This pie is dedicated to my friend Leslie, who I haven’t seen in far too long. She used to volunteer with my organization and is someone who I met in my second or third week on the job more than three years ago. She’s one of a small group of women who (perhaps unbeknownst to them) helped my survive in Oregon after my mom’s car accident. In those first few months afterwards, trying to navigate the new realities of my life, she and her group of fellow school-district volunteers made me feel safe, like I had people I could count on if I really needed to.

She’s one of the nicest, hardest working people I know. Turns out, she’s a pie-baker too. We were Facebooking (huh. Just realized I hate that this is a verb!) around Christmas about holiday baking and I got this message from her “three words: Pear. Raspberry. Pie.”

Obviously, I had to try it. Can’t find any raspberries anywhere, so I substituted in cranberries since we had some still frozen from Thanksgiving and then I decided to throw some apples into the mix because we have a kajillion of them and even I can’t eat apples fast enough to keep them from rotting.

Almost done - waiting for me to add the lattice top.

I decided to use the crust I used for this pie because I have way too much whole wheat flour and need to get rid of it. I made a lattice top out of a crust I already had in the freezer.  Come to think of it, this whole pie was kind of centered around using up the random ingredients I have laying around.

Filling Ingredients:

4 apples (use whatever kind you like best. I used Pink Lady apples because that’s what we had.)

4 pears

2 cups of cranberries

1/3 cup agave nectar

1.5 tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice (or some mixture of nutmeg and cinnamon if that’s your style. I needed to use up the pumpkin pie spice so…)

I baked it at 375 degrees for about an hour and it must’ve turned out well – Oliver ate a slice about 30 minutes ago, declared himself “so full of food!” and passed out.

Are you f-ing kidding me with this weather? 

I went for a run, but couldn’t shake the feeling. The thought of busting out the flour and making pie crust didn’t excite me today either.

So, to try and shake this feeling off, I took a page from my friend Amy’s book – or blog I guess – and wrote myself a personal manifesto. I feel slightly better now that it’s done, so I guess it worked:

1. I won’t judge you by your job, your playlist or your car. I will judge you by the way you treat crying babies on airplanes, waitresses and stray dogs.

2. Never let your job – the thing you do to keep a roof over your head and food in your belly – become your defining characteristic. People won’t want to talk to you anymore at parties.

3. My politics and my views on religion are complicated, contradictory and unapologetic.

4. There’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure. It’s ok to have a genuine interest in what happens on Teen Mom. As long as you read actual books sometimes too.

5. Speaking of books, I understand Kindle, but I don’t like it.

6. Find at least one thing to get super-nerdy about and go all in.

7. Even though I won’t judge you based on your play list, I feel comfortable saying if your favorite band is U2, we probably won’t have that much in common.

8. If you met me between the ages of 19 and 25 and any of the following things happened: We laid in a hammock and told secrets, or we watched a sunrise, or cried in a bathroom at a bar, or car-danced to ABBA/sang to Mariah without irony, or we jumped into a pool fully clothed, or the worst thing in the world happened to me and you brought me a blanket and then threw me a surprise birthday party …  if any (or all) of these things happened at any point during that time frame, then you know all of the things important things about me. It doesn’t matter if the last time we spoke was five days ago, five weeks ago or five years ago. You are still my best friend. You always will be.

9. Learn to bake a decent pie crust. It’s five ingredients – water, flour, butter, sugar, salt –  you can handle it.

10. Call your mother. Always call your mother.

Amazing that I crossed the finish line looking this happy, considering how much I didn't know about getting through this race.

The first time you do anything it gets burned into your brain. I remember the first time I drove (with my dad down to the end of Speedway and back, with him yelling at me the whole way), the first time I saw Oliver (at a party I desperately didn’t want to be at) and I remember nearly every single first day of school from elementary school through college. So, of course, I’m going to remember the details and feelings of my first marathon for a long time.

What I’ll probably remember most is how – despite months of training and reading everything I could about running a marathon – I was utterly unprepared for the realities of the race. Honestly, I don’t think it’s possible to be truly prepared the first time you do anything.

That said, there are a couple of key pieces of advice I wish I’d gotten (or actually listened to) before the race and in that spirit, thought I’d share the things I wish someone had told me about running a marathon:

• It’s really hard after mile 20. That whole “hitting the wall” thing is legitimate. I thought “hey once you hit 20, there’s only six more to go… and six miles is nothing.” Oh sweet, naive Megan of four weeks ago. Six miles are definitely something after running 20. Most training programs only have you train up to 20 miles if you’re a beginner, but in retrospect, I’d advocate a longer training timeline to allow for running the full distance at least once. It would have been nice to know what I was in for. Lacking the time to do that, I recommend doing what you can to get mentally tough as well as practicing meditation so you can calm your mind at mile 20.5 and keep yourself from freaking out. I just read a story about a marathoner who does long division in her head the entire last six miles – so you can try that too.

• Vaseline. Put it everywhere that you think your clothes will rub. I didn’t think much about how awkward and painful it is to have your clothes rubbing against thin, sensitive skin for hours and hours. As a result, I was the blister queen. I had gnarly foot blisters as well as what I can really only describe as adult diaper rash.

• Get a heart rate monitor. I didn’t think I needed one since I’m far from an elite runner, but I’ve now learned that doing some good old zone training would have helped me better understand a realistic pace goal and probably would have helped me get in better shape. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on the fanciest heart rate monitor out there, but as I get in shape for the Lost Dutchman in February, I’m finding it incredibly helpful to know my minimum and maximum heart rates.

• Don’t skip training runs. I learned recently that for every week you don’t excercise you lose 10% of your fitness. That’s scary, especially when I think about training runs that I skipped. Granted, I got pneumonia in October which was a about a three-week set back, but after that I have to admit I got pretty lazy about mid-week training runs. I never skipped a long run (when I was healthy), but I did lose a lot of midweek motivation which I think hurt me. It’s easy to talk yourself out of a Tuesday or Wednesday run – “it’s only six miles, how much does that really matter?” – and skipping one, once in a while might not matter, but those skipped runs add up on race day. As I head into the next race, I’m committed to not skipping a single run as tough as that is for me when I’m on the road for work.

And with that… I’m out the door for my last run of 2011. Only 35 training runs left until the next race.

Uncharted territory that looked mostly like this:

That look on my face is pure anger - this is almost to mile 26 and I couldn't see the damn finish line yet.

Before I ran the race, I thought I knew what I’d write about it. Something along the lines of “it was great-I’m so proud-so interesting to run my first race in my hometown” and figured I’d draw some kind of interesting parallel between running a significant race in a town I wanted to run away from for so many years, etc.

But while I was running I what I actually spent the most time thinking about (between lip synching to show tunes and “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” and feeling slightly awed by how beautiful the course was) was how lucky I am to have the family I have. I started getting some gnarly blisters around mile 8, which was way too soon, and to avoid thinking about how uncomfortable that was I just focused on seeing my family sometime between mile 14 and 15. I worked. Look how happy they made me:

I know for certain that I would not have completed the race if not for my family. Around mile 18 I was exhausted and frustrated and wanted to quit. And then I caught sight of my Grammy and Papa on the side of the road, smiling. I grabbed my Papa and made him run half a mile with me and that is honestly the moment that I knew I wouldn’t quit even though I wanted to. From mile 20 on I had a family member with me for at least part of every mile. My dad and Oliver hung in with me for a mile each, my mom jogged with me briefly – but if you know my mom and her background you know that’s pretty amazing. Even my little sis jogged a half mile with me in her Toms. That must’ve hurt.

God, I love them. I love how in my family we don’t do anything alone. When something great happens to one of us, it happens to all of us. Something bad happens, we’re all devastated. It can get annoying, but when you’re trying to do something like recover from a broken jaw (my brother), raise money for your low income student’s prom (my dad), or finish the last six miles of a marathon, it’s pretty amazing.

Hooray mom! (Also, I'm crying in this picture...lots of emotions.)

Despite the blisters, the weird cramp in my glutes (I ran like six miles punching myself in the butt to get it to go away) and the strange mental experience past 20 miles, I can honestly say I can’t wait for the next one. As long as my family is there.

In the meantime, please enjoy these pies I baked and never blogged. Work was bananas the last couple month – busy to the point where I honestly didn’t have time to think about this blog. Luckily, I did have time to bake.(It’s my favorite de-stresser activity and I was plenty stressed out so there were pies.)

First off, a pie that I neglected to photograph. I went through a vegan attempt earlier this year – not going so well at the moment – and so I wanted to make vegan pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. You might remember these beautiful babies from October during my bout with pneumonia. Well I turned them into homemade puree via this recipe from No Meat Athlete and then into this pie, also via NMA.

I have to say it was… kind bad. I definitely did something wrong because it was really dark and weird-looking and I also think the cashew butter was just too much. I plan on making pumpkin pie again this winter (my Papa loves it so I’m trying to figure out a way to make it low sugar or sugar-free for him) but I’ll probably use the traditional ingredients. I just couldn’t get the right creaminess. I made it for Thanksgiving and only two slices got eaten. That’s not normal for my pie and super not normal for Oliver and his brother. So – bad pie.

Luckily, earlier in the month for my friend Ren’s annual “friend thanksgiving” I made this apple pie and I was really pleased with it:

I definitely ate the leftovers with my hands the following Monday at work because I'm real classy.

I used my typical extra flaky crust recipe and for the insides used three variety of apples (just seasonal local ones), pumpkin pie spice (just a pinch -weird but good), a bit of cinnamon and some sugar. I really liked the mix of apple flavors and spices. I highly recommend it, but I’ll have to bake and more carefully blog another because I can’t remember all the steps now.

Good pie, bad blogger.

I hate stretching. Worst thing about running. At least I have a little helper.

Most of the “serious” stuff I’ve learned isn’t that interesting. Who, but other people training for a marathon, cares about Fartleks, 880s or the nutritional composition of the perfect kale smoothie?

The answer is exactly zero people. It’s the frivolous stuff I’ve learned that’s actually interesting. And, I think these lessons apply pretty much universally to working to accomplish anything that requires endurance, mental strength and sacrifice.

Tip 1: Dress for fun (and invest in good socks.) 

I’m really into bright workout clothes. Like Kids Incorporated audition bright.Nothing makes me happier than my hot pink sports bra, my purple running shorts and my neon yellow Newtons. They add pizzazz. They remind me not to take what I’m doing too seriously.  When you’re pounding through hour three of a four hour run it’s the little things that make you happy. Today in fact I went on a long run and I swear the only thing that kept me going for miles 10 and 11 was looking at and feeling happy about my gold glitter nail polish.

Today I also learned an important lesson when it comes to dressing flashy – you can go overboard and it will be embarrassing. I got some new running tights this weekend in fuchsia because I’m just that annoying. Big time mistake. I’m a really sweaty person with (apparently) really sweaty legs and by the end of my 20 miler it pretty much looked like I’d peed myself. Luckily at the time I was too tired to care. Distance running has a way of taking away your sense of personal dignity I guess. I am, however, retrospectively embarrassed.

As for the socks, isn’t it just a general life rule that you want your feet to be dry and as comfy as possible?

Tip 2: Show tunes. 

I swear the only thing that’s getting me through this last stretch of training is the Rent soundtrack. If your taste skews less 90s, Wicked is also great to run to. If you’re a little more classic in your musical theater taste, Les Miserables is great (especially “One day more!”) If your taste skews more fabulous I strongly suggest Mama Mia. I haven’t tried it, but I bet Caberet is great too. I can say from experience that both Anything Goes and Oklahoma are not great for running.

Then again – you’re talking to an ex drama nerd who used to dress up in a leotard and perform all the parts of Cats out in her bedroom. So, there’s that. I think this works for me because I enjoy lip synching along and pretending I’m the female lead in each play.

Tip 3: Develop a complex and interesting inner life.  

I’ve always had a really detailed one so long stretches of time alone to play pretend is actually something I look forward. I’m really great at imaging elaborate scenarios and carrying on conversations with myself for hours. Favorite scenarios include picking out my wardrobe and planning my acceptance speech should I ever win a Daytime Emmy Award (secret childhood dream) and telling off ex-boyfriends and enemies with the kind of dignity and snappy language that gets slow claps from the imaginary onlookers in my imaginary confrontation scenarios. Some runners have mantras. I have fantasy land.

Tip 4: Have a stressful job. 

I have one. I love it, but am frequently stressed out by it. This has fueled more than one long run. Bonus – running takes away stress and has made me a better problem solver and manager.

Tip 5: Make time to treat yo self. 

I failed to do this earlier in the month and as a result of running outside with a terrible head cold I gave myself pneumonia. Don’t do this. It sucks and I lost three weeks of real training time. Give yourself time to rest. Get massages. Get pedicures and don’t feel too embarrassed by how gnarly your feet are.

Something else I think should fall under this heading is that after a long run, if you feel like eating all the food that there is in the world, give yourself the mental go ahead. You just burned thousands of calories (about 100 per 10 minutes… which if you run for like 270 minutes is a lot of calories!) Chances are you won’t really eat all the food in the world, but you will allow yourself to eat something really satisfying instead of trying to be “good.” And for the love of god, I hope you’re not running a marathon with weight loss as a primary goal (because if you are I worry you might die) but if you’re worried about weight take heart in the fact that I continue to eat food, including lots of carbs, on a regular basis and yet have lost 25 pounds this year. More proof that running is an amazing sport.

Unfortunately, my friend and fellow future Tucson  Marathon runner  Monique says, “cramming for a marathon isn’t the same as cramming for your college midterms.”

That sucks.

I’m all dressed up and medically forbidden from having anywhere to go. I have pneumonia. It’s the worst. I can’t run. I can’t even really enjoy a walk without needing my inhaler. So uncool. But I decided not to let it stop me from my ultimate cat lady fantasy costume. I’m just having fun passing out candy to little kids (and the occasional adult – what’s up with that) and eating a slice of an amazing vegan pumpkin pie I made yesterday.

Think positive thoughts for me!