A Birthday and a Baby Shower

So, I did mention last week was my birthday, right? And that meant there would be birthday treats, like this…

And this…

The first picture is my makeshift birthday “cake.“ There’s a bakery across the street from Jamie’s high school, which also happens to be run by the mom of one of his classmates, and she makes some pretty amazing stuff. I am rather partial to her cookies, which are huge and delicious, but I decided that since it was my birthday, I would go with the cupcake “whoopie pie.“ when I brought it home and told the boys we could share it among the three of us, JJ insisted that we put a candle in it and sing happy birthday, and who was I to argue? 😉  The whoopie pie was basically a cupcake split in half with frosting in the middle, and I chose was the lemon version. I topped it with a little bit of ice cream, and although it wasn’t my favorite, it was good and we all enjoyed it. Next time, though, I’ll go for the peanut butter cookie…her peanut butter cookies are truly life-altering. 😉

The second picture was part of the gift I got from my husband. Yes, he bought me an entire cheesecake sampler, ha ha!  You can see that I didn’t take the picture until after I’d already sampled most of the pieces. I do love a good cheesecake, and although that one was just a simple frozen one from Meijer, it was quite good. So good, in fact, that I eventually had to put it back in the freezer so that I would stop eating it. 😮

On top of those delightful treats, I also got to enjoy some delicious edibles from a baby shower that a friend of mine hosted on Sunday. She asked me to come take pictures at the shower, and in exchange, I was able to enjoy some great food. I went into the endeavor with the thought that I really wouldn’t sample too much of the food, since I was “working,“ but that didn’t last very long. If you see the food, you’ll know why!

There were so many great things to eat, and the cake was delicious!! It even had my preferred type of frosting: buttercream with an almond flavor (for the yellow cake layer).  The chocolate layer had a chocolate frosting with chocolate mousse in between the layers. Oh. My. Gosh!! I simply could not resist, and I enjoyed every bite of food I had.

And as you can imagine, weighing in the next morning was not exactly pleasant.

Well, yeah, when you eat as much as I did last week, gaining a pound and a half cannot be a shock. Actually, maybe the shock is only gaining a pound and a half, ha ha!

This week I’m trying to watch my eating a little bit more than usual, because it’s taper week, which means less running. I’m just a day away from my eighth half marathon! I’m nervous and excited at the same time. I’m super excited to run the Detroit Free Press International Half Marathon. In our area, it’s kind of iconic. I’m sure every major city has a race that all the inhabitants think is the best race ever, but around here, everyone knows and loves the Detroit Free Press races. Detroit gets a bad rap in a lot of ways, but this race truly shows how amazing the city of Detroit and its citizens really are. Someone told me today that 30,000 people run this race between all the different distances, and I believe it…it’s incredible how many people are running, and also how many people come out to support the runners. I’ve been down there twice, once to run the last leg of the relay, and the other time to support a friend who ran her first marathon, but this will be my first time running a full race of any distance, and also my first time running the international portion into Canada. That’s kind of interesting, because with all the security these days, you have to jump through a few extra hoops. I have to pick up my race packet in person, and show my enhanced drivers license, and I will also have to carry proof of my citizenship on me for the entire race. I’m glad I just have an enhanced drivers license and not a full passport to carry around, ha ha!

I was told today that this race is unique in that it is the only one that crosses an international border twice, and it’s also the only race in the world that has an underwater mile. That’s kind of cool, when you think about it! Unless you think about it too long, and then you realize you’re underwater for a mile… :p. When I was a kid, my parents had a cottage in Canada, so we spent lots of time driving back-and-forth. Usually we would take the bridge, but some days we would take the tunnel, and I always hated those times. The tunnel is pretty old, and it looks kind of rickety and unsure when you’re driving through it, especially when you see the water dripping down the walls…!

I’m actually running the race with a friend, Toddra. Toddra helped pace me during my marathon two years ago, when she ran one leg of the relay alongside of me while I ran the full distance. Now it’s my turn to help HER keep pace, and that’s the part that makes me most nervous. It’s one thing for me to get myself to reach a goal, but it’s a totally different thing to try to coach someone else to theirs. I’ve never been a “pacer” before, and I’m afraid that I won’t be hard enough or that I’ll be so hard she’ll hate me forever.  Being a running coach isn’t an easy task!  But she told me today she is determined to meet her goal, so I’m going to do the best I can to help her get there.  Her goal finish time is about 25 minutes slower than my best finish in March, and I’ve been training with the same plan I used back then, so hopefully I can run the race feeling good, which will help me in keeping her motivated.

No matter what happens, though, I know we’ll have fun, because Toddra is a great running partner with a great sense of humor.  I’m sure we’ll have plenty of great stories to tell after Sunday! 😉

Thanks for reading!