the legs feed the wolf, gentlemen

A weekend full of accomplishments and adventures!

1) Baked a pumpkin pie from scratch

On Saturday, I woke up and decided I needed to make a pumpkin pie from scratch - using real pumpkins, a homemade crust, and a new recipe from 101 Cookbooks (recipe here). I went to the farmer's market at the Ferry Building and charmed a farmer into giving me a good deal on sugar pie pumpkins, bought a whole bunch of other goodies that now I'm frantically trying to figure out how to use before they go bad, and made it home by about noon. Here are my pumpkins pre-mutilation:

(Aren't they cute?)
I then chopped them up (giving my Shun knife a good workout - not that the pumpkins were any match for the knife!) and roasted them for about an hour, until the flesh was falling off from the skin.

Then I made the pie crust using Martha's pate brisee recipe, which was somewhat of an adventure because my baby cuisinart couldn't handle the whole recipe's ingredients, so I had to readjust halfway through, pour flour out of the cuisinart, and make two batches. Flour was all over the kitchen by the end of the process.

Then I made the filling, mashing/pureeing the pumpkin, adding the usual spice suspects, and coconut milk instead of the sweetened condensed I usually use. I also substituted almond extract for vanilla, which I think was a mistake, but certainly doesn't taste *bad*. Then I sent it into the oven for another 50 minutes...

And the pie came out beautifully! Needless to say it tastes great. I have some adjustments to make before the Thanksgiving round, but all in all it was quite a success (and the roommates have REALLY enjoyed it, so that always feels good!).



2) Ran a half marathon

Last night, Becca came up from Palo Alto, and we went out with some of the Tridelt girls who are living on the peninsula for thai food. The girls came to the city to celebrate Halloween; Molly, one of my roommates, helped do the PR for some huge party at the civic center that they were all going to. However, because of the race, Becca and I couldn't really celebrate halloween, so we figured going out for dinner would have to be celebration enough. After dinner, we headed home to watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall - probably the least festive Halloween movie choice, but it was really funny (I'll have to recommend it to Rob). We made it to bed by about 11:30, and set our alarms for a 6AM wakeup call.

Oh so early! (Before the race)



The race was stunningly beautiful - sunny, warm, and mostly clear. Going across the Golden Gate bridge was foggy for the first half (almost eerie - couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of me!), then opened out on the Marin side to the most beautiful, sunshine-y view of the Bay. I wish I could have taken pictures along the way.

While I knew I wanted to race strong, I didn't expect to beat my last year's time. Last year, we trained a lot more intensely, ran more miles more regularly, and even incorporated speed workouts - I ended up finishing in 2:12, running almost exactly 10 minute miles. Since I didn't have a watch this year, I paced myself based on how I was feeling, trying really hard not to go too fast in the beginning. I felt pretty good for miles 1-10, but halfway through mile 11, I got the worst stomach cramp of my life, and could barely walk to the water station. Water helped a lot though, and I was able to finish strong.

Here's the kicker though: I beat my last year's time by 10 minutes! My official finish time was 2:02:23. I ran an average of 9:22/mile, which I didn't honestly think I was capable of. Becca also did super well, finishing in 1:39, the same time as last year for her. We're really unsure why we did so well this year - I suspect spinning has made me stronger/quicker, but a lot of it was probably mental too. We knew we could finish, and that the quicker we ran, the quicker it would be over :) Overall, though, it was very enjoyable, and I felt SO accomplished.

Post-race:
(check out what a rat's nest my hair became!)





Afterwards, we went out to brunch with Raquel and Christian to an amazing spot called Olea, right next to my house. I treated myself to the challah french toast and ate the whole thing without feeling the least bit guilty.

Our new roommate moved in, and we now have FURNITURE and a TV!! It feels like a real home. I'll post pictures soon - but for now, I'm super, super tired, so it may be my bedtime. On to dream of new adventures...

Reading: Ender's Game, almost finished
Listening: the best of my Half Marathon Mix:
Invaders Must Die - Prodigy
The Reeling - Passion Pit
Armour Love - La Roux
Knights of Cydonia - Muse
Gimme Sympathy - Metric
Stillness Is The Move - Dirty Projectors