Who was wide awake at 6:00am this morning? This girl.
Despite a long day of travel, staying up late blogging, and sleeping in a heavenly bed, I was up with the sun this morning. Darn you time change! Since I was up, I decided to take advantage of the quiet streets, grabbed my running shoes, and got a quick 30 minute shakeout run in.
Looks like I wasn’t the only easter coaster with the inability to sleep past 6 – the path along the water was pretty busy with runners doing similar shakeout runs. At least I’m assuming they’re easter coasters – otherwise they’re just really dedicated, super awesome runners (and make me feel super lazy 
). Either way, it was a beautiful morning to run. My legs are officially shook out and ready to race tomorrow.
Given the early wake-up call, I had oodles of time to shower and dress for brunch with the Suja gang at True Food Kitchen.
True Food Kitchen is a healthy eatery offering a Mediterranean-inspired menu designed in collaboration with health guru Dr. Andrew Weil and restaurateur and owner of Fox Restaurant Concepts Sam Fox. True Food Kitchen’s dishes are base upon Dr. Weil’s Anti-Inflammatory Pyramid, which is designed around the Mediterranean diet utilizing wholesome, all-natural ingredients to prepare healthful dishes that taste delicious.
L to R: Monica, Annie, Me, Gina, Leta
Other members of the group had started raving about True Food Kitchen the night before, so the expectations had been set pretty high. Could this place live up to all the hype? As soon as I walked in, I knew the answer was yes.
The restaurant was simply gorgeous. It had an very open floor plan with an exposed kitchen, clean lines, minimal decorations, lots of natural light, and just an overall simple, inviting look. I even liked the server’s uniform of plain white t-shirts and colorful cotton pants. I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but this place had a pretty nice cover.
The menu was equally gorgeous and appetizing. Everything looked good.
True Food Kitchen has a full juice bar and alcohol bar. Someone had recommended the Hungover RX, suggesting it was delicious even if you weren’t hungover. It sounded like something I would never had ordered on my own, so I figured why the heck not.
The server let me have a small sample before committing to the full drink. After one sip, I was tempted to go ahead and order two – it was probably the best fresh juice I’ve ever had. The mix of orange and vanilla was so refreshing, but not over powering. It was a great light drink that had just right amount of sweetness thanks to the pineapple and orange.
For starters, we had the famous Vegetable Crudites, which was almost too pretty to eat, but we managed.
Albacore Tataki
Caramelized Onion Tart with black fig and gorgonzola
And Montery Bay Sardines with salsa verde and grilled lemon
The sardines were a nice surprise – these were not your traditional canned sardines. They were fresh and not terribly fishy. Actually, I thought they were pretty fantastic.
For my main meal I ordered the Quinoa Johnny Cakes sans banana. I also got a fruit cup on the side that’s unpictured.
That’s not whipped cream on top – it’s greek yogurt! The johnny cakes were dense and very filling. They also had a nice sweetness to them.
The table split the flourless chocolate cake and orange sherbet for dessert.
I thought True Food Kitchen was fabulous. I know they’re starting to expand a little more around the country, so hopefully that means we’ll see one in Tampa soon. A girl can dream, right?
After brunch Monica and I made our way to the Suja Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego race expo at the San Diego Convention center.
Look who we found along the way!
Bobbi and Rylee Joy! Bobbi ran the San Diego Marathon with me in 2009. It was my first marathon and she helped pace me under my goal of 4:30. Still can’t believe that was 5 years ago! The last time I saw Bobbi in September she had just finished all of the adoption paperwork and was anxiously waiting THE phone call that would change her life forever. A few weeks later she got that phone call and Rylee Joy came into her life. She has such an incredible story and is hands down one of my biggest inspirations. If you’re not following her on Instagram, you should!
The expo was PACKED! I believe there’s 30,000 runners in the race tomorrow and about half of them waiting until 3:00pm to get their bibs.
Brooks had a pretty impressive activation with their huge Run Happy Island set-up.
You start at “customs” where you have to sign up for a passport.
The passport is your ticket to the Run Happy Island
You collect stamps in your passport from the three stations and at the end you can turn the passport in for a prize.
We were instantly drawn to the giant mechanical Brooks shoes because, I mean, who wouldn’t?
I told the guy not to go easy on me and he didn’t hold back. I lasted exactly 19 seconds before being thrown off. Don’t let the bright colors fool ya – that shoe is a beast.
I definitely earned that stamp!
Unfortunately the lines were too long to wait at the other stations. I’m hoping they’ll have the same set-up when I’m in Seattle next month so I can earn that additional prize.
We wandered around the expo for another 30 minutes, but eventually the crowds became too much and we went back to the hotel.
Dinner was a so-so pizza from the hotel restaurant. It was okay – definitely nothing special.
Alright, I got my shirt and my bib – I’m ready for race day.
T-minus 8 hours until go time! Good luck to everyone running tomorrow! Kick butt and have fun!
Good night!