Rants, Recipes, and Running

Wednesday I "celebrated" my birthday. Let's just rephrase that, and say I turned 25. I worked on my birthday. I should've known it was going to be brutal. I tend to be the "black cloud" of my ER -- and sure enough, it was a "black cloud" kind of day. It was a wild and crazy day -- but I am thankful that my job never leaves me feeling bored! I was very blessed with love that day, however. My husband even sent me a present (which he probably had to set up before he leave for officer school)-- I got a brand new GPS watch. And it has more bells and whistles than I know what to do with! My coworkers gave me the sweetest card, and a fruit tart (they knew the health nut in me wouldn't get excited about a cake). I left work and went out for drinks and appetizers with 3 of my dearest girlfriends. The night was filled with laughter that left me with sore cheeks from the smiles. It was bittersweet, as all I really wanted was a birthday hug from my hus...

Run, Drive, Sleep, Repeat. As I reflect on the last weeks race, I am feeling inspired from running my first Ragnar relay. “What exactly is Ragnar?,” I have been asked many times over the past few weeks. In fact, I was asking myself that many times too. The website is somewhat vague. You sign up, pay, and attempt to train for a race that pretty much tells you “200 miles, 12 runners, 3 legs”. The rest is left to your imagination. It all started Friday morning. Alarms went off at 4 am – and the first van was off to the start line. We drove 1 hour from out hotel out into the desert to a random town called Wickenburg, AZ. The closer we got to the race start, the colder the temperatures dropped. I knew I was headed for high elevation. I was the team’s first runner with an 8.5 mile run. The starting line was crowded with hundreds of creatively decorated vans, some people in costumes, some elitists ready to sprint their 202 mile relay!  I slapped on the “paton bracelet”, ...