brunch | Preppy Runner - Theodora Blanchfield

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.

Well, today was interesting.

I slept in and lounged around for awhile until I realized that if I wanted to go brunch and run, I didn’t have much time to get it done. In fact, jumping up on the subway sounded like a huge waste of time (twenty-five minutes that aren’t me running, getting ready or getting to brunch? No thank you.

I strapped on a drawstring gym bag and hit the road. I was supposed to do a 2-mile warmup, 12 x 400 (.25 mile) with 45-second cooldowns in between and then a 2-mile cooldown. To be honest, I left too late to get this done, so I improvised and did about 6 of the 400m repeats with a .75-mile warmup. (And yes, that bag did jump around a bunch, even despite safety-pinning it.) I was a little bummed I wasn’t able to do the entire workout I was supposed to, but when I looked at my watch and realized I did 4 miles in 32 minutes, I was pretty proud of myself. That’s a minute and a half faster than my four-miler PR.

photo 1.JPG

I stopped at the gym to shower, and realized my priorities. Cute strapless seersucker dress? Check.

photo 2.JPG

Makeup, sunglasses, hair stuff? Check.

photo 3.JPG

Sandals? Check. Not quite shower shoes, but better than nothing.

What did I forget? My wallet. SERIOUS FAIL. Luckily, Michelle was able to spot me.

photo 5.JPG

Because brunch at Harry’s Italian was pretty epic. $15 for a brunch entree plus all-you-can-drink mimosas? OKAY!

photo 1.JPG

I went for the egg white, spinach and tomato panini. It wasn’t pressed like a panini, but it was still good.

photo 2.JPG

This looks so tame. There was more carnage than this, I promise.

Afterwards, I went home to grab Bailey and we met up with Michelle and friends at the Frying Pan for a little more Sunday Funday action.

For non-New Yorkers, it’s a bar on a boat. Which means it’s awesome straight off the bat. (Although it does get crazy crowded.)

In the basement of the little red boat (the rest of the bar is on a bigger boat, but there’s a red boat attached to it) are things like this creepy bed.

And this old kitchen. The boat was originally a lightship that sailed in North Carolina, protecting the Frying Pan Shoals boat, until she sank and was later restored.