Southern Fried Sunday

So, I did this very dumb thing. A few months ago, some friends of mine were having a conversation on a social networking site (yes, facebook) about running a half marathon. At some point Panda dragged me into the conversation by suggesting that I join them and either run it with them or meet them at the finish line. When others jumped in saying that, yes, indeed I should meet them at the finish line, I got all challenge-y (it's a word if I say so, right?). I have a hard time walking away from a (perceived) challenge. It's a flaw that I have tried - and failed miserably - to remove from my personality. In other words, my reaction was "hey! If you can run it, I can run it! Meet you at the finish line, my ass! I'm running that thing!" and I promptly registered for it.

Obviously I was not thinking clearly at the time. But once I accept a challenge, well... I did attempt to train for the thing. I even borrowed the Slovak's dog on a near-daily basis to go for a run/walk for a couple of months. Being me though - read: lazy - I definitely did not train appropriately. The longest run I ever did (and by run I mean a run/walk combo because, duh!) was 8 miles. That's a full 5.1 miles short of a half marathon for those of you not aware of how terrible an idea this was. 

Anyway, Panda, the Irish One, our friend Geeves, and I found ourselves in Sacramento this past weekend all signed up and ready to go for this half marathon. None of us were adequately prepared, to be clear, although I'd argue that Panda is just generally prepared to run even if she disputes this. She's run several full marathons, an ultra marathon (50 miles!!!), and many half marathons. Hell, she's running another one this weekend! 

We all finished - I was the last of the group obviously! Here are a few pictures before the race when I was still fairly happy about life:

And just a few hours later, we were all slightly less excited, with the possible exception of the Irish One, since she's a freak!

Anyway, after that, we took the train back home and needless to say, I was not going to cook Sunday dinner so we had a guest chef! The boy half of the Parents/Hippies was our chef for the evening (the Boys helped out though). He's from Texas so he decided to do a southern fried Sunday dinner. We had chicken fried steak, bacon Brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, and a green chili cream sauce. Since I didn't make the food, I don't have recipes to share (I will ask him if I can share them and will post them later if he gives permission) but it was pretty freaking delicious!! 

I thoroughly enjoyed the boys taking over the kitchen. All I had to do was hang out and will my muscles into not being sore from the run. Here's what it looks like when three boys take over my kitchen:

There were only limited leftovers this time but we did have some. And they were pretty fantastic as well!