20 miles....

I am currently sitting on my couch, fresh out of my ice bath + shower, with my feet up watching The Sopranos. (Not my first choice, but I do like the show, and honestly I'm too lazy to change the channel.) We just finished 20 miles and although I was struggling the last two miles, it went pretty well!

I've found two lovely ladies that run around my same pace and we tend to stick together during the long runs. Today me, Katy and Kimi ran 1 mile intervals with a 1 minute or so walk at each mile marker. I LOVE breaking up the long runs like that, it makes the run go so much quicker!

I've been using Hammer gels, and Espresso is my fave. It tastes like mocha with a bonus jolt of caffeine! I took one around the hour mark and it really helped me pick up my pace. Then around the two hour mark I took a Hammer Apple Cinnamon gel. These taste like apple pie! Unfortunately since they are so sweet, I think the tend to give me cramps. It was hard to recover after that. In an effort to save the remainder of my run, I took about a 1/2 of another espresso gel around the 2:45 hour mark. It sort of helped.

The last two miles were the toughest for me, we had just had our last water break and were heading out for the last long stretch in full sunlight. It was getting hot out there and my legs were lead!

Our stats ended up being 20 miles in 3:24 with an average pace of 10:14. On our running portions we were keeping a steady pace of under a 9 minute mile!

Before my last marathon, my last long run of 21.5 miles that we run straight through (no walk breaks) our average pace was 10:54...considerably slower than running with short walk breaks! GALLOWAY SUCCESS.

I wore my new running clothes....

Sugoi Fizz Tank
Mizuno Women's Maverick Split

Love them! The shirt has a nice big pocket in the back where I can store my gels. The shorts I have are all black, very comfy.

I just inhaled a huge green smoothie with some added Amazing Grass (review to come whenever I finish the boatload of samples they sent me :) and now Matt and I are deciding if we want to go get food. I'm planning on lazing around for as long as possible today, I think I earned it!

What's everyone's fall racing schedule looking like? I have the Marine Corps Marathon on October 25th, possibly the Raleigh 1/2 Marathon on November 1st, and then the Kiawah 1/2 Marathon on December 12th. I might also throw in a few 5ks if I can find the time. (Will be doing one on Thanksgiving Day in Greensboro, NC most likely).

Happy Sunday folks..

Artisana Raw Organic Nut Butters

A long way back I got a lovely package in the mail chock full of deliciously tasty Artisana raw & organic nut and coconut butters. Holy yum you might say, and all fo free! Just so I could share the good news with y'all :)

Since it's been a while, I will spare you all the deets. The kind people at Artisana sent me Walnut Butter, Tahini, Almond Butter, Macadamia Nut Butter, Coconut Butter, Coconut Oil, and some Cacao Bliss.

Here is the rundown folks: You can't really mess up nuts ground into butter. But you CAN make it better. The cacao bliss was by far my favorite nut butter, a smooth blend of chocolatey goodness. (I hear they won some award for this one too.) Plus I love that they are unheated (thus raw) because it just makes me feel better about eating it.

But the real find was the coconut butter...


Not just coconut oil. But coconut butter. The meat of the coconut plus the oil all ground together into one creamy, delicious, sweet concoction. Get thee to the web and order some of this!

I ate it straight out of the jar like I would PB. I also added it to sweet potatoes (baked and mashed), smoothies, oatmeal, toast, fish, you name it, I added it.

So here's the thing. If you would love some organic, raw nut butters and/or coconut products, I would definitely check out Artisana. Not only did everything taste delish, but the people there were so polite and happy to send me samples! So do yourself a favor and order some coconut butter and cacao bliss...you can thank me later for the fiesta in your mouth.

(Here is a list of online retailers!)

Ahh, life.

It has pulled me away from this space for almost a month. I've been busy, but I'm not gonna lie, I've also been a tad bit too lazy to spend my hard-earned weeknights tapping away on my laptop. But alas, I have missed you all so I wanted to drop a line to let you know I'm alive, and faring well.

Since we last spoke, I have been doing quite a bit of running, a ton of studying, passed my final financial exam (squeee!), formally been knighted a financial advisor, settled into our new home, got my ass back into yoga, eaten a crap ton of kettle chips, been super busy, hosted an inaugural supper club for eight lovely ladies...and have generally been loving life.

The Marine Corps Marathon is coming up in just a little over a month so mileage over this way has been pretty crazy, as I'm sure it has been with most of y'all! Marathon season is in full swing!

The team and I (have you donated yet? I'm aaalllmost to my goal!) will be setting out for our first 20 miler this Sunday, so I'm sure I will have plenty of time to prop my feet up and tap tap away on Sunday Funday so maybe I will get around to the product reviews or giveways I have been promising....

Two weeks ago we did an 18 miler and it went great. Last weekend's 13 miler, not so great. So I'm hoping this weekend is back up to grrreeeat.

Hope you all have a fab weekend and (hope to) see you back here soon :)

XOXO

ChasRunner

John Denver, Monster Mix & Stank: A Wild West Relay Race Report, Part III

How long is it going to take me to FINALLY post the finale of my WWR recap, you ask?? Well it's ending today!

Missed parts I or II?

So we made it to our "campsite" at our final exchange, and we were greeted with this:

There was really no where to sleep except for in front of and behind our van...but we made it happen. For, maybe 45 minutes to an hour :)

After a few hours of not sleeping and munching on handfuls more of Monster Mix, we got up to greet Van #1 and bring in their final leg so we could finish up ours! Around this time we were getting worried that we wouldn't make the cut off time (which we thought was either 4 or 5) so upon chatting with Van #1, we decided that we would "leap frog" our leg. (We should have started the race about three hours earlier than we did.)

Basically leap frogging is having two runners on the course at once. For example, we would drop of runner #6 and then drive ahead to the next exchange and drop of runner #7. We thought this was a great idea AND it would get us to the showers quicker. So we waited a while on Van #1, cheering on the huge caterpillars who were venturing out in the road to try and cross, but inevitably got squished under the wheels of a Chevy. (Seriously, I wish we had this moment on video.) When they finally arrived we snapped a few pics for them and we were off!


Alesha and I split up Steve's leg (about 2 miles each, I think mine was a little less at like 1.8) and then I headed on for my final leg. Which.Was.Killer.
I felt like the first three miles were completely uphill but I guess they were rolling. I peaked at the top of Rabbit Ears Pass and then it was all downhill from there! For some reason I had it in my head that I was only doing 4.6...but when 4.6 came and went I figured it was a bit more :)

Killer form.SIKE!

The scenery was beautiful though, I wish I had more pictures! The highlight of this run for me was when I was trudging up the final hill and was feeling beat down and the van was parked at the top of the hill waiting for me blasting Baby Got Back and cheering like crazy! I'm telling you, it was priceless! It also gave me that much needed boost to move that junk in my trunk to the exchange!



We finished up with our next two runners (blaring John Denver the whole time! how approps) and then Alesha was up for our last runner. We went ahead to the finish line and called the other van to make sure they were going to meet us there so we could all run across the finish line together. (They had already been to the hotel and showered! So.Jealous.)


Finished!!!

Van #2. 34 hours of non-showering, sweaty STANK!

Since this post has dragged on and on for over a week now, lets cut to the chase. Here are some pics of us all showered, clean and pretty again post-race.

Underexposed photo opp on our floor. Love these gals!!

Post-race Happy Hour at our slope-side hotel. Most of the gals got Sangria, but I opted for the more potent Marg. It was pretty good, not too sweet.

The fabulous ladies of Van #2 :)

Dinner at Mazzolo's. Yummy, over priced Italian ;)

All in all, I LOVED the Wild West Relay and would definitely do it again. I am already dreaming of the next relay I can participate in if not the WWR (Miami to Key West in February anyone?).

What I loved most about the race? Other than meeting all the fun people, I am thankful that I was finally introduced to the gorgeous state of Colorado. Previously I have only experienced the North Carolina/Tennessee/Virginia mountains which are lovely, but honestly they cannot hold a candle to the vast openness of Colorado and Wyoming and the great West. I honestly think I have fallen in love with this state! It's almost enough to make me want to shed my Southern home and head for the hills! At least temorarily ;)

I promise I will return to some normal blogging soon. I have my FINAL financial exam this coming Monday the 24th so I'm pretty bogged down until then. Hopefully after Monday my summer of studying will finally be over and I can enjoy the beach/pool before...wait, it never gets really cold down here ;)

{Did a brutal 16 miler this past Sunday with the team. It was tough but I'm glad I pushed through! Back down to 10 I think this weekend. Marathon here I come!}