Preppy Runner – Theodora Blanchfield

Start with one part dinner made by your best friend who’s getting married at the end of next month and has this weird sixth sense of when you’re feeling a wee bit lonely.

Mix with one part super successful long run with a friend — 10 miles at 9:14 pace without even looking at my watch! After not training hard for a year, I’m really happy with that right now. I’m also trying REALLY hard to just stay in the mile and not think “ok, so if I did this, what does this mean for my half?” Should I not PR in D.C., I have several other races lined up this spring, or it could happen in the lead-up to NYCM. 

(But maybe remove the fall. Although, it wouldn’t be a Theodora training cycle if I didn’t have at least one fall on the run. I blame it on the fact that I’m 5’5” and wear a 10.5 in running shoes. I’m clumsy like a puppy who hasn’t yet grown into their feet.)

Add in brunch at Sarabeth’s with your Internet BFF.

Followed by hours and hours of snuggling with your puppernutter and napping and lazing around on a cold winter day.

Chased by drinks at a cozy pub with a close friend instead of planning a big bar birthday for yourself and inviting 50+ of your closest friends. (Too old, too lazy.)

When you have bangs, the second you put a hat on, you’re committing to it for the entire day.

Topped off with a day of skiing with friends at Hunter. We did an Ovrride trip, and Ovrride FTW. The only thing you REALLY need to know about them is that if you and your friends pick different pick-ups (I did Union Square, they did UWS), you’ll end up on different buses. Considering I slept the entire way up and we watched movies the entire way back, it was fine, but I wish I’d realized this in advance. Bagels on the way up, beer + Along Came Polly + STEPBROTHERS on the way back = well worth it. 

The morning was fabulous, and conditions were awesome. In the afternoon, things started getting a little crunchy and a black I’d easily done in the morning felt impossible in the afternoon in the ice. At one point, I was really far to the right of the trail and feared I wouldn’t be able to turn and would ski straight into the trees, so I sat down, gathered myself, pointed my skis left, and got up. After this, I decided I had nothing to prove to myself or anyone skiing blacks in those conditions, so I stuck to blues for the rest of the afternoon…until the last run when I decided I needed just one more kinda challenging run to end the day.

But between the ice and the wee mountain (both in terms of height and number of trails), I am lusting hard for a trip out west. I’m lucky that my dad went to school in Montana and became a total ski bum there and insisted on our family vacationing in Colorado growing up. That’s totally spoiled me for skiing for life. West is best for only two things in my opinion: oysters + skiing. 

As I talked to the girl on the bus next to me who’d traveled up alone, I kicked myself for not doing that years ago and waiting to make friends who skiied. I’m generally pretty good at doing things I want to do by myself, but I don’t know why I didn’t just take one of these ski trips solo. Noted for next year.

What’s your recipe for a perfect weekend?