I Want To Be A Part Of It - New York, New York

These vagabond shoes... are longing to stray...

Okay, so after getting some of the best news EVER on Tuesday in the form of a Nuun Hood to Coast team announcement, I was pretty much walking on air.  I had just ran the Mt. Si Relay with a group of fabulous blogging ladies, was exploring Philly, one of my new favorite cities, and now I was going to get to run my favorite race of all time with my favorite hydration company of all time?  Seriously, I was feeling on top of the world.

I'm a little nervous (or intimidated?) about the whole thing though because I probably have one of the smaller blogs out there (hello 3 readers!  I mean Mom, Dad, and Husband!) and I'm probably one of the slower people picked as well.  So hopefully I don't let anyone down blog-reach-wise or speed-wise.  I will try my hardest I promise!  And that starts with trying my hardest to NOT get injured before Hood to Coast time rolls around. 

Who wants to see this bad boy again?

Anyway, despite all that, I'm still totally walking on air, SO happy to be picked, despite perhaps at times worrying that maybe they chose the wrong gal.  But back to my point of all this: being that the world definitely doesn't want you to get TOO on top of the world.

Example #1: On Wednesday (after the Nuun announcement Tuesday) I was enjoying a delicious last meal in Philly: a pretzel cheesesteak.  Yep, you read that right.  I had a big presentation right after lunch, did I forget to mention that?  Anyway, if you don't know me, I LOVE soft pretzels.  Like I want to eat everything out of them, I want my hamburgers on soft pretzel bread, etc.  Anyway, so this delicious dish was a dream come true, until it exploded all over me.  Imagine cheesesteak goo all down my arms and on my pants.  Yep.  And remember how I had a presentation about 10 minutes later?!

 Delicious.

Example #2:  As I'm sitting there trying to figure out the best method to salvage my work outfit before my presentation (of course I also had no napkins), I feel something disgusting and wet land on my arm.  And I look up, and I see that a pigeon just peed on me.  A PIGEON.  A PIGEON PEED ON ME.  RIGHT BEFORE MY PRESENTATION.  And remember that I am already covered with cheesesteak, which looks kind of like vomit by the way.

source

Example #3:  After I tried my best to clean myself up, and gave my presentation (it was fine, thanks for asking), I finally figured out how to log in to my NYC Marathon account (thanks twitter friends for helping me out, I'm an idiot), and it was a big fat NO.  No NYC Marathon for Ricole this year. 

But I'm not going to let this get me down!  That pretzel cheesesteak was amazing and totally worth it.  That pigeon situation was hilarious, although it definitely solidified my already blossoming hatred of pigeons.  And honestly, NYC was a blessing in a disguise.  I won't lie, I really wanted in.  I won't pretend that I didn't.  I really want JMan and I to go there for a trip and this seemed the perfect opportunity.  But do I really want to train for another marathon this year?  I'm not sure yet, ask me on June 24th.  But regardless of how this training cycle goes, I'm kind of relieved to not have that pressure to do another full this year.

So I won't be a part of it - New York New York... this year anyway.  

Cooper hopes you're having a great weekend!  What fun things are you doing?  How far did you run today?  Did YOU get in to NYC?  I haven't heard of anyone getting in via the lottery yet. 

Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Cheesesteaks!

This post could also be titled Philadelphia Part II (after yesterday's Part I post).  I took SO many pictures in just one day, it's ridiculous.  I apologize but I have to post them.  If you're sick of Philly pics - come back tomorrow!

So I really did love Philly - I could see myself living there.  I've been to Washington D.C. many times for work and love D.C., and it reminded me of being there - so much history!  So unfortunately I really only had that one long running tour and then one measly lunch break to see the city, but I saw as much as I could!  I was also very open to suggestions - twitter is the best for getting random travel advice!

Thanks @bentehoule!  I did this on my running tour. 

Sights seen included:

1) The Hard Rock Cafe, which granted isn't much of a sight, but check out that huge guitar!

2) Some statues of famous people who aren't really that famous since I'd never heard of them:

3) Really old famous buildings:

4) The Old City Hall, where the U.S. Supreme Court met between 1791 and 1800 (thank you sign for actually teaching me something!):

The Old City Hall from the outside.  It doesn't really look over 200 years old!

And where the actual Supreme Court met on the inside:

5) And finally, what you've all been waiting for: The Liberty Bell!  My phone camera was acting up so you only get the side without the crack. 

Since it was my lunch break I stopped to get some actual lunch.  And I do what my tweet friends tell me too.  Thanks @MarshallOram!

Done.  I ate a famous Philly Cheesesteak from a street cart.  And it was good.  And totally healthy. 

@Sallaboutme told me to go to some place called Reading Terminal Market.  Lucky for me I happened upon it by accident!  What are the chances of that?

And it did NOT disappoint.  Too bad I had just eaten that cheesesteak!  It was ridiculous - every kind of food you've ever wanted, people watching central, all kinds of interesting things to look at, pretty much Pike Place on steroids, and much more eating centered.  I HIGHLY recommend it. 

Although I had already eaten lunch I managed to force myself to choke down some ice cream.  Ha.  They had a PBJ flavor that I was really excited about and I seriously nearly cried when I ordered it and they were sold out.  So I drowned my sorrows in some Egg Nog (very timely, but I love me some egg nog) and Peanut Butter Swirl. 

And as if I couldn't eat anymore, then I had to follow Shawna's advice. 

Okay, so I didn't eat at Pat's or Gino's, but that's some advice for you fellow travelers!  But I did have a Philly soft pretzel:

And my lunch break tour was over!  So sad.  I need to go back to Philly for a real trip sometime.  Seriously, look at that view:

Finally - go enter to win a Danskin Triathlon entry from Running, Loving, Living!  I STILL somehow haven't done a triathlon and it's totally on my list so I really hope I win!

Have you ever been to Philly?  Have any advice for anyone who goes there?  HAPPY FRIDAY!  What fun weekend plans do you have?  I have been going nonstop and am so happy to spend the weekend at home.  

A Virtual Running Tour of Philadelphia

Remember when I gave you an extremely helpful and informative virtual tour of Vancouver, British Columbia?  Well since that was so useful I decided to do it again.

In West Philadelphia born and raised, on the playground is where I spent most of my days... Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool and all shooting some b-ball outside of the school...  Anyone?  No?

Never mind.

Anyway, I was in Philly for work and haven't been here since I was 2 years old (and therefore don't really remember it!) so I was in desperate need of a tour.  But what better way to see the sights than by RUNNING?  Sight-seeing via running is seriously one of my favorite things to do.  I even got to meet up with Tina, one of my fellow Singapore adventurers from last summer.

There's my lovely group of dominant dorm-mates on our last day in Singapore.  Gitt, Tina, & Evan - some of the best people I know!

10 miles.  That's the number of miles it takes to see Philly via running!  Although I'm sure I missed some things, I feel like I saw nearly everything!  It started out with a 2 mile run from my hotel to the real Rocky steps at the Philadelphia Art Museum, where I would meet up with Tina.  

Isn't it just so fitting that on the day my Rocky-themed Nuun Hood to Coast Team application made the cut I also visited the REAL Rocky steps / Rocky statue??!!??!!

The Philadelphia Art Museum - a seriously gorgeous building.  Apparently there's a Van Gogh exhibition right now.  I didn't go in, no time and art's not really my thing.  Don't gasp in shock!

On the way to the Museum I saw a bunch of amazing and very old churches:

 

After I met up with Tina we ran along the Delaware River, which had a very lovely path next to it complete with gazebos and some impressive crew teams practicing on it:

 

That's Tina and her precious dog Bodhi.

We turned around after a bit and headed out to see Tina's school and my very first sighting of an Ivy League school - Penn!  Very prestigious. 

Did you know Penn is one of the oldest universities in the US?  It was founded in freaking 1740!

One of the older buildings on campus - College Hall - built in 1873!

After running about 6 miles together, we sadly parted ways (Move to Seattle Tina!) and I headed back for home.   I was having such a good time that I kept running a bit until I happened upon the famous Love Statue. 

 I LOVE PHILLY!

And 10.5 miles in 1:39 (Average Pace: 9:24) was done before I knew it!  I felt great the whole time.  With Tina I felt like we were running pretty fast, but the pace is all over the place thanks to many stop lights, picture stops (clearly), and Bodhi squirrel-stalking.  My running coach (if I had one!) would probably be mad at me for running so far but I promise to take it easy the rest of the week.

There is seriously no better way to see a city than by running it.  I saw even more famous sights, including the Liberty Bell, on my lunch break, but I'll recap those tomorrow since this post is more than long enough!

Anyway, this sadly means there was no Track Tuesday workout this week - my legs just weren't up to it after Sunday's relay and let's be honest, I'd rather do a 10 miler sight-seeing with a friend any day.  Go visit Denise at RunDMT for your motivation this week!  She's a rock star and pumped out  4x400's.  Link up your speedwork post here so you can motivate and be motivated by others!

Did you get your speedwork in this week?  Brag about it!  Do you love to sight-see via running?  Where have you done that at and what did you see?