After my 10K in December, I swore off cold weather races. And then Meghann, who was coming to NYC for an event, tweeted that she signed up for the Gridiron 4 Mile race during her time here. Knowing a meetup was looming, I bit the bullet and signed up as well.

Yesterday, I met Meghann and her mom and brother for lunch at Alice’s Tea Cup. If you can believe it, I’ve lived a few blocks away from there for 4 years and never went inside! So happy Meghann invited me because I absolutely loved it and I’m already itching to go back!

[Stolen from Meghann]

We shared scones to starts — Pumpkin and White Chocolate Cranberry. I actually preferred the White Chocolate one to the Pumpkin! I ate the majority of it since everyone else seemed to like the Pumpkin better. Fine by me!

[Stolen from Meghann]

I’d been salivating over this french toast on the menu: Alice’s Curious French Toast – French toast bites infused with apricot brandy tea, baked bread-pudding style and attacjed with fruit coulis, vanilla creme anglaise and sweet syrupy stuffs.

I don’t know what sweey syrupy stuffs are but whatever it is, I want it.

In the end I decided to go with a half sandwich and soup. I was so cold from my walk there and wanted to be warmed up by Tomato Basil soup, plus this sandwich sounded like the perfect thing to order at a tea house!

Cucumber And Watercress with lemon chive butter on whole wheat

It was wonderful! The lemon chive butter was especially amazing. I felt so dainty. I also ordered a pot of Organic Ginger tea. It was fantastic as well and didn’t taste too gingery at all!

Tea! Both these pics from Meghann’s camera as well. I felt like an amateur taking out my point & shoot when she had her fancy camera.

So this morning I was up before my alarm excited for the race! I was tweeting with Heather, Meghann and Ashley while getting ready. We were all so excited!

At my last cold weather race I wasn’t dressed warmly enough. During the race I was fine, but standing around before the race was unbearable. I planned better this time. I wore (all items are for running/workout) a long tank top, long sleeved top, jacket, wind stopping vest and a (not running) fleece. I wore running fleece gloves and big regular fleece gloves over them. I wore 2 pairs of running socks. I wore an ear covering headband and a hat over that.

I left my apartment at 8 and walked to the race. I found Meghann and Ashley standing in front of baggage check. I shedded a layer of warmth, my winter coat, and checked it with my bag. We met up with some other bloggers but they left because they were trying to PR and we were running for fun. We wanted to find Melissa and Heather (with Mark!) to run with but couldn’t find either of them.

All bundled up: Jesse along with Meghann, Ashley and me

We headed over to our corral. Well, mine and Ashley’s corral. Meghann is much faster but decided to run with us for a leisurely (for her) race and the fun that comes with talking the entire time. Ashley and I both run 10 minute miles during races.

Pink Corral. For girly runners:

We still had 20 minutes so we . . . bounced! The 3 of us just bounced up and down while talking. The sun was out and before the race started I was able to remove my fleece and tie it around my race so I could display my number and *maybe* actually appear in a race photo. I would probably have felt silly bouncing like that along but I loved doing it with friends! It warmed us up, except for our hands.

We briefly interrupted our bouncing to take photos:

And then the race started. I’m used to starting about 4 minutes after the race begins, by the time my corral gets to the start line, but today the wait was longer than usual for some reason and we started about 8 minutes after the start! Once we were off, things went smoothly. My hands eventually warmed up (I am definitely getting hand warmers for my half marathon)  and I started to feel my toes again. This was my first race without an iPod. We talked the entire time and we listened in on other people’s conversations. It is so interesting to hear what people discuss during a race — typically, other races! I really liked not wearing my iPod, although I would only do it again if I was running with a friend or the race provided entertainment.

Ashley and Meghann in action:

Butts:

I got a kick out of PINK scrawled across Meghann’s tush!

Best part about racing with friends? I finally get a RACING ACTION SHOT of myself! (You might know I rarely appear in official race photos). And yes, I realize how selfish I sound. But . . . pictures of ME! YAYYYY!

My awesome running vest in action. Love it.

During the 2nd mile, there were signs splitting up runners into which superbowl team they are rooting for. I don’t know or care about either team, so I asked which side we should run on. Ashley wanted the Colts to win, so we went on that side. We ran over the same type of tracking device at the start and finish lines, and that device tallied the percentage of runners for each team — how fun!

Apparently, we were in the minority:

Results from “Who will you root for?” split – SAINTS: 66% COLTS: 34%

I loved getting to know Meghann and Ashley more and the time really flew by. I know it was an easy pace for Meghann but for me it was basically my normal pace. I definitely got a nice workout but didn’t overdo it at all. I was worried because after my 5 mile run on Tuesday night, I woke up Wednesday with a foot injury. It hurt so much with every step I took. I have tendonitis. I am happy to say my foot felt great! It did not hurt one bit. I was so worried it would ruin my half marathon training, but I really think I will be fine.

Meghann took this gorgeous scenery picture. I feel bad taking all Meghann’s pics but I didn’t think to take these since I see the sites all the time. At my next race I think I will bring my camera again because I did have fun with it and it didn’t bother me while I was running like I thought it would.

Thanks Meghann!

Seeing the finish line is always an amazing thing, although we didn’t sprint. I was so focused on waving at this one race photographer that I didn’t notice 3 on the other side of me until too late! I just want to be in race photos!

My official time is 41:32 for 4 miles, with an average 10:23 pace. This was actually my slowest race ever! Not by much, though. I finished mylast 4 mile race in exactly 40 minutes, and my 10K average was 10:13 miles.

After the race we met up with a big group at Arte Cafe for brunch! I finally got to catch up with Heather and Melissa. Heather was just a few minutes behind us in the race and Melissa was a few ahead. Too bad we missed them! Heather is hilarious, look at her “running” socks:

I also met new bloggers! I don’t have a list of people and their corresponding blogs although I might send out an email so I can get a list together, since they are NYC based like me, runners (like I attempt to be) and I had a great time talking to them all! Every was just so nice. I get intimidated in big groups but everyone was so welcoming today. The food was pretty good too, especially the muffins they gave out when we got there. So good and doughy. I was starving since all I had before the race was a green juice.

I might have taken 2 more muffins home.

I got a mushroom omelet, and it was pretty good. Ashley baked vegan macaroons for everyone and they were wonderful! They had the consistency of cookie dough and the taste of coconut custard pie. Yum!

And a group shot that Meghann took:

After brunch we stopped in at Alice’s Tea Cup (a different location than the day before) because Meghann loved her chocolate mint tea yesterday and wanted to buy some. I regret not trying hers when I had the chance! I was tempted to buy some tea but I don’t yet understand how to make loose leaf tea and I just want a better grasp before committing. Yes, I’m nutty and get nervous about strange things. But I live so close to Alice’s that I’ll just pop in when I am all set up to brew the tea at home.

I plan to go back to Alice’s Tea Cup soon anyway. I want to bring all my friends there. It’s just so cute and delicious. And I need to try that french toast. And a brownie.

Anyway, I took the bus back home and had the most amazing 2.5 hour nap. It was much needed!

I had such a great weekend! Racing with friends is so much fun, I hope I get to do that again. I skipped out on 7 am Core Fusion today (Monday) in favor of an extra hour of sleep and it was so worth it. Back this week with more Core Fusion recaps!

Click HERE for professional race photos from the Gridiron 4 Mile race!

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