Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Post race eats and my namesake burger

Today I am linking up with Patty, Erika, and April for (a Wednesday edition of) Tuesdays on the Run.


This week's topic: Post race food!

In a flashback to high school English class, I will start by sharing a quote:

"The human being is a bag into which to put food." - George Orwell

This sums up my philosophy on eating in general.


When it comes to post-race food, however, things are a little different for me. My standard go-to foods post race are pretty bland: a banana, water, maybe some sports drink, and any kind of sports bar. This is because I frequently don't have much of an appetite after a tough race.

That aside, here are some of the less-standard offerings that I've enjoyed when I DID have the appetite:
  • Rock N Roll Chicago gave out fruit smoothies and chocolate milk. 
  • Esprit de She had coconut water. 
  • ZOOMA Chicago gave out sandwiches
  • RunDisney has little food boxes with hummus, crackers, cheese, and other little food samples.
  • The Chicago Spring Half Marathon had a full breakfast spread with eggs, pancakes, potatoes, etc.
  • The Illinois Half Marathon, 13.1 Chicago, and PAWS Run For Their Lives all had pizza!!! I am an equal opportunity pizza eater; however, 13.1 Chicago gets an even bigger thumbs up from me for having Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza.
Deep dish pizza... say no more!

Offerings that looked good but that I did not partake in:
  • The Wisconsin Half Marathon serves brats
  • The F^3 Half Marathon gave out hot chocolate

Comparatively, here are the typical post-race offerings that I always forgo:
  • Pretzels
  • Cookies, bagels, or any kind of baked goods
  • Apples
  • Granola bars
  • Beer or wine (yes, I hear your collective gasps of horror. I acknowledge that I am an alien and a lucifer. I've been kicked out of the runner's union about a zillion times because of this.)

Moving on now from the foods immediately post-race to an hour or two afterwards. When it comes to my first MEAL after a race, my appetite is usually back with a vengeance and I usually crave something savory. Here are my favorite post-race meals:
  1. Veggie omelette with cheese, plus some type of carb (e.g. pancakes, toast, potatoes). 
  2. A turkey burger or a chicken burger.

It probably goes without saying that deep dish pizza used to be on the list (I wrote a whole post about it here). However, for caloric purposes, I am trying to cut back on how much deep dish I consume. (Here is my second acknowledgement of the day regarding my alien-ness and lucifer-nous.)

Going back to the topic of burgers. I've seen several instances where burgers were named after certain people. Here are some examples. Totally random, but I started thinking what I would want my namesake burger to be if given the opportunity to create one. 


Ooooh, the plot thickens!

After giving this way too much thought, here is what I came up with:

Turkey burger on a whole-wheat bun with sauteed spinach and mushrooms, avocado, roasted red peppers, and provolone. Served with a side of fruit and a pickle.

YOUR TURN! Tell me what your namesake burger design would be!?!?!?

9 comments:

  1. It pains me not to partake of the Lou's deep dish at the 13.1 finish. Alas, like you, I just can't stomach it after racing. Any other time though, watch out. For burgers I go classic: beef, onion, lettuce, tomato, pickle. If I'm splurging I'll add a pretzel bun and fried onion strings.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Completely agree! Last summer, I paced a friend at 13.1 Chicago for her first-ever half - so I actually finished feeling normal instead of nauseous! And boy, did I ever take down that deep dish that day. =) Ooooh, fried onion strings on a burger, YUMMMMM....

      Delete
  2. Hmm... the Natalie Cobb - a 70/30 burger (70% ground chicken, 30% ground bacon) topped with corn and avocado relish, blue cheese sauce, red onion, tomato and lettuce. It's a cob salad on a bun!! ... ???

    I'm with you on post race beer. It never appeals to me after a hard run, so I usually end up giving my coupon away to some enthusiastic runner.

    BTW, I LOVED the Chicago Half's post race pizza! You should have substituted the above pizza photo for my post race thumbs up photo. http://shinianen.blogspot.com/2013/09/chicago-half-marathon-2013-best-pizza.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (I mean, you are in the background of that photo after all ;-) )

      Delete
    2. LOVE LOVE LOVE the Cobb/cob salad play!!! Very, very clever! And I'm with you on corn and avocado relish - those are huge winners in my book, too.

      Cheers to us runners who don't drink the post-race beer! It does make us very popular when we give away our drink tickets, though, heh heh heh.

      I actually forgot about the post race pizza at the Chicago Half Marathon! That was one race where I didn't have much of an appetite afterwards. And never fear, now that I have your express permission to use your pizza photo, I will use it in a future post. =D Still loving how we were randomly in each others' pictures before we got to meet! (BTW I still remember the one woman at that race who didn't get to the portapotty in time... shudder!!!)

      Delete
    3. Ugh, the 6 mile pooper. HAHAHAHA!

      Delete
    4. Can you imagine running another 7 miles after having gone through that? This might be TMI, but wouldn't that cause severe chafage, too!?!?!?

      Delete
  3. I like this topic! :) Food is always worth talking about. My favorite thing to eat post-race is a burrito/taco bowl and chips. Tex-Mex for the win!

    And your namesake burger sounds deelish! Swap out that patty for a veggie burger and count me in!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Amy!!! Oooooh, a burrito bowl... yummy!!! I know you have a MUCH bigger selection of good burrito bowl options in Texas than we have in Chicago, too. Otherwise I would totally dig those, too!

      Oh yeah, I do love me some spicy black bean burgers, too!!! YUMMMMMMMMMM

      Delete