run to eat :: repeat

training for half marathons + spells of saturnalia in Boston bars/restaurants BIO Amanda is a copywriter by trade, blogger by night, runner by nature and foodie at heart. All of the pictures on this blog have been taken with her *iPhone, which can be terrible for making phone calls but surprisingly apt at capturing photos. She lives in Boston, MA. *While it can be somewhat distracting to stop and get camera-happy while running, she'll be the first to tell you that it's been making training so much more dynamic--long, solo runs no longer feel as aimless, now they're about... reporting, and documenting bits of beauty along the way. BACKGROUND This blog's inception was August 1st, 2010 with the goal to use this space as an exercise log as I trained for my third half marathon. Some of my milestones, to date: HALF MARATHONS 5/5/13, Gloucester's Twin Lights half marathon: 1:49:52 2/24/13, Hyannis half marathon: 2:02:07 5/12/12, Gloucester's Twin Lights half marathon: 1:53:02 10/16/11, Newport half marathon: 1:55:52 2/27/11, Hyannis half marathon: 1:58:12 11/21/10, Philadelphia half marathon: 2:00:40 2/28/10, Hyannis half marathon: 2:10:09 5/24/09, Boston's Run to Remember: 2:05:21 OUTLIERS 12/14/14, Jingle Bell 5K: 26:02 10/13/14, Tufts 10K: 49:44 2/5/12, Super Sunday 5-miler, 40:09 8/14/11, Falmouth Road Race (7 miles): 56:57 12/19/10, Jingle Bell 5K: 29:21 6/5/10, Harpoon 5-miler: 49:28 2/7/10, Super Sunday 10K: 56:28 12/13/09, Jingle Bell 5K: 28:21 10/12/09, Tufts 10K: 1:00:45 8/8/09, Falmouth Road Race (7 miles): 1:02:53 6/6/09, Harpoon 5-miler: 46:42 3/22/09, An Ras Mor 5K: 26:33 2/1/09, Super Sunday 5K: 25:47 A NOTE ON THE OBVIOUS RESTAURANTEERING AND INDULGENCE While running and exercising can become so awesomely addictive, I really believe it shouldn't mean, in turn, that calorie counting ought to become obsessive. Life was meant to be lived, and if you're taking on some gnarly mileage in brutal conditions I don't think it's unreasonable to treat yourself to a glass of something barrel-aged or whiskey-washed, 2 rocks, hold the fruit. Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-20231511-2']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();

[runtoeatrepeat]

1/1/15: RUNTOEATDONE

:: new year, new projects ahead ::

Tumblr, we've had a great run--hundreds of runs, in fact / since August 1st, 2010, you've helped me track mile after city mile, documenting the Charles and esplanade, the Mass Ave. bridge, skylines and sunsets, the Harborwalk, Castle Island... / and, of course, all those restaurants, all of those intoxicating cocktails

I've never taken the time to add up every mile I've logged, and I wonder: what if I were to take all of those miles and compress them into a single line--how far would it stretch?

--2 HOURS LATER--

let's check out the stats:

2010: 370 MILES (August 1st - December)

2011: 725 MILES

2012: 600 MILES

2013: 530 MILES

2014: 550 MILES

*note: - stats don't include Boot Camp sessions, hikes, bike rides and other non-running activities - for every run from Fort Point to Charlestown that I used to log as 4 miles pre- my RunKeeper app, I added an extra .5 since GPS has confirmed its 4.5-mile distance - when there were gaps in the blog, I referred to my Google calendar as my primary resource (I've been cataloging runs as "events" since January of '09, when the running bug first bit me) - and, there are imperfections--when life got especially busy, like when I got married or was writing features for the Improper, some of my runs fell off the map

so! what've we got?

roughly 2,775 miles

it's the distance between Boston and Las Vegas if you take 1-70 West / it's what separates two lovers / it's the equivalent of walking up and down the length of Massachusetts at its most distant point 14.6 times 

it's been running the same routes, over and over, and always seeing new things / it's been a dozen pairs of sneakers from Marathon Sports / it's been sweating, spitting, and snot-rocketing on sidewalks year-round, for four years--every jog, a part of me seeping into the city's architecture

and it's been getting to know all of you #runblrs and #fitblrs (I'm looking at you ironphenix, josethompson, thesaltydreams, iron-inside, uhoh-janellio, snap-eat-love, yearwon, 94monkeys, 2721west, kaylarunshappy, thehonestpalate, runamour, seestephyrun, ibikealaska, thebestmel, mp5misha, neon-spandex, 6n6challenge, pondera, sherjan, seemissmjanerun, breatherunlive, gastronomyandlifesotherpleasures), and following your records and achievements, your goals and transformations / and loving every time you hit that heart icon or I felt compelled to click it on one of your posts

...this has been like living in a healthy, sunny neighborhood where everyone supports one another, and I want to thank you for that / I'm sad to leave /

but it's important to know when something has ended so that something new can begin--a fresh start

I wish you the best, and I'll leave you with this:

"I really regret that run"  - Said no one. Ever.

[runtoeatrepeat]

10/30 MILEAGE: 5 MILES

:: North End + Fort Point switchback ::

"Here's what I see all across this great city--people working together to make Boston a better place to live and to raise children, to grow and pursue dreams." - Mayor Menino

[runtoeatrepeat]

10/28 MILEAGE: 4 MILES

:: Southie loop ::

I’ve been more of a tumbleweed than a Tumblr lately ;) / but I’ve been running and boot camping and biking toward the sun before it disappears for the winter

sailor’s delight tonight

hope you’re all doing well :) xo

[runtoeatrepeat]

when going out to eat is your reason to live, there’s no greater privilege than writing about restaurants you love :)

introducing The Improper Bostonian's Best Food + Drink 2014! / honored to've co-written it w/ big cheese MC Slim JB

[runtoeatrepeat]

6/6 MILEAGE: A 4-MILE RUN + 17-MILE BIKE RIDE + CAVA, KUMAMOTOS AND P.E.I.s

sometimes you've just got to take a day for yourself, and see where the road takes you :) / ...and after an early morning waterfront jog + a deliciously, sun-scorched didn't-realize-how-far-I'd-gone Cambridgeside ride, Neptune Oyster called to me

...there's something Sunday-specifically marvelous about scoring a stool at a neighborhood gem, and posting up for a glass of bubbly effervescence + snacks / while chatting w/ a couple visiting from Virginia, I grazed on 1/2 a dozen oysters--Kumamotos, Kusshis, a Beausoleil and Summerside--and a red-curried bowl of P.E.I.s w/ cilantro, toasted cashews, and scallions / sublime

ah, July! :)

[runtoeatrepeat]

6/25 - 6/29 MILEAGE: BOOT CAMP + 8 MILES (and a 64-MILE DRIVE TO OLDE CAPE COD)

over the weekend, my pals Rachel and Paul got married in our hometown at the storybook-beautiful Heritage Museums & Gardens / you really can't beat a waterfall, dogwoods, and daylilies + picture-perfect sunbeams as your setting / glorious!

the night before the wedding, my folks + John and I checked out Oak & Ember, a new whiskey bar + grill in Mashpee / we were totally impressed--I loved my jumbo grilled shrimp over cool avocado gazpacho, w/ superbly al dente, had-to've-been-blanched asparagus (photo 1) / they had live music (as they do every Thursday and Friday night), and our server, Will, was so charming we wanted to pull up a chair so he could join us / great ambience, +140 wallet-friendly whiskeys, and unpretentious, hard-to-narrow-down-your-options eats / will definitely be back!

hope you all had a lovely, sun-drenched weekend!!

[runtoeatrepeat]

6/10 - 6/23: LIVING FOR THE WEEKEND

24 miles of running, a 12-mile bike ride, 2 boot camps, beach strolls, and several summery beverages / June, you're gorgeous, never leave!!

I've been reading a lot of Tony Hoagland lately and even though it's melancholy and I don't feel that way at all, I'm in love with one of his poems, "A Color of the Sky"

...

Last summer’s song is making a comeback on the radio,   and on the highway overpass, the only metaphysical vandal in America has written   MEMORY LOVES TIME in big black spraypaint letters,

which makes me wonder if Time loves Memory back. Last night I dreamed of X again. She’s like a stain on my subconscious sheets.   Years ago she penetrated me but though I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed,   I never got her out, but now I’m glad. What I thought was an end turned out to be a middle.   What I thought was a brick wall turned out to be a tunnel.   What I thought was an injustice turned out to be a color of the sky. Outside the youth center, between the liquor store   and the police station, a little dogwood tree is losing its mind; overflowing with blossomfoam,   like a sudsy mug of beer; like a bride ripping off her clothes, dropping snow white petals to the ground in clouds, so Nature’s wastefulness seems quietly obscene.   It’s been doing that all week: making beauty, and throwing it away, and making more.

hope you're all getting outside/loving life/soaking in every single ray of sun

xo

[runtoeatrepeat]

6/6 - 6/9: SUMMERTIME :)

Friday :: replied “Why yes!" to offers of wine and cheese while perusing the galleries of SoWa / Friday Fridays are lovely, and free—mark your calendar / …and had deliciously late nightcaps at Wink & Nod, their LeBrock cocktail (photo 2) a smoky, sweet exploding star of peaty Kilchoman Loch Gorm whisky and maraschino liqueur

Saturday :: ran 4 miles thru a tranquil, emptied-out North End / then drove over to Castle Island w/ a beach chair and cooler, and sat suntanning + reading The Goldfinch for 4 hours / what an exquisitely simple pleasure

Sunday :: spent the morning at Good Harbor beach, in Gloucester (photo 1) / took my first dip of the summer—skin-tingling, invigorating, June at last / then met good friends in the Seaport for dinner + drinks, made it home in time for Game of Thrones

and—woof—Monday :: back at it: ran 4 miles, cooked a great meal, skipped booze in favor of tea / …am already counting down the days ‘til I can get back to the beach ;)

[runtoeatrepeat]

                         devour, polish off, inhale, chow down…                                   bite, cram, scarf, pork out…

sorry for being so MIA! I’ve been writing a food + drink feature for the Improper, and thinking of nothing but eating for the past 3 weeks / nearly a month of craving every possible thing: Txakolina wine, lamb shanks, sashimi, white asparagus soup, ricotta-stuffed french toast, Muscovy duck, donuts, burritos / ...and whew, now it's done! :)

along the way, I set aside time to go running, too—taking on 32 mostly springy miles + boot camp w/ friends from work / there’s this quote from Haruki Murakami that I keep at my desk:

Writing a novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity.

and I think that’s so true / when you’re bending your mind, it helps to be—and feel—strong, so you can harness that confidence into words that are sound, alive, authoritative

it's like imagining the brain as a muscle: supplying the perfect sentence after 10 solid push-ups; a 4-mile run, and it's pumping out a paragraph...

and let's be honest: wine also helps / the happy accident of finding this elegant Pinot Noir Rosé (from Elk Cove Vineyards, in Willamette Valley) inspired breakthroughs, and helped keep my eye on the prize of picnics on hot summer nights

hope you all have been doing wonderfully, + I'm looking forward to catching up on everything you've been up to :)

xo

[runtoeatrepeat]

4/21 - 5/12 MILEAGE: 33 MILES (x7 4-MILERS + A 5-MILE RUN)

:: spring! ::

If ever there were a spring day so perfect, so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze that it made you want to throw open all the windows in the house and unlatch the door to the canary's cage, indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths and the garden bursting with peonies seemed so etched in sunlight that you felt like taking a hammer to the glass paperweight on the living room end table, releasing the inhabitants from their snow-covered cottage so they could walk out, holding hands and squinting into this larger dome of blue and white, well, today is just that kind of day. - Billy Collins

this time of year is nuts! but I've been making time for ...

home cookin'--seared steak w/ mashed taters and a reduced balsamic drizzled over blanched broccolini / meeting breeders, holding 3-week-young chubby puppies and looking into getting a dog (!!!) / greeting lemonhead tulips in the North End / and having way too much fun (again!) at Merrill & Co.

(all together now) it's finally warm and sunny--HALLELUJAH/YES/THANK YOU/FINALLY!

[runtoeatrepeat]

4/6 - 4/20: Morocco Sahara Odyssey

:: Casablanca > Rabat > Volubilis > Fez > Sahara tented camps > Tineghir > High Atlas Mountains > Marrakesh ::

Hot tea in the Sahara. I read the mint leaves when they dried--they told me, "Dig your heels in as you're going down," and "Toes first, climb against the resistance of sand until you've reached a crest of dune, and look: everything, reshaped by the wind"

I came away w/ such perspective--Morocco a master class in Smell as an Artifact (from spoiled milk to fresh mint and citrus), Sound as Substance (the soundproof vacuum of the desert v. donkey-stomping, hammering, and spirited haggling in the souks) / someone could remake The Labyrinth, starring Fez, w/ even more enchantment than the first

...I’ll write a longer synopsis soon, but in the meantime, here are a couple hundred photos ;)

[runtoeatrepeat]

4/1 - 4/6 MILEAGE: 8 MILES (x2 4-MILE RUNS) + A STRENGTH-TRAINING SESSION

:: and a lil' home cookin' before I hit the road ::

leaving for Morocco this afternoon!! 

still can't believe I'm going... / hope the next two weeks treat all of you well, and I'll try to check in when I have wifi! :)

xo

[runtoeatrepeat]

3/24 - 3/31 MILEAGE: 12 MILES (x3 4-MILE RUNS) + A STRENGTH-TRAINING SESSION

:: in and out like a lion ::

just finished watching Seasons 1 and 2 of The Killing--a murder mystery based in Seattle, the backdrop a grim gloom-fest of hard rain and murk--and yesterday's run felt like I was jogging through their set: spitting rain and howling winds, the harbor a snarl of whitecaps / it may be spring but it doesn't feel like it, and almost doesn't count

so I've been retreating to some of my favorite spots: Shojo (photo 1) in Chinatown, where cocktails like the Ozawa's Kiss w/ Japanese whiskey, yellow chartreuse, benedictine and bitters coaxed me from our winter of discontent; and (photo 2) the Boston Garden to see what's left of the Celtics (...next time, will get the name of that DJ--he makes crowds go bananas in North Station after games)

and went somewhere new, to Sarma (photos 3 and 4) w/ John + our pals Mike and Elyse / we shared a dozen of the Turkish menu's small plates--hot dates stuffed w/ goat cheese and dusted w/ harissa; a fava bean paté of the richest, smoothest texture—each dish fearlessly packed w/ seasoning like za'atar (similar to thyme) and dukkah (ground herbs and hazelnuts) / what an incredible festival of flavors / these were some of the best dishes I’ve tasted in Boston/Cambridge

loved sampling so many staples from across the Atlantic--especially because, come April 6, my work is sending me on a 2-week writer trip to Morocco (!!!!)

...I cannot wait to taste tajine (a slow-cooked stew), bstila (squab pie), mint tea, and couscous / I'll be traveling with 15 people from across the U.S., our Trip Leader guiding us to Casablanca, Fez, and Marrakesh ... a tented camp in the Sahara ... oasis villages and kasbahs in the lowlands of the Middle and High Atlas Mountains ... / I can't believe I'm going, I feel so damn lucky, and I can't wait to tell you about it :)

[runtoeatrepeat]

3/12 - 3/23 MILEAGE: 18 MILES (x3 4-MILERS + A 6-MILE RUN) + A STRENGTH-TRAINING SESSION

:: spring? ::

like the cool, understated kid in class who throws the most epic house party once his parents go away for the weekend, Merrill & Co. is primed to loft into urban legend--winning friends w/ realness the minute they walk in the door, and keeping them there w/ playful, inspired eats and drinks / we had such a blast at dinner that we only took one picture (photo 1)--all smiles after plucking mussels from a pool of ginger and red curry, taking down a "Big Boy" branzino drizzled w/ cucumber dressing, and sipping several expertly crafted cocktails devised by bevvy director, Kevin Mabry / loved the sea foam agave of the Ocean Mist, and could spend endless nights barside w/ their man, Jim Rose: he's warm and sweet (bourbon, grenadine), sharp (a splash of limey acidity), and wry (just-a-hint of bitter fernet) / ...the party's at 1 Appleton, bring your green hat

...otherwise, have been jogging in late-day yellow dusk (photo 2), binging on March Madness (photo 3), and watching new construction pop from every used-to-be parking lot around Fort Point and the Seaport (photo 4) / I ought to take more neighborhood shots--they'll be "vintage" by 2015 ;)

[runtoeatrepeat]

3/2 - 3/11 MILEAGE: 20.25 MILES (x3 4-MILERS + AN 8.25-MILE RUN + A STRENGTH-TRAINING SESSION)

:: (finally) above freezing, and thank you daylight savings :) ::

over the weekend, we cooked a hearty feast--apple cider-brined chops w/ tater, onion, and broccolini--courtesy of this no sweat recipe from Bon Appétit / our pals Emily and Eric brought an emerald-bright kale salad w/ goat cheese and baby tomatoes / conversation constant, unaware of who refilled that wine glass, contentedly cartwheeling out of the caves we'd burrowed into this winter

...running tonight, the sun a bright, exploding lemon--still lukewarm, yet gigantic, imploding, here--I had this sense that we're out of the woods, that the bone-chilling suck has passed / lungs elastic and stretchy, breathing easy, searing-like-a-steak-on-hot-iron aware of how goddamn luxurious 59 degrees can feel

you have to be mad to live here, but like your toughest teacher you've hated her for pushing you, but look how far you've come--skin a bit thicker, mind a bit sharpened, ready for spring like a graduate naked beneath your gown

[runtoeatrepeat]

2/26 - 3/1 MILEAGE: 12.5 MILES (4-MILE + 8.5-MILE RUNS)

"I don't hate it, he thought, panting in the cold air, the iron New England dark; I don't. I don't! I don't hate it! I don't hate it!” ― William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!

have been beating the winter blues by going out for cocktails + dinner / met w/ 8 pals to try Kirkland Tap & Trotter (photo 2), the new Cambridge baby of revered, James Bearded chef/owner, Tony Maws / had a lovely housemade whole wheat pasta (pictured) and a stewy, fall-off-the-bone lamb shank aloft a feathery celery root mash / they poached one of our favorite bartenders, Tyler, from No. 9 Park who will kick it w/ you while you're finishing your nightcap--he's super talented and charismatic, a gem

...not pictured, but also loved our recent visit to Alden & Harlow, in Harvard Square where Casablanca used to be / chef Michael Scelfo (formerly of Russell House Tavern) smokes his mussels, serves grits and kumquat w/ pork belly, and slow-roasts beef neck 'til it sings--succulent, surrendering to even the tiniest tug of your fork

...uh, I guess thank you, frigid winter for simply forcing me to try new restaurants? ;)

[runtoeatrepeat]

2/11 - 2/24 MILEAGE: 16 MILES (x2 4-MILERS + AN 8-MILE RUN) + 3 STRENGTH TRAINING SESSIONS

:: arctic tundra ::

an untranslatable word from the Inuit, Iktsuarpok: the feeling of anticipation that leads you to keep looking outside to see if anyone is coming 

...at the window, by the river, and at the fork in the road, i'm waiting on your arrival (spring, come soon)