Will Run for Chocolate: the Hot Chocolate Race and Guilt-Free Fondue

Saturday morning, I woke up at 6am, surprisingly excited. Despite the sudden drop in temperature (it had gone from 70 degrees to 25 degrees in the matter of a couple days), I was raring to go! I got up, ate a breakfast of delicious applesauce (applesauce is always so good when it's chilled), and got dressed in pants, two pairs of knee socks, a tank top, a long sleeve shirt, two jackets, a fuzzy ear piece and gloves (yet, I still felt like I needed more layers). After checking the map and the weather one more time with Maddy (I had stayed on her couch the night before, because I live way too far away for such an early morning commute), we got into her car and headed to Fair Park, where we would be running in the Hot Chocolate 5k.

In spite of terrible logistics regarding traffic conduction and parking, we made it into our corral and waited our turn to start the race. The music selection at the start line was pretty great and the crowd was enthusiastic. Everything was perfect (notwithstanding the fact that I could barely feel parts of my legs and face due to the low temperatures). After a few unsuccessful attempts at starting line pictures and a brief countdown from the announcer, we were off!

Maddy and I attempted navigating through the crowds without getting separated from one another, which had the lovely side effect of forcing us to pace ourselves (even if the pace was a little slower than usual), and everything was going along swimmingly. Almost a mile in, we even ran into (haha! ran!) a few of our friends from kickball! More accurately, they ran up to us (and tickled us, like the athletic jerks they are). Unfortunately, it was just enough distraction that I totally didn't notice the gaping chasm right in front of me (or tiny pothole, whatever) and fell (good thing my cat like reflexes kept me from toppling over completely and enabled me to recover in what I can only assume was an extremely graceful way).

We got through the first mile before slowing to a walk. Seeing as running a mile straight was my goal for the race, I was pretty stoked (albeit tired and somehow overheated and super cold at the same time). We walked the rest of the second mile and took the opportunity to catch our breath, stow away some of our extraneous layers, and re-tie our shoes.

When thanking Maddy for her support,
she simply said "You got me to the race,
so I got you through the race."
Hooray for prepositions!

We started running again at the 2 mile mark and attempted to finish the race without breaking! As we approached the 3 mile mark, however, I had decided that I'd had enough. Gasping for air and complaining of stomach pains, I slowed to a saunter and told Maddy to go on without me. She would have none of that though, and kept shouting encouragement at me until I rejoined her a moment later. We crossed the 3 mile mark then the finish line (at 3.1 miles), and it felt so good (except that I was still gasping for air and wanted nothing more than to sit down... which we then did).

After recovering for a bit, we made our way into the after party where we were handed the most beautiful tray I've ever seen. Well, the tray itself was plastic and boring, but ON the tray were fruit slices, marshmallows, a Rice Krispies treat and a cup of chocolate fondue. It might possibly have been the most delicious chocolate fondue I've ever tasted. However, since chocolate doesn't usually hit the spot at 9am, we left and made our way to a celebratory breakfast. It was the best day.


How did we do? Great!
We ran for 23:40 total and completed the race in 40:55. That's almost 10 minutes faster than last year's Firefly Run! Also, we came in 2985 and 2986 out of 4214, putting us in the top 71%.

I hope we can do as well this Sunday at the Color Run!


What motivates you when you want to give up? Is it strange that the coldest day of the season thus far was the morning of our race, and less than a week later I'm back to wearing short sleeves out? Why do they insist on handing out the grossest flavor of Gatorade at the hydration stations when there are so many delicious options out there?

When taking this picture, all I could think of was that Halloween
episode of the Big Bang Theory, when they all happened to show up
as the Flash. It was suggested that rather than change, they all walk
in a line all night to make it look like it was one Flash going really fast.
I think Maddy, that 2 dimensional stick figure, and I acheive the same effect.



Out with the old...

We'd had some good times together. We used stroll through the park and run in the rain. We toured Nashville and went walkin' in Memphis. We even climbed up and down the Eiffel Tower together. We were happy then, but I knew it couldn't last. I tried to ignore the signs, but after a year and a half, the fibers were wearing thin. Literally. Like, the fabric tore and left a gaping hole in the inner heel of my running shoes...

When I started running (for the first time) during the summer of 2010, I wore some old sneakers that I'd had for years. Since I didn't have a particularly active lifestyle (unless you count swing dancing, which I don't, because it's completely irrelevant to running-shoe-related anecdotes), I didn't think it would be a problem. How much could my shoes have worn down if I never used to run? Turns out a lot. My first clue that my shoes weren't quite up to snuff was that my feet hurt whenever I'd run. My second clue was that one of the soles fell off.

After running on sole-less shoes for far too long, I finally went to Academy and picked out the prettiest pair of sneakers I could find. A couple days later, I went back to Academy to return those horrible yet beautiful shoes and exchange them for ones that actually fit and didn't hurt me. I landed on New Balance something-or-others. They were the best sneakers I'd ever owned. They helped me run faster and jump higher. Most importantly, they were pink.

Fast forward 18 months.

Not long after Maddy and I restarted our running program a couple months ago, I noticed that my legs were tiring out pretty easily. I assumed that it was just because I'm bad at running, and hadn't built up any endurance yet. Then, I noticed that I had worn a hole into the inside heel of my right shoe. Experiencing slight discomfort and worried about blisters, I decided to do some light Googling, through which I learned that you're apparently supposed to replace your running shoes every six months or so. While I maintain that my mostly sedentary lifestyle makes it perfectly acceptable for me to wait a few more months before replacing shoes, I'll admit that waiting thrice the recommended amount of time is probably pushing it too far.

So, on Sunday, I went shopping at Sports Authority and went through the following steps to procure new tennis shoes:



Step 1: Find the women's running shoes section (you'd think this would be obvious, making it unnecessary to note, but leave it to me to accidentally spend 10 minutes in the men's department without realizing it).
Step 2: Hone in on the selections that fall within your price range (because otherwise you'll fall in love with the $250 shoes that promise to make you fast enough to chase down a gazelle).
Step 3: Pick out the 2 or 3 pairs that are prettiest and/or most fun (because what better way is there to narrow down a lot of extremely similar choices?).
Step 4: Try on each selection from step 3 to determine which has the best comfort and support.
Step 5: Purchase shoes of choice.

After following the very sound advice above, I settled on NIKE Women's Dual Fusion ST 2 Running Shoes!

I've taken them running once, and can already feel a significant difference. They are bouncier than my old shoes and fit like a glove (but for your feet). Also, because my new shoes were helping my feet and legs stay aligned properly, I could feel my ankle muscles (that I didn't even know existed) getting quite a workout. Most importantly, they are pink (I actually thought about getting the bright purple or teal varieties, but these look much better with my favorite running socks).

I think these new shoes were a big part of what enabled me to run my first consecutive mile with Maddy yesterday (and a 10:23 mile at that)!

Is it strange that I just bought size 7 shoes, when I can swear that I used to wear size 9? Do you like to romanticize memories of your dealings with inanimate objects? Do you like that I just slipped in the part about Maddy and me running a 10:23 mile like it's no big deal, even though I don't think I've ever run a full mile in my life and am super excited about it?

Win or Lose, We Booze: Season 1 Wrap Up

In spite of rain outs, poor field conditions, an in-progress Hasbro commercial that kicked us off the field, and the holidays, our kickball team finally finished our season a few weeks ago, only 6 weeks behind schedule (note: the season was only supposed to last 8 weeks to begin with)!

During the regular season, we had 6 losses (or what I like to call "moral victories") and one "win" (which I only put in quotation marks, because the team we were playing was down three players - that's if you include the girl that couldn't do anything but stand on the side because she had just had a C-Section and was only there to keep them from having to forfeit). Over the seven games, we scored 32 runs and had only 89 runs scored on us (which pretty aptly shows that all of our moral victories were pretty crushing).

Surprisingly, we performed much better during the playoffs. The tournament was elimination/bracket style, and in true form, as the penultimate team in the league (ranked #14), we were slated to play the McKool Smithies (#3) for the first round. We had played them once before, and they had obliterated us 13 to 1. During the playoffs, however, things were different. After falling behind a few runs early on in the game, we managed to come back and tie the score in the 7th inning, which meant overtime. We were then able to not only score a few more runs, but hold the other team at bay when they were up to kick, and win the game! The underdogs coming back to win against the somewhat rude team that had beaten them so badly before? I call that movie magic!

Unfortunately, the movie magic ended there, in that we lost to the SEC Ballers during a very uneventful second round. But it's probably for the best; had we won, we would have had to give up a Saturday to finish the tournament.

Buster Bluth: "(Holding up a trophy) And I finally feel good about myself. 'Saddest.'"
Michael Bluth: "And I saw those people, that was a very competitive category."

Highlight of the season? Watching how our team was able to eke out some of the weirdest plays I've ever seen. For example, there was one point where Brian bunted, thought it was a foul (even though it wasn't), and just stood there. He then wandered around aimlessly (in a somewhat circular motion) for about 2 minutes (with the ball still in play) and eventually slowly took first base. Amidst the confusion, Jared slowly sauntered all the way from second base back to home for a run without anyone even trying to tag him out. How does that even happen?

Low point of the season? Getting hit in the face with the kickball (that will teach me for closing my eyes when trying to catch a fly ball). Although, I must admit, even at the time it was pretty funny (in spite of the fact that my face was numb for the rest of that inning).



All in all, we did much better than I expected us to do. If nothing else, we're in a much better position for the next season, which is already off to a very good start... but more on that later.

What are some of the weirdest sporting event happenings you've been witness to? Do you think that Hasbro should have let us be extras in their commercial in exchange for cancelling our game last minute? For other members of Win or Lose, We Booze: what would you consider the highlights and low points of the season?

Shim Sham Shimmy

Last night, as Song and I waited in the hallway outside Studio B for our tap class to begin, we were watching the beginner class practicing a routine that they've been learning for the past few weeks. At the time, I thought that the steps seemed vaguely familiar, but I didn't think much about it. Then, Keira (our instructor) started calling out some of the new moves that had been added this week, including the "Tackie Annie" and the "Half Break." That's when my ears perked up. I'd heard those terms before, but not in any tap classes, and I knew them well. In fact, I'd used them as recently as Saturday when a few friends and I went swing dancing. They were a part of the Shim Sham, a line dance that I learned about 5 years ago.

I first learned the Shim Sham in College Station, when I was learning to swing dance (thanks to the Texas Aggie Swing Cats). It wasn't until I started dancing in other cities and states that I realized that this wasn't a local dance, but rather, a very well known line dance in the swing dancing community. In fact, it was the most well known (because yes, there are many swing line dances, including the Jitterbug Stroll and Smiley's Charleston, which may be my favorite). Over the years, I learned that Frankie Manning, one of the founding fathers of Lindy Hop and American Swing Dance, was credited with developing the Shim Sham when he was dancing in Harlem in the 1930s (at Lindyfest in Houston a few years ago, I actually had the pleasure of doing the Shim Sham while Frankie Manning himself called out the moves at the ripe old age of 94).

Frankie Manning in Hellzapoppin', which is considered
one of the quintessential swing dance performances of all time.

Considering how swing-centric this dance is, imagine my surprise when I realized that Keira was teaching everyone a tap version of it! Imagine my further surprise when she told me that it wasn't originally a swing dance at all, but a well known tap routine that's been modified over the years to fit a number of different genres (or I guess mostly just swing dance, whatever)! As this information was pretty jarring for me, I decided to do some research.

Apparently (according to an un-cited article on wikipedia and backed up by a conversation I had in passing with my instructor... so pretty legitimate sources all around... don't judge me), the Shim Sham was first choreographed by Leonard Reed in 1927 as a tap routine. What started as a comedic act entitled "Goofus" that Leonard Reed and Willie Bryant performed when touring through the South, suddenly turned into a beloved tradition once the duo moved to the Shim Sham Club in New York. At the end of each performance, everyone would go up on stage, dancers, singers, and musicians alike, to perform the Shim Sham Shimmy together (thus renamed on account of the chorus girls' penchant for shimmying). The tap dancers would be more technical in their performance, while singers and musicians could shuffle along at their best depending on how adept they were at dancing.



How cool would it be to
see him tap dancing?

 From there, it was adapted by a number of people (including Leonard Reed himself, when he performed it with the World Heavyweight Boxing champ Joe Louis in 1948 - they called that version the Joe Louis Shuffle Shim Sham), which explains why there is currently no uniform choreography for it (everyone has the same basic gist, but with individualized flair). Frankie Manning was the one who modified it for swing dancing purposes, turning it into a line dance. He also added 2 phrases of choreography (which equates to eight 8-counts of music) including a "Boogie Back/Boogie Forward" phrase and a "Boogie Back/Shorty George" phrase (named for George "Shorty" Snowden, who was another founding father of Lindy Hop, as well as the one who gave Lindy Hop its name).

Isn't learning fun?!

Though it was a little challenging trying to re-wire my brain to learn a more technically complicated version of a dance I've done hundreds of times, I really enjoyed tap class last night. The dance as a whole was more difficult (especially when we tried speeding it up), but learning some of the steps as they were originally choreographed (or as close to it as we can get now) helped make some things in the swing version click better for me. If nothing else, it's great getting to experience first hand how different dance movements influenced each other.

As a bonus, here is a video I found on the interwebs of the Shim Sham. This video was made for Frankie Fest (also called Frankie 95), which was a celebration of Frankie Manning's 95th birthday. Unfortunately, Frankie was unable to attend the celebration, as he passed away a month before it was to take place. Not only does this video act as a beautiful tribute to a man who spent his life doing what he loved, but it also showcases how different cultures and groups have been able to take the Shim Sham and adapt it over the years.

Have you ever Shim Shammed? Should I have been so surprised that tap dance and swing dance use similar moves and dances even though they were both part of the jazz movement? Does anyone want to watch Hellzapoppin' with me later?

"I never thought I would hear those words come out of your mouth!"

What had I said to cause my mom to make such an exclamation? No, it wasn't anything offensive. No, I hadn't been cursing. I had merely stated "well, I'm off for a run, be back soon!"

We were staying with my grandma for the weekend, and I had decided to take advantage of the midafternoon lull by going out to continue my training. While Mom knows that I've been running lately, she has spent the last 22 years (which would have been 23 had I learned to talk earlier) enduring my near-constant complaints about how awful running is and how  much I detest it. Needless to say, even though we are both cognitively aware that I've been running, I think we're both still a little surprised that I'm doing so voluntarily.

With an upcoming onslaught of 5Ks (Maddy and I for some reason thought it would be a good idea to register for four different 5Ks in the next couple months), we figured it was about time to get back into our training, and have been pretty consistently following our Couch-to-5K program since restarting it a couple months ago. Granted, we tend to take slightly longer breaks between running intervals than directed, but I think that when running in the cold, our lungs need that extra minute to thaw a bit.



Firefly Run 2011; Kim, Hannah, Maddy, and me

 You might be wondering, "Jenny, why are you doing so many 5Ks?" Well, the answer is simple; I have no earthly idea. Actually, I'm doing them because they all seem fun. Each upcoming race has its own unique theme that we just couldn't pass up.

• The Hot Chocolate Run, supporting the Ronald McDonald House Charities - One word: Chocolate. A lot more words: Ghirardelli is hosting the after party and will be serving hot chocolate and chocolate fondue. I was hooked from the moment Amanda mentioned it after our kickball game last week! (Side note: we totally made it to round 2 of the kickball playoffs... more info to come)
• The Color Run, supporting the American Heart Association - Jeff brought this to our attention, and I feel like any event that involves people getting hit with wave after wave of color powder is alright by me! Apparently, during the Color Run, you get hit with a new color at every kilometer, only to emerge looking like you've been tie-dyed. Our team name is Color Me Happy; I'm pretty pumped.




That skirt will be
perfect for
St. Patty's Day!


• St. Patty's Day 5k, supporting our food bank - Maddy, being of extremely Irish descent couldn't say no to the opportunity to kick off the St. Patrick's Day Festivities in town with the annual 5K. The race basically starts the entire party, and afterwards, runners can then enjoy the live music, some free beverages, and watch the parade. I think it's going to be awesome, and at the very least will give me the opportunity to wear the skirt I made for Halloween again (I went as Marvin the Martian).
• And finally, the Firefly Run, supporting the Children's Medical Center - This was the first 5K (and despite my illusions of running grandeur, the only 5K) I've ever done. Although the event is taking place long before firefly season this year, it's still held at dusk. We're dusting off our light up tutus now (metaphorically), and getting ready to glow the distance (note: "Glow the distance" is not currently the motto for the Firefly run, but I'm thinking about writing a letter to let the organizers know how clever I am)!

Are there any races you plan on participating in? Do you think I can beat my time from my last 5k (which, at 50:52, probably could have been crab-walked faster)? Is anyone else questioning my sanity right now?

Garlic Green Beans with Mushrooms

As someone with the same food preferences as the average 8 year old, I find it very exciting when I finally come across vegetables that don't disgust me. In general, when trying to get in my 3-4 servings of greenery a week (I know, it's supposed to be daily, but I'm just one woman!), I usually stick to carrot sticks, celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, or anything else you would find in a child's Barbie lunchbox (yes, because that is where I do my grocery shopping... in school lunchrooms). In fact, with the exception of potatoes and corn (and only corn that is still on the cob and has had nothing weird done to it), there are very few vegetables that I will willingly eat cooked. Raw spinach salad is tolerable, I suppose (but not handsome enough to tempt me), but the smell of cooked spinach is enough to make me gag! I have a similar reaction to cooked broccoli and asparagus (I used to have to leave the room when Kirsten would make dinner in our college apartment because she really liked cooked peas and the smell was overwhelming).

There are, however, a couple dishes of cooked veggies that I've enjoyed over the years. In an effort to create a healthy, affordable lifestyle for myself, I've decided to start trying to prepare some of these vegetable dishes at home. I thought I'd be able to get by by just eating the raw vegetables that I've come to love, but it has become apparent that eating the same unseasoned veggies every day gets old really fast. To this end, I recently made my third attempt at Garlic Green Beans and Mushrooms.

Garlic Green Beans and Mushrooms

Ingredients:

A few servings of Green Beans
2-3 cloves of Garlic
Handful or so of Mushrooms (or, if you would prefer, squash)
1 1/2 Teaspoons salt
1/4 Teaspoon Pepper
1 1/2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Directions:

1) In a skillet or sauce pan, bring 1" of water to boil.
2) Add 1 teaspoon salt and green beans.
3) Boil green beans for 8-10 minutes.
4) Drain green beans and dry pan.
5) With pan back on stove, add olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, mushrooms, and garlic.
6) Sautee mushrooms and garlic until cooked.
7) Add green beans back into pan with another 1/4 teaspoon salt and stir everything together until warm.
8) Serve.

Note: the ingredients and instructions aren't very exact because there is a lot of room for error





My mom started making these green beans a few years ago, and it wasn't long after that I finally tried them and conceded that they were, in fact, delicious. I didn't even mind the mushrooms (or sometimes squash) in the dish, even though I generally dislike them (coating something with garlic can do wonders). I'd tried making these green beans twice before with terrible results (in spite of the extremely large margin for error). Each time, I forgot almost all of the seasonings and used too much oil, thus burning the green beans pretty badly (not to mention that the splattering oil also burned me). This time, when asking my mom for the recipe over the phone yet again, I decided to actually listen and write things down so as to not mess it up. And guess what? I didn't mess it up! I boiled the beans, added the seasonings, sauteed the mushrooms, and mixed it all together just like she said, and it turned out really well!

This opens up so many possibilities!

How do you feel about cooked vegetables? Are there any that make you gag at either the taste or smell of them? Do you really want to learn how to make the chicken shown in the picture? If so, directions can be found here!!

Intermediate/Advanced Beginner Adult Tap Class?

That doesn't seem like a confusing name at all! In fact, I would prefer if we could make it even more all encompassing by adding "Introduction to..." to the title. Regardless, today I found that this class has been added to the weekly schedule for my dance studio!

While I do think that simply calling it "Intermediate" would have served its purposes well, I can only imagine from the title (as well as many discussions in previous classes) that this class is to serve as a stepping stone between the Basics Beginner series (which I completed last month) and the Intermediate/Advanced class (which I attended only one of and realized just how much work I needed). We had discussed the possibility of offering this course with our instructor a few times during our beginner series, seeing as we had all progressed well past your basic shuffle, but not even come close to doing a pull back with any ease, but I was worried that for whatever reason, we wouldn't be able to pull off getting a course like this. I did not like the prospect of me continuing to make a fool of myself in the Intermediate/Advanced class (I was so overwhelmed by everything that I didn't know and/or couldn't keep up with the one time I went that I probably spent more than half of the class standing in the corner biting my nails as I tried to make sense of their footwork), but didn't want to have to give up tap dancing because of it. Then comes the Intermediate/Advanced Beginners Adult Tap class to the rescue!

The new class starts tomorrow evening with a different instructor than the one I've had for the past few months. While I'm bummed that I won't be learning from Carol anymore, as she was super fun and extremely talented, I've heard a lot of good things about our new instructor. At the very least, she'll have her own style that should help make us more diversified dancers.

Wish me luck!