The joy of running

"Workouts are like brushing my teeth; I don't think about them, I just do them. The decision has already been made."~Patti Sue Plummer 

Other than feeling so good when done, what are some reasons to run?  Honestly, it's all about food.  I grew up in a food-centric family.  My Grandmother, Cecelia Horey, whom I adored for as many of her 99 years as I knew her, was my idol.  This was a woman who could cook.  You name it:  cakes, cookies, pies, pastries... she was head baker at the Park Country Club in Buffalo, NY, for the better part of 50 years.  We visited her at least once per week for all of my formative years, guaranteeing my lifelong love of all things gooey and sweet.  :)   

My Grandma and my kids

All of my family followed suit -- everyone cooks, bakes, and specializes in culinary delicacies, except me.  I never had to learn; the rest of the group does it for me!  When friends and acquaintances invite me to "feasts", I generally am a little underwhelmed (no offense), because as some of my Polish relatives say, "Dat ain't nut-in", when I compare what I see with what I grew up with.  


My most dear friend, Mary, is a bonafide cook in her own right.  (I seem to attract people who cook, a good thing since I don't.)  She's not much on self-promotion, so I'll do the bragging for her.  She beat 4000+ other contestants to win a national cupcake contest, and an appearance on CBS's The Early Show to demonstrate her skill making them!  Mary is a contributor to annarbor.com, and is well-known in the food blogging world as the Food Floozie.


Mary has heard me talk about the food my family makes for many years, so this year we made a spur of the moment decision on Easter Eve to drive to my home town for her to do some true Polish Easter sampling.  Even she, food connoisseur that she is, was impressed by both quality and quantity.  You owe it to yourself to take a look at the largess here in Mary's post on the subject.


Left to my own devices, gaining weight isn't much of an issue, since, as I said, I just don't cook.  But this spring, I not only ate more pierogies than I could count on Easter Sunday, I took a big plate of them home with me, along with huge samplings of everything else, enough for a month.  Then I visited home again for a camping trip in May, a whole new set of tasty delicacies.  Then June arrived, I went to New Orleans, consumed more than just a few beignets ... e voila!  Oh, yes, it was definitely time to run, and run a LOT, so that when the opportunity presents itself the next time to partake of some excellent food preparation, I will be ready.  Bon appetit! 


Até amanhã... 


7/7/11 - 3.9 miles | 48 mins | 4.9 mph | 413 kcal