If I call this post “Part 1,” that means more fun things have to happen, right? Putting it out into the universe. Can’t hurt.
The good times started rolling yesterday afternoon when I met up with an awesome group of people at Keg 229 to surprise Megan for her birthday. (Sofia’s got some spicy pictures of this little get together in her post.)
I had a Captain Lawrence Brown Bird Brown Ale, which was pretty delicious. I think I had another beer after this as well, but I honestly don’t remember. Either I was having too much fun talking to everyone or I didn’t eat enough lunch. Maybe both.
Cupcakes were eaten, drinks were had, hours passed and felt like minutes. Awesome Saturday afternoon.
Relaxing Saturday, chill bar, full pint = happy boyfriend.
The conversation was probably quite hilarious to anyone who was not either a food blogger, a runner, or both. A popular question was, “Did you run long this morning?” I believe Kelly had just finished running 18, and a few others had done very long runs as well.
Me? I was quite happy with yesterday’s 8 miles, actually. Sure, 8 miles isn’t incredibly long compared to the long runs of those training for marathons, but there are two main reasons my long run left me feeling extra good:
- I had good listening. Last week’s episode of This American Life (Episode 444: Gossip) went straight to the top of my list of favorites. I am not exaggerating: Act 2 features the best contemporary short story I have heard or read in years. Possibly ever.
- I ran a lot faster than I’d expected. I told myself I’d run 8 miles at a 9:30 pace. When I looked down at my Garmin sometime around mile 3, I was coming in under 9. I tried to slow myself down a bit, but I just kept falling into a faster pace. Since it felt fine, I went with it and ended up doing 8 miles in 1:11:04, an 8:53 average pace.
The breakdown –>
Mile 1 — 8:41
Mile 2 — 8:49
Mile 3 — 9:04
Mile 4 — 9:01
Mile 5 — 8:58
Mile 6 — 8:55
Mile 7 — 8:38
Mile 8 — 8:59
Nice! I didn’t think I could maintain a pace like this for anything over 6 miles, but I finished running and felt absolutely fine. Good sign for the upcoming half.
After Megan’s party, I met up with my friend Joe, who was in town visiting. I lived with Joe in Dublin the second year I was there, and I have amazing memories of cooking and eating with him. Joe really likes food, so I was excited to find somewhere new to enjoy together. (Isn’t it just more fun to eat with people who love food? I think so.)
We were wandering around the Lower East Side looking for something (a) tasty and (b) not too pricey, and the place we stumbled upon was perfect.
Souvlaki GR started as a food truck, won a bunch of awards, and now has its own place on Stanton.
I could not resist the sign out front. Who wouldn’t want to taste the tzatziki rainbow? (By the way, Joe had to coach me through dinner on how to say tzatziki. I blame my inability to pronounce words on my midwestern heritage, but he wouldn’t take that excuse and by the end of the dinner I was pretty much able to spit it out.)
This place looks like a Greek villa inside. I kept expecting to look outside and see crystal blue waters instead of NYC streets. Very charming.
We got started with Brooklyn Lagers. I was going to go for a Greek beer, but the offerings were lighter and I’m not into light beers at all. So Brooklyn it was.
We each got a veggie souvlaki, which was basically warm pita stuffed with cucumber, onion, tomato, kalamata olives, and a ton of really delicious tzatziki.
Then we split the Greek fries, which were totally covered in feta and sprinkled with oregano. These were so good. I’m not even a fries person, but I would go back for these. The whole meal was exactly what we were looking for.
Definitely hitting up their food truck, and can’t wait to make it down to the restaurant again.
Woke up this morning to a text from a neighbor wanting to run and ended up doing around 5 at a pretty fast pace. (I don’t know how fast because I operate by the rule that when I’m running with others, if my Garmin doesn’t load by the time the other person is ready to go then NO GARMIN. But it felt fast.)
Now I’m looking forward to the rest of our Labor Day weekend festivities, which involve more friends and more food. Perfect.
