2 Races, 1 Weekend

April 29, 2014April 27, 2014 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 5 Comments

Phew, we’re back from a pretty busy/nonstop weekend. The past few days have included some good meals, some art, a comedy show, and two races (including one PR!). Here are some picture to give you an idea:

Our weekend “started” on Thursday with a night at the Cleveland Art Museum with B’s work. We were treated to a peek at their Van Gogh exhibit, appetizers, and drinks in the gorgeous Atrium.

Checking out the pretty awesome Van Gough exhibit at the Cleveland Art museum

Friday night included another Flaming Ice Cube meal AND another comedy show, this time we saw a “Mom-ic” (mom-comic) who was a lot funnier than I expected.

Saturday morning was an early one – we started with the Cleveland 10 Miler!

B and I post Saturday’s 10 mile race. Feeling good! (and there’s a photobomber!)

Oh yeah, and B and I PRed in our Cleveland 10 miler time. It wasn’t our best pace ever (it wasn’t our half-marathon pace) but apparently the past few times we’ve done the 10 miler we were a lot slower. Check out the difference:

Past years:

Past few years’ times

This year my finish time: 1:31:43. Yes, that’s more than a 10 minute PR.

post-run yumyums – my favorite salad at Rothschild Farms

That was just race #1 of the weekend. Saturday evening we headed down to Columbus and Sunday morning included Race #2: a 5k in Columbus to participate in a race B’s aunt was organizing that supported the local autism society.

the whole group of us at the race

Autism awareness 5k – me and my “cousin-in-law” Steph – check out her cool socks!

B’s aunt took this photo of me crossing the finish – I took First Female!

after the race we enjoyed a nice light meal. KIDDING. My brunch was pretty delicious! That may or may not be Irish coffee in the background …

That’s about it! How was your weekend? Some questions for you:

Have you run 2 races in one weekend? First time ever! And it wasn’t sooooo bad (though I may be in pain today …)
Favorite brunch food? I prefer eggs (over easy or sunny side up) to sweet breakfast items like pancakes or french toast.
Favorite post-run food? I typically crave salads with tons of toppings and of course a hunk of bread. But eggs are nice too 🙂
Last art exhibit you went to?
May is THIS WEEK! What’s something fun you’re doing? Running the Cleveland half marathon; seeing my brother graduate; seeing my family in NY AND in Cleveland … so much fun stuff going on!

B’s Weekend

November 18, 2013November 17, 2013 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 4 Comments

I’ll be the first to admit it – I haven’t been the nicest person lately. I’ve been stressed, busy, not getting as much sleep as I need, and all that makes for a not-so-nice Melissa. And B has been great through it all. When I have a few moments, he’s more than willing to watch whatever I want on TV – even if it’s my new favorite series Call the Midwife – make me breakfast AND dinner and even buy me flowers just because. So Thursday night I declared that this would be B’s weekend. We would do whatever he wanted to do, starting Friday night.

It may not have been my idea of a perfect weekend – but don’t tell B, I still had a pretty good time.

Here’s what we did:

Friday started with Happy Hour after work at Moriarty’s. After consuming a few Christmas Ales, it was decided that we’d go to our favorite BYOB sushi place (yes, Sushi 86 again). Post-sushi? Stopping by Parnell’s for the perfectly poured Guinness. Not too shabby right?

My standard – rainbow roll and mackerel sashimi

LOVE THIS PLACE

THE perfect pour

Saturday started early – B’s alarm went off and he declared we’d be running the St. Luke Church Pilgrim Run 5K, a race his aunt, uncle and cousins were running. Normally I’m all for the occasional Saturday morning 5k race. Especially with sunny, 50 degree weather, as it somehow was this Saturday. Plus, the race was in one of my old favorite neighborhoods and the course was on a street lined with beautiful still colorful fall trees. But after a few Friday evening drinks, my body did not want to get out of bed. Or run. College Melissa – I am not. But – as I had said, it was B’s weekend. So off to the race we went, the last two to register that day and the last two to arrive to the starting line just as it was getting started. Guess I’m glad we went – I somehow placed First Overall Female and B took home the award for Second Male in his age group! Oh yeah, his uncle and cousins (did I mention that they’re under ten years old??) also took home awards. Not too bad 🙂
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The race was followed by a trip to the West Side Market to pick up some food for the week and then Gallucci’s for wine and supplies for dinner – pizza, B’s favorite.

West Side Market – making shopping fun!

Gallucci’s!

After making sauce and pizza, it was time to head out to B’s choice of Saturday evening entertainment – checking out the Cleveland Comedy Festival, including the headliner, Todd Barry. B listens to his podcast and had heard he was in town – just down the street from where we live, so it was easy to walk over, get tickets, and enjoy the show.

homemade sauce

Pizza! Crust from Fresh Fork, Cheese from Gallucci’s, Chicken Sausage from West Side Market

And an after-show drink at the District. How pretty is this pear martini? It was delicious, too! We’ll have to go back another time.
cleveland-comedy-festival

We often spend Sundays cleaning, and this weekend was no different. The day started with espresso beverages (mocha for B, latte for me) and doughnuts, followed by cleaning our bathrooms and kitchen. B could probably tell I was antsy to told me that he’d handle most of the cleaning if I wanted to enjoy the 60 degree weather and go for a run. Of course I did! I ended up staying indoors but was still grateful and happy to get in a run.

Post-run, B and I went to Winks to watch the Browns game with Dave and Anson who are both from greater Cincinnati. Sadly, it was NOT a good game for us Browns fans. Ahh well. Maybe next week? Thus is the life of a Browns fan.

How were your weekends? Some questions for you:

Did you run any races this weekend?
What is your idea of the perfect weekend? Mine would probably include some sunshine/sunbathing, some froyo, some sushi, some baking, some running, shopping and perhaps sleeping in. Oh, and maybe some bubbly just because.
What was the best thing you ate this weekend? Hmm, it’s a toss up – either my Friday night sushi or the homemade sauce we had Saturday night. Or the apple fritter at the West Side Market.

Weekend Update: A Relaxing But Active Week in the CLE

August 4, 2013August 4, 2013 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 7 Comments

While my parents and brother are out gallivanting in Paris on vacation (it’s okay, you can feel sorry that they left me behind), I’ve been spending my days working and running. Yup, it was a pretty average week with a few late nights and a few short runs (I’m still only on like week three of my half marathon training schedule). But when Friday night came, I was super pooped and looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Which we had. Here’s just some of the awesomeness that went down this weekend.

B and I hung out at on the Mall in Cleveland. I still can’t believe when people say they don’t like downtown because there are no green areas. What’s this?

mall2

More view of the Mall. What a gorgeous day, huh?
thenewmall

B and I went for a run. Well, first I went for a run with Kelsey and Cari – we did a slow 6 miler (it was Cari’s first 6 miler!! woowoo!!). But my Nike+ stopped working – so nobody will ever know 😦

But then that afternoon B went for a 5k, so I decided to join him. Check out our split times – I can’t believe it, those are my fastest times ever! run

We played catch. Yup, I put on a softball glove and tried to catch some softballs. “Tried” is the key word. playing catch

Then we put down the softballs for some golf balls and hit the driving range. I’m not much better at golf. I think I’ll stick to running! 20130803_170944