique stores. . . but the Mike doesn't like knowing in the back of his mind that he *could* bail on a race. See, if I'm not even in the vicinity, then he *knows* he cannot bail and has to continue --It's all good that he told me to find something else to do the second year of Dirty Kanza.  So I searched and found Hospital Hill Run. . . we headed down to KC, MO, picked up the race packet and then headed to Emporia, KS for his race.  Then I got up at 3am and drove back to KC, MO for the race. 2011 I hurried back to Emporia after the race and eating some great gluten free pizza at Minsky's pizza.  Last year I ran the race, did some yoga afterwards, had Minsky's pizza (again!) and slowly made my way back to Emporia where I went to a free movie showing at an old remodeled movie theater (THE GOONIES).

and, that's the story of how I found this race.


2013  was going to be completely different. The Mike is doing Ride the Divide this month, which means he couldn't do Dirty Kanza a short thirteen days before he embarks on a 2000 mile odyssey .  Instead, I was heading to Kansas City by myself. . . but I asked the dad to come down to visit as well, see me race and spend some time together.  He obliged :-D

The Journey

I packed up Thursday and then added some more things on Friday morning and headed to work.  Then I realized I had not packed any Cytomax!  OH NO!  I spent some time finding running shops and bicycling shops and the only one which carried any Cytomax closed at 5pm on Friday (what? big city store closing at 5pm? geesh).  I had no other option but to leave work, bust home, pack some Cytomax and then bust a move to KC,MO.  I had plenty of time to get there for packet pickup (closed at 9pm for that) but I wanted to get to the expo to get some lovely t-shirts too!

The drive down was fairly uneventful. . . except for the car from North Carolina with the driver wearing some sort of headset and looking at a  handheld device seemingly his whole drive.  I finally passed him and floored it when he about when into the median and didn't immediately correct himself on the shoulder. I just wanted away from that driver!

As I didn't have to get up this year at 3am (thank goodness!), I  said I wasn't doing any driving at all and spent the night at one of the race hotels.  

My room's view. .. We would run north on the street to the left in photo
and come back past the hotel on the road at the right and up the first hill "Hospital Hill". 

Dad wanted to have some Kansas City BBQ and took me to a joint on Fiorella's Jack Stack BBQ. It apparently is in the old freight house, according to the website. They have a parking lot, so apparently one can drive there, but one can also meander through the skywalk/lift area of the area, into the Union Station and out across a pedestrian bridge spanning the active railroad yard.  There is great ambiance in this place, though I'd have preferred more lighting in the area. Maybe they turn down the lights after 9pm?   Dad has some awesome looking beef tips in BBQ sauce, and I opted for some protein in the form of salmon, baked potato with real butter and cheese, and smoked/grilled veggies. 

Great dinner

RACE DAY

The race day came early. I didn't sleep well the night before due to nerves. Nothing new, it's the reason I always got up at 3am in Emporia when I didn't need to get up until 4!

I had packed intending to clean out the closet a bit.  I finally had a chance to get rid of a "throwaway shirt" as the temps were in the 60s and I wasn't sure if there'd be any wind in the streets or not and I wore it down to the start. However, with so many people in the corral, it quickly became warm and I took the throwaway shirt off and left it on the fencing for the cleanup crew and homless shelters to enjoy. 

That's what happens when Runners World Highlights your race:

My first thought upon getting down the street for corral line up was WOW.  THIS RACE HAS GROWN!  Then again, that's what is expected when one's race is honored to be put in a highlighted section of Runners World!  Last year we filled into a section about half the length of a block. This year they had us in deeper corrals and went around the corner and down the block.   Someone mentioned about 9,000 total participants entered for the 5k, 10k and half marathon combined.  I could only find about 4500 finishers in the half marathon on the results page, but we never know how many we beat who decided to stay home this day!  

After a picture at the start with a gal from high school, we waited for our turn for the corral to start.  The gal next to me started up a conversation that was a good break from just standing around. . . she was retired from the Navy  (thank you very much for your service!) and had moved to MO from some southern state as she had a fabulous accent to this northerner.  It was nice to connect with someone before the race too--especially if you see them later in the race, and you know ya'll signed up well for the same time/corral!  

Course map
The announcer kept saying for certain corrals to go, others to stay. Same thing that happens at the Rock n Roll races I've been in, certain corrals go, then everyone still in the corrals moves forward.  I happened to be at the front of the area that stayed when he told us to and we listened--plenty of others continued to go through when they should have stayed, including the pacers for 2:30 and 2:35.  I didn't even realize this. Someone else pointed it out and then I realized that yup, the next pacer was 2:40 and a ways behind us.    Then I realized my dad was at the start line and then we were off. I was constantly looking at my watch for the first mile out, since we start out slightly downhill and with the energy of the race/crowd, I didn't want to go "all turbo" and go out to quickly.   I felt like I was floating though!  

The cropped picture--got to get rid of the arms  ;-)

Yes, you see GU in the ifitness belt. I use Cytomax for the first part of the race and then depend on GU for the end.  I probably need to just buy the Cytomax singles and then try running with them in the belt to use for mixing up later on long runs and see how that works. 

So there I am running, trying to tone down my race pace at this time as we descend and then slowly ascend up to the Kansas Star newspaper building, we turn on that street and head east then turn and head south on the road that will take us past THE Hospital Hill, a the second (though first long) hill we'll encounter and I realize that I told my dad he could meet  me on the backside of the hotel at a time that would be two miles into the race, but I didn't realize that it's not two miles into the race, that's really only about 1.4miles, so if he showed up there, we probably missed each other.

I always find it funny that at the top of this first hill there is a Catholic Church--just a bit ironic to me in that we generally are praying -in one form or another- the whole time we're racing..  The rest of the southern route seems good, though I recollect that the two years ago in the heat/humidity I saw some guy getting ambulance assistance at this of the street. . . "wow, there are a lot of houses on this pretty street for sale" (road changes from Gillman to Rockhill-- and if there's "hill" in the road's name, it can't be good, right?--and then we went up the never ending hill (in my mind) by the Univ. Missouri Kansas City where you climb up a bit, then it evens for a street, then you climb some more at an angle, turn a corner and climb some more and then you're at the intersection with one last 'hurrah' climb before you turn. . and this is where the little beige doggie last year followed us runners. (Rockhill Road)  He had gotten loose from some house and found people to entertain with his antics.

I knew on the south portion (Meyer Blvd) there was a small bit of a hill and then a nice descent turn, climb into a nice shady neighborhood.  I also knew I was just a minute behind goal pace at this point, so I was feeling good, but also knew I didn't have another GU.  Then there is a course turn and descend into the bottom (Brookside Blvd)  before meeting up at the Country Club Plaza area and climbing J.C.Nicholas Parkway (hill) which is the start of mile 10 on the Course map, a hill that just continues, as it turns into Broadway. This is a long (about a mile and a half) climb up a wide street with very little shade. Since it's later in the race, there's usually full sun at this point too!  Along this stretch is a woman/volunteer/intersection patrol who dresses hilariously every year.
As Broadway hill continues, there is a fabulous aid station that hands out orange slices and some other type of sugar, as well as ICE!  This year the were out of oranges when I got there (drat! I needed sugar!) and I couldn't have the Twizzlers they had, as they contain gluten, so I grabbed some ice, shoved a piece in my bra next to the sternum/heart to cool me down a bit and I ran on to mile marker 12 aid station where they had Gatorade (gag for me, but I know people like the stuff) for necessary sugar/electrolytes.  I ways almost home!  Broadway descends just a short  bit and last year at the "Arts Cafe" (I think that was the name),  Shakespeare was out cheering on racers!  This English major loved seeing him.  Up we go, past a church and then on to the aid station just before the turn at 31st Street.  

After mile 12, you turn a corner, run a flat block (31st ST) and then do the "trinity hill" which is a pretty straight up 1/3 block hill. . . I like it because it's similar to the training hill at home. . . "Just sprint up the hill!"  I kept telling myself, except this year I only made it halfway and then had to walk a bit and then got to the top and took off--I was recovered since I walked ;-)  --and passed a few people who were recovering on the downhill from the uphill.  It's all downhill from here to the finish!  Except, the finish is a bit further than you think.  Curve around the WWI monument, around the corner, then down the street/finish chute to the glory of the finish line and --wait, where's the finish line, it's got to be here somewhere--oh, THERE it is.  It honestly feels like a half mile left when you finally turn into the chute area, but it's probably only .2 or such.  

I finished with a time that was "not too shabby" to quote one of Adam Sandler's lyrics. A time better than 2011, but not as awesome as 2012 (granted, I'd already run a marathon in 2012 by the time HHR came around, so I was in much better shape a year ago than now).  

FINISHED!
In the background you can see the awesome track jacket all participants received this year!

After I finished and got my CHOCOLATE MILK at the finish, had my professional picture taken (which isn't too bad), I got the surprise of the day!  A woman came up to me and said, "you were my pacer" (at the end). She said when I ran, she ran and when I walked, she walked.  How awesome?   I always look at other people and pace myself off them, but never even consider that other people may pace themselves off of me! Thank you runner for that comment. It meant a lot to me.  


Later, at home, The Mike and I put the trio of medals together: 

HHR made it fun leading up to the 40th anniversary of their fine event.

My "index toes" always blister at the top.
This one now has a bit of a blood blister going
at the base of the blister part three days out from the event.   
        

I'd love to say I'm going to do this again next year, but there are also other races out there around the end of May/beginning of June I'd like to see and do, so I can't say for sure I'll be back, but maybe.

I've never had a blister turn purple. . . not sure what this means

Amazing sunset/closure to a fabulous day

Beautiful skies began the closure of a long day.  I also got to see fireworks as I was driving home and pulled over just before my exit ( a few miles from home) to watch the firework finale !