BEACH | Preppy Runner - Theodora Blanchfield

Someone I once dated used to keep track of how many beach days a year he was racking up. I should have done that this year, because I’m doing pretty well on the beach day front.

Today’s beach adventure was out to Sea Girt, NJ, a really cute little town about an hour and a half from my parents’ house. Earlier in the week, both Lacey and my mom separately asked if I wanted to go to the beach. Luckily, they didn’t mind going with each other, and so the three of us went.

I woke up without an alarm at 6:30 and headed out for a quick 45-minute bike ride for cross training. (I’m in shock, too, don’t worry.) My mom picked up me and Lacey at 8:45 from my apartment and we drove to my apartment to drop Bailey off before heading to the beach. We finally made it there by about 11:30.

It was incredibly sunny, and the sand was scalding hot, so we spent a lot of time in the water.

When we finally broke for lunch, we went to the Parker House, where I got a chicken sandwich with some BBQ sauce and bacon and a Longboard Lager, which doesn’t taste as good in a plastic cup.

My mom usually drives me and Bailey back because he’s a heavy dude in his bag, but I gave her a break tonight after our long day in the sun, and Lacey and I took the train back. We figured we probably spent more time traveling than at the beach today, but my tan says it’s worth it.

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Dog in a bag!

How many days have you been to the beach this year?

I’m more than okay with blogging through the rough times, but yesterday was just one of those days I had absolutely nothing to say and was just in a crap mood. Any words I would have put out here would have been incredibly whiny.

I even scrapped a workout. I was supposed to run 6 miles, and I. just. couldn’t. Sometimes I wish I could be like Ali or Emily and just be totally and completely addicted to working out, but I’m not. I’m a former overweight girl who loves to run and loves how exercise makes me feel, but who still needs to drag myself to the gym kicking and screaming sometimes. I started out for the 6-miler, got a half-mile in and said “Nope. Screw this. Not happening.” I had a headache, I was still really sore from my tri, and I was just in a crappy mood. Yeah, I might have felt better by the end, but sometimes ditching a workout feels good, too.

I’m really excited for the NYC Marathon but already feeling a little burnt out by the training…

Luckily, I woke up this morning ready to run. After running in Central Park last week, I realized it’s really not that far from me–no more than 1.2 miles, depending on my Garmin’s mood.

So I ran up to Columbus Circle and around the loop for a bit before crossing on the 72nd Transverse and heading back west.

Not before finding this pretty covered bridge as I exited! The haze does it no justice.

As I came back to Columbus Circle, I noticed this display that was apparently a part of Bounty’s Teacher Wish List campaign. According to research, teachers spend an average of $462 out of their own pocket on classroom supplies and learning tools, so Bounty’s connecting parents with teachers by allowing teachers to create wishlists for their classrooms and parents to help fulfill them.

I came back from my run, walked Bailey, took the quickest shower ever and ran back out to the subway to meet Emily and Jenny for a beach day! We took the subway to Rockaway Beach on Queens. It was recently written about in the Times, and apparently has become a bit of a hipster haven.

Whatever. It’s a subway-accessible beach.

With good food. There were tacos, Thai food (sorry, wayyy too heavy for the beach), and some typical greasy beach fare.

The tacos seemed like they might be a bit much for my stomach, so I went with the chicken fingers, or chicken boat, as it was called. I don’t know if I was dehydrated, or if they were really just that salty.