All posts by hannahviolin

I am a violinist. I also enjoy running, working out, reading, and hanging with my friends and cat.
Running

Third Annual Sweat Your Thorns Off 5K AKA How Running Underwater Feels

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Today was the Third Annual Sweat Your Thorns Off 5k hosted by The Boring Runner.  I said I would run it, and then I totally wanted to chicken out because it’s super hot.  But my friend Rose pointed out that that is the whole point of the race—to run in the heat and be really sweaty.  So I decided, okay, fine, I’d run it, but I wasn’t going to run it fast. 

It wasn’t really any hotter today than it had been all summer, but the heat index was over 100, and as usual we are under a heat advisory.  I forgot to screen cap, because I ended up texting Jen and asking her to run with me, and then we ended up watching the Men’s 10k on the Olympics and that was both inspiring and depressing.  Then it was time to go run our own 5k.

I mapped out a route that avoided big intersections, was a fairly interesting double loop, and would allow for a slight warm up and cool down (Ha!!) but be home in time for a nice sweaty picture.

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I decided since it was a virtual race, I’d have a virtual bib.  I didn’t print this out, both to save paper and because the printer is all the way upstairs.

The run absolutely sucked.  Sucked, sucked, sucked.  It was like running uphill, underwater, on dead legs.  It was the slowest 5k "race" I’ve ever run, and was difficult the whole way through.  We took about a .4 mile walk break in the middle, and did I mention it sucked and felt like running underwater?  If I didn’t, I will say this:  it was very hot outside and running in it sucked.

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Yeah, there’s the embarrassing time.  Slowest 5k ever.  I "sprinted" towards the end as I realized we could at least break 40 minutes.  To be fair, we weren’t trying to run it fast.  We were just trying to finish without dying.  This goal WAS accomplished.

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I stood in the kitchen and drank a whole bottle of G2 before getting in the shower.  I was dripping sweat from all over, especially my back.  Near death, but not actual death. 

There you have it!  The Third Annual Sweat Your Thorns Off 5K AKA Why would anybody run a race underwater?  39:57. 

Running

Inspired by the Olympics

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It’s amazing how lying on the couch watching the Olympics makes one want to do super human feats.  Well, not really amazing, but I’ve been working on my fall “race” plans and was talking with my sister Leslie about her spring race plans and thinking about some things too.  (I used quotations because I am really slow 😉 )

Yesterday she and I went for a 4 mile run around Boulder.  It was a great run—it is harder to run here because of the altitude but much easier because of the cooler temperatures.  We wore our Mezamashii project shoes.

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It was a truly successful run in that I only needed to stop once to get a breather and give my foot a break (I was feeling a blister/slight pain on the bottom of my foot) but otherwise ran the whole time.  Perhaps it was being inspired by Leslie who was running far slower than her normal pace to stay with me, or perhaps it was the contact high we received from some guy who passed us on a bike smelling strongly of “medicinal marijuana.”  Nonetheless, in the words of the Mezamashii project, I’d say it was a “brilliant run.”

So where does that leave us with race plans?  Here’s what I’m pondering.  One:  a spring marathon.  The Go.  Now you say, goodness Hannah you can barely manage to run that as a half.  If I’m going to fail, I might as well fail big, right?  Leslie is thinking about running it too as it is at the end of her spring break, and it could be “fun” to run the same race.  I’ve often said I don’t want to run a marathon until I get faster at running, but who’s to say if that will ever happen.  Then again, maybe this is the Olympic fever…

Other plans/thoughts:

October:  Mo Cowbell Half Marathon.  I did this last year, and this year it will be my goal half marathon.  Should I run dressed as a cow?

November:  The “Skippo” 20k Trail race.  I maybe should just run the 10k but that’s me talking negative talk.  Plus the 20k gets a medal and the 10k doesn’t.  I think the hike I took the other day made me want to run in the woods.

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February: “Lost Dutchman” Half Marathon in Arizona.  How gorgeous does that scenery look??

And then…

April:  Go! St Louis Marathon.  I’d have to start training in December if that’s what I decide to do.  So my plan is this:  to see how the next couple of months go—try to keep to my training plans, and hopefully avoid any injuries.

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Heading home today!  I’ll miss this scenery.

What are your race plans?  Local readers (or Arizona readers)—is anybody planning to run these races?

Grand Ideas

Inspiration

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I love when I can inspire people.  Generally I {hope} I inspire my students to be better at the violin.  I inspire my blog readers to run and eat more oatmeal.  I inspire people to be funnier and taller…and today I finally successfully inspired  Sarah Crowder to start a blog.  (Of course if you take the number of people that I have tried to get to start a blog versus the number I have actually inspired to start one…it’s a very low percentage.  Then again, I haven’t written about my oatmeal lately either.  I am running today, does that count?  You should go run too.)

I love that Sarah mentioned me as part of her inspiration though.  And posted my favorite picture. I think her blog has the potential to be really great, and will certainly have great pictures!

Speaking of photos.  Yesterday Chris and I went to a variety of breweries to taste a variety of beers.  At one point I thought it would be fun to take a self portrait and text it to a few friends, and no less than three people told me the picture was creepy.  What are your thoughts?

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Creepy or not creepy?  Please vote in the comments.

 

Boulder, Travel

Boulder

I am just stopping in to tell you that I’m having a wonderful time on vacation.  Isn’t it grand?  Don’t you wish that YOU were on vacation? 

And you say, Hannah, weren’t you already on vacation? Well, kind of.  I was moving and taking a break from teaching but now I am actually on vacation.  You know, the kind where you fly somewhere, and rent a car and the rental company takes complete advantage of you by charging you for the supplemental insurance even though you told them you didn’t want it, and then later when you call tells you you’d have to return to Denver to fill out new paperwork (Yes, I’m looking at you, Payless Rental Cars, and I won’t ever be looking at you again, because that is a lousy precedent—if my husband says NO don’t try to sneak it back in.  And then don’t be an ass on the phone.)

We are visiting my sister Leslie and her fiancé Peter, and our friend Dave, who are all at the Colorado Music Festival, which is in Boulder, Colorado.

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Initially I thought, I don’t want to tell my readers we are out of town.  You worry about safety and that kind of thing.  Robbery.  But our new place is a lot more safe and secure than any of our previous houses have been…so I am not worried.  Besides which I’ve been showing off on twitter and instagram…so…

Anyway, I said I was just stopping in.  We got into town yesterday, had lunch at Illegal Pete’s, shopped and walked around in the afternoon, dinner at the West End Tavern.

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Leslie and I outside the Laughing Goat, which is evidently Boulder’s best coffeehouse.  The vanilla lattes were good.

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Posing with what I think of as the Boulder Boulder.  I don’t think that’s what it is called, however.

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Then…(and this is huge for this St Louis girl)…it started to RAIN!  And it rained, and it poured.  And we got a little bit wet, which was fun at first, and then I remembered why rain is annoying.  But it was a really nice change from NOT having any rain.  (That’s some quality writing, right?).

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This morning Leslie and hiked up to the Royal Arch.  This is a crappy photo because the light was difficult, but that’s me at the top.  Interesting fact about hiking:  going down is easier than going up.

I’ve taken a ton more pictures, but I have taken most of them on my regular camera, and I forgot to bring the USB cable, so I’ll share them later.

 

Food

Growlers Pub

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I’ve had a very exciting and informative weekend at the Food Media Forum (if you follow me on twitter or instagram you’ve seen a bit of that) but I wanted to collect my thoughts a bit before I blogged anything else about that.

Thursday night my favorite photographer (and friend) Sarah Crowder tweeted me asking if Chris and I were available Friday evening to meet at a restaurant called Growlers Pub in Sunset Hills for a photo shoot in exchange for free appetizers.  I thought it sounded like fun, and we were free since we were both on vacation, so we figured why not.  She wanted to get a group of people to help out—Growlers had hired her to take some pictures for their website of the food and of their back patio, and they wanted to make sure they had enough people around to make the place look popular and fun.

Unfortunately all of our friends already had plans or were out of town, but we headed over.  We had no idea what to expect, but the patio was great—it was large and very open, with a bar outside and the serving staff were all very friendly.  The bartender was informative about the beer (and to clarify, I am writing this on my own, I wasn’t compensated for THIS post 😉 ) and Chris and I ordered a couple of IPAs.  I had one of those fun moments where the bartender assumed I would order some “lady” drink, so instead I ordered a Stone IPA.  I told him “I don’t drink beer very often, but when I do, I like a really hoppy beer.”  The weather was gorgeous for once, not too hot, and breezy enough to stay cool in the shade, so we were enjoying ourselves.

I guess Sarah was photographing the food inside, because after a few minutes some of the staff brought out a ton of appetizers and food for us to try—it was the stuff she had already photographed, and it was going cold.  They also brought another beer. They gave us a few plates and took some other plates to another table.

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This was all for the two of us.  We didn’t even make a dent since we had dinner plans afterwards.  The wings were tasty though, and the bread pudding would have been really good if it had been warm.

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Chris was enjoying some of the flatbread as well.

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Sarah and Chris were wearing matching shirts.  Sadly I had not gotten the memo.

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Yellow and purple go well together though, right?

Anyway, she took some close up shots of us chatting and drinking, and just enjoying ourselves.  The band was good too—it was the Ali Jaye Duo.  I have no idea how the pictures turned out, or if we’ll end up being on the website, but it was fun.  Chris is really getting good at getting his picture taken.  And Sarah Crowder is always a delight to work with—her enthusiasm and energy is infectious and she is just one of my favorite people!  We have another potential project coming up and hopefully it’ll work out too.

Performing

Mariachi Madness

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Chris and I have wanted to see our friend Elizabeth’s Mariachi band for awhile and the other night we finally had our chance.  She plays with the band “Mariachi Los Compadres” and they play on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at El Paisano Mexican Restaurant.  We decided to go for dinner.

It was SO MUCH FUN!  We thought it would be enjoyable to see her play, but the band was great and it was a wonderful evening.  The food is fine, nothing terribly exciting, but not terrible, and the margaritas are very good.

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(the remnants of our margaritas!)

The band moved around a bit, so no matter where you sit, you are guaranteed they will play up close to you for at least one song.  Elizabeth wants me to join the band or play when she can’t, and I’m seriously considering it—they seemed like a fun bunch and the music was very enjoyable.

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(elizabeth, looking good)

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(playing the violin, why so serious?)

The costumes are pretty fantastic as well, aren’t they?  Chris wants me to play just for the costume.

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(This guitar player was one of our favorites.)

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We met up with Joe and Michelle—they live very nearby.

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(Don’t ask why my neck is so weird looking.)

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(The whole band!)

All in all it was a great night, and we would go again.  And maybe I’ll play with the group someday soon.  Being a violinist gives me so many options, doesn’t it?