Cup o' Joe at Joe Bar

Morning Glory Chai, Joe Bar (Scrabble game not included)
Well, my legs are still in pain. A good night's rest helped a lot, and I woke up optimistically thinking today was going to be better - but they've gotten progressively more and more sore as the day's gone on. It's 8:45 p.m. now and I've been reduced once more to hobbling around on stick-straight legs. It's almost as though all the muscle in my quads withered up after yesterday, and there's absolutely nothing in there anymore to support bending my knees while in any kind of weight-bearing position. Going down stairs is nearly impossible. Aiee...


Most all the leaves have fallen here by now.
Despite that, I walked with Seyeon and Alan today in hopes of loosening things up a bit; walking definitely helps. And true to form, we walked to a little hole-in-the-wall spot at the north end of Broadway on Capitol Hill - Joe Bar (appropriately named for the Monday tradition, no?)


I'd actually been to this place before, for hot chocolate with Jess one time after work. I loved it then, and had somehow just forgotten to ever officially write it up for the blog. But Alan and I were back over in Seyeon's neighborhood today, as we had a big brunch together at her place (Seyeon made a fantastic egg/potato/tofurkey-sausage scramble + we did some Trader Joe's pumpkin pancakes, yum) and then started to play Scrabble, but decided to pick up our game and take it to a coffeeshop to finish.

What I discovered today is that Joe Bar has a fantastic crepe-making apparatus in house as well, which loosely resembles a record player with dual turntables. They do all kinds of sweet or savory combinations, many of which involve fantastic ingredients like Nutella and chevre cheese (not all, of course, in the same crepe, but you get the idea...the combinations and possibilities are endless!) They also serve (reasonably priced) beer.


Definite thumbs up on music - Soul Coughing was in the mix today, which made me happy. People-watching was good too, since the windows are big, the sidewalk right there and full of interesting Broadway passersby (Broadway is to Seattle as Haight Ashbury is to San Francisco), and one of Seattle's best old timey, single-screen theaters is just across the street. I also like the funky green interior, the old-building vibe, and the understated artwork in simple black frames on the walls. Overall a definite positive for atmosphere.


Seating is a little sparse - though it's not been a problem either time I've been. There are two basic rooms to the place, two floors, two sets of stairs...the upstairs gets a little toasty (the opposite issue I had at last week's Co'J spot!), but it matched the steaming competition and rivalry of our all-afternoon Scrabble game. The baristas, two really friendly guys, cheered on the competition and also let us know that they've got a Scrabble board and dictionary on hand in case we don't want to lug over our own next time. Very cool. Bonus points for word-game enthusiasm.


It was a good day.

The Seattle Marathon

What a day! This post is brought to you from my crippled and battered but thoroughly exhilarated self, from the comforts of my couch and the heaps of ice and Ibuprofen under which I'm currently buried. Today I completed my first (hopefully of many!) full marathon. 26.2 miles through the streets of Seattle - a course that's considered "moderately hilly" and is discouraged for first time marathoners by all conventional wisdom and opinions on the Runner's World forums.

But! I love this place, and I love running, and running and urban living have become inextricably linked in my heart, so what better way to celebrate my first few months here by running the Seattle city marathon?


Alan saw me off at the starting line!
By conventional wisdom, too, I probably under-trained for today, doing 1-3 training runs a week, only once running a 30+ mile week. And being on my feet close to 40 hours a week the last couple weeks probably didn't help either.

But! (Again!) I started out really strong.


Look how happy that smiling runner's face in the crowd is!
The weather couldn't have been more ideal. Cool, overcast, but most importantly, no rain! (It's been known to sleet and hail on marathon day here, and we'd had a couple sunny days in a row, so I was terrified our no-rain quota had already been used up for the week.) The temperature, I believe, hovered in the high 40s. Little wind, with a few exceptions. Everything felt fantastic...my second mile was an overly ambitious 7:02-minute pace, but I blame it on a tempting long downhill stretch. After that, we all entered the I-90 Express Lanes and ran for several miles out and back on the floating bridge to Mercer Island - a rather excruciatingly long and straight and extremely windy portion, but nice to have lots of cars and truck honking on either side of us to cheer all the marathoners on. I averaged 8:20-8:30 miles along there and along the scenic Lake Washington Boulevard that followed.

Alan and Seyeon both cheered me on along the way. I saw the two of them together at about mile 9, and it was an incredible boost to see both their smiling faces along the "sidelines." They were fantastic. I, coincidentally, also still felt fantastic at that point.


See?
I didn't see them again until Mile 21. They apparently went and had a fabulous lunch together at a cute organic cafe on Madison. In the meantime, my legs starting wearing down. I'd been sticking pretty well with the 8:35-pacer group at that point (aiming for a 3:45 finish), and it felt like a solid but not-too-stressful pace. I hit the 13.1 mark about three minutes faster than when I raced the Cleveland Half Marathon last May. That felt pretty awesome.

At around mile 15, though, my legs started to cramp a little bit. It may have been dehydration (I did my best, Carolyn, I promise!), or it may have been the hills, or it may have just been my pushing my pace to its limits, but they got progressively worse and worse through the last, increasingly painful 11 miles. My pace slowed to 9:00 minute miles. I had a quick pick-me-up around mile 17 when Aseem called my cell phone, and I got a hearty laugh from some spectators when I picked up the call and chatted for some time while running. I wouldn't have, except that Aseem and I used cell phones to communicate our locations when he cheered me on in Cleveland, so I figured talking to him while running marathons has become a bit of a tradition at this point.

So, here's me at Mile 21:


I'm smiling, yes, as Seyeon snapped this, but it's because she and Alan had parked themselves at 33rd Avenue (I love them!) and I was so unbelievably relieved to see them again after my first few flickers of "Oh God, am I going to be able to finish this after all?" I'd taken my first walking break at that point (steepest block of the entire marathon and a steady uphill for nearly a mile following it? Ugh...) Fortunately, there was a long downhill at the end of it all, where Seyeon ran next to me, and I got a bit of a second wind.

It was short-lived, though. The last 5 miles were pretty excruciating. My legs were totally shot. I stopped to try and stretch and my legs almost collapsed out from under me as I tried to orchestrate a simple quad stretch. Uh-oh, I thought. But other marathoners are great, as are the spectators, and people consistently cheered me on with positivity and support any time I stopped to walk (which was a LOT in those last few miles.) The 3:45 pacer had long disappeared ahead of me, and I found myself stealing nervous glances backward in dire, depressing hopes that the 4:00-pacer group wouldn't catch or pass me in that final stretch.


Happily, they didn't! I crossed the mats with a chip time of 3:55:51 - which I'm really happy about, given how difficult almost the entire second half of the race felt. 3:45 would have been great, but that's what next time's for, right? I'm thrilled to have come in under four hours for my first.


Seyeon and Alan were at the finish line, with water and a space blanket and the best-tasting banana I've ever had. (There was a guy with a box of Krispie Kremes about two miles from the finish, and I *almost* went for one...) I got my calves iced at the medical tent, and inhaled everything from power bars to fruit cups, and it all tasted like heaven. As did:


It was the first time since moving to Seattle that I've been to McDonald's, but gosh were those fries yummy. And apparently a lot of other runners thought so, too. The place was jam-packed with marathoners in space blankets.

Anyway. I feel fantastic. I can hardly walk at all, and it's a blessing that I had the foresight to ask off work for the next couple days to give my legs some time to recover...hopefully a good night's sleep and some gentle walking tomorrow will help. In the meantime, though, I'm daydreaming about the future of my running life. Alan and Seyeon and I have tentatively agreed to all run Cleveland next May - so attention all friends in the Cleveland/Oberlin/Chicago (Amtrak, Becca, Amtrak!) area...stay tuned!

"We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves...The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one can say, 'You must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.' The human spirit is indomitable."
- Sir Roger Bannister

!

The starting gun will go off in eleven hours.



Wish me luck!

Futbol fun in Seattle!

So, three nights ago, a dream came true:


I went to a soccer game in America, and the stadium was packed! My dad and I had season tickets to the Kansas City Wizards (the "Wiz", as they were, back in the day) for a few years in the late 90s, and I've sorely missed the excitement of watching live soccer since then. Watching on TV just isn't the same; you can't see all the movement on the field. You miss out on so much strategy-ogling. And the crowd rowdiness...the bands! The cheering! Those obnoxious long noise-stick-things!
...the waaaaaaaaave!
I had an opportunity to watch Croatia play Israel when I was in Zagreb a few years ago...I still don't remember why I let that opportunity pass me by (money, probably?), but it was silly. So to have a big soccer game planted in my front yard is a huge deal! And I mean that front-yard bit almost literally; my doorstep is in within walking distance of Qwest Field = no pesky $30 parking fees for me! Although apparently there wouldn't have been any anyway; VW is a sponsor of the MLS and offers VW's complimentary parking at games...what?! Awesome!

But anyway. The point is that Michael and I got $25 tickets (!!!) to the Real Salt Lake vs. LA Galaxy game on Sunday. For those who don't know, the MLS Cup is the Super Bowl of real futbol. The Seattle's MLS-debuting Sounders FC had a great first season, but didn't make it all the way to the Cup - but Seattle won hostmanship (?) of the final game months back. I can't think of a better city, as Seattleites have shown an unbelievable amount of enthusiasm for the sport. Average attendance at Sounders' matches trumps average attendance for both the Kansas City Royals' and the Cleveland Indians' 2009 seasons. Soccer, more popular than baseball, in a US city?

= Reason 23498235 I love this city. As though I needed any more...

The excitement began with the official March to the Match - swarms of screaming soccer fans, all decked out in jerseys and team scarves and painted faces, and a marching band that played renditions of contemporary radio hits. A seriously awesome, and proud, experience to march through Seattle with a bunch of like-minded futbol hooligans!




For our money, the Cup gave us the absolute maximum amount of soccer we could have asked for. The teams had tied the last four times they'd played each other, and this time was no different; after 90 minutes of regulation play, the score was 1-1. After 30 more minutes of over time, the scoreboard hadn't budged. They even managed to tie their first set of shootouts. Finally on sudden death shootouts, Salt Lake proved triumphant. (I won't try to recreate the match itself in writing; I am not a sports writer. Maybe I'll work on it. But not on Thanksgiving Eve.)


Yup, we had a blast. Sure, it was cold, but...the March to the Match warmed us up, and the couple pre-game beers across the street at the local Pyramid Brewery kept us toasty, and the crowd energy was awesome...a few especially rowdy RSL fans behind us swearing their heads off at David Beckham ("God hates you, David Beckham!" - Is that the way Utahn's call it? Ah, I won't let a few bad eggs ruin my entire opinion of a state I otherwise love, but man do I hate bad sportsmanship...)

Otherwise, the game was absolutely fantastic - all I'd dreamed it would be. I can't wait to become a serious Sounders fan in the coming years. Lucky for me, albeit entirely unknowingly, I bought a rain jacket I at Dick's back in Ohio the day I decided officially to move to Seattle, and it is totally in Sounders colors. I was clearly destined to be a Sounders fan.


Michael pulls his hood up to shield himself from the celebratory confetti blasted out in jet streams periodically throughout the game.


My new boots are certainly covering a lot of ground! Michael, in addition to modeling the snazzy Arc'teryx jacket pictured above, is also sporting some of the most awesome hiking boots ever created: the Zamberlan Vioz. Available at REI. Just sayin'.

Also: Qwest Field offers a fantastic view of the skyline:


I'm learning it's hard to go anywhere in Seattle and not have a fantastic view in at least one direction. Which is probably Reason 23498236 I love this city.

Cup o' Joe Monday: Installment XII

Hot cocoa, Watertown Coffee
All right folks: true to my word, this week I will not be claiming I've discovered a new favorite. This place is intriguing, though, so it's certainly worth some musing. Watertown Coffee is the place I shied away from two weeks ago due to some dubious Yelp reviews - but Carolyn got me out here for morning coffee this past week, and I figured I wouldn't be a very good coffeeshop-reviewing-blogger if I didn't make up my own mind about places. So I returned this evening for this week's Cup o' Joe Monday.


Going to a coffeeshop at night is a different experience entirely. One, ordering an espresso beverage is absolutely out of the question; anyone who knows me knows I don't have caffeine after 2 p.m. or, without fail, I'll stay wide-eyed and regretfully up all night long. And two, the nighttime cafe vibe is a lot sleepier. Currently, as I'm writing this, I have the entire place to myself. And have for about half an hour. I wonder if it's busier on weekend nights?


Watertown does seem to offer something unique: not only a coffeeshop, but a multi-purpose space that doubles as a cafe by day, a bar by night, and is complete with amenities like an X-Box playing station, a ping pong table, tons of board games, a record collection for browsing, and a wide variety of seating options, ranging from couches to cozy chairs to small tables to barstools.


It feels like a nice, comfy place to just come chill out. You can pretend you have a cool, hip art school friend, who lets you come over and hang out in his retro studio apartment, complete with high ceilings, dilapidated couches, eclectic art on the walls, and grungy music on the stereo. There's also a fun little terrace garden in front. And lots of ivy-like plants on the building that give its warehouse/garage structure a tasteful edge to them.


Drawbacks:
(1) The place is freaking cold. The windows don't appear to be insulated at all, and lead the place to have a very drafty, chilly feel. Having grown up with a Dutch mother, and now keeping my apartment at a somewhat brisk 60 degrees around the clock, I honestly don't mind the cold too much. It's an excuse to wear fleece and drink warm beverages and generally be cozy. But still - it's close to the point of discomfort.
(2) My hot chocolate = meh. Not bad...but also nothing special. Comparable a packet of Nestle's instant cocoa mix.
(3) The music...definite meh. Who knows if this was a one-time deal or not, but loud, screamy 80s music is a hard sell for relaxing coffeeshop atmostphere.

With all that said, I'll probably be back to this place - if for nothing else but to kick Alan's butt in ping-pong when he's in town for my marathon this coming weekend. Stay tuned. In the meantime, I'm backed up with non-coffee-related things (MLS Cup! My participation as a jump-roper in REI's Winter Olympics Pentathlon! Exploring live music in other Seattle neighborhoods with new friends!) that I need/want to blog about as well - so this week, despite my crazy Thanksgiving-sale work schedule, will probably see a few blog entries. Enjoy!

Thanks, as always, for reading; y'all are the best. My blog's site stats seem to have picked up some steadier readership in the last week or two, which is awesome. I promise to do a good job posting more regularly.

Long-Overdue Cup o' Joe

Countdown to the Seattle Marathon: 12 Days


Okay. I know that every week, I announce that the coffeeshop of choice is my new favorite. But it's really, really, really true this week. Seyeon and I hit up Kaladi Brothers Coffee (Alaskan coffee!) on Pike Street for afternoon chai and a long catch-up session after too much time apart.

A note, again, on Yelp: Its reviews of everything are phenomenally accurate. I know so many people out there are skeptical of the internet's ability to offer honest, accurate information, but bear with me. Last week, Alan and I explored a bar/pub/cafe/restaurant called McMenamin's Six Arms. The Yelp consensus seemed to be: "Awesome food, fun atmosphere, but horrendous service." While one such review could easily be a fluke occurrence - one bitter, never-satisfied customer's onetime experience - the sheer volume of reviews takes care of the potential "selection bias" issue, and honestly, paints a very on-target portrait of a place. In the same way that reading reviews of hosts on CouchSurfing.com can give a realistic portrait of a stranger on the internet in what otherwise could be a sketchy situation, Yelp allows me to gauge ahead of time what kind of experience I can expect from a business.

Six Arms, for the record, was exactly as Yelp told me it would be. Alan and I shared a blue cheese burger and a pesto/mozzarella sandwich and tater tots, all of which were phenomenal. (*Almost* on par with good old Feve grub from Oberlin...) Our drinks, all interesting microbrews, were tasty. Our waitress, though? Easily the most stressed out human being I'd seen in years. She was the only one, evidently, working on the entire upper level, running back and forth with beady, darting eyes as she frantically scribbled orders, bussed tables, apologized to everybody, and then promptly disappeared altogether for twenty minutes at a time.

So, does reading reviews ahead of time invite a self-fulfilling prophecy then? Perhaps. But I feel I still manage to enter most of my Cup o' Joe venues with an open mind and as objective eyes as possible...I just don't like to waste my time (or money!)

So, Yelp prevailed again today. The reviews on Kaladi Brothers raved about their one-dollar rice krispie treats which, indeed, were fantastic.


The cafe is located beneath the Gay City offices, and the vibe of Kaladi lends itself to quirkiness, a laidback atmosphere, and acceptance. I felt a strong throwback to Oberlin upon walking in!





Other +s:
+ fantastic music choices (Seyeon would like me to note that this is her new #1 coffeeshop in all of Seattle, for many reasons, but above all, for its musical taste)
+ tons and tons of coffee-flavor options
+ really friendly baristas
+ meeting room space for nonprofits
+ fun eavesdropping opportunities
+ THREE varieties of chai (including a decaf option!)
+ laptop-friendly wi-fi, outlets, & public computer
+ gay-friendly/fabulous environment
+ interesting artwork, including a big digital collage of kaladi-frequenters' photos
+ good mood lighting


But, one big negative (an isolated occurrence, I hope?):
- unbelievably loud, obnoxious middle/high-schoolers in the after-school hour, dropping f-bombs and talking way too loudly about pot, their sex lives, and the homecoming dance.
I've never been so close to feeling markedly violent toward strangers. Note to self: Avoid "cool" public "hang-out" spots during after-school hours. I feel old :( but really, I just want to be able to go about my day and enjoy my life in peace and quiet!

Speaking of peace and quiet, I have two days off in a row from work, which is becoming increasingly rare. Today was good for: catching up with people, putting in my last long-ish (15 miler) run before the marathon, enjoying the sunshine (also becoming increasingly rare), and beginning to tackle a to-do list for the rest of November that's gotten out of control. Oof...

A promise!

New Cup o' Joe tomorrow, I promise! Sorry for getting behind...

Love,
Yitka