Weekend wrap-up

You'll never believe it! Hang on to your hat: I ran 25m last week!

Ahem. Yes, I know that mileage is low. But, the last time I ran 25m in one week, it was November and 26 of those miles were covered in one go. So I'll take it. I'm not ready to declare my rut completely over, but it was a good start.

Anyway, here's a quick recap of my weekend. Because I have no real-life friends, I have to turn to the internet to meet people. (Isn't that what blogging is all about?) (Okay, this is a joke. I do have real life friends. One or two of them even read this occasionally.) This weekend, I had the good fortune of hosting one of my internet friends, the wonderful Carla with whom I ran half of the Chicago Marathon. Carla, who used to live in NYC, showed up on Friday with her friend Jen for a too-quick weekend visit.

The only thing better than running friends visiting for a weekend is running friends visiting, bearing Brazilian liquor. And a rice cooker. And a puppy. (I had to return the puppy, sadly.)

This is cachaça. I will use
it to make caipirinhas.

The weekend was blissfully unscheduled. I ran a nice and relaxing 4m Friday evening and then followed that up with a sort-of-long run Saturday late morning with Jen and Carla. We were aiming for 10m; at 7m, Jen was having leg pains and Carla was having foot pains, so we decided to declare the run over and to walk across Central Park to the Upper East side to get my bib for Sunday's 5k (more on that race tomorrow).

Saturday was a glorious day. The weather was beautiful and it was one of those days when there is nothing better to do in the world than go for a run with new friends and discuss everything under the sun. (Literally the sun, which was such a nice sight and a reminder that spring will be here soon.) We started up near my apartment in Harlem and ran down the West Side Highway along the Hudson.

One of the best parts of the run? It was exciting to see an elliptigo in the wild, but more exciting was that Carla taught Jen and I how to take self-portraits. I've mastered the ability to take photos that make me look maybe sort of okay using my phone and a mirror:

I don't drink coffee. True.
Unless it's a pumpkin spice latte.

But without a mirror? On the go? There is an art to it, and Carla is a master. The key, she explained, is to hold the camera in your left hand, as far from your body as you can. Of course, I do lack all artistic ability and this proved no exception. My pictures looked embarrassingly like this:

I know I have some talents,
but photography is not there.

I swear it's me:

My totally bad ass pirate hat
felt very comfortable on the water.

With the run over, Jen and Carla headed downtown to buy me some peanut butter (fully securing their place as the best houseguests of all time). I then proceeded to spend the rest of the weekend like this, at least until the puppy left with Carla on Sunday:

The puppy's name is Lily,
and she's moving to Manila
with Carla in a month.