The Weekend Before PDX Marathon

This past week has been both very relaxing run-wise due to marathon tapering but also jam-packed with activities.

This blog post will be pretty random, all over the place, so bear with me.

Last week, I had an amazing dinner with my friend Laura at the new Rione XIII, an Ethan Stowell restaurant. While I don’t have pictures of the meal, I can say that the ambience was great and the food very rustic Roman and delicious. We enjoyed bread from Grand Central Bakery, a fried artichoke appetizer, and a couple of really delicious pastas… one was the gnocchi and the the other one was a pasta with percorino Romano and black pepper. Ethan Stowell even served us our food. How cool is that?

Last Thursday evening, we enjoyed the UW-Stanford football game at Century Link. I’m so not used to going to a weekday game. It’s definitely a different experience. No tailgating, but in its place we enjoyed a couple beers at the Safeco beer garden.

In addition to the beer, we enjoyed some delicious, fresh kettle corn! Seriously, this stuff is good.

The game itself was great. It was awesome to see the Huskies beat Stanford as the underdogs. My heart still belongs to my Oregon Ducks, though. #2, baby!

As a side note, my new subscription of Runner’s World came. It had been on hiatus for quite a while, but we’re bringing it back into the household. I have way too many magazine subscriptions. I’m excited about this issue for the nutrition and food tips.

On Friday night, Joe and I did something we haven’t done before. We instituted secret date night. Well, I decided that we should rotate turns to plan secret date nights, essentially planning everything out and surprising the other person. Isn’t that a good idea? There may be some restaurants or activities that I would like to try and the person in charge of secret date night gets the say.

For our first go at this, I planned a surprise dinner at Cascina Spinasse. Based on reviews and friends’ recommendations, we just had to go. One of the best Italian food experiences in Seattle.

We started off with complimentary bites of a toasted cracker with foie gras and marinated blueberry. That was the only thing I wasn’t a fan of. I’m not a fan of foie gras.

But the bread? Yes, I was a big fan. These carbs were good for my last long run before the marathon.

The ambience was very intimate and romantic, perfect for a secret date night.

To start, we had the Insalata di cicoria di campo, a local chicory salad with marinated rabbit, parmigiano-reggiano and balsamico. It was my first time having rabbit and I must say that it was very tasty. To me, it was similar to Thanksgiving turkey.

For our entree, we split a full size portion of the Tajarin al ragù o burro e salvia with Ragu, a small portion of the same pasta with Butter & Sage, and the Ravioli con cipolle e spinaci, a spinach and speck ravioli. Holy yum.

The sage and butter pasta was probably my very favorite. So creamy, the pasta obviously fresh… definitely melt-in-your-mouth.

Spinasse — I give you two thumbs up!!

After dinner, we hit up another Capitol Hill favorite, Bluebird Microcreamery, for ice cream.

The ice cream I had was called Fluffhead, which was a milk chocolate ice cream with globs of fluff, chunks of Theo chocolate, and a caramel swirl. Soooo good.

With a belly full of carby goodness, I went to bed ready to attack my last long run of marathon training.

Saturday morning, I slept in as the long run was single-digit. No need to wake up so early. I made a delicious breakfast to fuel my run.

The pup definitely loves licking the plate.

Once I let my tummy digest, I set off on my last “long” run of Portland Marathon training. I quote long as this is quite short in comparison to all the double-digit runs of late.

It was a bit nostalgic as I’ve been used to running the Burke-Gilman Trail frequently during this training cycle. Also nostalgic as it’ll soon turn to Fall in Seattle, but for now I completely enjoyed the scenery and nice weather.

The scenery cannot be beat. What also cannot be beat is how much I sweat during the run. And, although I am not showing my entire outfit I’m still in love with my Oiselle Mesh Tank in Violet and the Oiselle Roga Short in Black. I just placed a huge order of goodies to treat myself for accomplishing my second marathon this year. Can’t wait to receive the stuff!

After my long run was complete, we relaxed a little before getting ready for the wedding of our friends, Ryan and Lucy. I’ll keep this part short, but it was such a blast. What I loved was all the love and passion in the room, the fun dance party atmosphere, the beautiful Lake Union Cafe venue, and… the fact that the Seahawks mascot, Blitz, came to object during the ceremony! Ryan is the NFL mascot and so this was a get surprise to us guests.

The wedding was a blast but the aftermath when I got home was not a pretty sight. I will spare you the yucky details. Note to self: go easy on the drinks during such a short period!

Sunday morning came and we just had to go to Serious Biscuit for one of our favorite brunch options. I chose the fried green tomato, bacon, and remoulade biscuit and it was so good. Delish.

The rest of the day was spent going to the ring shop to pick up our permanent setting. It’ll be here in one month, but for the time being I will admire how sparkly my ring is after a steam clean. It’s amazing!