Zapatista (Cuisines of Mexico) - Chicago, IL

This review is a little behind schedule but here it is. Last October when I was in Chicago to run the marathon, a group of us went to Zapatista for dinner the first evening we were there. After we landed at O'hare, we took a train to our hotel to drop off our luggage. Then we all boarded a bus to the expo to pick up our race packets. After wards, we took the bus back to our hotel and decided to walk around the area to find a place to have dinner. As you can imagine with some many other people in town running the marathon, dinner reservations were hard to come by.

We originally went into Gioco (Italian) and put our names down for a reservation but then we noticed Zapatista across the street and the wait time there was a bit shorter. So that is how we ended up eating at Zapatista. Eating a Mexican meal the night before running a marathon is not something I do often or have ever done by the way. Luckily I did not encounter any major stomach issues the next day. Not sure when I will be back in Chicago or if I will ever end up back here so I am glad I got to eat here.

Zapatista is named after Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919), a prominent figure in the Mexican Revolution.

I forgot to take photos of the margaritas and bloody marys that were consumed but they were tasty. We started with this crab and shrimp creviche. It was good, just not the best I've ever had.

I ordered the steak fajitas, which came out in this sizzling stone bowl. It looks almost prehistoric in this photo. It looked like that in real time too, lol. I've never had fajitas served this way before so it was kind of neat. The fajitas itself was good. Nothing extraordinary about it but I do remember that I enjoyed it.

This came with the fajitas order: Black beans and Spanish rice with sour cream, pico de gallo and some shredded lettuce.

Zapatista (Cuisines of Mexico)
1307 South Wabash Avenue
Chicago, IL

(312) 435-1307

Russian Tea Time - Chicago

While I was in Chicago two weeks ago, one night over dinner, a couple of my running buddies mentioned that they were going to have afternoon tea the next day at the Peninsula Hotel and Sister K and I were jealous and wanted to go too. However, the Peninsula Hotel only served afternoon tea at 2 seatings on Saturday, 2:30 and 4:30pm, and as luck would have it, the next day was the day before the Chicago Marathon and our running group was planning to have an early dinner at 5pm and having afternoon tea at either 2:30 or 4:30pm would have spoiled our appetites for dinner. Plus, I was concerned about having all that sweets before the race. So, after the race on Sunday, I still had afternoon tea on the brain so I called up the Peninsula Hotel to make a reservation for tea that afternoon. Unfortornately, they only had one seating for afternoon tea on Sunday at 4:30pm and the running group once again had a celebratory dinner planned at a steak place that evening. At last, it was not meant to be for us to have afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel. I hear there is a Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. ;)

To make a long story even longer, I ended up doing a little research on the internet and found out that the Russian Tea Time was just a few blocks from our hotel. So Sister K and I went to give it a go. It was an ok place for afternoon tea. I've definitely had better but for $22.95, this was about half the price of afternoon tea at the Peninsula. The service was great since it was in the middle of the afternoon but I've had tea in much nicer places with more upscale fare. This was good for what it was and it satisfied my need for tea! :)

I already posted this photo once but here it is again.

Another one I've already posted but it shows the tiers and part of the restaurant, so here it is again.

Top tier: one each of golden raisins and cranberry scones with whipping cream and marmalade. (You can see Sister K at the back of this photo gettin' ready to snap a photo..lol)

Middle tier: assorted finger sandwiches and a mini quiche. The ones on this side are mine so there is no cream cheese, they don't really look right. But if you look to the back of the photo, Sister K's sandwiches are the normal ones with the spreads. The mini quiches was tasty.

Bottom tier: an assortment of Russian pastries. Ohmygosh, more than I had wanted or could have wished for. They were really generous with these cookies! I was eating these for the next few days.

They gave us more sweets on the side!

And because it was a hot day in Chicago, I had ice tea instead of the hot tea. The waiter kept pushing this "Russian" blend but I went with the iced Blood Orange tea. Delicious! I think Sister K went with the Russian blend because the waiter was so nice to us and he really wanted us to order the Russian blend...hahaha!

The restaurant was adorned by lots of fresh flowers that smelled amazing! Plus, as you look around, there are Russian dolls displayed here and there.

Cheers to having afternoon tea after running 26.2 miles through Chicago!

Sorry so blurry. But I wanted to show what the inside of the restaurant looked like and this was the only photo I had. :(

Russian Tea Time
77 East Adam Street
Chicago, IL 60603
(312) 360-0000

Week Zero

Got back from Chicago last night and woke up at the crack of dawn this morning because I was still on Chicago time. Chicago was fun but I am so happy to be back in the comfort of my home. Also really happy that this is Week Zero...aka recovery week. I may go ride the stationary bike a bit later to alleviate some lactic acid build up in my quads because they are still sore today. But looking forward to resting a bit this week. I also somehow picked up a sore throat on my trip back on the plane. Ewww. Hope it goes away fast.

Anyways, I am going to take this week off from running but will be running 6 miles this weekend. Then it is back to training next week, with a 10 miler next weekend, and a 15-20 miler the weekend after that. Then another taper because I will be running the Malibu Marathon on November 14! I'm actually looking forward to it, mostly because I feel so uninspired by my performance at Chicago. I am only running the Malibu Marathon for fun but it will be good for me to get all my angst out at that run.

So I am sitting here recovering and decided to do one final photo post of the Windy City since Sister K just uploaded all her photos!

This is me at the entrance into the expo. I was pretty tired from my flight but still excited to be there.

Here is the Event Alert System color coded board. Too bad it didn't stay at GREEN the entire day.

Me trying out my Chicago Marathon shirt which I love because it is a Nike shirt and it fits great. Fast becoming one of my favorite shirts to wear.

Sister K took a photo of the Injinji sock display. She is weirded out by the separation of the toes with these socks. LOL.

I took this photo the day before the race. Little did I know how steep that little incline would feel the next day at mile 26.

Me petting "the bean".

Reflection photo!

More architectural wonders of Chicago.

A Delmonico steak that I shared with Sister K at Kinzie Chophouse.

This Irish pub was right across the street from our hotel. I think it was a part of the Hilton host hotel for the race. We had a inside joke about this pub so we had to take a photo of it.

The morning after the race. We went for a walk in Grant Park to walk off some of the soreness in my legs and a Columbus Day parade was gearing up to go.

Old style police car with a skull in the rear window. HA!

Old style fire engine. That guy in the truck is posing for this photo if you look close enough.

Finally made it down to see the lake up close.

Woah don't get too close to the edge!

There is this amazing running trail along the lake that I would love to run if I lived there. Great views.

I mean, look at this view!

Look at this ridiculous line to get into the Shedd Aquarium on Columbus Day! It was easily 400 people deep. :o

MC doing what he does best.

In line to get my hands on a Chicago dog before our flight home.

This was really good!

Now that we are back, I can post where we stayed. Here! This hotel is at at a great central location right next to the Hilton host hotel. It was slightly cheaper to stay here. The diameter of the bathroom sink was the size of a small plate but if you can look past that, this place is great.

Front of the hotel.

More snacks on the flight home. I am going to start eating better starting this week. I've put on a few pounds while training for this marathon. Too much delicious bread!

I love this photo because this picture just says it all about how I felt at the end of the trip.

When I got back in town, I had a bowl of Vietnamese Beef soup (Bun Bo Hue). I had a noodle soup craving the whole time I was in Chicago.

Woke up this morning with a sore throat and had a turkey bacon, egg white on whole wheat English muffin from Starbucks. Just what I wanted.

I am posting this because I fell in love with this facial cleanser on my trip. I got a sample size of this for my flight but it turned out that I loved it so much, I got a bigger one.

I am also loving this stuff. Sister K and MC tells me it smells like spoiled beer but I really like the way it taste. Plus it supports digestion, metabolism, immune system, appetite control, weight control, liver function, body alkalinity, anti-aging, cell integrity, and healthy skin and hair. What's not to like?

Persian flat bread that I got the other day because they were baking these fresh out of the oven at a local market. So good!

And now, I am battling my sore throat with these 2 weapons and catching up on some of my shows. :) Great to be back home!

2010 BofA Chicago Marathon (10/10/10) - Race Review

Date: October 10, 2010
Start: 7:30am (Grant Park)
Corral: D
Goal: 3:40 or sub 3:50
Finish: 4:13:24

Elevation Details: (elevation change is minimal)
Starting elevation - 601 ft. | Ending elevation - 600 ft.
Minimum elevation - 575 ft. | Maximum elevation - 602 ft.

What a race! I could tell it was not a good sign when I came downstairs from my hotel room this morning to meet up with my friends and the weather at that time was nice. I am one of those people that shivers at the slightest cold but this morning at 6:20am when I walked outside, even I was not cold. This was the story for the rest of the day. I got to my corral in time to stretch a bit, eat a GU and relax before the race started. It got hot early and fast. By the time I was at the half way point the alert level that had started at the beginning at "green" was now at "yellow" and by the time I hit mile 20, it was at "red". Red alert is almost never good in any situation. People could not cool down or drink water fast enough. Fortunately, there was plenty of water and Gatorade G2 on course. Firefighters and homeowners on the course were hosing people off. They were passing out ice and cold sponges. Those were nice. I was so hot. Today reminded me of the LA Marathon one year when it got so hot, the firefighters came out and hosed people off.

Speaking of LA, this course reminded me a lot of the old LA Marathon course. It was for the most part flat, except for a small incline to cross a bridge at around mile 21 or 22 and then another incline on a bridge at miles 26 before rounding the corner to the final stretch. That last bridge incline felt pretty bad. My final time was not spectacular. In fact, it is one of my worst. I don't know what happened. I felt I had trained well and enough and the only thing I can even point the finger at was the heat but I feel like that is such a cop out response. I was never so happy to cross a finish line. It was so hot, I wanted to just be done with it. I think this was the hottest marathon I've ever done...heat wise.

The sheer number of people running this race (45,000+) made the course so crowded and pretty stinky and hot. Sweaty people were bumping into me, left and right. There was very little breeze and at points no shade from the sun. Most of the course ran through the main streets of Chicago. Not much to look at and not too much greenery. A lot of spectators and some really great volunteers! But that is all I really liked about this race. I don't know if I really ever want to run this course again. It is definitely a large race experience. If you like that, then this is a race you'll like.

Here are my splits. It just all started to go downhill after mile 13. It was when it started to get crazy hot. At around mile 18, I realized that I wasn't going to make my goal time of 3:50 so I was mentally defeated but still wanted to come in sub 4, but atlast that was not meant to be either. When I got to mile 26, I was never so happy to see the finish line.

Split	time of day	time	diff	min/mile	miles/h
05K	08:04:06AM	00:28:33	28:33	09:12	6.53
10K	08:31:40AM	00:56:07	27:34	08:53	6.77
15K	08:59:36AM	01:24:03	27:56	09:00	6.67
20K	09:28:12AM	01:52:39	28:36	09:13	6.52
HALF	09:35:04AM	01:59:31	06:52	10:05	5.96
25K	09:59:17AM	02:23:44	24:13	10:00	6.01
30K	10:31:10AM	02:55:37	31:53	10:16	5.85
35K	11:02:13AM	03:26:40	31:03	10:00	6.01
40K	11:35:07AM	03:59:35	32:55	10:36	5.66
Finish	11:48:57AM	04:13:24	13:49	10:08	5.92

Pre-race Commentary: I am going to be running the Chicago Marathon on October 10, 2010. This will be my 9th marathon but the first time running this course/race. Also, my first time flying this far for a race. The course will be starting and ending at and around Grant Park. A friend of mine told me that I must take the architectural river tour, so I will find some time to do that. She also recommended a visit to either Gino's East or Giordano's for pizza.

Exploring Chicago - Day 3

I will write a proper race report soon but this post is about what I did after the Marathon. So this was my third day here in Chicago and I am finally getting the hang of taking the CTA metro around town, to be careful when crossing the streets because drivers here have no respect for pedestrians what-so-ever, and I have a better understanding of how people can love this bustling city. It is full of museums, restaurants, parks and amazing architectural wonders.

Here's a preview of my Chicago Marathon bling and some beautiful flowers from Sister K! Thank you!

After I got back to the hotel room and took a much needed shower, Sister K and I went to have tea here. I will post a separate post on this restaurant at a later date.

We love afternoon tea!

We decided to do some walking and sightseeing so I can stretch my legs out and not get stiff legs later.

Large water structure with faces of real Chicagans. Image changes constantly.

It is a really hot day today and lots of people were playing at the water structure. There were 2 of those structure, like bookends.

Then we walked a bit more to Millennium Park.

Because I really wanted to see "the bean". I love it!

Sister K is so strong!

More buildings. There are a lot of buildings here and I have a ton of photos of different buildings but I feel like I've already posted enough.

Structure at Millennium Park.

And another one. This one is totally weird!

And one last one.

I saw this large eye in passing yesterday and came back today to get a better "look" at it. LOL! What a large eye!