New (Awesome) Homepage for Zoom! Yah! Yah!

Last year I run the prestigious Zoom! Yah! Yah! marathon in St Olaf's college in Northfield, MN.  A friend just forwarded to me a link to their ver awesome new homepage.  How about that handsome fellow right in the center of the page? 

I am still trying to get into the year's, but am still number 15 on the wait list on a race that takes a few over forty runners.  At this point it seems like a long shot, but my fingers are crossed.

New York Food: Morimoto

Window shopping in New York took us to the south west side of Manhattan were we walked by Morimoto, at the heart of Chelsea right by the Highline.  At the time we have reservations somewhere else, so we simply take notice and keep walking, but the thought linger with us and before we leave (the morning before our flight), we make a reservation for lunch.

The place has a very Japanese (understated) entrance.  We are nearly the first table at the restaurant, since we have no more than an hour before we have to head to the airport.  Our table is all the way at the back, which pleases us since we have a chance to take a small tour of the entire place and sit with a good view of the sushi bar.

One of the many reviews I check online raves about the Toro Tartar (that is raw tuna), not that it took much arm twisting for me to order it.  The presentation is beautiful with the tuna standing on a plank with a little bit of caviar on top and several sauces and accompaniments to add to the fish as it is scrapped off the wood with a small flat spatula we use as a spoon.  Definitely good, but you can't really see a Chef's skill level with raw dishes.

One of the best courses was our second appetizer: Crispy Rock Shrimp Tempura.  If you have never tries rock shrimp and you like shrimp, this is a must.  Small, round and very juicy, it is one of my favorites.  Tempura is a good chance to test our chef.  Fried food can be greasy and tempura can often be bland.  This is neither.

The batter is crispy and fluffy, the shrimp cooked to perfection and the sauces over the shrimp perfect to add flavor to the dish without taking away from the delicate flavors.  Really a terrific dish.




For the main courses I order Buri Bop: Eel over rice (one of my favorite dishes during our trip in Japan).  This time it comes raw, over rice server on a incredibly for bowl.  Table side, the waiter places the fish against the bowl walls, were it cooks as the rice is expertly mixed with the sauce and other ingredients by the waiter.  Then the eel is placed on top of the rice.  Delicious...

Sharon orders Negitoro, basically sashimi with lots of tuna over cold white rice.  This is a very large amount of raw, very fresh fish.  We pick at it until we can no longer eat (and have to run to the airport).  In fact we leave so late that end up taking a cab instead of using the bus tickets we have already purchased.  Still, definitely worth it.  We love japanese food.

New York Food: Carnegie Deli

So being a foodie and a pastrami lover, I had to make a stop at the famous Carnegie Deli during our visit to New York.  This was a much for me, since my very first memory of food in New York (this dates probably just about 20 years ago now) was a hot pastrami sandwich on rye with mustard.  I took it to go from a deli in south Manhattan and ate it as a walked my way through the glorious streets of Manhattan.

Anyway, the place was great.  A big line to get in, but luckily we got there a few minutes before the big lunch rush.  We get a table in the middle room by the wall.  Pictures of the rich and famous signed to the owners cover the walls.  Waiters pass around with plates loaded with large amounts of food, and I mean LARGE.  We are hungry and feel are in the right place so we order and pretty much share everything at the table.

Here is a sample of what came to the table:

Hot pastrami on rye (I had to)

Turkey Club with crispy salty bacon
and one of the the juiciest turkey I have ever tried

Open-face corned beef ruben - Was much better than the picture looks

Race Report: New York Marathon

Let me start by saying that there is no place like New York.  I have not traveled extensively, but I have certainly seen a good part of the world and New York holds a very special place in my heart.  Being selected to run the New York Marathon (after two lottery attempts) it was one of the highlights of my running life.  Of all the lotteries you can win, this may not be the preferred one, but it ain't bad either.

We arrived the Thursday before the Marathon with plenty of time to go to pick up the race package at the (very large) expo and take a couple of days to do some sightseeing before the race.

By far one of the highlights of the trip was the visit to Ellis Island.  A place that we never have visited before despite of our multiple trips to New York in the first few years of our marriage.  Ellis Island is a must visit location and I'd dare to say that renting the audio tour is also a must.  The stories of hope and despair told (often first person accounts of immigrants that came through Ellis Island) are nothing shorts of amazing.  

Also worth noting from our sobering visit was the 9/11 Memorial and our (accidental) and very brief visit to the Occupy Wall Street gang, both pictured below.

New 9/11 Memorial

Occupy Wall Street protester

And now let's get back to the business of the race report.  Let me tell you... this guys really know how to throw a party.  Getting there took some time, but I think that added to the excitement.  The 47,000 participants were broken into three or four waves.  I was part of the second one starting at 10:10 AM.  To get there I left the apartment at 6:45 AM and walked to the subway, took the subway for about 30 minutes to the Staten Island Ferry, where I boarded the Ferry for about 25 minutes and then took a bus to the starting "villages."

Runners walking into the Staten Island Ferry Terminal

These villages are very appropriately named given their significant size.  They have music, security and a contingent of UPS trucks taking the participant bags with clothes for after the race.  The mood was great.  Lots of smiles, people listening to music or simply laying in the sun waiting for their wave to start.  I didn't plan for such a long commute to get there, so I was rather late to drop my bag (at least based on the recommended time).  

The organizers did an awesome job setting things up.  There were port-potties everywhere (including inside the corrals).  I gave in to my nerves and visited three or four times before the start.  

John F Kennedy, the name of our ferry

When the time came to get started, I was trying really hard to play it cool.  I mean, my best runs are never races, but training runs.  So, as much as possible, I am trying to ignore everything around me.  Just think of it as another run close to home.  The last of wave one starts while we are still in the corral and we hear the national anthem being sang for them.  I am still cool.  Then it is our turn.  We get America the Beautiful and I am still cool.  As soon as the horn sounds and we start running, they blast New York, New York through the speakers.  And I could not possibly ignore that.  At that point I was running way to fast ad with a big smile on my face.  This was no training run.  Get used to it.  The theme repeated throughout the race.  So many cool sights that it was nearly impossible to ignore that I was running one of the coolest races of my life.   

At the ferry on the way to the start

We start crossing the bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn.  Since we are running on the lower deck, my GPS loses its satellite signal almost immediately.  I don't get it back until mile 10 (resulting in a strange route on the Garmin site).  I don't care much.  I can calculate my pace by looking at the watch at every mile marker.  I know I am going too fast, but I am having fun.  There will be plenty of time to regret it later.

Wave two corral, right before the start

The temperature on the lower deck of the bridge is a good 15 degrees cooler than on the streets.  I also noticed much lower temperatures in Manhattan than in Brooklyn and Queens.  I can't really say much for Staten Island and the Bronx since you leave the former immediately after the race starts and are in the latter for less than a mile.

A small portion of the 47,000 runners

Two and a half million people are lining the streets of the course and they are loud.  Several times during the race I have to stop my iPod because I can't hear anything coming from it anyway.  The running crowd is large, but never so bad that requires a lot of zig-zagging.  All and all it doe snot get in the ay of a good race.

I finish in 4:06:19.  As usual I would have liked to break four hours again, but am happy with this time.  I take with me a medal (not particularly pretty) and a few good memories including these:

• Along with the several bands playing Rock & Roll, I saw at least two groups of people playing bag pipes (very cool)
  
• Running the long Queensboro Bridge, again on the lower deck ;-( is tough.  This is almost at mile 16.  The temperature is cold under the bridge.  I am getting tired.  There are no people cheering on the bridge.  Seems lonely even among all these runners.  Then at the end of the bridge there are three signs: 1) If 10 miles to go seems easier... 2) Then welcome to easier 3) Welcome to Manhattan.  That puts a smile on my face.

• Manhattan really welcomes you.  From run on the empty, cold bridge, you appear on 1st Ave, which is packed, and I mean packed with people, three and four thick on the sides of the road.  They are loud too.  That gives me a second wind.
  
• Lots of police on the median while running through the six lane avenues in Brooklyn.  Several clapping, high-fiving and cheering, but all very attentive and visible on guard.
  
• Cool signs along the road including:
• Worst Parade Ever! (seen that one before, but it always makes me smile)
• You are the Sh*t! (far cooler when there are 15 or 20 people together holding these signs) 
• And my favorite, a guy holding large sign the read Way to Go Complete Stranger!
  
• As well organize as the race was, they made the very poor decision of having a picture wall right after the finish line.  They managed to get 47,000 people running without making it feel crowded until everybody wants to have their picture taken right afar the finish line.  Not very clever.
  
• And, by far, my favorite memory.  After crossing the finish line we are handed thermal blankets with the word Finisher on the back (still have mine).  Then we have to walk almost a mile (I checked it out on Google maps, it was exactly .9) to pick up our clothes.  The sun is out, but we are all a bit cold from the run.  We all walk in the same direction following the instructions of the organizers sitting on high chairs and talking into the megaphones (You guys are beautiful!  You guys made it!  Please keep moving, you are almost there!).  Some are limping, some are clearly in pain, but most are quietly walking and wondering how much longer it will be.  I took the picture below to remember that feeling forever.

Finishers walking to get their bags
Note the woman with the megaphone sitting on the high chair

Filipino at Minnette's

In an unexpected turn of events, Minette who is usually in Georgia by now, makes a short return to the Twin Cities to receive her son, back fro Japan, where he is stationed with the Navy.  Better yet, she extends a last minute invitation to eat sue Filipino food at her house.  We can't possibly pass on this opportunity.

As usual at Minette's, we enjoyed great wine, terrific food, and heart warming conversation.  The only drawback of the evening and that Buzz had to stay behind and couldn't join us.  

Here are a few pics taken before everybody started digging in (yep, I had them wait as I took the pictures).

Rice noodles with chicken.  Filipinos squeeze a little lemon and add
a little soy sauce over the noodles.  Terrific!

Tapas: Marinated and sautéed beef served with fresh tomatoes.

Caramelized onions cooked in the drippings from the beef.
A perfect toping for the tapas.

Home made spring rolls.  In my opinion the best item of the day.

Milkweed

Many months ago, our friends Tim and Joy commented on a trip they did to the south of Wisconsin for the sole purpose of visiting a restaurant.  The place is called Milkweed and is technically not a restaurant.   Isaac Spicer (appropriate name for a chef), works out of his parents farm near Spring Green.  The experience is BYOB, quite possibly for legal reasons.  They serve a few tables by reservation only and arranges a set menu (adjusted for allergies and dislikes) for a suggested donation, which had grown since Tim and Joy went from $75 to $100 plus tip.

The place was reviewed by The Heavy Table including some pictures of the food. That along with Tim and Joys recommendation, made it a necessity for us to visit.  We organized a trip with a total of eight people from the building complete with passenger van rental and planned stops on the way.  The setup is nearly perfect.  Sitting outdoors by the house which includes a large window where you can see the chef cook.  The servers are family members and friends and create the perfect atmosphere with their knowledge of the menu, friendly personalities and close attention to detail.  In all, up to 60 ingredients for the meal came form the farm surrounding us.  Quite an accomplishment that did not go unnoticed.  

It has taken me so long to write this post that I have forgotten much of the details, so I will include the pictures I took and add a caption with whatever I can remember.

The dining gan: clockwise from the front: Clark,
John, Birdie, Kim, Sharon, me, Anita and Mike

By far my favorite: Tomato confit and goat cheese on tartlets

Melon soup with hot peppers

Croisants (really, why have bread when you have these flaky wonders)

Squash soup with ground cherries and other things I can't remember ;-)

Heirloom tomatoes with Mozzarella and a balsamic vinaigrette 

Another favorite: Halibut over vegetable slaw topped with ground
pork tongue with blue cheese.  We raved about the slaw for days.

Raspberry sorbet with strawberries, a palate cleanser

Chicken, sweet potaties and haricot verts

Molasses cookies and chocolate ganache pastries made by
the chef's wife Havvah (great name, eh?  A palindrome too.)

Apple tart over chocolate sauce 

Cheese course. Who remember what was served, really!
Probably a Wisconsin variety.

The Chef, Isaac Spicer

Also worth mentioning were the walnut burgers we had on the way back in Trempealeau, WI (across from La Crosse) at the historic Trempealeau Hotel Restaurant and Saloon.  This is alleged to be the birth place of the walnut burgers and I don't know it that is true, but they were pretty good.  Served with lots of sprouts and house fries.  Worth visiting if you are in the area.

Boom Boom Pow

Arriving at the 2010 People for Parks 5K and finding out the City of Lakes 25K was just finishing as the 5K was just getting started gave me an idea.  Would it be possible to run them both back to back?  I've always been a big fan of running bonus miles (extra miles run before or after a race).  Having two races back to back would make each race serve as each other's bonus miles.

Even better, the start of the first race was just shy of 7 miles from my home, so how about adding those miles to get some extra extra bonus miles for the day.  The tree strikes would be a running Boom Boom Pow worth writing about.  The mileage was not a concern, just shy of a full marathon.  I know it could be done.

I made the proposal to my friend Tim at the bottom of my race report from the 2010 5k run.  His response at the bottom of the blog was positive.  A running date set a year in advance.

With the races day approaching, I sent my emails out.  Included Scott too.  Unfortunately, Tim had had a bike accident a few months before, and while his bones were healed, he felt too out of shape.  Scott had a more pressing commitment to run one of his crazy long trail races.  I was left alone and alone I would run it.

The first leg was great.  Left at 6:30 AM to make it on time for the first race.  Completed 6.92 miles in 1:02:33. Just over 9 minute miles.  I had to force myself to slow down.  There were still too many miles to come.

30 minutes later the second leg started.  The 25K City of Lakes, started well, but the sun came up high in the sky and tok much of my energy.   I managed a finish in 2:29:46 or 9:33 minutes per mile.  My start was considerably faster, but my steam was definitely running out.

Another 30 minutes wait and I am joined by a few friends to run the 5k.  I feel I no longer have the desire to run again.  Even this 5k seems like a daunting task.  The sun is high and it feels pretty warm.  Birdie was to join us to cheer not to run (and of course for a burger afterwards).  I convince her to walk to 5k with me and take Sharon's place (who could not make it due to a cold).  So my third leg resulted in a personal record as the slowest 5K I ever run (walked, really).

With a finish of 52:43 and an average pace of 16:55 min/mile, it was a little Pow to follow the Boom, Boom.  But I got a kick out of it anyway. Walking with Birdie was fun and I got to wear two race bibs from the two races.  Thanks go to Birdie for giving me the support I needed to complete the third leg of the day.  Those bonus miles are dedicated to her.

The fastest 1,000 miles (to date)

Tanks to my consistent training schedule and crammed race calendar (and of course my obsessive behavior) I have reached a new milestone: 5,000 miles since I started running. That;s almost the distance from Minneapolis to Japan (as the Boeing flies).

What's more, this is the least amount of time that has taken me to reach another thousand miles, as shown below: 

Milestone	Days to reach
1,000	567
2,000	434
3,000	357
4,000	300
5,000	281

I knew there was a good chance I'd shave a few more days to this last thousand, since my consistency (stubbornness) was still being refined.  I am not sure I can (not sure that I want) get the next thousand in any less than 281 days.  It will be fun to see what happens, though.

Redeemed Masu

A few months back I did a review of Masu as it was opening its doors.  While I tried to make it a positive review, several of my readers (I know, I was also surprised to learn I had several readers), read between the lines and came back to me with comments such us: "so... you didn't like the place, right?"  Indeed I was not impressed, but I wanted to like them badly being so close to home.

Last Monday, a few friends and I went for a new visit to Masu on our way to Jazz Central (which btw, just posted a few pictures on their website taken by yours truly).

I started with a Miso soup.  I was feeling a tad tired from a full day at work and thought its warmth would be comforting.  It was.  The soup came promptly and had good appearance and taste.  The soup was good, but miso soup is not particularly difficult.  As long as it is not salty and dis not come from an envelope with freeze dried tofu, it will probably be OK.  The true test would come with the entree.

 Mau specializes in Sushi and Robata.  Robata are small dishes (almost tapas style) that are skewered and grilled in a hibachi sort of contraption.  I didn't know it then, but in our trip to Japan, Sharon and I visited a Robata restaurant in Kyoto where we had a great meal and tried the grilled rice balls (Masu's version pictured at right), that were served as a side dish. 

For the entree I chose one of their Teishoku (set meals).  This is sort of like a bento box without the box.   At $20 a pop, it seems like a good deal.  Mine included Pork Katsu, Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura, 3 Sashimi, Zucchini Robata and Yaki Onigiri.  I found the pork to be a tad on the dry side (perhaps overcooked), but the sashimi was fresh, the tempura well down and not greasy in the least.  My Zucchini Robata was rather simple.  Terry and Maureen's, who ordered the one with asparagus looked much better.  They ordered the salmon Teishoku, of which I had a taste and was pleasantly surprised by its freshness and perfect temperature.  The center was juicy and cooked to perfection.  

All and all Masu is not my favorite place to have Japanese, but it is definitely a good spot to try something beyond sushi and noodles in the Twin Cities.  I's give them three and a half stars out of five.  Had I eaten the salmon and asparagus, they might have taken four.

An Interesting Week

It was a very interesting week indeed.  Just a few hours after establishing a PR on a 13.1 mile training run, I haver chest pains and shortness of breath and ended up at the ER.  Seven hours later and after many tests completed in between episodes of being almost completely unable to breath, I am diagnosed with pericarditis, a swelling and irritation of the thin sac-like membrane that surrounds your heart caused by a viral infection.

The good news is that as a viral infection it just needs to run its course in one or two weeks.  The bad news is that I have the Team Ortho Monster Dash 1/2 marathon in just 6 days and the New York Marathon a week after that.  The former is the fifth of five events I have signed up with Team Ortho for the year and one in which I have been engaged in no small amount of trash talk with another runner, who we will call Daniel, and to which I can't possibly not show up.  The later is well, the New York City Marathon.

During my time at the ER, I had a chance to be fed, and this being a blog about food and running I thought I should give them an appropriate review.  With a co-pay of $100 for the ER, I thought the price of the meal was pretty stiff.  More so given the quality and lack of choices.

The appetizer of ice chips lacked flavor and was the only item served for several hours.  The only other item served as hors d'oeuvres was pasty like syrup that tasted like medicine, since it was.  These are probably planned to make anything following it like heaven.

The main course was a turkey sandwich on wheat (no chips other than ice chips) although it was served with a nice cold carton of 1% milk, a suggestion of the sommelier/nurse.  The bread was fresh and the turkey moist.  If the mayo and mustard were home-made, it must have taken them quite a long time in the kitchen to put them into the little pouches.  This must be the reason why it took so long to bring the sandwich.

Dessert was a vanilla pudding served in a plastic cup that took a lot of work to open, more so given their insistence on me wearing an oxymeter on my index finger at all times (perhaps a hidden camera strength test?)  Again, after seven hours waiting, it tastes pretty good.  Still, I would definitely advice against visiting this establishment at all cost.  While the service was excellent (particular kudos to nurse Bridget who waited on us), it was rather slow.

Anyway, I leave the ER still with some shortness of breath.  It was interesting that instead of mints, they give you Ibuprofen that you have to take for a whole week.  I did and it did nothing for my breath.

Six days later, my doctor clears me to run the Monster Dash on Saturday.  I am wearing a mast created by artist extraordinaire Mat Ollig, which surprisingly neither bothers me during the run nor affects my performance.  I give it all my might and it pays off.  While my official time is yet to post (interference thanks to my insistence on running wearing chips from all the Team Ortho races for the 2011 series).  I finish 13.1 in record time for a 1/2 marathon race.  My final time is 1:42:53 (7:47 min/mile).  Most important, 15 seconds ahead of my trash talking buddy (a good 15 years my junior).  Then again my time is not yet official, so the tables could soon turn.

The race was indeed terrific.  The course was changed just a few weeks before the race and moved from Minneapolis to St Paul.  The new course was all downhill (I believe they said 400 foot drop) and vey fast.  Notice the green line on the elevation chart below.  It was also very well organized with lost of entertainment (including the costumes worn by the runners) and with excellent weather.

 
This race also served as a retirement run.  I retire my shoes after 400 miles and my pair of Saucony Hurricane after 71 runs had reached that milestone (pun absolutely intended).  They were good shoes and accompanied me for four of the five Team Ortho races.  May they rest in peace.

To top it all, we followed the race with breakfast at Elsie's, a bowling alley that has become a post race tradition of ours.  Their breakfast is traditional American, but perfectly executed.  I opted for the off-the-menu Eggs Benedict with sausage patties instead of Canadian bacon (as if that was really bacon).  This breakfast has proved to replenish all the carbs and calories lost during any distance run.

So an interesting week indeed.  Now another week of tapering before the New York Marathon.  Hoping for less excitement there.  I leave you with some of the costumes we saw at the race.  Not even the best ones, but a fair sample I was able to capture at the finish line as we were waiting for our friends to join us.

Three devil girls who agreed to post with me

The drag while running with this must have been incredible

One of my favorites

Of course I had to capture this one.  Was her name Siri?