I know I've talked before about how much I absolutely love tailgate season. Nothing is better than hanging out with friends in a parking lot, grilling up food and playing tailgates games.


But tailgating for hours on end every weekend also means I eat some really not-good-for-you food. Your typical tailgate staples include chips and dip, burgers and hot dogs, cookies, brownies, etc.

Since I spend so much time at tailgates and I try to be mindful of what I'm eating, especially when I'm training, I've decided that at each tailgate this season, I'm going to bring a healthy, vegetarian dish to the party that fits in with the tailgate theme.

Last week's theme was seafood because we were playing Miami and because crabcakes and football is what Maryland does. So of course the star ingredient in my recipe was Old Bay.



For last week's dish, I created a recipe for an Old Bay Couscous Salad.

Ingredients:

2 c couscous
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 red onion
4 celery stalks chopped thin
1 can chickpeas
Old Bay
1 individual container of fat free plain Greek yogurt
1 c Italian dressing

Directions:

1. Prepare couscous according to the packages instructions. Add a generous shake of Old Bay to mix.

2. Chop all your veggies and in a large bowl toss them with the couscous.

3. In a separate container, mix the Greek yogurt and Italian dressing. Add about 4 teaspoons of Old Bay (depending on how strong you like the flavor). Mix well and then toss with the salad.

4. Chill for several hours before serving and feel free to add more Old Bay before eating.



This was a hit with everyone at the tailgate, even my skeptical friends who didn't think healthy food of any sort belongs at a tailgate.

I'm hoping I can keep surprising my friends this season with yummy and healthy tailgate food. Maybe by the end of the season I'll have convinced a bunch of skeptics that healthy food can still be good tailgate food.

The weather forecast in D.C. this week has been dismal. Rain all day, every day with lots of flash flood warnings.



What a great week for my half marathon training to start!

Despite the nasty weather, I was determined to not let it completely derail my first week of training, so when the storms let up a bit on Tuesday I headed out for a quick three miler. I was hoping the rain would hold off until I got home, but I wasn't so lucky.

About a mile in to the run the skies opened up and another round of torrential downpours blew through. By the time I got home, I looked like a drowned rat.


At least I was smart and wore my back up running shoes, since they were completely soaked by the time I got home.



Yesterday the weather was even worse, with wicked thunderstorms rolling through. I decided not to tempt fate and skipped my tempo run in favor of not getting struck by lightening.

Things have only mildly improved today, which doesn't leave me hopeful for the runs I have scheduled today and tomorrow. I didn't realize I had suddenly moved to Seattle. What gives D.C. weather? I need these storm cells to pass quickly so I focus on my training and get in the runs I need to.

This weekend I ran a total spur of the moment 5K.

After my super speedy run last week, I wanted to make my new 5K PR official in an actual race.

Picking out which 5K to do was easy.  A whole bunch of my family was already registered for the Kentlands 5K and I made a last minute decision to join the party.


Aunt Marybeth, my cousin Kenny, his fiance Nikki, my cousin Laura, me

I don't think I've ever been so nervous before a 5K in my life. I hit the porta-potties three times before the race started. I normally only pee that much before long races because those actually still scare me a little.

But I wanted a new PR and I wanted it bad. I guess the pressure was on.

About 10 minutes before the start of the race, my aunt, cousins and I all split up and headed to our individual corrals. Yep, this was a 5K with a wave start, something I've never experienced before, but it definitely helped with the crowds on the course.

I was nervous heading into the corral for 8-9 minute miles. I never start in a group that runs that fast and I really didn't feel like I belonged there among the "fast people."

I stretched a little bit, hopped up and down to get the blood flowing and fired off a quick "Please let me set a new PR" prayer.

The race started on a downhill and I did my best to keep my speed in check during the first mile. I was trying to find that happy pace where I was pushing hard, but not going out too fast and burning out at mile 2.5.


Laura and Kenny near mile one (source)

The course climbed from mile 1.5 to 2.5. I kept looking at Garmin to see where my pace was and it was definitely falling off a little bit. I latched on to a guy who was running near my speed and decided to stick with him the rest of the course.

He'd cruise past me on uphills, running them much more efficiently than I did, but I'd fly by him on the downhills.

As we hit the last downhill into the finish, he took off.

I didn't have much more gas left in the tank at that point, but I pushed as hard as I could and crossed the finish line in 26:21, an average pace of 8:29.


(Source)

My previous PR was 27:36, so I shaved more than a minute off that time.

I hustled back to the finish line so I could watch everyone else finish and of course I missed every single person. Good thing the race people took lots of finish line pictures!

Laura had the most intense sprint to the finish ever and she finished only a few seconds off her time from our race earlier this summer!


(Source)

Nikki and Kenny finished about a minute apart, and Kenny ran the whole thing in his Vibrams.


(Source)

And my Aunt Marybeth finished her first ever race in just about 40 minutes!


(Source)

All around it was a solid day of racing for the Milcetich family.

I'm so, so excited that my family had fun racing. I'm hoping this means I'll be able to get them to run lots of other races with me!