The idea was pretty straight forward. We were going to run from one end to the other.
In the years that Natalie and I have been together, we have seen just about every mile marker on the Wildwood Trail except for one: Mile Zero. And so this weekend we decided to check it out, but we decided to see all the other mile markers first. So we piled into a cab and trucked the 31 miles out to the end of the trail with the intention of running the whole thing to zero.
We passed a lot of things on the trail. We jumped over roots and fallen trees. We ran over bridges. We interrupted an owl in the middle of lunch. We enjoyed the quiet togetherness sometimes talking and joking around, sometimes going long stretches without saying anything. We pointed out banana slugs so that we wouldn’t step on them. We talked shop and about the Sprockettes.
But as we went on, we started passing a lot of memories we had left by the side of the trail. We passed by our first long run together where Natalie stoically marched on to the finish. We passed a killer 18 mile run that we did before the Big Sur Marathon a couple years back. We passed countless jokes, a couple of fantastic arguments, and we passed by the memory of some great ideas that we accidentally left out on the trail. We passed by thousands of miles of training in all sorts of weather and by a few dramatic sprained ankles. We passed by the spot where we got engaged.
The plan was to run from point A to point B. But every couple of miles the trail would split and we would branch off into memories of our life so far, so together lived. We finished at Mile Zero as planned, went home, made pizza.
Austin mentioned the pizza as almost an afterthought, but actually The Pizza and the Wildwood go sort of hand in hand in the Ramsland family. It’s not just any old cheese or pepperoni kind of creation. No, it is an essay in fat, saturated and unsaturated. It goes like this:
Carmelize an onion in some olive oil. Pull pizza dough into roughly the shape of a baking sheet, lightly oiled.
Spread homemade pizza sauce (thawed from the frozen stash) and top with an impossibly huge heap of spinach. Sprinkle some shredded beets on top of this.
Grate and spread a hefty amount of mozzerella. Then distribute the onions. Finally, smush some tiny fresh mozzarella balls on top. If you don’t smush, they will tumbled down the heaping mound that is your uncooked pizza.
Cook that pizza. 450 degrees until cheese is bubbly brown and the crust is baked.
To serve, grate gratuitous amounts of parmesean on top, drizzle with olive oil, and scoop some avocado on top. Yes, avocado. Trust me on this.
Yum.
Note: This message has not been approved by the American Heart Association.
this just made me cry. i miss you both! (i’ll be in portland for the handbuild show this winter. i’m dating a welder, natalie! xo from los angeles)
Patti! So glad you are coming back to visit Portland! Is there a bumper sticker that says “Welders make sparks fly” or something cheesey like that? ‘Cause I would hate to think I am the first one to say it!