The Tortoise Must DIE

I did my 5th 5k today.   My time wasn't great, but when I came home and was going through prior times, I realized that  it was actually 3 minutes off of my best time, since the Walk for Air was not a full 5k.

Here are the results of the last 5 races:

• November 13, 2010 (53:45.2, 17:20/m)
  
• October 2, 2010 (51:57) (Note -- this race doesn't count. After the race all participants received a message stating that the race organizers messed up the course and it in fact was not a full 5k, which explains the really good time.)
  
• September 12, 2010 (57:44)
• July 3, 2010 (56:25:35)
• June 5, 2010 (1:03:20)

I was, as usual grateful to have my cheerleader and photographer along. It especially meant a lot to me today since he had to work today and could have chose to sleep in instead of schlepping out of bed at 5:30 to cheer me on before going to work. Without further ado, I give you the pictures. You can click on them to make them bigger:

It was a beautiful sunrise.

This is the statue of the guy whose name I can't recall with his pet pelican in Riverside Park in Sebastian where we started.

This is me, being goofy at the start of the race. I jogged part way, but quickly came to the horrifying realization that I would be finishing the race with black eyes and bruised knees if I kept jogging instead of walking. It is seriously time for a new sports bra. I need to hit Junonia before the next race.

This is a bird that flew over while David waited patiently for me to return. I also saw a pretty big herd of Sandhill Cranes fly over the race. Not sure where they were going or coming from. Perhaps they were just pointing and laughing at me!

This is me, nearing the finish line.

Me, crossing the finish line.  I'm always so grumpy at this part of the race. The little boy from Runner's Depot who is always so nice to me in the store was at the finish line cheering, and for no discernible reason I just wanted to smack him one. I think maybe they should start passing out pastries instead of water at the finish line, I think I'd have a sweeter disposition.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with my time. About midway through the race I realized I wasn't going to break into the 40's and was cursing the stupid tortoise; slow and steady does not win the race, FAST and steady wins, the tortoise only won cause the hare was an idiot (sadly, this is really what I was thinking about during the second half of the race.)  But then, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the only thing that would have sucked more than having a bad finish time would have been to not have tried at all.

A Taste of Tuesday

So, I was horrified on Saturday to find that my life has been a lie, and nothing is as it seems!

Growing up, my mom made insanely tasty beef stew with lots of turnip in it. I think it was the cold weather, but I had a hankering for beef stew and ran down to the fresh market with the intention of getting me some turnip! David said he didn't think he'd ever had turnip before, so I explained to him that it's basically a bowling ball covered with wax, but once you cut it and peel it, if you can avoid slicing off any appendages, it is very very yummy.

So, I'm walking around Fresh Market, and have these little wimpy whitish-purple thingies that they have labeled as "Turnip". I said to the produce boy, "Those aren't turnip, I'm looking for wax-covered bowling balls." And the little boy said to me, "Those ARE turnips, you are looking for RUTABAGAS, which we don't sell."

I said "No! I'm from up north, they are turnips and they..." but it was a lost cause, he insisted that the little whitish-purple thingies were turnip. So, I bought them. They were NOT the turnip that I had up north. I guess they had their positives:

• They were WAY easier to peel than the wax-covered bowling balls
• They starred in Gone With The Wind. To my knowledge, Rutabagas have never had a starring role in a movie. 

But on the negative side, they have a much mellower flavor, I prefer the more pungent taste of the wax-covered bowling balls.  But I digress. I did make the beef stew, and although it's not my mom's recipe, it came out really good. So without further ado, I give you:

Beef Stew

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Ingredients:

• Carrots
• Turnip or Rutabaga
• Onion (a vidalia if you can get it!)
• Stew Beef (I used 2 packages to up the protein amount)
• 1 can beef broth
• Ketchup (I used the organic stuff with no HFCS)
• Flour
• Spices (I used black, white, and red pepper but you can use whatever you like)

1) Mix about 1/2 to 1 cup flour and the spices in a flat dish. 

2) Roll the stew beef in the flour mixture, then stir fry till browned.

3)  Place the beef into a crock pot. 

4) Chop up the carrots, turnip/rutabega and onion, and put into the crock pot.

5) Pour in the beef broth. 

6) Turn on crock pot and cook for 6-8 hours. Cooking time and temp depends on your crock pot. I had mine on low for the first few hours, then turned it up to high for the last few.  Once the veggies cook down a bit, stir up the beef from the bottom so everything gets a chance at being in the warm cozy bottom of the pot. Do this a few times during cooking.

7) About 1/2 hour before you want to eat, mix some water, some flour or corn starch and some ketchup in either a gravy shaker or a blender till smooth.  I have no idea how much flour and ketchup I used, you will have to experiment. I used ketchup to taste, probably about 1/2-3/4 cup.

8) Pour the flour/ketchup/water mixture to crock put and stir until it thickens.

If you aren't dieting, serve with really good bread. If you are dieting, serve with really good bread and run a few extra miles.

Grace... I have none!

Someone at work sent around this amazing video today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp_RHnQ-jgU

And I'm thinking to myself, Bah! Anyone can do that. Then I remembered last week when the trainer showed me how to do a very simple exercise where you pull a cable forward with one arm and swing the opposite arm back. And how when I tried to do it on my own I got all tangled up and spazzy and couldn't remember how to move my arms at all, let alone how to move them in the manner in which she taught me 1 day prior to me trying it on my own.

Sigh. I guess ballerina is one more on the list of things I'm never gonna be when I grow up.