So a couple weeks ago I bought a book: 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Atlanta. I was hoping for some new routes to run and also some fun day hikes to take.
Well I tried out my first trail last weekend. The book has a section of hikes that are "good for runners." Within this section, the authors listed the Silver Comet Trail, which as I know all too well is paved and pretty flat. So I noticed a trail called the Kolb's Farm Loop in the same section and decided to try it. Unfortunately, I would never group this trail with the Silver Comet, and I would never try to run there (even though I did see several runners). I went with Ryan and we ended up just hiking together instead of me trying to run the thing. The first problem was that there was poop (it's a horse-allowed trail), everywhere. Everywhere. The second was that it was very steep in some parts, and running up and down steep gravel hills is not my idea of a fun time. And third, there were some really swampy, smelly spots.
There were some good parts though:
Someone made a little chair out of the end of a fallen tree log. A funny sight.
We took a detour to China and visited a bamboo forest & my Asian roots.
We saw the actual Kolb's farm, which is currently a private residence.
We viewed Civil War battlefields and earthworks.
We saw a deer! Eating crack corn in someone's backyard.
And most importantly, we finished. 5 mile hike, with some difficult parts. I was really proud of Ryan, I think it was a new milestone for him. It was a good time :) even with the poop.
Saturday is the Grand Opening of The Silver Comet Trail. Yes, yes, it's been open for a while, but now it's completely paved all the way to Alabama, making it the longest paved trail in America!
7:30 AM is the bike sendoff...2:00 PM at the Alabama/Georgia state line is the Ceremony/Party. How appropriate...the same weekend as the huge Alabama/Georgia game.
So just had a great weekend, a perfect balance of relaxing, fun, activity, and friends from all over! I decided to lump everything together into one post...so here goes!
Friday Lime Taqueria kiwis: taste 3, ambience 4, service 3
Here is how Friday dinner decision-making goes... Ryan: where do you want to eat? Me: I don't know...are you craving anything? Ryan: I could go for anything. Me: Hmm me too...
So we often times end up driving around, smart phones tuned in to Yelp & Google Maps. As we near things that sound good, we look up reviews and/or websites and then decide on a place to eat. Random! But it works :)
So we ended up at Lime Taqueria on Friday. It's a cute little place in the West Village at 285 & Atlanta Rd. The interior is really cute, and they had live music. The music was cool but we opted to eat outside since the weather was nice and we wanted to be able to hear each other. For appetizers we tried guacamole, tuna tostadas, and avocado salad. Everything was good, but not awesome. I was a little disappointed in the tuna tostadas. It was 3 chips with 1 piece each of seared tuna. I was expecting a little more substance for the price!
For dinner, we tried a variety of tacos: lobster, chorizo, pork, carne asada, chicken. Those are my tacos, and the carne asada was my favorite! Each was delicious, but I was hoping for more. We had sides of plantains (which were amazing!!! mmm) and yucca fries (not as amazing). I may go back, I may not. It's a really cute, trendy place where you have to shell out a lot of $$ for not much food. Thank goodness I had a $25 gift card.
After much finagling, pushing, and shoving, we managed to get my bike into Ryan's car to meet my friend/co-worker Holly at the Silver Comet. We biked from Smyrna Bicycles on the East-West Connector out to mile 10 on the Silver Comet, which was a little bit past the Powder Springs trailhead. It was SO MUCH FUN. My butt hurt so bad at the end of our out & back 21 miles, but man, it was great!! I want to do this at least once a month. Maybe start at different trailheads to get further out towards Alabama. And one day, I would like to bike all the way to Alabama. I think it'd be so fun to take it leisurely and stop at all the cute little towns or historic places of interest. And, it's only 60 miles! :) Anyone want to come along?
Here are some pics, proof that we made it 10 miles out, and a pic for my mom so that she can see I still use my Christmas present: Oh and coincidentally, I ran into another co-worker at the trail who is training for the Callaway Gardens triathlon. What are the chances? I wished him good luck! Maybe one day I'll be fit enough to do one?
Yes it's a chain. But has anyone noticed their total rebrand? It's awesome! And the ABC on South Cobb is probably the nicest and tastiest I have ever been to. I'm sad it's not closer to my house (free wifi!). The only problem was that there were only 2 or 3 workers. Severely understaffed. Nice people though, and lots of people there who were coming off or hitting the trail. I had a chicken pesto panini that just hit the spot! delicious.
Georgia Dome I won't rate this on kiwis, but I will say that although the renovations are AWESOME, the food hasn't really improved that much. I tried a cheeseburger (ok) and fries (horrible). But there seems to be more options than there used to be...
I really just wanted to mention it because it is SO much better than it used to be. The red & black is really intimidating and I'm glad the outdated, faded pictures of sites around GA are gone. I know the Falcons must be pumped. And even with how much bigger it feels, you can still run into people you know (another co-worker! random). And even though the home team lost, I had a great time watching (the video intro shown at the beginning of game and beginning of 2nd half is really good! The falcon is so scary, it gave me chills!)
I love love love Taco Mac. I could go there any day of the week. This day happened to be Saturday, and we walked in the moment the last relay for Michael Phelps was in progress. It was a real American moment for me. Every TV was on the race. Every person in the place was yelling & screaming & cheering. It was surreal. And then the Americans won, and Michael Phelps got his 8th gold. I can't really describe the moment. I got a little tear...and I'll always remember it!
But yeah Taco Mac always has the best sports on awesome flat screen TVs, good people there, and the best queso dip in the city. Even though our server was busy, another server covered for her while the other caught up on her tables. I thought that was really nice considering the chaos that ensued after Team USA's win. We went with my old roomie Linds and 2 of her friends, and then also ran into 2 of my friends from NorthPoint/Fusion. It was good times!
Sunday After church we were craving some Southern veggies and decided to hit up a perennial favorite, Roasters. I was hoping for some fried green tomaotes, but settled for fried okra and mac n cheese instead. Oh yeah, and chicken fingers. Sometimes you just have to indulge. Our server was really nice, we always get great, friendly service at Roasters. The food was decent, I just wish the tomatoes had been there. So for kiwis: taste 3, service 4, ambience 3. It's just your average comfort food, family type restaurant. Solid choice when you want some good, great price comfort food.
Yesterday I ran 14 miles! Yikes! I've finally gotten to the point where I understand why people think I'm crazy for doing this...what have I gotten myself into?
The Silver Comet & I have become close friends. I won't say good because we have a love-hate relationship. Love because the air is clean, the trees are shady, there are no cars, it's really flat. Hate because the miles seem to stretch on forever and I get bored after an hour or 2 of running. I guess there is more love than hate though!
Anyway! I started at the Floyd Road entrance, there is a cute little bike depot. Ryan rented a bike, and it was really fun seeing him whiz past me with a big grin on his face. The people at the depot were really nice, and they had a lot of selection. I was definitely jealous of Ryan and I hope to be able to take my own bike out there soon.
I ran 3 miles west, 3 miles back, water/powerade break. Then 2 miles east, 2 miles back, water/powerade/energy gel break. At this point, Ryan was back at Floyd Rd. and we had a quick talk about how his bike ride went, and then I said I could stop at 10 miles if he wanted to leave. But Ryan, my ever-encouraging fan, said, "No, you need to run the rest of the 14 miles." (or something to that effect). I'm so glad he made me finish the run though, painful as it was. So I ran 2 miles west and back in again. I really have to give a shout-out to Ryan here, because if he hadn't wanted to go with me to the trail, I probably wouldn't have gone. And if he hadn't have been there with me at mile 10, I probably would have stopped and gone home. So many thanks go out to my #1 fan! :)
I have to say, and this is really weird to say, that the first 6 miles were cake. Who would have ever thought I'd come so far as to say "6 miles? that's nothing." But then the next 4 miles were a little harder and I could have happily stopped there. But the last 4 miles were excruciating. I'm talking pain so bad that it felt better to keep running rather than stop and/or walk because then I REALLY felt the pain. Isn't that weird? So run I did. After I passed mile 13 I really felt a surge of rejoicing, beacause I was happy that I had passed the halfway mark to the marathon, and I was overjoyed that there was only 1 mile left. Whew!
When I was running the last 4 miles, I kept thinking my mantra in my head. I've been following the training program in the Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer, and a lot of the training is psychological. So at one point in the training, I had to come up with a short paragraph that would empower me while I was running. So mine is "I am a marathoner. I love to run. Running is fun. God's got my back. He gives me the strength. He gives me the energy. This is a blessing. I am so thankful!"
So on the back 4, I was thinking my paragraph, and then I was thinking, what do I mean by "this is a blessing"? And then I realized as the pain got worse and my steps got slower...this is a blessing because I am pushing my human body to the limit, limits I've never known before. And in putting myself in my weakest possible state, there comes a point where I can either quit or I can say "Hey God, do this through me. Give me Your strength & give me Your power." So running becomes a blessing because it's an opportunity to trust God and see Him do something amazing. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I ran 14 miles with God's help. There's no way I did at alone. This is a blessing.
I ran 6 miles Mon, 5 miles Tues, 6.3 miles yesterday. After I ran yesterday, my legs hurt so bad. It was hard to walk! I ran 2 Pi Miles, which was considerably harder than running the flat Comet trail. oh well. This is only making me stronger, right??
So today I am taking a day off. Then tomorrow I will run a mile, stretch a lot, and eat some spaghetti. Then Saturday is my first race!
So first of all - I just ran 6 miles without stopping! Albeit slowly...the point is I made it!
And I did it in perhaps the most beautiful part of Atlanta I could have run. Seriously the whole time I was thinking, am I dreaming? Is this real?
Ok, a little backstory. So I have been doing really well, running about 4 times a week 3.1 miles or more. Lifting weights twice a week. Etc. But then, my birthday/Valentine's week rolled around. Veeeerrrrry hard to want to do anything when you are eating all the time & make fun plans to celebrate all week long. So this weekend I was really discouraged, b/c I had a long weekend (no work today! thank you presidents) and had not run Fri, Sat, or Sun! I felt like such a lazy bones. (or dundee bones as we kiwis like to call it) But today, I was like, I HAVE to run today. Kind of a do or die moment here. I have my first race this Sat and I still don't even know if I can run 6 miles without stopping! So I decided to run the Silver Comet Trail (or at least part of it, since it's 60 miles long and goes all the way to Alabama).
I get there and I'm like...hmm where do I park? where does the trail actually start? Everyone else seems to know what they're doing. There are a lot of bikers! (So I can't wait to take mine over there! maybe I will make "biking to Alabama" one of my life goals) I park. I stretch. I look up & down the paved trail. I still don't know which way to go. So I venture toward the restroom hut and there is thankfully a map. So I start running.
The trail is awesome. Flat. Paved. Wide. Mile Markers every so often. Friendly people, all sorts (bikers, dogwalkers, walkers, kids, older people, oh yeah and runners!). But the best part is you just don't feel like A. you are in the city. and B. you are working. It's enjoyable! Trees everywhere. Benches & rest areas every once in a while. Oh and awesome - bridges! You run over bridges! Like, old train track bridges. There is one point where I ran over the East/West Connector and looked back toward the East and thought, man, I have run very far! And then there is another point where you run under an old dark wooden bridge and the sound that is made when cars drive across is scary! But scary cool. I guess what it all boils down to for me is that this trail is interesting. There are so many things to take in & enjoy that you don't realize how far you are running or how long you've been gone. I ran the 6 miles in about an hour. Not bad. But it didn't feel like that long at all. All I could think about was how blue the sky was, how pretty the arch of tree boughs over the trail was, how cute that person's dog was, how neat this bridge looked, how serene that creek looked, how pretty the sound of it gurgling...
Ok I was channeling Thoreau there...point is the Silver Comet Trail is by far the coolest thing I have ever run on. It beats the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, and anywhere in Atlanta. In essence, it's just a paved trail through the woods. But it's a getaway, it's a mile & confidence booster, it's a secret. I love it!
And now I feel like this weekend wasn't a total waste, it was just a weekend of rest so I could conquer 6 miles of the Silver Comet Trail =)
