The Accidental Long Run

Oh hi there. How are you? Yes, I am wearing sunglasses because I am embarrassed by my split ends.

This morning, I accidentally ran 8 miles, and it was awesome.

How do you accidentally run 8 miles?

I’d planned to join my Junior League running group for four miles in the park, but had no other firm running plans. I talked my friend/neighbor/co-chair/partner-in-awesomeness, Shannon, into joining me for the run club. She lives an avenue away from me, so she walked over to my place to leave together. I asked her if she wanted to run to meet the group or take the subway, and i was honestly going to be okay with either answer, but Shannon agreed to run up to the park. Which I was secretly hoping she would.

We ran the 2.5 miles to the Boat House to meet up with the group. Shannon had been saying she felt out of shape, but she took off with the faster group. I started off with the slower group but decided after 2.5 seconds that I WANNA GO FAST! (Ricky Bobby is my spirit animal.) I caught up to Shannon and we ran together for the rest of the 4 miles. We finished up at the Boathouse and started walking back towards Columbus Circle. After a few minutes, Shannon suggested we started running again, and who was I to argue? I’d been telling her about my crazy friend who’s protesting pants this “winter”, and then we ran into her. She was not wearing pants. Shannon and I ended up running all the way back home, and it was great.

I’m doing the Gridiron Classic tomorrow morning, which is why I was so flexible about today’s run. I figured I could add some mileage tomorrow if necessary, but I was glad to finish my long run today so I can hopefully go for a PR tomorrow. It’s my last race as a young, sprightly 28-year-old before I turn 29 next week.

After the fabulous run, I went home to shower and then meet back up with Shannon and Lacey for brunch at H.K. Brunch was no accident.

H.K. has three great things going for it: lots of sunshine, a $15 bottomless mimosa brunch (unfortunately, that’s $15 on top of the food, not including, like Harry’s, but still a good deal), and just blocks away from my apartment.

I went for a spinach, feta and goat cheese omelette. It wasn’t technically on the menu, but they were really flexible when I asked if I could make up my own omelette.

It came with potatoes and toast. I only ate the parts of the toast with butter on them, since that’s really the best part of the toast anyway.

Tell me about your favorite brunch. Or accidental long runs. I like both of those things.