Absolutely Off Topic - Macarons

Yes, this is a running blog that I've been sadly neglecting.  Yes, I'm still running (more about that in another post).  Yes, this is a wildly off topic post.  BUT, it's also full on awesomesauce because, loyal readers, I'm going to share with you the secrets of macarons.  Not coconut macaroons, but French macarons, the stuff of daydreams and indulgence.  These babies usually sell for about $2 a cookie, so it pays to be able to make your own.  And people are ridiculously impressed with them.  Take a plate to your next pot luck and people will seriously worship you for the pastry goddess/god you know you'd love to be.  So, enjoy the fabulousness of macarons.  And then go run a few miles because they aren't low fat or paleo or anything other than purely and indulgently fabulous (they are, however, gluten free, so, you're welcome!).

Macarons

(Makes 18-24 assembled cookies, depending on size)

For the cookies:

1 ½  C (6oz/185g) confectioner’s sugar

1 ¼  C (5oz/140g) blanched almonds or almond flour

3 large egg whites

Pinch salt

¼ C (2oz/60g) granulated sugar

½ tsp flavored extract of your choice

Gel paste for coloring (optional – Wilton’s cake dye works well)

Sanding sugar (optional)

For the filling:

1 C (8oz/250g) unsalted butter, at room temp

¾ C (3oz/93g) confectioner’s sugar

1 ½ tsp extract of your choice

Tools needed:

·         Pastry bag with ½-inch round tip (or, you can cut the end off of a disposable pastry bag, which works just as well, or just don’t use a tip with a reusable bag, since the opening is about the right size.  In a pinch you can cut the corner off a zip lock freezer bag, but you won’t have quite as much control over the size of the cookies and they might not be perfectly round)

·         Baking parchment (this is key, it’s a big pain in the butt to make these without parchment)

·         Electric mixer (you can whip the meringue with a manual egg beater, but you may die in the process)

·         Food processor (you need this if you don’t buy ground almond meal (and if you do get the ground stuff, splurge on Bob’s Red Mill from Whole Foods, the Trader Joe’s almond meal is too coarse and doesn’t give as good of results)

·         Sifter or sieve  (absolutely key – I use a sieve and it works fine)

A note about macarons

Macarons have a reputation for being kind of fiddly and difficult to make.  There’s a lot of myth around them, and a lot of mysticism, none of which I knew when I decided to make them.  With a few exceptions (when I got a little too creative with the recipe), they’ve always turned out well for me.  If you want to read more about macarons, www.bravetart.com has a wonderful bunch of entries about macaron commandments and myths.  I haven’t actually had as much success with her recipe as I have with the one here, but her technique suggestions have been invaluable.  I’ve included weights as well as volume measurements since weighing is the best way to get really consistent results.  The biggest thing about macarons is that even if they come out cracked or undercooked, they still taste pretty fabulous, so don’t let fear of messing them up stop you from making them!

 For the cookies (oven at 325F)

1.       If you’re grinding your own almonds, put the almonds and confectioner’s sugar in a food processer and process for 1 minute.  If you’re using ground almonds, just wisk them together with the confectioner’s sugar.  Sift into a bowl, and if you have any large pieces that won’t go through the sieve, put them back in the food processor for another 30 seconds, then sift again.  You should have no more than 2 Tbsp of chunkier bits, and you can just throw them in (too many chunky bits, and your macarons will crack, since they’ll be like little pieces of shrapnel).

2.       In a clean large bowl on medium high speed, beat the egg whites until they form a dense foam (myth has it that you should use room temperature egg whites that have been left out for a few days – totally unnecessary, though room temp eggs do separate more easily.  And remember, if you get yolk or other grease in the egg whites, they won’t make meringue, so separate them carefully).  Add the salt and granulated sugar.  Beat until stiff, glossy peaks form, 3-4 minutes.  Add the extract flavoring of your choice and the food coloring and beat until combined.

3.       Using a rubber spatula, fold the flour mixture into the meringue in three batches.  You want to deflate the meringue a bit, so you fold and kind of press against the side of the bowl.  Undermixed macaronage will be too stiff and won’t spread properly, and will probably crack, overmixed will spread too much.  The consistency should be like magma – fluid, but no runny.  If you take a spoonful out and plop it back on top of the batter, it should reincorporate back in in maybe 30 seconds.  If it just sits on top, mix a few more strokes and try again (the bravetart blog has some good advice on this).

4.       Cut 3-4 pieces of baking parchment the size of your cookie sheets.  Using a pastry bag, pipe the macaronage into 1 ½ inch circles about an inch apart (if you’re afraid they’ll all be different sizes, you can use a stencil to draw circles on the parchment, then flip it over so you don’t get ink or pencil on your cookies and fill them in, stopping right before the margins of the circle, since the cookies will spread a little).  If your little circles don’t flatten out and have a little peak, like a Hershey’s kiss, your macaronage isn’t mixed enough.  If you want, you can sprinkle sanding sugar on top at this point.  Strictly speaking, this isn’t traditional, but it can hide cracks if you’re worried about that, and give a little extra crunch (my mom is a fan of this –s he was pretty bummed I didn’t put sugar on top of these ones).

5.       At this point, slide your cookie sheets under the parchment and smack the cookies sheet, cookies and all, hard on the counter a couple of times.  Turn the cookie sheet 90 degrees and smack it a couple more times on the counter.  This moves the air bubbles out of the cookies and helps keep them from cracking.  Traditionally, you’re supposed to let the cookies sit for an hour to form a skin on top, to further protect against cracking, but I’ve found this to be pretty unnecessary, so go ahead and pop that first sheet in if you’re so inclined (you won’t hurt them by waiting, but you don’t have to).

6.       Bake for 12-15 minutes, depending on your oven.  Overcooked is better than undercooked if you have to make a choice.  They should peel fairly easily off the parchment when cooled, so if they stick and the bottoms come off, make a note and try cooking a minute longer next time (I cook mine for 15 minutes, and the smaller ones pull off leaving nothing behind at that cooking time).  If you can, cool completely before taking them off the parchment, and you can use a small metal spatula if you want (though it’s not usually necessary).  I get the best results cooking one sheet at a time on the middle rack.  If your cookies are sticking to the parchment paper, I found it helpful to pick up the cookie and then “flick” the parchment with your index finger, which helps remove it quickly without leaving a lot of cookie behind.

 For the filling and assembly:

1.       Beat confectioner’s sugar and butter in a large bowl on medium speed until just combined, then increase speed to high and beat until light and fluffy.   Add the extract of your choice and food coloring (if desired) and beat until combined.

2.       Using a small rubber spatula or spoon, spread the filling on upturned cookie.  Find another that’s about the same size and sandwich them together.  My husband thinks I should match them all up in advance, since invariably I end up with one very small half and one very large one at the end (which I think is fine, since I just eat that one).  This recipe makes a bit more buttercream that you need (usually) so don’t feel like you have to be stingy with it.

3.       The finished macarons should be stored in the fridge in an air tight container for about 24 hours before you serve them.  Get them out an hour or two before you want to serve them to let the buttercream warm up a bit.  These are noticeably better the second day, so it pays to plan ahead.  You can store these in an air tight container in the freezer for a couple of months, just be sure to thaw in the container, since they’ll get soggy otherwise.

Post Columbus injury whining

I mentioned in my race report that at the end of the race my Achilles tendon was bothering me, which I thought was odd because it had never bothered me at all during training.  Turns out it continued to bother me and I have been unable to run pretty much since the marathon.  I tried a spinning class, but that still bothered it, so I was reduced to the elliptical.  The only redeeming thing about the elliptical is that the sound on the built in tv's at the gym actually works, so I don't have to lip read like I do on the treadmill.  Still, I was not thrilled being a hamster on a wheel, and I started slacking off.  Then I came down with some nasty strep-like virus that put me on the couch for 5 days.  I *finally* got out today, on what the radio keeps saying is literally the last good day of the year.  I loaded my youngest into the jogging stroller and managed to get in 4.6 miles AND a shower before I had to go get his big brother from preschool.

The run went well, but towards the end, I was definitely aware of the Achilles.  It was nowhere near pain, but I was aware of it.  Does that make sense?  I'm kind of unsure of what I should do in this situation.  I'm dying to get back to running, it's been really hard not being able to run the past few weeks, but I obviously don't want to do anything to make things worse.  I may just keep the runs to 5 miles for a while and back off if the Achilles acts up again.  Clearly, it's gotten MUCH better, I just wish I knew how long it would take to heal up, or what exactly I should do.  Grrr... silly body!

But given that I felt fine for the first 3 miles, I think I'm definitely clear to do the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving with Oliver, who is *REALLY* excited about doing another 5k.  Given how fast he finished the last one, I think I'm going to try to get him to run even more this time, and see if we can finish in closer to 33 minutes.  I don't think he understands that he's going to have to get A LOT faster if he wants to win his age group, but at this point, I just want to get him out there.

Columbus Marathon Done!

I've had a few conversations recently with people online about runner elitism and this tendency that we seem to have as women to kind of cut ourselves down before anyone else can, and couch it in funny self-deprecation.  Lululemon apparently recently did a waterbottle that says "I run because I can" and in tiny print underneath says "but I really jog", which kind of annoys me because if you're out there with two feet off the ground at some point during your stride, you are RUNNING, no matter your speed.  So in the spirit of encouraging other women to not engage in this nasty habit of belittling our own accomplishments, you will see no apologies here for my finish time.  Lots of people finished before me, but lots of people finished after me, and a whole hell of a lot more people didn't run at all that day.  My accomplishment is in no way belittled by the accomplishments of others, and in the spirit of that, I'm damn proud of myself.  I'll give away the ending and say that I missed a PR by a couple of minutes, but there are many things about the way I ran this race that I'm proud of.  I'm sore as hell, but damn it, I did a good job.

A pre-race thumbs up.  Note the "why the hell am I doing this?" look on my face.

That said, I still woke up the morning of the race in a state of some anxiety, though admittedly less than I usually feel before a big race like this.  I think knowing that I had the hubby to share the misery with me helped a great deal.  Our hotel was mere blocks from the starting line so we were able to just walk out the door at 7am for a 7:30 start.

Checking the Garmin and freezing my butt off.

They had a pre-race photographer, which was cool.

Walking to these things is always pretty cool, lots of people out on the streets, lots overheard conversations (according to one that I heard, Gatorade does indeed go bad, so be warned there).  Haakan calmed me down during my mini freak out at the start and we were off and over the start line less than 10 minutes after the gun.  The first maybe 4 miles were a straight shot down a wide street, which, coming from Pittsburgh where it's all hills and curves, was pretty cool.  It was a pretty perfect day for a race, fairly cool, low humidity, but windier than I would have liked.

Having the hubby running with me was full on awesome.  If you ever get the chance to run with someone who is willing to carry your water and refill the bottles at aid stations, then catch up to you, do it.  He says as the race went on it got harder for him to catch up to me as he got more tired, but I think he liked the chance to go a bit faster.  The crowd support through a lot of the residential neighborhoods we ran through was really great.  We went through one very nice neighborhood that's on the register of historic places (Old Town, maybe?) where there was some kind of awesome house party going on.  There were like 20 people on the porch and in front of this house and they set up the most awesome cheer as we went past.  I kind of wished I'd been at that party, the food looked good.  And another neighborhood (German Town?  German Village?) smelled like cinnamon.  Mmmmm...  It was neat to see all these very nice neighborhoods so close to downtown, since the geography makes that largely impossible in Pittsburgh (and a history of bad civic planning, but we won't go into that).

It was around mile 10 that my stomach started to bother me and I just felt inexplicably tired.  I had to stop for a walk break, but I'm super proud that I hadn't stopped at all to that point, even at the water stops.  I'm not sure if it was the gels or the Gatorade, probably a combo of the two, but my doubts started to creep in and I had a hard time getting going again.  We were well ahead of pace at this point and doing well, so I sucked it up and soldiered on.

I look tired, but I don't think this was all that far into the race.

The hubby called my mom when we were about a mile from where they'd be able to see us pass (just a block from the hotel - good thing I didn't know that, I would have been tempted to just stop and go take a nap).  They were going to see us before the half marathoners split from the full marathoners and I was getting nervous we'd missed them somehow when the hubby spotted them.  "I'm going to cry when I see them" I'd warned him, and I had to fight really hard to not start bawling when I saw them.

"I'll see you soon, I've got to keep running!" I told them.

I fought back the tears and we kept on going.  "Wanna just do the half?" I asked the hubby, only half joking.  He ignored me and we passed the point of no return and ran through a very cute neighborhood (Short North?  Short something, at any rate) and saw the girls from the lululemon store, who cheered us on enthusiastically, as well they should since we were both decked out in their product.  There were more walking breaks here, my stomach just didn't feel good and I was tired.  Still, the miles were going ok and we weren't totally off track yet.

Around mile 17 or so we got to the Ohio State campus, which was kind of cool, but totally deserted.  Where were all the students?  I know a bunch of them were probably running, but seriously, it was past 10am when we ran through, at least a few could have mustered it up to come out and cheer.  My dad's an OSU alum so we had to snap a picture.

See me leaning on the sign?  That's because I was exhausted!

I think I heard "Hang on Sloopy" about 20 times during the course of the race, and one of the best parts was all the music.  This race had more music than the RnR marathon I did as my first in Phoenix.  There were DJ's everywhere and live bands, it was really nice.  Once we got through OSU, we were in Upper Arlington and had been told the last 10k would be pretty much down hill.  It was, thank goodness.  I had my slowest mile splits here, but I also had some of my fastest.  It was also at this point that my Achilles tendon started to really bother me, something that I'd never had an issue with before.  My quads started to feel it, too, but it was really the Achilles that was bothersome.  The last 10k seemed extremely long, but parts of it were very nice.  I think the hubby slapped the hand of every child who held it out, and when we heard a musician playing "Dance with Me", I did a little twirl with the hubby as we ran past.  He also mustered up some slow motion running to the Chariots of Fire theme song, and I had enough left in me to do some fake knocking on the door during a live rendition of "Love Shack".  With a mile left to go the hubby told me to go on ahead and run while he filled up the water bottles, and maybe he'd just see me at the finish if he couldn't catch up.  I cursed him a bit because I really didn't want to run anymore, but it was just a mile left so we really had to do it.  He was hurting by this point, too, as this was by far the longest amount of time he'd ever been on his feet running a marathon (he's usually done well before the 4 hour mark).

I think this is the final turn before the finish.

The single best thing about the Columbus Marathon is the downhill finish.  The last .2 or so is fully downhill, so you really can finish strong.  The announcer called out my name as I crossed the finish time, and though I have to get it straightened out because my chip malfunctioned, the final time was 4:54:09.  Not a PR, but still under 5 hours.  And, very cool, the results website tells me that in the last 6.2 miles, I passed 167 runners, and was passed by 15.  Personally, I think that ratio is awesome.  I can't tell you how much I LOVE the fact that we were passing a heck of a lot more people than were passing us during what was easily the hardest part of the race.  I would love for more races to include this statistic.

Gonna airbrush that clock...

I battled some of the same issues I'd had in Pittsburgh, most notably that the race happened on the day my monthly "friend" came to visit.  All my male readers just went "yuck", but I'm a girl, I have girl issues, and this is significant as the time before my period leaves me feeling very sluggish.  It is a far from ideal time to run a race, so I'm just proud of myself that I got it done.  I'm also very proud of the 10 miles of even paced running that I did, with no breaks at all, though I truly felt like I couldn't have pulled out a much faster pace, even for a shorter distance.  Doing this same race under the same conditions at a different time in my cycle might easily mean cutting 10 minutes off my finish time, but I'll never know that for sure. The lack of speedwork during my training probably hurt me, too, since my body didn't know what to do with the lactic acid when it started to build up, and that probably contributed to my upset stomach. I've learned even more about how to train for the next one, but I think I may take a racing break for a while, while I work on some strategy for how to get faster.  I say that now, talk to me in a week when I'm not so sore!

Done!  Looks a lot like the pre-race photo, but sweatier.

Night before the Columbus marathon

**This was supposed to post yesterday, but for some reason it didn't upload from my phone**

I've noticed that I feel really emotional before big races like this.  In some ways the specter of my first marathon in Phoenix in 2009 still haunts me, it was such a horrendous experience.  Pittsburgh went much better, but still was far from perfect and I under performed it, I feel.  So now there's more riding on this.  This is the race I was supposed to do last year, then bailed on after a miserable summer of training and disappointing races.  My training has been beautiful, there's no real reason for me to not meet my goals.  But I find myself putting all this pressure on myself, all this heaps upon heaps of anxiety, and find myself just wanting to crawl under the covers and ignore the clock that's ticking down to start time tomorrow morning.  I get too much into my head with these races and I need to remember that tomorrow morning, I'm going to run the best race I can for the day I'm given.

The day wasn't all spent in an anxiety induced state of hysteria.  The kids had great fun at the kids races, and I bought these beauties at the expo.  The only thing that could make me happier is if they were stability shoes (they're not, so they'll just be for short distances, and looking super cute).

Oliver's first 5k!

My 6 year old, Oliver, has been asking for a while if he could do a race with me and his dad.  He'd done a mile here and a mile there with us, but nothing major.  So when we had a weekend with back to back 5k's right in our neighborhood, I decided that maybe we could give one of them a shot.  He *REALLY* wanted to do the Zoozilla 5k, which runs up the giant hill that cuts the zoo in half, then goes back down through the zoo, but having done that race and knowing that Oliver's kind of a wimp (he gets that from me, unfortunately), we decided to try for the Shadyside 5k instead.  It's a much flatter race and there are usually a lot of kids doing it, so I thought it was a good first race for him, just to see how it goes.

The race started at 8am so I got him up a bit before 7am, we got dressed, and out we went.  Unfortunately, my plan to park in the public lot right behind the start line was foiled by the roads being closed (doh!), which wasn't an issue last year because I got there super early.  So we had to park like half a mile away and I made the poor kid run/walk with me to the start, because we still had to register.  We managed to register and get our chips on our shoes, but I was still pinning my number to my shirt when the gun went off.  At this point Oliver starts to have a full on freak out, thinking we're going to miss the race, but I managed to talk him down and we started off.

We ran down Walnut Street to Aiken, and then down onto Ellsworth, and Oliver was doing great.  About a half a mile in he started to get very annoyed that I hadn't brought water for him, and we managed to *almost* get run over by the leaders because we were on the wrong side of the cones when I had to stop to tie his shoe. At one point he said, "Are we winning?" and I had to point out ALL the people ahead of us, including the super fast guys who had almost run us over.  When he would ask to walk, I would tell him we could walk when we passed some landmark in the distance, and he was a pretty good sport about it (better than I am when Haakan does that to me when he paces me - there's usually cursing involved when I get told "just run to that lamp post up there").  Around the halfway point I reminded him that there were pancakes at the end and his face lit up and he took up for a while.  He loved the crowds and was high five-ing everyone, and the runners who were around us were very encouraging to him.

When we got to the final stretch up Walnut Street, I told Oliver it was time to sprint, and holy cow, I don't think I could have kept up with him if I'd tried.  Given the burst of turbo speed at the end, I definitely don't think we needed all those walk breaks.  Final time was 38:41 and he couldn't have been prouder.  Unfortunately, they didn't get his name recorded for the results, just his number, but he wasn't in medal contention, anyway (some of those kids were really speedy!).

It's really an amazing thing to be able to share something like this with one of my kids.  At his age, there's no way I could have run a 5k, and maybe if I had been more into sport and such, I wouldn't have had to find my healthy habits as an adult.  And really, one of the biggest reasons I started running was so that I could set a good example for my kids.  I always thought it wasn't as big of a deal for boys, since they're just kind of expected to be good at sports and such, but it's really just as important to be a role model.  With Oliver, he gets obsessed with winning and will become frustrated and decide he doesn't want to do something if he can't win.  I think me going out and doing races and not winning is a good thing for him to see, and an even better thing for him to experience.  At the end of the day, we're all competing against our best selves, on so many levels.  It's not about accolades from other people or getting a medal, because really only a small number are going to get that.  It's about putting forth your best and each time, trying to surpass it, because it gives *YOU* joy.  If that's a lesson he can start to learn early, I don't think it will ever serve him ill.

Great Race number 4!

Oh the Great Race.  Such a perfectly named race, it's just so much fun.  This was my 4th time doing the 10k and I never fail to be simultaneously tickled and annoyed doing such a big race.  This year there were 14,500 people in the sold-out race, doing both the 5k and the 10k.  I'll go on record saying that I think the Great Race 5k is probably a pretty crappy race, since about half of it is running UP the Blvd of the Allies, but I've never done it so I couldn't say for sure.  The 10k, however, is just plain nice.  I think I've had four blog posts now waxing rhapsodic about the Great Race, but it bears repeating.  If you're in the Pittsburgh area, I think this is a race worth doing, and not just for the Eat'n Park smiley cookies at the end.

We gave my neighbor Val and my frequent running partner Stephanie a ride to the start and had a nice time milling around in the giant crowd at the start.  The Hubby ditched us to head up to the front after we stood in a super ridiculously long porta potty line, and after trying unsuccessfully to find my friends Kelly and Andy, we ended up lining up in the big crowd.  I didn't manage to place myself as well as I did last year and we should have easily been another minute or two closer to the start, which meant I felt like I was doing a lot of dodging of people up until we got onto Fifth Avenue, but live and learn.  My plan was to stick with Stephanie because I had a feeling she was going to finish faster than I was (she's faster than she thinks she is), but I peeled off right around the halfway point when I had to take a short walk break.  I was doing great until then, totally in PR contention, but I think the heat got to me, and I just had gone out too fast, and I kind of lost my mojo.  Going up the Blvd of the Allies was rough, much tougher than it was last year, but it was also a lot warmer this year than last.  The race started a half hour later, I assume so that the 5k walkers would be totally cleared from the course by the time the 10k started, but that half hour was enough to make it HOT by the time we started.  I wore short sleeves and was totally comfortable at the start, which is a pretty good sign that I'm going to be overheated during the race.  I'm going to try carrying my own water next year, too, since I lost a lot of time at the water stops.

At the end of the day, I managed a 57:59 finish, which is good enough for a second best 10k time.  If the weather had been a bit more cooperative (and I think the humidity was the real killer, and it was downright tropical feeling by the time we were finished) I might have been closer to breaking that old PR, but it just wasn't in the cards. As I predicted, Stephanie did finish before me and I would have been closer to a PR if I'd managed to stick with her, but like I said, it was hot and it just wasn't going to happen.  And incidentally, though I didn't find my friends Kelly and Andy, Kelly kicked serious behind, especially since her youngest child is only 9 weeks old!  Seriously, she's awesome (there's a whole slew of "woe is I" posts about how much I struggled to get some speed back after Charlie was born, so I'm way impressed).  The good news is that according to the McMillan Pace Calculator, the 4:37 finish time were're shooting for in Columbus is still very much within the realm of possibility and I don't think we're going to make any major course corrections there.  This is my highest mileage week of marathon training, culminating with a 22 mile run this weekend, so I just hope I can remain healthy enough to get it done (back to back bouts of strep messed up the plan and I had to scrap one of my 20 milers in the hopes of getting healthy).  Once this marathon is done, I am going to do speedwork (which I've been avoiding, because I hate it and I'm lazy and I don't like to do things I hate) and hopefully that'll help me to start seeing some speed gains with shorter distance races.  I think I'm going to put the marathon on the back burner after Columbus is done, and concentrate on specific speed goals with shorter distances.  I've definitely got a goal to break 2 hours in the half, so maybe next year will be the year for that.

I was going to include a link to the video of me crossing the finish line, but somehow I managed to be *right next* to a guy wearing exactly the same color shirt as me, and you can't even see me until right after I cross the finish line, and then only for like a second and a half.  Seriously, blink and I'm gone (I had to watch the video three times to even find myself!).  So instead, bad bedroom self portrait.

Charlie wanted to be in the picture, too!

Recap of running in Sweden

My lord I'm a poor excuse for a blogger.  Seriously, this is why I haven't gotten any money yet for "monitizing" my blog.  I could list a slew of excuses, but instead, on with the race reports!

But before that, I should talk about the three weeks we spent in Sweden and the running I got to do there.  Overall, it was a good trip.  The kids had fun, though they got a little tired of having no one to play with but each other, and we enjoyed ourselves, though we were exhausted pretty much the entire time.  The weather was fabulous coming from the hellish heat and humidity that was Pittsburgh.  I didn't care if it rained every day, it was such a relief to be out of the heat.  And good weather made for some very nice runs, including one in Visby where I got to run inside the medieval city walls, which were built in the 12th century.  Seriously cool.

This trail was right near the house we stayed in for two of the three weeks we were in Sweden.

My training schedule got a little messed up, so I had an 18 mile run to do a couple of days after we arrived.  After looking over some maps and such, the hubby picks out a route for me that should follow a trail that goes out near the water and *looks* like it should be really nice.  And the beginning of it was, but then I quickly ended up bushwacking my way along a trail that was little more than a goat path, trying to find my footing over boulders, and doing a lot of backtracking when I couldn't find the trail.  I finally found a nearly 3 mile loop that was largely runable, though not quickly, and ran that a couple of times.  When it started to look like it was going to rain, I decided to try to head back home and found that along the road it was pretty straight forward.  I still had 5 miles to go, so I ended up doing loops around the cul de sac where the house was.  The hubby made fun of me pretty mercilessly because I kept getting lost and it had taken so long, but I was vindicated the next day when he tried it himself, and ALSO got lost and had to run slowly.  So there.  Sometimes he should just listen to me, I'm not *always* just being a wuss.

The lucky hubby got to do a 10k called the Midnight Run while we were there.  He bought someone's bib and ended up back in the "slow people's" corral (I grumbled when he said that, because those are *my* people, damn it).  It's worth mentioning if only for the blindingly orange shirt he had to wear during the race (they ALL had to wear them, and I think half of Stockholm must have been blinded).

I love that you can barely see his face because the shirt is so freaking bright it's sucking up all the light!

After my 18 miler out in the sticks where we were living was so messed up, we decided to do my other long runs in the hubby's parents' neighborhood, and those went much more smoothly.  However, I discovered a couple of things that make running in Sweden annoying, as opposed to running at home.  First, though it was seriously wonderful to have so many paved walking trails all over the place, there was NO public water.  None.  I had to take a detour into a shopping center to fill my water fountains in the rest room!  Secondly, free rest rooms are kind of hard to come by.  Yes, it's pay toilets all the way, so I was sure to take some kroner with me when I did my second 18 miler on that route.  It all worked out, but as some who plans my routes based around the availability of bathroom facilities and water, this put a damper on things.

I'll stop there while I formulate my race reports from the Run Around the Square 5k and the Montour Trail Half Marathon (which doesn't sound like nearly as much fun as the Ikea Half Marathon, but it's the same race, just renamed).

This photo has nothing to do with running, but see?  Lots of fun in Sweden!