Saturday, April 16, 2011

I'm a faker

I'm not sure if it's been the intense cabin fever that this year's Chicago winter has brought or my obsession to use 'faux' whenever possible the last month but I have felt that I have been going through the motions of life and kind of faking everything I do. That is, until recently when the sun came out and the weather warmed up and saw many crocus blooming. My favorite part of the spring is seeing the first signs of color and life brought by crocus even when snow is still on the ground. This year was no exception.

Last night we went to Lou Malnati's for dinner. It was stemmed from my friend wanting to relive life back at a Pizza Hut in 1987. Booths to sit in and pizza with LOTS of grease. I have only had Lou Malnati's take out which I learned has only been a small fraction of a true experience of eating at Lou Malnati's. First off, this particular location attracts women who have been under the tanning lamps for far too many hours and too many years. Their hair is teased out a minimum of four inches from their heads. And they provide endless entertainment with their conversation for those outside of their 'elite' circle. (Paul B, I know that these are your people and please take no offense. They were all really nice.) In addition to the lovely ladies, the walls are lined with wood panels, booths to eat in, and have Bears paraphernalia from years past. To complete the experience the is carpet is a plaid green. It was fantastic. 

We ordered The 'Lou' for the veggies and The 'Malnati Chicago Classic' for the meat eaters. The 'Lou' was delicious but the 'Malnati Chicago Classic' was covered with a thick delicious looking tomato sauce and looked irresistible. Now under all that delicious sauce was sausage. I have been a semi-vegetarian going on 5 years. Semi because I LOVE brats and a baseball game just would not be complete without a brat. Thinking that if I could eat a brat I could definitely handle a little sausage. Let's just say, last night I found out that I am officially a vegetarian. No longer can I cheat with meat. I can no longer fake being a vegetarian.

Today was supposed to be a long training run hosted by the Wisconsin Marathon for those running the 1/2 and whole marathon at the beginning of May. The Y Running Club is training for the 1/2 and we were all supposed to meet up in Kenosha, WI bright and early at 7am which meant leaving home a  little after 5am. For various reasons everyone decided not to make the trek up except me. The weather forecast was crap, rain, 40 degrees with sustained winds of 15-25 mph with gusts up to 35. To run in that and sacrifice a morning of sleep is just not my thing. Another run clubber suggested we run in the afternoon, closer to home. We ran in the Forest Preserves which I had not been to since last fall. It was fantastic! The weather cooperated. A bit windy and just a sprinkling of rain. It felt like we kept a good consistent pace throughout even with little inclines and the wind being all over the place. After 2 hours and 5 minutes of running and 13 miles come and gone I wanted to keep going. On the drive home I realized I am no longer a runner who runs to get her workout over and done with, but a runner who truly enjoys running. No longer can I say I'm a faux runner but I'm a runner.  

One thing I do not fake is being a procrastinator. I spent a good amount of time this afternoon looking at all these pretty pictures.

P.S. Do you think that now that I'm a vegetarian runner that I can get two beers at the end of the WI half instead of a beer and brat?