Hi and Happy Easter Sunday! Easter seems oddly early this year, right? And we have absolutely no plans for it, not sure if that’s sad or awesome. But both my sisters have other plans, so we’re chilling today and may actually see a movie later after trying a vegan french toast recipe. That’s probably good since it was a busy day yesterday and I owe two chihuahuas many long walks today. But our morning walks have been gorgeous this week, perfect cool weather, full moon, and plenty of green grass after all the rain the last few weeks.
My sister and I have been on a crazy mission to run multiple half marathons this spring to collect medals and make it a distance training exercise to gear up for marathon training later this year. Yesterday we ran the Peace-Love-Run half marathon in Sacramento and it was an interesting experience! The Peace-Love-Run race series has been popular in Southern California I guess and this year they expanded to Sacramento, so it was a small scale race, much smaller than the Shamrock’n we ran less than two weeks ago with a couple hundred runners total for the 5k, 10k, and half marathon. Smaller races can be awesome with less competition for competitive runners, less parking hassle, etc. But this one is still working out the kinks!
Eight outhouses at the start is not enough for a couple hundred runners!
Luckily we got into the line early enough to make it to the start line in time, but the line behind us stretched all around the park! And there was no hand washing stations or seat covers, really gross since they weren’t clean inside – ick! After the race they were all completely out of toilet paper too!
Before the half marathon started, they had to give us an update on the course changes and areas we might be stopped by a train!
Luckily I wasn’t stopped by a train. But the directions were not enough because the first wave of runners including me ran right passed the u-turn we were supposed to make on the trails at mile 3 because the signs weren’t clear and a volunteer told us to keep running towards the u-turn loop. Turns out there wasn’t a loop and we were supposed to turn right at that sign! By the time I passed the mile 4 marker, my GPS was showing mile 5!
The course was odd too because we shared narrow bike trails with the 10k and 5k’ers in both directions for the first half. Since the half marathon runners started first, we were running back when all the costumed groups of 5k walkers were going the other direction and it became an obstacle course trying to dodge them and not fall into the river in some stretches!
The second part of the half marathon course was actually kind of cool, we crossed the bridge into West Sacramento and it became a trail run on the narrow river trails. But also a challenge since these narrow trails were both directions as the runners hung a u-turn and headed back, so passing was tricky!
Hubby came down with a fever and mild flu symptoms earlier this week and I was feeling a little hot and achy yesterday morning worried I was coming down with it and/or fighting it off, so I was tired and cranky for a lot of this race already feeling like my time was going to be horrible with the mile mix up and obstacles, but still so glad to cross the finish line!
Thankfully the race organizers adjusted the time for the first group of runners snared in the mile mix up and my time ended up being under 2 hours which is good, I’m happy with that. But the distance of the course was still odd, my total GPS distance was 13.67 miles with the mile 3 mix up and those who did not get burned by that around 12.8 miles instead of 13.1 as I compared GPS distances with other runners at the finish.
The post race party was kind of a bust too. The race info promised a vibrant scene of 60s music, food, and fun. But there was barely any music and the post race food was just bananas, bagels, and peanut butter. Not even any beer! But at least they finally had hand sanitizer after many complained about the lack of hand washing at the outhouses. We had a good laugh about this race walking back to the car, it was an interesting experience for sure! But the sparkly hippie VW Bug metal is a pretty awesome addition to my collection and I overcame some interesting conditions to get it which was worth it!
The rest of the day was pretty busy too with hubby still recovering, grocery shopping, and getting our new refrigerator delivered and swapping the contents to and from coolers – Crossfit Fridge Edition! So chilling today is a good thing!
My eats have been pretty good this week with more simple tempeh oil free stir fries.
This curry tempeh stir fry was especially good with sweet potato.
I layered the leftovers of that over a simple corn salad and topped with hummus dressing and nutritional yeast for lunch.
We had Thai tofu takeout Friday night since I had to run to Sacramento after work to pick up race packets and hubby was still not feeling 100%.
And I used this up out of the freezer for a simple vegan lunch – Amy’s microwave noodle dish.
I’m not a huge microwave meal fan, but we were using up freezer items and I needed something quick. For under 300 calories, it was actually pretty hearty and filling. Maybe a little saltier than I like.
For a post race dinner, I made a simple miso soup using Explore Asian Soybean Protein Spaghetti with cauliflower, carrots, and kale.
It’s been an interesting week, so here’s an interesting list!
There were some surprises in this list of 32 vegan celebrities.
We know a vegan diet is better for the environment, but these are impressive stats.
These 10 exercises can help with back pain.
This women made an impressive lifestyle transformation for her and her kids.
And this woman found a new passion with her improved health.
This updated guide is very helpful for finding vegan cosmetics.
How to make creamy vegan pasta sauces with beans.
All of these eyesight improving foods are plant based.
This quinoa lentil bowl sounds delicious.
I need to try this vegan runner’s playlist.
Weird race, but I find a lot of trail runs are like that. Kind of off the cuff and random, not a true distance haha. Makes them less pressure I feel. :-)
Very true, we were much more relaxed for this race just looking to have fun.
Sounds like an interesting experience, maybe not the ideal race. Sometimes chilling on holidays instead of the crazy fuss sounds great to me. Although e flu not so much!
True and an interesting memory for sure! Still overall a good experience and glad we participated and proved we could overcome those challenges, lol. Agreed on the flu, it got worse for poor hubby last night and sounds a lot like the flu I had in January which hopefully means I’m immune to it!
Oof, as someone who used to coordinate, plan and run walks/runs/bike events, I cringe at hearing about all of the logistical mess ups!
True, I felt bad for the volunteers and kept very patient because there are always bugs to work out on new events!
I ran a half that was so unorganized. They didn’t have enough volunteers show up so they only had three or four water stations for the entire race. So dangerous! I’m happy you finished with a good time. At least the scenery was pretty. :)
Wow, there were only about 4 water stations for this one too, thankfully I was carrying a handheld bottle! And there was just a stack of wrapped bottled water packs for finishers to help themselves too at the end that I had to track down from the finish. But true, it was nice scenery. :-)
Congrats on another half! Too bad it wasn’t as well organized but hopefully they’ll get it together soon. I’m thinking of running the Brooklyn half this year but I’m nervous about signing up.
Great links! Ooh, I need to try that playlist if I do sign up! I love that the actress is vegan.
You should sign up especially if there’s no pressure and you can run it for fun! It will make a fun memory and addition to your metal collection. :-)
Frozen noodles are usually a recipe for disaster, but Amy’s can truly do no wrong by me. I really like their Chinese Noodles with Veggies. It’s got an awesome cashew sauce that I want to slather all over everything.
Yum, I need to try that one next. Thanks!
I’ve been meaning to ask you, what running app do you use for tracking your run (and post screencaps of on your blog)? I’ve been using the free version of Map My Run and I am always up for getting a different app that might be better.
I’ve been using Runkeeper for about 6 years now and am pretty happy with it. It’s had off an on bugs with major updates, but overall has worked well with iOS. They recently added a shoe tracking feature that’s been great for knowing when to replace running shoes.