Plain Can Be Lovely

Wow! Where did May go? The last month has been pretty busy and it looks like I have a summer full of adventures with good friends and good food ahead of me. The biggest news that I have from the month of May is that I took the plunge and signed up for my first full marathon! And just to make the moment even sweeter (or crazier), my running buddy Kristen signed up too! I can’t even tell you how excited I am about this. I ran my first 5k with Kristen and we ran our first half marathon together. To be able to run our first full marathon together just makes it even sweeter (and suddenly in my head more doable). We’re going to crush it! (or just say “Crush it” as many times as possible).

With my running buddy Kristen. She’s like the Kara Goucher to my Shalane Flanagan. lol

Now here’s a quick recap of what I’ve been up to.

Toto-riffic!

Dan’s sister took us all out to see the Wizard of Oz the musical (she said she owed us from Christmas). The musical was a lot of fun with a yellow brick road treadmill (since the show has to go on tour they had to make it easy to move). The Wicked Witch was my favourite character and I found out later that the actress who played her was also the star of this awesome IKEA commercial:

Dan’s sister knows someone who works on the show, so we also got to go backstage. This was definitely a highlight for me. We even got to meet the dogs who play Toto and hold them.

With the three dogs who play Toto. They were very well behaved. I’m jealous of their owner who has one of the greatest jobs ever; he gets to work with his beautiful dogs all day.

From runners to spectators

Dan and I had a really good view of the Toronto Goodlife Marathon, so we got to be spectators for a change. It was really thrilling to see the runner in first run past us. He was a good 10 minutes ahead of the runner in second.

This isn’t the runner in first. These are the half marathon runners who are about my pace. I wanted to support them.

Back to the Soo

Dan and I spent Victoria Day weekend in the Soo (it’s basically a tradition). We got to catch up with a lot of our friends and do some of our favourite things including:

• run with Kristen (this was just me. It felt like we should go to a wedding or shower after our run because the last few times I’ve come up we’ve gone for a run and then gone to a wedding or shower)
• help Kristen paint (again this was just me. This seems to be a tradition too!)
• Muio’s with Jess, Mike and Kellen
• playing Ticket to Ride
• BBQ at Jay, Lindsay and Gavin’s

We also went to Giovanni’s and Dan finally finished the Tour of Italy – it’s a big pasta dish that has gnocchi, meat ravioli and tortellini and two meatballs. It was Dan’s goal to finally be able to eat it all in one sitting. Mission accomplished. I had a lot of fun playing with Gavin, who can finally say my name (not that it’s hard since it’s one syllable). I also finally got to meet Kellen, who is an absolute sweetheart. I love the sound of his laugh. Even Daisy, who was reunited with her good friend Maverick, had a good time.

Daisy and Maverick are bffs.

Food and Babies

We ate a lot of food in the last month. So much that I feel like I need to detox. The food was amazing though. I regret nothing.

High Tea at the King Edward Hotel with Leena. They felt that our food took too long to come out so they gave us complimentary champagne. I love the King Eddy. Always classy with good food and great service.

The next week we had dinner with Steph, Jamie and Madison. I always feel lucky when I get the chance to catch up with friends.

At dinner with Madison and Steph.

On our way up to the Soo our friends Michelle and Tyler were driving down to Toronto, so we all stopped and met up at French River. We finally got to meet their beautiful daughter Makena, one of the happiest babies I’ve ever met. We caught up with them for dinner in Toronto after we got back from the Soo, just in time for Michelle’s birthday.

Makena

Dan and I also had tapas at Origins. I’m still dreaming about the beet and goat cheese salad.

Tapas at Origin – steamed sugar snaps; Fiori di Latte with pesto, eggplant and roasted red peppers; Chinois duck, flour tortilla, cucumber, hoisin, sriracha, sour cream; Japanese style tuna salad with asian pear, avocado and spicy ponzu dressing; beet and goat cheese, pickled red onion, walnuts, sherry dressing and yogurt

And for good measure, here’s a picture of Jess, Kellen and I (because he’s such a sweetheart).

With Jess and Kellen.

Chocolate and Running

Finally, there was a lot of running with chocolate. Dan and I ran The Chocolate Race (10 miles) and two weeks after that I ran my fourth half marathon, the Toronto Women’s Half Marathon (there was a chocolate tent after the race). Recaps on these two great races are on the way!

Pink champagne after The Chocolate Race.

This is why you probably shouldn’t try to clumsily jump in the air 20k into a race. More on this in my upcoming race recap.

So that’s what we’ve been up to! I have some race recaps coming up along with my recap on celebrating my birthday in Las Vegas last year. Stay tuned!