Perfect Post-Race Activities

(Picture-heavy post ahead.)

Now that it's (approximately) mid-October, I thought I'd finally share what I did after my half-marathon last month.

I'll preface by saying I am NOT a good example... people should observe their energy levels before going out after running.  But I am known to stay out til midnight after a marathon and run races the day before other races.  Buuuttttttttttt..... you might get some fun Fall ideas, so read on and prepare to get hungry!

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I was staying with one of my good buddies, who didn't seem to mind that we rolled our way back post-race at around 11 AM, sweaty, and about to contaminate their bathtub.

They were even nice enough to let "The Ukrainian" and I split a biscuit that came all the way from Seattle... no pic because we were ravenous (had no food at the race, and we are not pre-race eaters).

Once cleaned up, my bud and her beau took us on a mini road trip.  At the time this picture was taken, "The Ukrainian" and I were stillll hungry.

We stopped here, after about 40 minutes.

Apple cider doughnut... very light and not too sweet (even though there's sugar on that crust!).

Julian is a small town sort of east of San Diego, CA.  The town is known for its apple orchards and pie.

This was our post-race meal... fruit, carbs.... I normally don't like baked fruit and hence am not a pie person, but there was no nasty, syrupy sweet mess around the apples, and the crust was just the right amount of flaky.  We shared this slice, which also contained peaches.

Our friends' mountain berry pie.

Once my hunger was somewhat stablized, we headed to Dudley's...

We totally made out with a BOX of breads (shared among all of us, including some orders we were taking from back home).

I know the carbo-loading is supposed to happen BEFORE the race, but their bread is SO special.  Kind of puts a certain other epic bread place to shame...

We all dug into the bread, standing around the trunk of the car.  With bread basically flying everywhere, I took a bite of all.  By the way, for the rest of our trip, the Prius trunk smelled heavenly....

With flavors like these, there is seriously a bread for everyone.  They come in loaf sliced/unsliced and roll form.  Among other breads we ordered were garlic, rosemary and olive oil, Julian apple, and date/nut.  For our large purchase, we were given a reward, which I will elaborate upon later.

Next, we went apple-picking.  The apples were pretty tart since it was early in the season, but crunching on fresh, flavorful apples was very fun.  I found that even though the trees are short, I still had to solicit help.  (p.s. nobody could tell, but I totally dyed my hair black before this trip, as it's normally like 8 different shades of dark brown)

This guy was our "too high apple" guy.

This jug of apple juice was $12.  But I must say, it was the best apple juice I have ever had, hands down, period.  I normally don't drink juice because it tastes off to me, but this was freshly-pressed apple juice.  (Like "The Ukrainian"'s shirt?)

Julian is a very small town with lots of goodie stores like this one.  We picked up the following goodies for the road.

"The Ukrainian" lovvves cherry pie, but the first pie place ran out.  Luckily, there is no shortage of pie places in Julian, and so the day was saved.

We stopped for a snack (yes, of course we needed a snack).  Real soda fountain drink... this one was cherry.  I don't drink soda often, so this was truly a treat.

We all split this order of zucchini fries, ranch dip not pictured.  I have had more zucchini fries in my lifetime than I should, but these were easily the best I've ever had.  The breading was perfect, seasoning was perfect, size of the fries were perfect... basically, these were perfect.

I just had tiny sips at these next stops...

After being (in)sufficiently liquored up, we made our way to a nearby casino.  We got $10 of playing credits from our bread-buying spree at Dudley's.

And I won $20 from here playing on a machine called "Russian Treasure."  "The Ukrainian" lost $5 playing on an Asian-themed machine.  True to life.  =D

Glad we snacked earlier, because we went to this place back in San Diego... we seriously waited 1.5 hours, and so did EVERYONE else, apparently.

Based on my baked potato meal, I can't really say if it was worth that wait.  Standing for nearly 2 hours after a half-marathon, apple picking, and town-hopping, will do a number on your legs.  By the time we sat down, it was late, my stomach was shutting down, and I probably would have eaten that meat to the left if I didn't remember that I don't eat that stuff.

Now... is it fall yet??! Fall races have arrived, but according to So Cal, we've still got plenty of sun and heat left. =/