Three Races in Three Weeks

That's right my friends - one week from Thursday will be the start of three races in three weeks!  I have been pounding the payment quite a bit the past couple of weeks in preparation and I think I am just about ready.  Next Thursday my company will be participating in the CDPHP Workforce Team Challenge.  CDPHP is the largest health insurance company in the area and every year they put on the 3.5 Miler that runs through downtown Albany.  It was a huge race - I think upwards of 10K people participate every year and they come in from all over the state (seriously - some company's rent charter buses).  The kicker is that your company has to participate as a team and you must register in teams of four.  Every year there is also a t-shirt competition!  PRA has been working on our t-shirt design for about three weeks now - it is a BIG deal!  Our t-shirts this year will be highlighting that PRA was voted #1 small workplace in the Capital Region (woot woot!  more on that later).

 

The next race will be the Survive the Farm 5K Obstacle Course.  I don't know too much about this race other than that 1) the course is through a farm, 2) there is an obstacle course component and 3) I for some reason agreed to participate.  For this race you also compete as a team of four.  I will be racing with Team Upstate/Downstate (half of our team is from Long Island).  I have heard this race is really challenging but luckily it takes place the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend which means I will have an extra day to recover.  This is the race that I am probably the most apprehensive about, I have run CDPHP and Freihofer's before so I pretty much know what to expect but this Survive the Farm is a complete mystery to me, and from what I have heard - it's tough!

 

 

The third race is one of my favorites - Freihofer's Run for Women!  This will be the third year in a row that I have run this race and I am pumped about it!  It may sound somewhat cheesy but I find the race really empowering - only women participate and  the numbers usually top out around 4K participants.  The race also attracts runners from all over the world!  As someone to starts in the middle of the pack it is nuts to see the professional runners race up the Madison Avenue hill at the start of the race.  The race also snakes through downtown Albany and finishes at the NYS Museum.  Hopefully this year we'll have nice weather (last year it rained, and then I moved into my new apartment)!   

 

 

I'll probably/I hope to run a couple more races this season but these are the big ones and the ones that are on the calendar so far!  I am opting out of the Firecracker 4 Miler this year in Saratoga but in all honesty I would really like to run a 10K at some point but we'll see how these three go first!

 

Happy running! 

Adventure in Kansas & Missouri

A couple of weeks ago I had a whirlwind week long trip to Kansas and Missouri.  This trip included many stops - Kansas City, Missouri - Pittsburg, Kansas - Topeka, Kansas and then back to Kansas City, Missouri.  The trip was supposed to be Sunday through Thursday but due to weather and the absence of a flight crew I ended up not getting home until Friday afternoon.  But let's start at the beginning shall we?  Kansas and Missouri are two of the states I am responsible for and the truth of the matter is that if you are going to fly all the way to mid-west, which will typically involve multiple flights to small airports, you might as well try to visit as many cities as possible and provide as much TA as you can - so  this trip was no exception.  My colleague and I held a forum, presented at a statewide summit, gave a presentation to a city-wide CoC and attended a statewide SOAR meeting.

We started out in Kansas City, MO.  I left Albany around 5 PM on Sunday evening and flew to Chicago for what was supposed to be an hour hour layover, enough time to enjoy my packed dinner and maybe do a little work before my next flight.  Unfortunately that hour layover turned into my flight not leaving until 11:30 PM CST.  Originally I was supposed to get into KC, MO at 9:30 PM but did not end up arriving at my hotel (after a VERY bumpy flight) until well after 2 AM!  After a rather sleepless night my colleague and I headed to Pittsburg, KS which is in the SE corner of Kansas and about 2 hours from KC, MO.  That afternoon we held a SOAR forum and the next day we were slated to present at the Kansas Statewide Homelessness Summit.  The Summit is held annually throughout Kansas and numerous speakers present on various topics.  It was great to be apart of the Summit and I got to meet some great people.

Kansas Statewide Homelessness Summit - held in Pittsburg, KS at the Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium!

HUGE cows with various advertisements seen all over town!

Me and the cow!  I told you they were huge!

That Monday night in Pittsburg, KS we set out to find a good place to eat - unfortunately hardly anything was open in the town on Monday nights!  Our choices were Chili's or El Charro - we chose El Charro and if you couldn't tell from the sign happy hour drinks in SE Kansas are CHEAP - $1 draft beers and $1.25 margaritas!

Go Gorillas!  Pittsburg, KS is home to the Pittsburg State University Gorilla's.  There were gorilla statues ALL over town!

That night there was the most intense thunderstorm I have ever experienced.  That storm made any storm I had ever experienced in the Northeast seem like a shower.  I know the Midwest is flat and because of that the storms are going to be more intense but it was still scary.  The entire time I was in Kansas/Missouri their were tornado watches/warnings which freaked me out!  Natives told me it was nothing and I shouldn't worry but when you wake up at 1 AM to intense thunderstorms (including hail and crazy lightening) and turn on the TV and see that a tornado warning has been issues - it is pretty scary!

Seen everyday/night while in Kansas/Missouri.

After we presented at the Summit we began our journey back to KC, MO to drop off my colleague at the airport, atfter that I was going to continue to trip!  Before we left though we had to hit up Chicken Annie's!  I have this great app on my phone - 'TV Food Maps' - which lists any restaurants nearby that have been featured on any Food Network or Cooking Channel show.  Chicken Annie's was listed MANY times and was famed as delivering some of the best fried chicken around.  It was located WAY off the main road and for a while I wondered if we would ever actually find it - but when we finally did the chicken did not disappoint.

Chicken Annie's - home of Kansas' original fried chicken!

 I ordered the standard - friend chicken breast, cole slaw and green beans - yum!

 

The next morning I presented at the Kansas City Continuum of Care meeting.  The presentation went really well and it was really good to see my state team lead (STL) and some of my trainers.  After the presentation my STL offered to take me to get some real Kansas City BBQ - I immediately said yes and we headed to Gates BBQ!

 

Gates BBQ - pulled pork sandwich and steak fries - as you can see I sampled ALL the BBQ sauces.

 

After lunch I hit the road and headed to Topeka, Kansas.  The next morning was to attend the Kansas Statewide SOAR meeting but in the meantime I had the rest of the day to get to Topeka.  Along the way I stopped at Kansas City Motor Speedway which was a HUGE complex; unfortunately they were prepping for a race and I wasn't able to really stop or take any pictures.  Closer to Topeka I started seeing signs for the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site which is located in a relatively run down section of Topeka and is housed at one of the schools that was involved in the case.  The museum was really powerful and I was so glad I stopped for a visit!

Brown v. Board of Educational National Historic Site in Topeka, KS

Housed at the Monroe School which was one of the schools involved in the historic case.

"[No State shall] deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

- Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified 1868

This was probably one of the most powerful exhibits.  Adjacent to a quote explaining why separate but equal works and should be law is a picture of the black school in a county in South Carolina next to the white school in the same county - clearly separate but hardly equal.

"We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of 'seperate but equal' has no place.  Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

U.S. Supreme Count in Brown v. Board of Education, 1954

 

That night I was craving some more BBQ so after some 'yelping' I decided to try Boss Hawg's BBQ - it did not disappoint!  I had the pulled pork sandwich again with some spicy BBQ sauce and it was delicious!

Boss Hawg's in Topeka, KS

Seen inside the menu at Boss Hawgs - ha!

The next day after the Kansas Statewide SOAR meeting I headed back to KC, MO for what should have been a 3:30 PM flight to Cleveland and then back to Albany.  After a couple of delays the airline ended up canceling the flight all together which meant another night in Kansas City.  The airline put us up at a hotel, gave us a food voucher and rescheduled my flight for 7 AM the next morning.  The flight home was uneventful but that extra overnight in KC made the trip extremely long.  That Friday night I was so excited to see Adam and since I had had such a rough week (personally, professionally it was a great trip but between delayed and canceled flights, intense storms and a ton of driving the trip was seriously a comedy of errors at some points) he brought me flowers!  They were gorgeous!

Beautiful flowers after a long week away!

Three Ingredient 'Pancake'

The other morning I woke up starving and was craving pancakes; however I didn't want to go through the trouble of making 'actual' pancakes and I knew that we were going out to lunch later that day so I didn't want anything too heavy.  I had seen a recipe for two/three ingredient pancakes floating around the blog world and at first I completely dismissed it.  "There is not way you can make a decent pancake with just two or three ingredients!"  But, given my level of hungriness and my desire to not cook I figured I would give it a try!

 

The three ingredients are - 1 egg, 1 banana and 2 tablespoons peanut butter.  That's it!  (I also added about 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon - which is optional.)  The peanut butter is also optional which would make it a two ingredient pancake but I think the peanut butter definitely added to it!  Now I will admit that this does not taste 'like' a pancake but it definitely doesn't taste like an egg or banana.  It cooks up pretty much identical to a pancake and has the consistency of a non-fluffy pancake.  The ingredients yielded three decent sized pancakes and kept me full for the morning.

 

Three Ingredient Pancakes

 

Ingredients

1 large egg

1 ripe banana

2 TBS peanut butter

(1/2 tsp cinnamon - optional)

 

Directions

Mix all the ingredients ~ heat a greased or non-stick pan to medium heat ~ pour batter into pan and cook until golden brown and cooked through.

 

Egg, banana and peanut butter!

Cooking it up!



Looks like a pancake!

Give it a try and decide for yourself!

Hike Along the Ausable River (Adirondacks)

Last weekend Adam and I hiked along the Ausable River in the Adirondacks.  I have been really excited to post about this because it was exciting and beautiful but also extremely challenging.  Here is how it all began - about a year ago Adam took a hiking 101 class taught by Adirondack Mountain Club - also known as ADK (you see ADK bumper stickers all over the place around here).  Every year throughout the hiking season certified instructors will lead hikes of varying degrees of difficultly.  The levels of difficultly (D through A+, D being the lowest and A+ being the hardest) are assessed based on the elevation of the hike but not necessarily the terrain and overall level of difficulty; so the hike could be a C due to lack of elevation but could still be very hard. 

There are also the Adirondack High Peaks which consists of 46 peaks throughout the Adirondacks - many people challenge themselves to hike all 46 and from that point on are known as 46'ers.  We're planning on hiking at least one high peak this summer!  We are actually pretty luck here in the Capital Region because we have access to so many different mountain ranges - the Adirondacks, Catskills, Greens (VT) and Taconics (MA).  I consider myself a novice hiker - I never hiked growing up and just did a couple of outings last summer; slowly but surely though we are starting to do longer and more challenging hikes.  I have also started to acquire a lot of the necessary equipment - boots, gaiters, a back pack and a rain jacket - next up will probably be poles and maybe a pair of high top hiking boots.

 

So anyway - a while back ADK put out a list of upcoming hikes.  We looked at the calendar decided on a weekend where we didn't have much going on.  It just so happened that ADK was having a 'Waterfall Hike' outing that Saturday.  SOLD!  The hike was billed as a C+ on the scale of difficulty due to lack of elevation but we were told that we would be hiking about 10 miles and that it would take approximately 8 hours.  So the night before we laid out our hiking boots and clothes, packed up our packs and made sure that we had plenty of water.  The next morning we met up with the rest of our hiking group at 7 AM and carpooled to the trail head.  It took us about 2 hours to get from the meeting site to the trail head (including a stop for breakfast and one final bathroom break) and our hiking group consisted of 9 people - 7 women, 2 men with an average age (excluding me and Adam) of about 60 to 65.  Due to this we thought for sure it would be a slow hike but to be completely honest - some of those women kicked my butt!  Everyone on the hike was super experienced and at times I felt like I may have been in over my head.  It was then that I realized exactly how much of a novice I really was and just how much equipment I lacked.

 

Overall though the hike was great!  It was strenuous and at times very challenging.  We started out hiking next to the river and then within 15 minutes we would be high above it, only to be next to it again 15 minutes later.  We also saw some AMAZING waterfalls!  We ate lunch next to Beaver Meadow Falls and the hike climaxed when we reached Rainbow Falls (which was not an easy feat getting to).  Because we were high up in the Adirondacks the weather was very interesting - one minute it would be 60 degrees and I would be shedding a couple of my three layers but then it would begin snowing or hailing and I would need to bundle up again!  I wore everything from just a 1/4 zip jacket to that plus two coats and a rain coat.  Adam said I went through more costume changes than a Cher concert.  We also hiked over and through a bunch of different terrains including - snow, ice, water, rocks, downed trees, etc ...  And yes you read that right - snow and ice!  I was completely unprepared for that aspect of the hike.  At the time I did not own gaiters or micro-spikes, my hiking boots are low tops and I was wearing (thick) capries.  For a good portion of the hike we were hiking over and through a good bit of snow and at one point we were trudging through about 2 feet of snow!  I did have a mini-freak out at one point because it was so icy and apart of me was afraid I would slip and fall into the river (which was very, very cold).  In the end though everything turned out fine but Adam did say that watching me hike through snow was pretty much the equivalent of watching a baby deer on ice - it was sort of rough.

 

Once we reached Rainbow Falls and the 'hiking' portion of our hike was essentially over but we still had to walk about three miles back to the trail head.  By this time we were dead tired and even though it was a long walk back at least it didn't require jumping over streams, thrugging through snow or bush-whacking trail debris.  The hike was exhausting but so much fun!  I would go on another one in a heartbeat (properly outfitted for the conditions of course)!

 

Here are some pictures of the hike along with some recaps.  (I think we got some really great pics!)

 

 Rest area right before we entered the Adirondacks - welcoming us to the High Peaks!

 

Walking up to the trail head!

Great views already!

 

All set for the hike - wearing about four layers at this point - chilly!

We hiked the West River Trail along the Ausable River!

First bridge that we crossed.  Due to the melting snow and the huge rainstorm the night before the water was raging!  The rapids were insane and the sound of the water was so loud!

Walking across the first bridge!  Throughout the hike there were a ton of these wooden bridges - this one was definitely one of the most sturdy.

 View from the bridge looking downriver!

 

Hiking above the Ausable River - looking down onto another bridge. 

First waterfall and a bridge!

Close-ups of the first waterfall!

Waterfall!

Adam on the bridge - crossing over the waterfall/river.

Me on the rocks in front of the first Waterfall!

Picture time - Adam and the bridge/waterfall!

 

Waterfall #2 - Beaver Meadow Falls!

Beautiful waterfall!

Adam in front of Beaver Meadown Falls

 

Not a little waterfall by any means - makes me look tiny!

We ate lunch next to Beaver Meadow Falls and while we were eating it starting snowing!  Between the snow, wind and mist from the waterfall, I was freezing!

 

After lunch we walked down from Beaver Meadown Falls and began our treck toward Rainbow Falls.  Gorgous view of the mountains from along side the river!

Taken from the middle of a bridge over the Ausable River looking up toward a dam and the mountains.  So pretty!

Me and Rainbow Falls!

The hike to get to Rainbow Falls was not that easy - we had to hike through snow, ice and sover ome pretty big rocks along a very narrow path.  On top of that the waterfall was so big and powerful that we were getting soaked from the mist!  With the exception of Niagra Falls this was the biggest waterfall I have even seen/been close to.

Love this picture - another one of me and Rainbow Falls!

 Me and Adam - more toward the beginning of the hike before we were totally exhausted and waterlogged.  Check out the moutain in the background though.  This picture is now on my bulletin board at work!