Birthday Weekend Fun

  On June 1, I turned 28. EEK! I can't believe it! Sometimes, I wish I could return to being 23 and push pause for a while, but time keeps just marching on. My birthday fell on a Friday and I didn't have to work (bonus!) and met up with Kelly and Allison at one of our favorite places, Verde, for dinner and drinks! My sweet friend, Erin, couldn't make it as she was out of town, but on Thursday, she brought me over two delicious cupcakes from Cami Cakes. One was red velvet and the other was chocolate peanut butter--talk about delicious!!

  We went home and tried to rest up for the 5K on Saturday morning. I ran the Virginia Highlands Summerfest 5K with Kathryn and Danielle, who will be running the Peachtree with me come July 4. Maybe I am just nit-picking or may be just spoiled, but as nice as this run was, I was pretty irritated with it. Thankfully, they set a limit of the number of runners allowed because the start was quite packed and hectic. I swear, it felt like the Peachtree because you basically couldn't run at all during the beginning of the race. Now I might look like a crazy woman, but I have started carrying my own water bottle with me as I race (security blanket, perhaps?) because I just don't trust the races to have enough water since we ran the Stache Dash. The major issue that I had with this race is that at this point, I am not a good enough runner to know what my average mile is so I can't really judge how long I have been running and when I need to speed up or how close I am getting to the end. Therefore, it is pretty imperative that the courses I run have mile markers.

Anybody still reading through my rant? Look! Corgis on the Google header on my birthday!!

   Well, this run was marked at the first mile and that was it. We ended up running a big circle back past the start line where a guy yelled out "only 1 kilometer left", but that didn't quite help me at that point. I did improve my time slightly and could have given a lot more which really angered me because I was able to sprint at the end, but I didn't hit the 32 minute mark. Bummer. I ended up at 33:30, but was okay with it since I had filled up on Verde with some margaritas the night before. :) I don't know if this whole not marking the course is normal for 5K's or not. Perhaps they aren't marked because they are only 3 miles? I have no idea, but I really would like them to be marked so I have some sort of idea how much further I have to go and when I need to push myself. Overall though, I do think I would run it again because it was at 8am and was a pretty course running through the neighborhoods in the Highlands. Of course, mile 2 was all hills, but I swear it wasn't as bad as the Bolt! Plus, the t-shirt was pretty cute. Next up is the Peachtree on July 4th. I've got to get in some running before then, but my ankle's been bothering me again. I might try to switch shoes this weekend or try different stretches. We shall see!

  Later that night, we tried out a new (to us) restaurant called Cafe Circa. It helps that we had a ScoutMob, but seriously, the food was a-mazing!!! I will definitely be going back! I ordered the shrimp and grits which were extremely creamy and well seasoned with sauteed bell peppers and onions. Yum! Kat and Danielle had the salmon with a black bean and plantain cake while Dave had the braised ox tails. We also had some plantains as an appetizer and then had the most delicious sweet potato fries that were lightly battered with tempura and dusted with sea salt. I mean, they were to die for. I probably could have devoured another serving of them by myself! Cafe Circa also has a cigar shop with a rooftop deck so the cigar smokers can go upstairs to "The Reserve" and enjoy their purchases. We went upstairs after dinner and it had a lounge-y feel to it with couches around the perimeter of the rooftop and high boys in the middle. We ordered another drink (spicy margaritas--yes, please!) and enjoyed the comfortable evening at the bar before heading out to Ri-Ra where Allison met us and we danced through the night. What a fun evening with such wonderful people who helped make my weekend special!!