the best dinner I've ever cooked

Yum!

I'm a little worried seriously concerned that I'll still be full tomorrow morning when I wake up to run. What'd I make?

Calamari with mushrooms and capers over greens in a goat cheese dressing. I'm calling it Liz's Awesome Dinner for short. I don't have a recipe that I can point you to, so let me tell you the story of how I made it up instead.

1.) I'd been seriously craving squid for a long time and my dinner at La Hacienda on Friday night merely held me over for a while but didn't fully satisfy the craving. (I was pretty careful this time about not letting Amanda steal my squid too.)

2.) Squid was on sale (I guess, what is a normal price for squid?) at the Co-op.

3.) I bought goat cheese yesterday. (Goat cheese should really become a staple of my diet.)

4.) I really wanted salad. I crave salad about as often as I crave seafood so I usually honor my desires.

5.) I had to go to the YWCA today which is only notable in that it got me out of the house and near the co-op to begin with.

I trawled around the web for some good calamari/squid/whatever-you-call-it recipes. Fried didn't sound good to me (read: frying food at home didn't sound good to me) and I don't own a grill. So I was left with broil/bake/roasting or the pan-seared/saute option. I found some recipe for baked squid with potatoes and olives and I thought I'd try that.

When I got to the co-op though, they had these local greens that I bought for my salad craving, and then I noticed the local mushrooms (which I supplemented with shitake mushrooms that are decidedly not local). At that point, I remembered I had capers at home and decided to do a piccata-like thing instead of the recipe I'd found.

I got home with my squids (frozen of course) and first had to learn how to thaw them properly. I did the bowl/change-the-water method which worked well and didn't waste a ton of water.

I sauteed my mushrooms and carefully added the capers right at the end.

I chopped the squid into rings (in a big WIN for me, the tentacles had been pre-separated and the eyes were already gone) and marinated the rings and tentacles for a while. I had to sear the squid pieces a few at a time so they could all make contact with the bottom of the pan. (This is the one part of this entire blog post it's ok for Mark, my cousin the chef, to read. He'd probably cringe at the rest of it.)

After all the saute magic, I added the "piccata" mix into the squid.

Then I created my own salad dressing or olive oil, red wine vinegar and goat cheese and added it to my yummy locally grown greens. I added the seafood mix and sprinkled with Parmesan. It was so good. Sorry to my friends reading this who don't eat squid for religious reasons. Not sorry to anyone reading this who just thinks squid is gross. You don't know what you're missing. Besides being yummy, my squids were a good source of important nutrients like copper and selenium (I'm sure I'll need those for something).

A good way to start a Sunday morning

This morning, I'd planned to wake up and run with the St Paul girls (whom Amanda refers to as my "running mates"). I woke up and checked Facebook (standard procedure in case anyone can't come) and got some good news on another front (more on that in a minute). I got to Lake Nokomis and met Jenna (the other St Paul girls dumped us). We had a great run. Lake Nokomis at sunrise is just about gorgeous. Plus the sun rise today was all purple and red and even more dramatic than usual.

After completing my exercise, I came home to verify and get more information on what I learned from Keith Ellison's facebook feed. We are one step closer to having an actual health care system. Although, as noted it aint a law yet. Find out all 39 democrats who voted against the bill. (Dennis Kucinich?!?) And, in other good news Gov. Pawlenty is clearly gearing up for a run for president in 2012. I'd just like to point out that health care in Minnesota is cost effective and provides excellent coverage despite the governor's many many attempts to eviscerate the very programs meant to keep costs down.

How does the US stack up against other nations in health care spending? It's what everyone has been saying. We spend more to cover fewer people and tend to score lower than other industrialized nations on public health indicators. (We can talk about abortion but the same people opposed to health care covering abortion have opposed expanding the health care that would reduce our ridiculously high infant mortality rates.)

Note: Apparently this post will be about politics.

Next up in health care: Legalize pot. I learned recently that many other industries are opposed to this because hemp is a better fiber for clothing, rope, and pulp for paper and can be produced with less stress on the environment. Also, in the Netherlands (where pot is basically legal) there's actually a smaller percent of the population actually using it than places where it's illegal.

And I think this is just cool. What a great idea, to take apart HIV and make it carry something that makes us better rather than sick.

Now, H1N1 is all over the news and I'm sure everyone reading this knows someone who's had it already. (Do those people need the shots then?) Here's the treatment method I'm sure we all want our kids to learn. And the tragic real life example of isolation and H1N1. (Although, honestly, how many of you, when you read that story thought "I can see Russia from my house".) And, yet another reason I don't shop at Wal-Mart. (And another reason employers should be required to provide health insurance.)

Hopefully stepping away from topics that can piss people off, I recently discovered I love this show.

I've always wondered what Hydroponic gardening means, especially since last week when I dropped a ton of money on tomatoes grown in a hydroponic garden in Minnesota instead of tomatoes grown some other (less expensive?) way in some far away state. I think I could totally do that in my windows.

Spell Check: Doesn't Catch Everything

Oh, oh, Salt Lake City. Thanks for this gem.

Just a little story from my day

The funniest part of my day:
After Amanda and I ate an awesome dinner at La Hacienda, we drove seperate to her house. She was in the lead and I got stopped by a few lights that she sped right through proceeded through safely. So I was shocked when I got to her apartment door and it was locked.

I'd already seen her car parked out on the street.

Did she come in the back door (which never happens)? I unlocked the apartment door (with the magical key I don't actually have because it would be against the rules). The apartment was dark.

Where is Amanda?

I called her. No answer. It went to voice mail after two rings. Now I'm starting to get nervous.

Go back downstairs. I verify that it is, in fact, Amanda's car parked outside and not some red-car-impostor. Where is she? Visions of calling the police and reporting my best friend abducted between her car door and apartment door are dancing through my head. I've had a rough enough day, I don't need this at the end of it.

I started to go back upstairs to think. And then I heard her voice. A neighbor had called her into his unit to "look at art". Ha, a likely story.

After all that...

After all that work I did figuring out how to vote, I almost forgot to actually do it.

Again, I took my mentee to the bus stop this morning. Early. And then I had to be in downtown St Paul at 8:15am. (Yeah, I laughed when I heard what time they wanted me too.) So I couldn't vote before work.

I didn't have breakfast either. Which pretty much set the tone for the day. I've been hungry ever since. Someone finally let me leave after 4:30p tonight. After trying to convince a someone from my office that netbooks are a waste of money for the way our staff use computers. (Sorry but the person they have picking out computers for us, it's like handing me some x-rays and asking me to diagnose a tumor.) I'm not sure it worked.

So I was exhausted when I got home, and even less likely to go out because it was raining. I made myself a pretty nice dinner (eggs, bacon, bagel, and roasted veggies) and was sitting enjoying it when I thought...

"Oh %#@&!"...I haven't voted yet. Which I left immediately to do.

The results of my first Ranked Choice Voting (also known as Instant Runoff Voting) experience: I'll tell you about it the week before Christmas when my vote is finally counted. The ballots were fine, easy to use, the same as the ones from the previous years. It was more the homework I had to do ahead of time picking who to vote, although I probably would have had to do a similar amount of homework because I was picking people I'd never heard of for offices I didn't even know existed (hello Board of Estimation and Taxation). And now I'm here typing and wearing my "I voted" sticker which is really the main reason I vote.

An interesting day, and it wont be the last one...

Today was a looong day.

RUN!!!
It started at 6am when my alarm went off. I had a little internal debate. I surprised myself even by actually getting out of bed to run. My new 5k race prep plan is called "run fast up hills". I only had a short time to run this morning, so I did just under 4 miles. Turning on the "elevation" feature will reveal, I was fairly serious about the "hills". None of them is too tall, but some are pretty long for being hills in my neighborhood. Side question: Why does GMaps have the bike paths but not the running paths on their maps?

School!
I took my mentee to her school but stop this morning. (Why does she need someone to drive her to her bus stop? It's not the teenager's fault but please don't get me started.) That's the reason I actually couldn't do a long(er) run. It's ok, it probably only cut off a couple miles.

Work, work, work
I was the second one in the office today, just after 8am. I pulled up and most of the lights were off but there was one car in the lot that I didn't recognize. One of my bosses got a new car it turns out. (Guess who was first at the office.) And I worked. And worked. And worked. My last home visit was at 5pm. And then I actually went back to the office for a little while.
One of the volunteers in our office (actually, our only office volunteer) had a death in the family so I left the office and went down the street to Sholom for the shiva. (Follow the link for an explanation if you don't know what I'm talking about.) It started at 7pm (that's right, I was working on hour 12 at that point...).

Toilet Paper!
Sometimes, a Target run is just what's required and tonight was no exception. I got coupons (probably everyone in Minneapolis reading this got the same coupons) from Target for their brand of, like, everything including toilet paper. When I got to the store, the shelves were completely bare of the Target brand. (That's how I know you all got the coupons too.) No worries, I successfully picked a different brand to meet my needs.
Also, I was happily able to buy beer tonight, so I'm chillin' now. (The fact that I can still type coherently tells you not to worry.)

Rest
Am now drinking a beer. Will go to bed soon.

What tomorrow holds:
1. Pick up the mentee even earlier than today (7:30a) becuase...
2. My first home visit starts at 8:15a tomorrow. (Now seriously, why did I schedule that?)
3. Which means I probably won't be able to vote until after work. I will feel naked all day without my "I voted" sticker.

Another note about voting:
Both of my posts (I've only written two) mentioning instant run off voting, otherwise known as ranked choice voting seem to draw comments from people who can't possibly read my blog on a regular basis. (If you're reading this as a "note" in Facebook, you'll need to head over to the actual blog A4bats to see the comments.)

I'll let you know tomorrow what I think about ranked choice voting. Although, it's possibly I wont let you know for several months becuase the City of Minneapolis is not allowed to use electronic ballot counters that are not federally certified. And there are no federally certified machines that can handle instant run off voting. (Iam not making this up...) Here's one place I read it:

Since there is no federally- or state-certified voting equipment capable of counting a Ranked Choice Voting election, the election will be hand-counted to determine the winners. Minneapolis election judges will begin working on the hand-count Nov. 4, and winners in individual races will be known as the count proceeds in the coming weeks. The hand-counting is tentatively expected to be complete by Dec. 21.

My ward is the second to last to have our votes counted. My thing is, if this is in multiple states, how do we not have a federally certified machine that can count my vote. A hand count? To save money? Although apparently in the next few years there will be a federal machine that can count votes this way. All I can say is, don't laugh my St. Paul friends. This question is on your ballots this year.

Ranked choice voting: doing my homework

Election day is coming. This is the first year Minneapolis is doing the ranked choice thing. It's new and I want to be prepared, so I spent some time tonight thinking about my vote. First thing about "ranked choice": There was primary day last month when I felt naked without my "I Voted" sticker. (I didn't get one because ranked choice eliminates the primary.)

Here's the thing. I am a reasonably well educated adult, so this whole voting thing should be easy for me. Wow. Because it took me at least an hour to figure out who I wanted on the park board (where I pick 3 at large members and one from my park district), Board of Estimation and Taxation (who knows why I spent time on that because it may not even exist after this election) and what to do about the City Charter Amendment Question (to eliminate the Board of Estimation and Taxation). The charter amendment question was the hardest to decide. I had a hard time finding information from either side I thought I could trust. City council and the mayor is also up for election but I already knew basically who I want to vote for in those elections.

So, with everyone picked out, I had to actually make a list so I remember who I want. You'd think it'd be easy right? There are no less than 12 names on my list, plus instructions on how to vote on the amendment. (I've never heard of any of these people. I hope they're all real.) And I didn't even use up all three choices for the Mayor or City Council. (I know. The list could have been even longer.)

What I've learned from the process:
1. Ranked choice really requires some serious thought before election day. It's like homework.
2. I suddenly care about the park system. (Duh, given the insane amount of time I spent running through our parks this spring and summer.) I told my mom what was important to me about the park system (meaning for me to enjoy running around the lakes) is what time the bathrooms are unlocked in the winter (because they take away the biffies in the winter for some inexplicable reason) and how often the paths (lakes and parkways) are cleared. (Who can say single issue voter?)
3. When I think about the parks, I always consider the rec centers and sports teams as separate from the lakes, parkways, and the falls. That's a very inaccurate thought.
4. League of Women Voters of Minnesota is an excellent website that really helped me make decisions about my vote. They also endorsed a position on the City Charter Amendment, helpful since it's the only site other than the "yes" and "no" sites of any credibility. WIN. Second WIN for the league, their national chapter has an explanation of health care that doesn't make my head explode.

Since the marathon, I haven't really been motivated to run... but I cooked a lot today

Today was actually one of the first day I was really motivated to do much of anything. I was going to do a long(ish) run, then have a beer and watch the game. Alas, it is not possible to buy alcohol in Minnesota on a Sunday. (I know. It is ridiculous.) So I had no need to run to burn of calories in anticipation of alcohol. I was additionally confused by this whole fall back an hour thing. I spent most of the morning laying on the couch instead. (Win.)

I got up long enough to go to the Co-op where I dropped over $60, mostly in produce. Among other things, I bought fresh tomatoes. What's that? Oh look, a pig flying by... I then spent an awesomely productive day cooking. I'm not going to document it here. (Although, if you like reading about those things and finding new recipes, may I suggest my friend Chris' blog.)

What did I make? I was jonesing for some soup. A lot of times at work, if I eat soup I don't eat anything else so I need a hearty soup with protein and carbs.

First, I made White Bean and Vegetable Soup. I made it basically as described there.I used the blender to puree about eight cups of the soup, as opposed to the two recommended in the recipe. That's more a texture than a taste thing. Also, I will reheat these in the microwave so it's better if the ingredients are a more uniform consistency and size.

Tomato Soup was a late addition to my menu but I badly wanted some. This recipe looked good as it included lentils, meeting my protein and carb requirements. Plus, cooked tomatoes are like the healthiest thing in the world. Obviously, this was the reason for the fresh tomatoes I bough. This one, well, you would recognize the ingredients from the recipe but not much else. I used big tomatoes (not cherry tomatoes) because they were the only ones I could buy that were grown locally. All I know is they were "from the vine" and they were the round red ones. (People tell me there's a difference between roma, heirloom, cherry, etc, but raw tomatoes make me shudder so I've never done a taste test.) I roasted the onion with the tomatoes. After the roasting, I pureed the tomatoes, onion and garlic, and then cooked them with the lentils. I don't know why I wasn't in the mood for pureed lentils. Perhaps it was all the pureeing with the other soup. I think I used way more lentils than were called for, but yum nonetheless. I confess, I did have to add a bit of sugar to the soup to cover the recognizable bitter tomato taste, but dude, I bought fresh tomatoes and actually turned them into something I will eat.

Last, I made roasted vegetables which is so much my specialty there's not even a recipe I can refer you to. Today, it was roasted broccoli, cauliflower and edamame. (Firefox doesn't think "edamame" is a word, but I am spelling it correctly.) I always toss the vegetables in olive oil, salt and pepper, and then pick any additional flavors. Today, I added sesame oil and lemon juice. Apparently, there's a roasted edamame recipe for every day of the year. I highly recommend them. They're yummy and have iron, which I always have trouble including in my diet. Next to Brussels sprouts, edamame is my favorite thing to roast.

I know. We should all send winter coats down to Hell and tell the air traffic controllers to look out for flocks of pigs when I willingly by Brussels sprouts and tomatoes. Also, seriously, I did not know "Brussels sprouts" was spelled with an "s" at the end of the first word. The co-op today did have Brussels Sprout stalks today, which I'd never seen before.

Last night, I cleaned out my freezer, which was pretty depressing. There was a whole bunch of food I cooked that I wound up not eating. Those included paad thai with the wrong (and consequently overcooked) noodles, an early attempt at roast vegetables which did not go so well, and some quinoa thing I should've made a lot less of to begin with.

Happily, the freezer is now full of stuff I am much more likely to eat. About eight single serve containers of my white bean soup, three of my tomato soup, and three of my roasted vegetables. Nom nom nom.

Now that I've got food for the entire month of November, I just need to run so I don't embarrass myself in the Dreidel Dash. By the way, Beth, on numerous occasions, has told me the course is totally flat. Here's the route. However, turning on the elevation feature of Gmap Pedometer reveals that Beth is smoking something good. It's ok, I need to learn to run UP hill in a 5k.

Danger: Bowling may cause tight ham strings. Wait. What?

No. Seriously.

Yesterday we went bowling. (My team from my office. Yes, my job is that cool.) We bowled two games, some people just bowled one. My wrist is mildly stiff. My ham strings though. Wow. Super tight. They've been tight ever since I took this really long run.... But one of my colleagues, who did not just run a marathon, had similar symptoms so we decided to blame bowling.

I got a 98 in my second game, which was the high score of the day. I got 3 strikes that game. I'm considering the first game I bowled to be a warm up. Although both times my score was higher than my age.

I'm starting to miss running, feeling like it's time to get back out there. I ran once this week, worked out once and took an hour walk. And now it's raining. So I'm thinking about waking up early and working out at the Y again. I haven't been able to get to the Y much this week because I've been taking my mentee to the bus stop. That situation just highlights the ridiculousness of several systems she has to deal with, not the least of which is that no one except the principal can change her school bus stop and the principal is apparently never there.

I also made my Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday) plans. Next step: getting the days off work. Ever since I got done with the marathon, I've been getting super excited for Thanksgiving.

I think I have a sinus infection

I think I have a sinus infection. Although it's not totally clear. Last night a sinus headache gave me the worst migraine I've had in a long time. The migraine is mostly gone (oh crap, I just realized I forgot to feed my fish), now I just don't want to eat.

(My first thought when I started typing was "I wonder if this will show up on Facebook now, damn news feed")

Life after the marathon is going ok so far. My first instinct was to pick a new marathon to train for. Although my brain tells me I should take a lot of time off. A lot of you will be screaming "Liz, you're young, train, have fun". I think you're partly right. But I'm young, my knees have to last a lot longer than you old geezers you more experienced runners. Really I watched someone my parents age run her whole life and then not be able to run anymore because of arthritis. And if I had to pick between running a marathon every year for the next ten years or never running a marathon again but still running 5ks when I'm 80, I'll take the running with the senior citizens option.

I'm starting to get excited for Thanksgiving too. (Speaking of running) because I always take an awesome long run to justify the insane helping of sweet potatoes that follow. Mmm, sweet potatoes.

BTW, at work, I sent someone home sick last Wednesday (the day I flew to Amsterdam) 'cause I was afraid she was going to give her crap to me before I ran. Good thing I did because she was H1N1 positive. I just saw her today. She looks much better, glad to see it.

One more post from Amsterdam

I got an hilarious email from my parents the other day. Basically the son of a family friend is also (somewhat accidentally) living in Amsterdam and I should email him.

Sometimes (rarely) I just do what I'm told. I haven't seen this person, we figured, since I was five years old. But I emailed him anyway. We actually just went out tonight. I had a really nice time. The two of us went to a really chill restaurant near the hotel (which it turns out is about a five minute walk from his house) and hung out. I had a really good time.

I think the rest of the crew is out at a steak house (which makes sense with three vegetarians in the group). Although by now they're probably out at a bar or, um, coffee shop enjoying themselves. I've learned that I can't consume too much alcohol after a race either, so I'm fine hanging out with a few stragglers in the hotel.

I had this dream a few nights before the marathon that I ran the marathon and finished and then couldn't remember the run. That's not totally how I feel now, although it does feel like it was a lot shorter than five and a half hours. As a whole. Some parts of the race feel like they took a lot longer than that.

And I still can't think about running. I'm taking a break. Maybe I'll start swimming again or something. Just kidding. But taking a week off does still feel like the right thing to do.

More on the marathon

I have no idea what I've said already.  Here's kind of a breakdown of the race:

0-7.5K: The "first loop" was a nice little jog through the city center and through one of the parks.  It was around 3 or 4k that a power walker passed me.  No joke.  My roommate told me powerwalkers can walk 8 minute miles so I didn't feel so bad.

7.5k - 16k: Took me down to the shores of the Amstel River.  I could see everyone running on the other bank for a looooong time.  It also had some bizarre loop in it, probably only to add distance.  It just made the water stop farther away.

16k-21k:  Probably the prettiest part of the course, which is really saying something.  The Windmill was right before the water stop.  There were sheep and cows and geese.  I couldn't believe there was so much pasture land so close to the city.  And, I took 10:00 off my former half marathon time.  WIN.

21k-25k: I just tried to keep it together for this part.  I thought I was going through a park but it was more like an industrial park.  I was getting lonely and tired.  

25K-30K: It was around 27 or 28k that I started throwing in short walks.  It was much later in the race than I thought I'd walk.  This was also the point where my back started to really hurt.  It was a little bit of stretching and a little bit of some other issues.  I took my second dose of ibuprofen somewhere around 25k though, so I knew I'd be better.

30k-35k:  I saw the happiest clock I've ever seen in my life.  Becuase it was around this point that I figured out I could almost walk the rest of the way and still finish.  I started walking a little more, but I was still running a lot.  It was somewhere in here that Eminem's "Loose Yourself" because a big part of my strategy.  Also it was about here that the half-marathoners tried their darndest to run me over.  The half marathon started about 3 hours after the full started.  I was happy for the company at the end of the race, despite the risk to my physical safety.

35k-40k: Where is the freaking water?  Nope, the water stops are still every 5k, even though it's the end of the race.  Mercifully the rain started about here so I could cool off a little.  I was walking more frequently by this part of the race, but received much more encouragement from the half marathoners than the fasties who tried to harm me earlier.  

40k-42k: Lots and lots of walking.  By this point, I knew I was going to finish.  I must have awesome shoes because despite the blister the size of a strawberry my feet did not hurt.  Lots and lots of encouragement from other runners.  And then, I saw the stadium, took one last walk and absolutely goosed it to the finish line.

Other thoughts:

Last night at our pasta dinner, Ryan told us some story about being a Bolder Options mentor and remembering the kids when we ran.  So it was awesome when "Man in the Mirror" came on near the end of the race and I totally did think about the kids.  I was a mentor for those of you who didn't know.

I sort of knew ahead of time that this was going to be a really fun day and that I was going to finish.  It's the closest to absolute faith I've ever been.  Nice.

I just got distracted by people asking me to go drink and dance so I'll have to finish this later...

Liz trains for a marathon: Liz Runs a marathon

Today was the day.  My arms are so sore I'm not sure for how much longer I'll be able to type.  The marathon was an absolute blast.  I thought if there was a 5:15:00 pace group, that's who I would have run with.  Turns out, in Europe, no one runs that slow.  So I was pretty lonely in the back of the marathon.  

Luckily, about the time I was really starting to get bored/anxious/tired the half marathoners started running by so I had some company again.  

I'd love to tell you more, but I've run for five hours and only eaten a bannana, two small (read halloween size) sour patch kids and a granolla bar, plus a roll, cheese and some granolla and yogurt for breakfast.  I've been notified that food is now ready, so I'm going to chown down.

More later.

Look before you sit: A follow up

Ok, after this morning's run and the accompanying discussion, I wanted to give an update. Plus, I'm sitting here having my heart broken by the Minnesota Twins (I knew they were going to loose the series, but I was hoping for a win at home first) and I have the biggest blister ever in life on my foot (It's ok, I think I just need to re-lace my shoes, plus I have Heather's awesome body glide plan.) so I needed something to cheer me up.

I got curious about this whole "rat swimming up into the toilet" thing because I'd never heard anything like it. A quick google search took me straightdope.com. That article really posed more questions than it answered. Most importantly: What do you do when you find a rat in your toilet?

So I headed over to asktheexterminator.com, a site which should only be referenced for horror movies. Why? Who wants to know this:

[FTA:]Rats are good underwater swimmers. (They can swim one-half mile in open water and can tread water for up to three days.) It's totally possible for a rat to walk up a horizontal soil pipe from the sewer, swim through the water-filled piping inside the toilet, and surface in the toilet bowl.

Three days?

I also learned this has been a phenomena in places outside Minnesota like Arizona and my home state of Ohio (poopreport.com, hee hee). So apparently I was wrong about thinking this rat issue was regional. (Black widows are still scarier.)

The Twins still haven't finished breaking my heart yet (bottom of the 9th, now 4-1 Yankees, 1 out), oooh hey, why is that person running across the field? And why are they showing replays instead of showing me what's happening? It's not like he's naked.

To stave off the heart break, if only for a moment, I'll just add:
Bonus WIN to straightdope.com for taking a dipsh!t caver spelunker (no way was that guy a caver) to task on accurately portraying the likelihood of getting rabies from bats and for telling me about Merlin Tuttle's new job. I thought he was still in Texas. FTA:

As for bats--well, let me tell you, buddy, they don't take kindly to being libeled by disreputable rat lovers such as yourself. Bat biologist Edward Stashko of Oakton College, Des Plaines, Illinois, estimates that less than one-half of 1 percent of bats are rabid. He says many common misconceptions about bats, such as that they can carry rabies and infect humans without themselves being affected by the disease, grew out of faulty scientific research from the 30s, no doubt conducted at the behest of the rat lobby.

According to a 1982 report in National Wildlife, only ten people in the U.S. and Canada have contracted rabies from bats in more than 30 years. Exclaims Dr. Stashko: "More people have died from lawn mowers than from bats. Statistically you have a better chance of being hit by lightning than being bitten by a rabid bat."

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Liz learns about regional differences...

The runners of St. Paul took me out for a short (ha) little run this morning, only 7.5 miles or so. We did my new favorite route around Ft. Snelling. (I am so sick of looking at those lakes...)

On the way back, after the big run up the hill where Beth smoked everyone, we were talking about something that is apparently an issue in Minnesota. I didn't hear the whole conversation because I was gasping for air by that point. But the salient point seemed to be that several of their friends (or perhaps you yourselves) have had an issue with sewer rats crawling backwards up into toilets. One of the runners admitted that her fear was *ahem* being surprised by a rat in the toilet. (How can you not know there's a rat in your toilet before sitting down?)

It just goes to show, where I grew up, everyone's biggest fear is being similarly surprised. By a Black Widow. Or a Brown Recluse. In the outhouse. It's apparently quite easy to miss these little guys in the outhouse and we've all got our own little routines for checking. So, while I live in Minnesota and it's going to snow for the second time in October tonight, at least the creatures that could surprise me will be easier to spot.

The St. Paul runners may never tell a funny story in front of me again....

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Liz finds the prettiest spot in the city

I have started the glorious taper of marathon training. But that means running like 10 or 12 miles instead of 18 or 20. Due to a change in my schedule at work, this is one of the last Wednesday mornings I'll have free for a long run so the taper couldn't come at a better time.

Being finished with that 20-mile run, the taper, and the construction on Minnehaha Parkway at 35W (I've only mentioned it a few times...) is also awesome because it means I don't have to look at the lakes anymore. Don't get me wrong, I think they're gorgeous. We all know how I feel about Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet at sunrise. But I'm sick of seeing them.

This morning I took the Minnehaha Falls, Fort Snelling-ish path that Beth taught me a while ago. There were very few runners out this morning. I assume all the runners are still too tired from the marathon to move. There were some deer and I did hear woodpeckers as well. I looked for Eagles but the path was too well covered for me to see any. The path down to Ft Snelling is a gorgeous, 1.5 mile delicate slope leading down to the river until about fifty feet before the fort. At that point, there is a truly nasty hill. I've never successfully run up the thing, but today I came as close as anyone I know. I only walked about 30 feet of it.

Usually by the fort we cross into St Paul and run up the river parkway but I didn't want to go that far today so I stayed on the Minneapolis side and ran by the Fort. Where I found an amazing view of the river, the bridges and downtown Minneapolis. Ft Snelling is actually at a decent elevation (just based on my view) so the vista is quite impressive. It's even prettier with the leaves starting to turn.

A few other things I noticed on my run:
1. Some of the individual packages of sour patch kids have fewer kids than the others. Bummer when you're running hungry.
2. It's amazing how a surface that should be flat always appears to look like I'm running up a hill. Is there some sort of scientific optical-illusion explanation for this phenomenon?
3. When did 11.5 miles get so short?
4. When did 11.5 miles get so fun?
5. When did I learn to run up hills?
6. In the summer, the only thing that would make me happy at the end of a run is an ice bath. At any other time, I'm usually freezing the second I stop running and the only thing that will make me happy is a hot shower. It's the only thing that restores my body temperature to normal.

I don't think I'm really a hill climber yet. I made the mistake of voicing the opinion that it would be fun to run the Flying Pig, Cincinnati's marathon. I grew up there and a couple people I run with have family living there or from there. It's not such a bad idea but it does mean
-I will need to learn to run UP really big hills
-I'll finish one marathon and immediately start training for another
-I'll be training in the winter which means either cold or running around the track at the Y. Although running with friends in the cold, maybe that wouldn't be so bad...

I was a little bummed when I got home and found out the route was 11.5 miles, not the 13 I thought it was for some reason. I was also a little frustrated with the time my iPod told me it took because I felt like I went much faster than what the time would indicate.

Maybe I'll take this same route Sunday, my last long-ish run before the big day.

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Liz cannot freakin' wait!

I am so excited to go run a marathon now! Why you ask? (Good question!).

First off, I figured out leaving the course open for 6 hours is a 13:44 pace, not a 13:30 like I originally thought.

But seriously, today was the Twin Cities Marathon. If you're from out of town, it's a gorgeous run along the lakes and river in Minneapolis and St Paul and finishes at our state capitol building. I knew several people running. Congratulations to Heather who qualified for Boston (looking forward to some good winter training I hope), Beth who has a big birthday tomorrow and Robin who ran with Beth, and to Yvonne who was a last minute entry.

For entertainment Beth (different from the Beth who ran, I know, try to keep up), Jenna and I met in St Paul, biked over to Lake Calhoun (mile 6), cheered for everyone, then hauled tail over to Lake Nokomis (just past half-way), and cheered for everyone again. At that point, Jenna left us to cheer on Heather (who runs at an obscenely fast pace and had stretched her lead over our other friends), and Beth and I went to the River Parkway (mile 17) and then met everyone one last time at the top of the hill where they all pour on to Summit Ave. Here's the route we took. It wasn't exactly the same as the marathon course, so we were able to get ahead of the runners in several places.

It was standing at Cretin and Summit that made me most excited to run in two weeks. It just looked like a lot of fun to be out running and having everyone cheering the runners on. I hope the marathon is a big deal in Amsterdam because now I'm looking forward to 26.2 miles of people cheering for me.

The bike ride was very fun cold and fun. I had lots of layers for my morning.

Once we got done riding and cheering, I sped off to Chipotle (between not eating breakfast and biking 20 miles, it's ok) and then to Kelly's house to meet the apple picking crew.

Apple Picking was quite fun. I got to do lots of tree climbing. Amanda made a bunch of apples fall on her head. (That's because she was saying "I know, we've read this before" over my voice as I was reading how not to make apples fall out of the tree.) I didn't buy apples but I did eat lots of them. Ironically, even with me not buying any apples, I believe we left with more apples than in any previous year. (Four pecks this year to three pecks in all previous years.) I did enjoy hot apple cider and an apple doughnut.

Now I'm at home, too tired to move. I need to think about dinner and also call my parents. What am I thinking about dinner? Where can I buy it from? But I need to be back to call Mom and Dad. Oh, the conundrum.

I'm looking forward to training the next couple of weeks also, just running 4 days a week, and the longest run is like 10-12 miles. I'm so excited about the marathon, I feel the urge to go for a really long run. I understand that's bad so I'll try and contain myself.

Going Pink

Every year at this time, I turn my blog PINK for October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Why? I have no idea. One year, it just seemed like the thing to do, so I tried it. And I've just done it every year since then.

I think we need to have a marathon-awareness color. A few friends are running the Twin Cities Marathon tomorrow. I'm going to go out and cheer them on give them food and cheer them on in the morning. I'm sure this will get me even more excited to actually run the marathon. Probably by the end I'll be saying "I don't want to wait two more weeks..."

Last Sunday was the 20-mile run. It could have gone better but I think it could have gone much worse. After that run, I'm mostly working on staying calm and relaxing during the run, a strategy I employed with great success during my first half-marathon.

Tomorrow is also our annual apple-picking weekend, another one of my favorite traditions. I fear that tomorrow will involve lots of mud as it's been raining for about nineteen straight days. Maybe this year we'll be mud zombies instead of hanging from the trees like monkeys. Actually, my favorite part of apple picking is climbing the trees. Amanda and Kelly seem to make all this awesome food after apple picking, which I've never been inspired to do. (I think it's because of all the apple pie Dad made when I was growing up.) I mostly just pack them for lunch. Although this doesn't look so hard.

Best. Picture. Ever.

I'm not going to launch into my opinions on the health care debate here becuase I know it will annoy my Pooky Bear. But this picture... hee hee. I'm not sure if it's someone who doesn't understand the system, I prefer to think it's someone who's bright and funny putting an hilarious spin on things.



Picture from here.

Liz trains for a Maraton: Liz Drops 5:00 from her 10K time

Today was the Bolder Dash, my favorite race of the year, and the only 10K race I've ever run. I ran the 10K last year too. It's really hard to get my head around doing two laps around that lake.

To start things off, Sen Klobuchar came out to thank Bolder Options, mentors, and families, which was cool. She said she couldn't run because she had some other events. I wonder how she would have done.

At the starting line.

I did take 4:56 (read 4 minutes and 56 seconds for non-runners) off my time from last year. (No wonder I felt like I was going to die after the race...). That's quite an achievement over last year when 10K was about the longest I'd ever run. It's all that marathon training paying off.

After I ran the 10K, Dad and I walked the 5K. We were pretty near the end of that race. But he didn't want to run. Not sure where the running gene comes from, maybe not him. He plays tennis though which makes me think he'd be a great sprinter. After moving my body the equivalent of about 10 miles (there was walking to and from the car, and to and from starting lines plus the 15K of actual movement) we went for lunch and now I'm about to have a siesta.

Not sure what we'll do for dinner tonight...