Preppy Runner – Theodora Blanchfield

The 18-miler that didn’t happen finally did happen yesterday, and it was much better than I think the one I couldn’t get done would have been. But let’s rewind…

Friday night I went home so that I could attend a baby shower with my mom yesterday. We went to our neighborhood Italian restaurant, Delpino. (So small they don’t even have a website. That link is to a Chowhound forum!)

Since I had a long run on my schedule, I carb-loaded again, this time with capellini a la casa–very thin pasta with their marinara sauce, garlic and big juicy pieces of tomato. I had them add some grilled chicken for some protein.

I woke up early yesterday morning to finally get it done.

I beat the sun out of bed!

Though I’m not quite a morning person, even I can’t argue that I wasn’t lucky to see this gorgeous little scene at Zabriskie Pond.

Downtown Wyckoff.

Boulder Run and the Starbucks we hung out at in high school when we had nothing else to do. (Or we’d just hang out in the parking lot. We thought we were so cool.)

My run took me through Franklin Lakes, Wyckoff and Mahwah. (I’d previously thought I also touched in Mahwah and Allendale, but when I uploaded my route map, I realized I hadn’t.)

As I came back through Mahwah, I ran through the Medco campus.

There was another pond on their corporate campus–it was really pretty.

I was really nervous to run for so long (nearly 3 hours!) and so far alone, but I managed to get through it–with no music, to boot. I always seem to have a song stuck in my head, so it really doesn’t bother me to not have actual music on when I’m running. I finished at a 9:54 pace, which means I can absolutely beat my goal of 4:30 for the marathon if I can keep that sort of pace for the whole marathon.

I got home and my mom had a bagel waiting for me (good god, I love her). She also tried to wipe the sweat off my face, but I told her it was for naught, as I’d just keep sweating. Oh, moms…

—

Baby Shower

Usually I laze around for a few hours after a long run, but yesterday I had to get ready and hop in the car with my mom to head down the shore for a baby shower.

They had lots of cute touches–babies in ice cubes?

The cake!

A baby bottle filled with M&Ms for a guess-how-many-are-in-here game.

(It was 1486, if you’re curious.)

Pashmina shawls as a favor.

Decorating onesies!! (This was maybe their most adorable idea.)

And no Italian party is complete without lots of good Italian food. Like an antipasto.

And chicken francese, penne a la vodka (I think), and eggplant rollatini.

I came back to the city last night with full intentions of going out but after waking up at 5:30, running 18 miles, attending a baby shower and sitting in the car for approximately 2 hours each way there and back and then another 45 minutes back into the city, I was in bed by 10.

Right now I’m watching the 9/11 memorial on TV. I grew up just outside of NYC, I was a freshman at American University in D.C. when 9/11 happened, and I now live in NYC, so I can’t watch this without shedding a few tears. (I don’t think anyone can.) On September 11, 2001, I was a college freshman sleeping through my first class. When I woke up, the world had already changed.

This is my fourth 9/11 in NYC. The first two, I was living downtown and working at 120 Broadway, near Ground Zero. I could faintly hear the ceremony as I walked to work those years, and I never arrived at work those years with dry eyes.

My thoughts today are with all of those who lost someone, especially the first responders who lost their lives trying to bring others to safety, my high school classmates who lost parents and the families of the NYJL volunteers whose lives were claimed that day.