fried green tomaters
Yesterday was a great day. First off, it was a Saturday. What’s better than a day devoted to not working?! Next, I ran the Tom Walker Memorial half marathon on the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail. It’s a beautiful course, 13.1 paved miles on a walking/biking trail that follows the old railroad line from the city of Gainesville to Hawthorne (hence the name), and cuts through Paynes Prairie Natural Preserve. I was surrounded by trees and nature and challenged by some not so gradual hills. The morning started out cool and crisp and melted into the perfect temperature, seventy degrees with low humidity. Three of my fellow team-in-training teammates and our coach ran the race with me.
The time on my watch after I crossed the finish line and threw-up (yes, it happens to all of us sometimes) was 2:20:40. I think the puking added some seconds, so I’m putting my official time at two hours, twenty minutes even. The Tom Walker is an extra special race for me. I’ve run this race the past two years, and the first time in 2007 was my very first race ever. That year, my time was 2:47, last year it was a respectable 2:37 and this year I was 17 minutes faster (woo-who)! I think I might be doing something right.
After the half marathon, my sister and I took trek to the Downtown Art festival (downtown Gainesville) and had our fill of some well deserved greasy fair foods. Root beer floats, popcorn, lemonade and my personal favorite and one of my reasons for living in the south, fried green “tomaters”.
Green tomatoes, covered in the most delicious coating, deep fried and served piping hot with a small vat of ranch dressing…mmm. Comatose from the sugar overload, the rest of the day was devoted to netflix. On the schedule, an eclectic mix of vintage cool Mad Men and the fraking awesome sci fi adventure Battlestar Galactica. Like I said, a great day!
