Happy Monday, friends! And it IS a happy Monday. For so many reasons–first and foremost, the beautiful weather! While the sun isnt out quite as vibrantly right now, it did wish me a good morning and managed to stick around for a nice, breezy, six-mile run! Thank you, Mister Sun, and thank you mother nature for toning it back a bit on the heat and humidity. This morning’s weather was absolutely perfect for running–not too hot, not too cold and a wee bit of wind now and then (just when you needed it)!
My RB wasn’t able to make it this morning, and while I missed the company, I was a-okay with that because it meant I could hit snooze a few more times before heading out to the bridle path and reservoir. Guess that extra hour really makes a difference because I definitely did not see the normal crowds of early a.m. runners. I went at a bit of a slow pace (not sure what that pace was because my watch is nearly broken and I’ve been leaving it at home lately) and took it easy. Given the nice weather I probably could have kicked things up a notch, but since my last few runs were in immense heat and humidity, I decided to enjoy the easy weather with an easy run. Besides…Hal had a “rest day” on the sched. for today and I still knocked out about 6 miles.
Why you may ask? Because I [as has been the case with me a lot lately], overindulged during my awesome weekend on Long Island/Fire Island. New York is a tricky city because there is always delicious food to be eaten and delicious drinks to be consumed. But with a half marathon fast approaching and a full marathon 8 weeks later…I need to work on tapering my indulgences. Hence the title of this post–gotta get a cap on that mischief for a bit!
Friday afternoon I hopped a train to Farmingdale where I met up with my pseudo-aunt (pseudo because she is actually my moms college roommate and close friend, but for as long as I’ve known her she has been [and always will be] Aunt Doreen). We ate at a great southwestern restaurant, where we chatted through two glasses of wine, great dinner specials and an amazing dessert that involved real thin mints and oreo crumbs. Highly recommended.
Afterwards we continued to chat back at Aunt Doreen’s but hit the hay early because we had a Fire Island ferry to catch the next morning! In anticipation of a quiet, laid-back afternoon on the beach, we decided on Sailor’s Haven–a part of FI that’s family friendly and considerably less crowded than other areas (especially when compared to weekend crowds at Jones beach).
There were no crowds as far as people are concerned…but sand flies were another story! After spending the first half of the morning/afternoon swatting at our own skin, jumping and squealing and trying every anti-sand fly tactic imaginable, we let them win. And Aunt Doreen said since the bugs were biting, and it was my first time at FI, the next best thing to do was let me get a real taste of the place…at Cherry Grove. So off we headed, just a mile stroll down the beach.
If you’ve never been to CG, you may want to enter it via ferry for the first time, and not via sand. Because even though I had been warned, I don’t think I was fully prepared for the number of naked people I saw, and their many piercings on their many private parts. I’ll leave it at that.
Since the sandflies were no better a mile down the beach (and well, we wouldn’t have really wanted to set up camp right there anyway), we decided to hunt down a late lunch…and perhaps a cool drink. And thank goodness we did!
We arrived at Island Breeze per the friendly suggestion of a FI regular we passed on the sidewalk and grabbed some seats at the bar. More friendly suggestions were made by our neighbors at the bar as we pondered what to order, and moments later we found ourselves sipping on refreshing Arnold Palmers…with a touch of Citrus Vodka. The perfect beverage for a hot beach day. Before we knew it, we were three AP’s and 2 shots deep (remember, how I don’t do shots? Thank you, too-nice bartender. Thank you for making me go back on my word) and best friends with the couple sitting beside us (who confessed after 5 drinks that they had thought Aunt Doreen and myself were a “cute couple” when we first saddled up to the bar, haha). We had an awesome afternoon sharing all kinds of stories from the sad and serious to hilarious and happy. Cheers to new friends at Cherry Grove!
Saturday night we were WIPED out from an afternoon of sun, sand, and beach bars and went to sleep early again. Which worked out well because I was up bright and early for a run Sunday morning. Running in Long Island can be super nice because every other house has a sprinkler going (makes for plenty of misting stations during hot summer runs) and it is very flat. Running in Long Island can also be super hard because it is very flat.
While I have been known to curse a hill or two, sometimes its nice to have a downhill to look forward to. Anywho, knocked out 5 miles (I had been aiming for 6 but my sweat-laden clothes were weighing me down too much), closing up week 2 of Marathon training with around 26 miles. Meh, I’ll take it.
After the sweltering run, Aunt Doreen whipped up some yummy waffles and we scooted over to Aunt Kathy’s house (no pseudo here!) to spend the rest of the afternoon swimming in her pool, eating delicious food and hanging with friends and family. Great way to end an great weekend!
*Want to know what else made it GREAT? My cousin got engaged 🙂 Congrats to you both, I’m so so happy for you!
JD gets a job, cousin’s getting hitched…good things come in threes right? Wonder what’s next…
What good newssss have you heard lately??
Marathon Winer 