Will Run for Food
Life is a game - play it.
Life is a challenge - meet it.
Life is a dream - realize it.
Life is a sacrifice - offer it.
Life is love - enjoy it.
Last Wednesday, I had no food in my house and decided to treat myself and go out to eat. No one was in the neighborhood and I decided a meal at the bar at Barcelona at the bar was what I needed. When I sat down, the bartenders told me that they were hosting a cocktail class that evening. Instead of joining, a couple of the guys gave me my own private class for one of the cocktails, the Bramble Snap. So delicious!!
The Bramble Snap, courtesy of Barcelona
Serves 1
Ingredients:
- 2 Blackberries
- 5-6 fresh Mint Leaves
- 3 thin slices of fresh Ginger
- 3/4 ounce Simple Syrup
- 1 ounce Lime Juice
- 1/2 ounce Carpano Antica Vermouth
- 2 ounces El Dorado 3 year Rum
- 2 Blackberries on a Skewer
In a cocktail shaker, muddle the blackberries, mint, ginger, and simple syrup.
Add all the other ingredients except garnish. Fill with ice and shake well.
Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with skewered blackberries.
Delicious and easy, I feel like I lucked out learning about this drink. It is one I could make the next time the girls are over - or we could just venture to Barcelona again!
The day before the NYRR MORE/Fitness Women’s Half-Marathon, Gina and I were looking for a place to grab a VERY late lunch. Late as in 4pm. We walked into Piccolo Café and after gabbing about how cute and quaint it was settled into the menu. After deciding on eggs and salads, we put our order in and quickly also picked up on their $5.00 mimosas. Not a bad deal, we ordered them and were asked about flavoring. Lemon, Lime, Blood Orange, or more! We were pleasantly surprised when we were served what I came to call an Italian mimosa, wine (flat not sparkling) flavored with Italian soda.
I loved this drink so much that I made it later that week with friends who came over.
Italian Mimosa
Serves 6
Ingredients:
Love Love Love when produce is spring fresh and gloriously colored!
All relationships have their ups and downs. Overtime, a man or a woman needs to put in effort to get something out of it. This can be true whether it is with someone one is dating, a friendship, or even, strangely, a relationship with running. If a person is not putting in a lot, they’ll continue to hit barriers and not get the love that they need back from the sport. Or, if a person starts to resent training sessions and races, then, what is the point of it?? But sometimes, a person (ahem, me) needs to keep trying and push over the rocky times of stress fractures, burnout, and cold weather to find the running love again.
All I needed was to keep trying. I needed to just get to that one good run, one good race to rekindle that relationship. Last weekend, my NYRR MORE/Fitness Women’s Half-Marathon, my 10th half-marathon and their 10th anniversary of the race, was like I was on a first date with running again. It was my re-invigorating race!
When you talk to some people you can just hear the extra spark or excitement that comes with loving life, the vibe that resonates from appreciating the little things in life and not taking everything for granted during a normal daily routine. West Redding resident Amanda Glendinning, 29, is one of these people. Speaking on the phone Wednesday, Glendinning was more than eager to share her love of running and her passion for life.
On her 15th birthday a dermatologist diagnosed her with scleroderma — a connective tissue disease that involves changes in the skin, blood vessels, muscles and internal organs — and told her she could die before 25. Glendinning’s condition caused her pain and swelling in her joints, especially her hands and feet. The initial diagnosis was wrong, however, and it was later correctly identified to be lupus — an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks the body’s cells and tissue, resulting in inflammation and tissue damage. Lupus affects everyone differently and 90 percent of people living with lupus are women.
I was approached about this article in correlation to the MORE/Fitness Womens’ Half Marathon, after I had sent a short blurb of my story about running for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation to the NYRR for the half. I had no idea that the story would be told as it was - or I would have the feedback that I’ve had! A special thank you to Jason Sonski for the words he wrote!
