Happy Monday. Happy Father’s Day. Happy Summer. Did I cover all my bases?!?
I hope you had a lovely little weekend. Mine was a total blast packed full of events — hanging with Dad for Father’s Day, 108 sun salutations to welcome summer AND the Fit Foodie 5K Race Weekend in Fairfax.
Let’s talk a little about the Fit Foodie 5K and how much FUN it was.
The Fairfax event was one of four race weekends that Cooking Light & Health teamed up to host this year. A few months ago, I saw an ad for the race in Cooking Light and knew I had to attend. A WHOLE weekend of events combining two of my favorite things (food + fitness) — how could I pass it up?!?
Plus, Fairfax is only about two hours from Richmond and it’s where I went to college so I figured it would be a fun road trip. I convinced my bestie, Alyssa to sign up (she’s a fitness fanatic so it wasn’t a hard sell) and we both became ambassadors for the event.
We headed to Fairfax on Friday evening and made it just in time for mingling at the VIP cocktail party at Gypsy Soul. As promised there were giveaways, chef-created appetizers and plenty of drinks to go around.
I honestly can’t even tell you everything that was served but I do know that there was lots of Sartori cheese! Other apps included quail eggs served over potato slices, pâté with mustard, shrimp ceviche and a roasted red pepper soup with bacon. The shrimp ceviche was my favorite of everything I tried. Well, besides the Tito’s vodka freeze pops. I think they may have been my real favorite.
Alcoholic freeze pops with vodka, cucumber, mint, lime, orange blossom water and vitamin c. Oh man, they were sooo good… and pretty strong. Now I want to find out if I can get the recipe because they’d be perfect for summer parties. Maybe Chef RJ Cooper is willing to share?
The cocktail party made for some fun late night shopping in the Mosaic District and then we hit up True Food Kitchen for quick bite to eat. I’ve been to TFK a couple times in California and absolutely love it so I was really excited to see there was one right near our hotel in the Mosaic District. Dr. Weil, if you read this — please expand south and open location in Richmond sometime soon! Please and thank you.
After dinner we headed back to our hotel room to hydrate and rest up for the race. If you follow me on Snapchat (eatingbirdfood) you saw some of our hotel room shenanigans including Alyssa practicing for her upcoming plank-off.
This is a good example of how Fit Foodies roll. Cocktails and planks.
Saturday morning started bright and early with a 7:00AM warmup in Strawberry Park, which was only a short walk from our hotel.
And then it was RACE TIME.
Side note: I bought the Run Now, Wine Later shirt, but it’s too big so I didn’t wear it on race day. :/
Alyssa and I started together but she’s a little speed demon and was way ahead of me about one minute after starting. The course weaved around the Mosaic District shopping center. It was laid out well and there were plenty of volunteers and police officers directing traffic. My only big complaint about the layout was that the course overlapped around mile 1 and mile 3 so there were walkers on the course at the same time many of the runners were trying to sprint to the finish line. Besides that, the race went smoothly for me and I finished with a time of 25:20. Not too shabby since I didn’t train for the race at all and indulged in a few cocktails the night before.
And look who took 3rd place for the women’s division…
That’s my friiiiend. So proud of her!
After the race Alyssa and I explored the finisher’s village, which was packed with food samples, free massages and foam rolling from Equinox, cooking demos, free wine and more.
It was a little early for wine so we skipped that but indulged in all the food samples and had fun chatting it up with some of the sponsors including my friends at Pure Canadian Maple Syrup and Fabletics.
Sweetgreen won for cutest booth setup!
Another restaurant we need in Richmond! Don’t worry, I’ve already started a list.
Of course, we found the Pure Barre Fairfax girls and participated in a short demo led by the owner, Brooke.
My Saturdays pretty much always include a Pure Barre class nowadays so I was excited to squeeze in a little LTB action.
After hanging out all morning in the finisher’s village we headed back to our hotel to shower and check out. Unfortunately we had to miss the Sunday morning Yoga and Pure Barre class. I was bummed to miss it, but it ended up working out because we saved money on the hotel stay and I was able to hang out with my dad for Father’s Day.
Overall, the Fit Foodie 5K totally lived up to my expectations. Between the cocktail party, the epic finisher’s village and the race itself, it was one of the best race events I’ve ever attended. Hands down, the most delicious!
Cooking Light and Health definitely know how to put on a fun event. I’ve always said that living a healthy lifestyle is all about balance and I think the Fit Foodie 5K race weekend is a great example of that. I’m already excited for next year!
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