Restaurants, Races and Running Recap!

Good afternoon (I mean evening) according to this day light savings thing. I have much to tell you all. First off, I had a lovely evening last night at Pigalle in the theater district if Boston. I set out in my new outfit:

to meet Laura and Matt for drinks. I started with a Petite Syrah, which actually got better as it sat.

We chatted for about an hour and then headed over to Pigalle for our 9pm reservations.

The restaurant was super, super cute and small. It had a very romantic feel and it was kinda hidden, so it felt (in Laura's words) like a hidden jewel. The menu was traditional French fare and included all the favorites like Beef Bourguignon. The table started with a bottle of wine:

I actually liked this better than my first glass and wondered if the atmosphere or the storage had to do with the better taste?


First course was a field green salad with grapefruit and goat cheese. It was very, very good and the grapefruit added a hint of sourness that was a nice change of pace from my normal salad.

My entree was a tough decision, but I ended up going with the Salmon with beets, green beans, and lentils with a port reduction sauce. I am SO glad I did!!!

WOW, it was SO good. I am not a huge fan of beets, but boy was it a nice complement to the other flavors going on in the meal. The salmon was cooked medium and it tasted fresh and not fishy at all. SO, so, so good. I really loved it!


However, I would have to say that Evan's meal was the star of the evening.

This was a Cassoulet of Confit Duck Leg, Braised Lamb Shank and House-made Pork sausage. There were also a hefty amount of white beans on the bottom. I don't care so much for all the different meats, but the flavor and sauce was out of this world!


Unfortunately we were let down with the ending of meal, when Evan and I split: 

Coffee Neapolitan

Apple pop over

Sorry the pictures came out blurry, I am not really sure what happened with my camera. Anyways, like I was saying, both Evan and I said how disappointed we were with this dessert, especially after such an amazing first two courses. We felt that they went to the super market, went to the frozen section and bought these desserts to heat up. They just weren't great, but that didn't stop us for eating them.


Minus the dessert we all had a great evening and give Pigalle an 8 overall. I would highly suggest dining at Pigalle, but maybe skip the dessert.

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I woke up this morning feeling energized for the race ahead. Evan and I arrived in Davis Square at 10:30  just as lots of green fitted outfits were also arriving.

There were some pretty crazy outfits. As Evan, our friend Matt and I lined up at the starting line I could feel the pre-race jitters starting. However, they were quickly pushed away as I had to push and fight my way to even start the race (there were 6,000 runners). It was kinda an unorganized race and it was difficult to run for the first 1/2 mile, but I still felt I worked hard and had a good race. Here are my stats according to the Garmin:

Distance: 3.13

Duration: 22:24

Mile 1.02: 7:21

Mile .98: 7:03

Mile 3: 7:04

Mile .13: :56

The good news is that I got faster with each mile, which usually doesn't happen for me. My splits, usually, get slower as I get tired, but today I had lots of energy and felt like I could even go faster. It also helped that the crowd thinned out as the race progressed which made it easier to navigate the road. The bad news is I wish I could have gone faster; this is a little slower than my last 5K, but I guess every race is unique. 

Congratulations on Evan's first 5K finishing in about 28 minutes! He did a great job!

After the race the four of us (Laura joined us) attempted to find a bar to celebrate the race and watch March Madness. However, every bar had a line that looked like this:

We finally got into the Foundry 

And enjoyed a few beers and lunch. Fun day and a great way to celebrate Saint Patty's day!!

On our way home we were all feeling kinda tired, but not as tired as this lovely couple.

I guess they had a tough race! Anyways hope you all had a good weekend and if you ran a St. Patty's day race hope you had a great race!