For the love of conversation

I get a lot of non-runners asking me why I love running so much? If you’re a runner, you know the kind of people I’m talking about, the ones who can’t fathom why anyone would willingly get up at the crack of dawn, despite rain, sleet, pitch black darkness, or even morning grogginess, and go and run 20 plus kilometres. And they especially can’t understand it when a) I am not a morning person, and b) I was never a fan of anything sweat-inducing all through school – I was the kid who purposely forgot her gym strip at home and who cut through the church to shorten an already super short run around the school.

But, as I’ve mentioned before, running is like a drug, I started on it and I quickly got hooked. And I have many reasons why I love – and sometimes loathe – running. One of the big loves is the conversations.

My running chicks and I have had some of the craziest, zaniest, wackiest, most random conversations a group of girls could possible have on our runs. We’ve poured our hearts out, talked about our significant others, about our jobs, about our hopes, our dreams, people from our past, current frustrations, potential stalkers, hair, you name it we’ve talked about it. The talking, it’s a tool. There is almost no better way to make those kilometres click by faster than the chitter chatter.

And recently the conversation of choice was movies, romantic movies to be exact. After an evening of Mario and I somewhat suffering through Letters To Juliet (aside from the scenery and the older characters, it really wasn’t all that compelling) I started listing off some of my favourite romantic movies to my girls, but as is usually the case with me while running, I get distracted or sidetracked or lose my breath and never really get around to finishing the conversation at hand (I think they call it Runners’ ADD) and so, I’ve decided to finish that conversation right here, right now.

MY TOP ROMANTIC MOVIES:

  • 13 Going On 30
  • Pretty Woman
  • Across the Universe
  • (500) Days of Summer
  • Dirty Dancing
  • Shakespeare in Love
  • Edward Scissorhands
  • Romeo and Juliet
  • You’ve Got Mail
  • 10 Things I Hate About You
  • Notting Hill
  • Paris J’taime

By far, the best scene EVER:

What are your favourite romantic movies?

So I decided to a little bit of experimenting this weekend, thanks to my parents. On Friday night I stopped in at their house before going home, and they filled up a bag for me with fresh vegetables from the garden, which consisted of zucchini, some funny yellow looking thing that I think is also zucchini, potatoes, and a large butternut squash. I had never baked anything with butternut squash before, but after reading several blog postings from fellow blogger Eat, Live, Run all about butternut squash, I was intrigued. And because I knew I’d be baking all day on Saturday – meaning: not running – I figured it was  time to experiment.

Initially I thought I would copy Eat, Live, Run’s idea of making butternut squash pancakes (her picture had me drooling) but then upon further consideration I came to the realization that there was no way in hell I would be getting up early enough to cook up pancakes prior to Mario heading out to work, so that idea was a no go. I kept thinking and thinking and thinking, and I searched out recipe after recipe after recipe on the Internet, but nothing stood out.

What to do? What to do? What to do?

I roasted up the butternut squash and pureed it the good old fashion way – meaning: using a wooden spoon and muscles – and then put it aside to move on to make some fresh fruit tarts (well, the dough for them at least) and Mario’s request of banana bread. And then, as I was combining and mixing all my ingredients up for the banana bread, it suddenly dawned on me: Banana Butternut Squash Bread!


It was an experiment, I had no idea how it would taste, but I treated it how I’d treat pumpkin and mixed in some cinnamon and nutmeg with it, and combined with the banana and cacao nibs, andddddd SUCCESS!

5 thoughts on “For the love of conversation”

  1. 50 First Dates, When Harry met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle. The bread looks yummy! I think we have the same plates:)

  2. Hi Katie,
    Good luck with your marathon.
    Who do you see for massage &or chiro.
    I’m not having luck with a hip injury and looking for some advise.

  3. As one of those people who’s honestly never been able to really understand *why* someone would subject themselves to a good run, I really enjoyed reading your post. Again, best of luck with your upcoming marathon!

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