Food Network and Diet Coke

So I wasn’t really planning on writing a post today, but it has been a weird day so I thought “why not”? 

The main reason I didn’t want to write today is because I didn’t want to have to admit how early I woke up for my run this morning. Let’s just say I fit in a 12 mile run and 30 minutes of ab work and still caught my 7:20am bus. Do the math if you’d like, but the ending figure is depressing so I don’t recommend it. 

The good news is my run went really well. I did a one mile warm up followed by 10 miles at goal marathon pace and a one mile cool down. I actually was able to increase my speed throughout the run and actually ended the last few miles 20 seconds over my goal pace. Yay! Another piece of good news is that the run was non-challenging enough that I was able to watch TV while running. I did most of my run while watching Dinner: Impossible on the Food Network. 

FUN FACT TIME: I love the Food Network, but not for any of their actual cooking shows (my favorites are Restaurant: Impossible and Chopped). One time Ben and I saw Chef Anne Burrel at O’Hare and totally geeked out. We walked pass her and couldn’t decide if we should talk to her or not. By the time we turned around and decided we should she was already finishing taking a picture with a different couple and walking in the other direction. We decided it was probably best to not chase her down the terminal (and by we I mean Ben – I was totally up for it).

This is Chef Anne for those of you who aren't obsessed with the Food Network.

I got a window seat on the bus, which NEVER happens in the mornings, but my luck was short lived. My bus ended up running a little behind and my train was running a little ahead so even though I tried sprinting the 2.5 blocks (which has crosswalks that are hardly ever in my favor) to make it my attempts were futile. I was so bummed about it I was about *this close* to crying – I’m blaming it on low blood sugar.  I decided to not let it ruin my day and started thinking about the Diet Coke I promised myself I could buy if I got up early for my run… only to remember I forgot to grab a dollar bill for the vending machine… Luckily I pulled myself together, reminded myself I was a grown woman and waited for the next train and only ended up being 15 minutes late for work.

Around 12:30pm I couldn’t stop thinking about the Diet Coke I had prematurely promised myself. I had about 50 cents in my wallet and knew that I only needed out 35 more to buy a can from the vending machine. Thus commenced the great purse/backpack search. My purse turned up nothing, but in my backpack I found two virtually unused hair ties, a pair of earrings, a Maggiano’s mint that I may or may not have eaten (don’t ask me the last time I went there) and the saddest most crumpled up dollar bill I’ve ever seen. Needless to say this happened:

He really really cared. I'm actually not even 100% joking. He said, "I'm glad you found that dollar," which is a full sentence so that means something. I try to limit my Diet Coke consumption, because it easily gets out of control if I don't. Although, I do look back fondly on trips to the Maverick to fill up my daily 32 ounces with my friend Emily and generally splurge after my long runs on the weekend. 

My day really picked up after that. Every time I looked at the clock, time was actually passing whereas earlier in the day I was formulating a theory that time was slowing down.

Did everyone else have a good day?