This morning I drove up to the Happiest Place on Earth, no, not Nordstrom’s Half Yearly, Disneyland to pick up a race bib for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon on Sunday.

Even though I was just here in November with my family, I got lost, had to text the Queen of Disney for some help and finally made it to the expo.

The expo’s in the Disneyland Hotel where my brother, sister and kids stayed in November, but don’t worry, I still got lost again.  I am woman, hear me roar… because I have no sense of direction.

The bib pickup was downstairs in what kinda looked a carpeted parking lot, but I met reader Liz and grabbed my bib without any hassle.

The rest of the expo is upstairs in a convention hall: there’s lots of sparkly, lots of pink and lots of Luna bars.  I think I scored like 8 or 10 of those suckers.

It wasn’t as big as a Rock ‘n’ Roll expo, but it was fun to take a quick look around before hitting the road.  Jeff Galloway was about to speak, but if it ain’t Josh Cox, I’m out.

Saw Superman at the Hollywood Half Marathon booth:

Anyone running this race?  Pam and I are and I think it’s close to being sold out so better sign up quick!

You wanna know how to make running fun?

Run with friends.

If you don’t have any friends like me, run in a costume.

I’m making a costume for Sunday and for the amount of money and time I’ve already spent on it, I could have bought a solid gold burka.

Oh well, it’ll be fun.  I sure do love me some costumed running…

Fourth of July race with Pam

Rock ‘n’ Roll LA race at Halloween

LA Holiday Half race

Turkey trot

Vegas.

Ever ran in a costume?

WORKOUT – Xtend barre class – 60 mins

Ran on TM – 7.1 miles/ 60 mins   1. incline

This morning I went to a 6am Xtend barre class in Mission Viejo with reader Bri who had invited me.

I have taken one Physique 57 class and that’s it – no pilates, yoga, or anything else so I was pretty green and fresh but up for whatever.

I loved this class.  It’s a mix of a little of everything and it is hard!  We used weights, we did some dance-type movements with the barre, we worked our cores on the mat, then stretched, and the whole class went by really fast.

What I especially liked is that I was sweating; when we were at the barre doing squats, plies and all that jazz, my face was dripping.  You know I’m a cardio queen so I liked that I felt like not only were my muscles quivering but I was sweating too.

Of course, I had to go run a little afterwards; running makes me less crazy.

Thanks Bri for inviting me!

You can read Bri’s review of the class; she has done a LOT of different barre classes so girl really knows her stuff.

I’m going to look around and try to find a deal and buy a month package or something to Xtend barre because I liked it that much and it should count for strength training, right??

Do you take barre classes?  What’s your favorite class you take?  Any classes you don’t like?

Today I met my friend Pam for lunch at Chuck E. Cheese.  Random but it worked out well with the kids: they could play games and we could play at the salad bar.

Free daycare and unlimited salad bar for about $7?  Are you kidding me?!  If I had kids, I’d live at the Mouse.

Pam and Royce

Salad trip #1.  I was doing mile repeats on the salad bar, gotta get my money’s worth.

The place seemed small to me, but maybe it was because when we were kids, everything seemed so much bigger and awesomer.

But I still got a game of air hockey in… and lost.

The kids got to pick out a toy with their tickets.  I really wanted the mini slinky but Pam said no.  I threw a fit, she spanked me in the bathroom and then we walked over to froyo.

Thanks Pam, Ryan and Royce for the fun lunch!

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*THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of you who’ve ordered a shirt; I hope to send Julius a big check!  And I’m working on getting to everyone’s emails so thank you guys so much!

*Last chance to enter the Mizuno shoes giveaway

*I think the 50% promo code cooleronline still works for the Aspaeris compression shorts if you haven’t picked up your sexy leg sausage.

*A couple race pics from last weekend:

Hey, this isn’t too bad; it’s kinda fun!  I spy a penny!

Uhhh, this kinda sucks and is not fun.

BLARCH.  Please cast me into the ocean right now.

WORKOUT – Ran outside 10.5 miles/1:22   no music, lots of rolling hills, warm out

Despite getting up at 5:45am, I didn’t get running until after 9 and it was already warm out.  I didn’t bring any water so by the end of 10 miles, it hurt to swallow and my lips looked like they were caked in sugar…  which really, they could have been. I do love my Hot Tamales.

Anyways, lately I’ve received multiple questions about how I carry water on my runs and since I’m so stellar at hydration, I thought I’d talk about it.

I usually don’t run with water unless it’s in the summer and hot.  I don’t mind carrying stuff in my hands (I hold my GU’s, camera, ipod, kitchen sink in all my races) so it doesn’t bug me to have a water bottle in my hand.  But here’s the gear I have:

A Nathan hydration belt where the bottle goes on your back.  I bought this when I first started running and I hate it.  I feel like the bottle moves around way too much and is too heavy so I never ever use this.  I should get rid of it but it does such a great job of collecting dust.

A handheld water bottle that I bought at Marshalls for $6 a couple years ago.  Yes, I’m using a Corona for display because my Nathan bottle is lost somewhere in San Francisco, I think.

I love this thing; you can only carry about 22 ounces, but it’s not too heavy, it’s easy to use and I don’t mind holding it.

A lot of people use belts like this with the 2 smaller 10 ounce bottles:

I’ve never used one but it would seem to work out better with multiple smaller bottles than one big one.

If you don’t want to run with a belt, a couple other tips:

*Plan your route around agua

Public parks generally have water fountains, bring cash to buy a drink at the grocery store, do a double loop course where you loop back to your car and get a drink there, etc.

*Stash your bottles beforehand

I’ve never done this and it’d take a little effort, but some people will drive their route and hide water bottles in bushes or whatever along the way.

*Pregame

You’re still going to need water while running if it’s hot out, but it helps to be hydrating before you run.  Have a glass of water as soon as you get up with your coffee and drink small sips an hour before you run or something.

*Have a mixer

When it’s hot out I like to mix Powerade Zero and water.  Choose some sort of energy drink, Nuun, whatever that has sodium and electrolytes in it to help ward off dehydration.

*Practice

Before it gets sweltering hot, try some different things and drinks to see what works for you.  Some people can’t drink certain energy drinks and maybe a handheld water bottle would drive you crazy, but you won’t know until you try it out in your training.

Any other tips or suggestions I’m missing?

One last question:  Do I have La SIDA?

That is some prime chafing going on.

I’ve been at my computer all day long doing shirt orders.  I started at 6am and am pulling the plug now because I can’t tell if MA stands for Maine, Michigan, Montana, Madison, why don’t any states start with a ‘Q’ or a ‘Z’?!

It doesn’t help that I like to do things as inefficiently as possible.  First I get out my Abacus to add the total up and then I do some elegant old world calligraphy on every package.  So if I haven’t responded to your email yet, I’ll get to it, I promise… I just have to do some thermography first.

One of many healthy and balanced afternoon snacks:

That was supposed to be a Valentine’s gift for my husband… I ate the whole box.  My whole desk looks like a pantry right now, there’s so much food on it.

All day I’ve been listening to country on Pandora.  I used to hate country music and now suddenly I have an intense craving for a dirt road, a cold beer, a porch swing and Jason Aldean.

Do you listen to Pandora?  This is only the second time I’ve ever used it or been on it or whatever you call it.  What station do you listen to?

Marni was not impressed.  On a side note, I think the fact that she can sleep on a windowsill would make her a standout in a dog show.  BEST IN SHOW.

Anyways, rewinding to last night… we met up with our insta besties  Katie and Merrick for Taco Tuesday.  We just can’t seem to go a day without seeing each other.  and $1.25 tacos?!  done.

^{Maybe it’s because I have creepy hand.}

Those two are no fun at all.

so boring.

perverts.

It’s all fun ‘n’ games until someone breaks a glass pees their pants.  Then it’s even more fun and games.  

So here’s the “new” SR shirts; most of them are the designs I’ve already done that people asked for again. 

They’re all technical sweat-wicking fabric and the sizing is generous:  I’m wearing an XS in the Team SkinnyRunner and the rest are smalls.

I begged and shamefully pleaded with the vendors for a deal so that’s why I don’t have every shirt in every size.

The best seller: Team SkinnyRunner in light grey

Sizes: XS, M, L, XXL

Stole in Hot Pink. garmin love.

Sizes: S, M, L

I sorta love this tank: Punch

Sizes: XS, S, M, L, XL

You 80’s babies know this one: Flock of Seagulls in Hot Pink

SIZES S, M, L

The shirts are $25 and the tanks are $19, shipping’s on me and taking a page from BIC Bands, for every shirt sold I’m donating $2 to Julius Achon’s Achon Uganda Children’s Fund.

If you’d like one, please email me at skinnyrunnerblog@gmail.com.  In the email please tell me:

*which shirt you’d like

*which size

*how you’d like to pay (Google Checkout, Paypal or Check)

Please, please, please buy one or even come to my house and steal one out of the garage or else my husband might go cray cray on me.

WORKOUT – Turbo Kick class ~ 60 mins

Ran outside ~ 7.25 miles/1:07  easy miles

A few things I’m learning about exercises classes:

1. It helps to read the class schedule

I thought there was a Body Pump class at 8am this morning, but it was a “Turbo Kick” kickboxing class.  Since it took a solid 20 minutes of self-motivation talk just to get to the class, I decided to stay.

2. A heart rate monitor would also help

I sweat a ton in the class, which involved a lot of jumping and fast twitch-type movements, but if you got 40 people in a glass-encased room doing Sudoku, there’d be some sweating going on.  So it’d be interesting to know how hard I really worked.

3. Having rhythm would help a lot but I ain’t got it

There was some really fast paced dance choreography included and I was so lost.  A couple times I caught myself just jumping up and down arms flailing pretending to do a jab, kick, roundhouse, 3 step, half turn, swivel, uppercut sequence.  Oh well, hopefully someone got a good laugh out of it.

4. If I want to run and do a class, I need to run beforehand

Afterwards I just drag and feel blarchy and don’t wanna run.

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Let’s chat shoes.

My mom has really big feet.

I’ve worn Mizuno Wave Riders for a couple years now and tend to stock up on them whenever I find a deal.  just doing my best to land an audition for Hoarders.

Some of my new Mizuno Wave Rider 14s in my closet.  From this shoe post.

But yesterday was the first time I decided to make the Waves a little colorful.

Foxy, huh?  I think spray painting your shoes is going to trend big this summer. 

Actually, I’m making a costume for a half marathon this weekend.

Maybe Mizuno sensed my jealousy of {this girl} and {this girl} since they both have the limited edition hot pink Mizuno Wave Rider 15 or maybe Mizuno knew my painting skills weren’t that great but either way, they sent me a pair.

love.

Not my hand

Love the color but even more, the 15’s are more like the 13’s instead of the 14’s which I have to cut the sides because they hurt my ankles.

So to review:

Wave Rider 13 – awesome!

Wave Rider 14 – shoe changes, not awesome. at all.

Wave Rider 15 – awesome again!

Because Mizuno’s all even stevens, they gave me a pair and they’re going to give one of you guys a pair.

All you gotta do to enter is answer,

What kind/brand shoes do you run or work out in?

You get an extra entry for tweeting, blogging or FB.  Contest runs until Friday. legitness.

**Next post I’ll have a preview of the new SR shirts if anyone wants one.  Please please do because if I don’t get them out of my garage (they’re been in there since like July) my husband is going to kill me.

Thanks Sabrina for the race picture!  Yes, I was dying that much.  That, or I’m a bit of a drama queen.

WORKOUT – (total) 15.35 miles/2:10

Ran outside ~ 4.15 miles/40 mins with Katie

Ran on TM ~ 11.2 miles/1:30  1. incline

I was sore yesterday but woke up feeling good and ready for a few miles with Katie.  Then I took it inside to the gym where I borrowed my husband’s ipod and ran to some old school Prodigy and Rage Against the Machine…  a nice change from Britney and Katy Perry.

THE RECAP

Instead of me recapping yesterday, Dave already did and it’s much better worded so check out the whole recap here.  He talks about everything from how I was feeling after RnRAZ (confidence shaken) to how I yelled at him around mile 20 to “Stop running in front of me!” (Hopefully I said it nicer than that)

A couple things I will mention:

***Thanks to everyone who said Hi or came up and introduced themselves.  (And said such nice things on the blog and twitter) If it’s possible, my head’s even bigger now.  it sorta needs its’ own zip code.

 source

Chacha, Nicole and I before the race

***I didn’t look at my Garmin ONCE during the race.  It was accidentally set to a pace screen with a 9:15 pace and Dave said that I might run faster without knowing the pace so I never looked at it.

During the last 6 miles I started doing the “Are we there yet?” crap that I bet pacers love.  Am I on pace?  How much further?  Am I gonna make it?

***Dave’s recap makes it sound like I’m amazing, but it was really hard.  The last 5 miles were brutal.  Like he said, I’m used to the “pleasurable zone of pain” where I run the first 20 miles easy enough to run the last 6 hard.  (At the LA Marathon, I ran the last few miles at 6:22 pace)

Pam and I at the LA Marathon 2011.

Yesterday I just tried to survive the last 6 without slowing down too much. They were so miserably hard and that’s the only way I can describe it.

***For those of you who asked about nutrition, I ate a PickyBar about 35 minutes before the start and 4 GU gels at miles 9, 14, 18, and 22 which is pretty much standard for me.  I don’t think I drank any of the course energy drink in the first half (just had water) but did in the second half.

**I’ll do a complete race review but it was a perfect day for running: beautiful weather and a hard but very scenic course.  There were tons of volunteers, everyone was friendly, it was a really well-managed race that I’d tell anyone else to sign up for.  Just do some hill training!

A pic I took while camping in Carlsbad back in September but we ran right by the campgrounds

***What was different from RnRAZ last weekend to yesterday? 

Last weekend, wahhh, I’m a loser.

Having a pacer changed the whole game; I would never run that fast by myself.  You know that feeling where you’re so overwhelmed with what you have to do that you could almost start panicking if you let yourself?  Yeah, I felt that way yesterday at mile 1, mile 14 big time and mile 20. 

Mile 1 – I can’t do this.  I’m not ready.  There’s so much farther to go and I can’t hold 7:37s for that long.

Mile 14 – I can’t do 12 more mile this fast.  I’m gonna burn out because I won’t have the energy.  I just can’t keep up.

Mile 20 – I can’t keep this pace; I’m too tired.  I’m slowing down.  I can’t keep going.  I need to stop.

But with someone else there, there’s this sense of “Shut up and put up; get out of your own head and just do it.”  how very Nike of me.

***What’s next? 

As soon as the race was over, I told Dave I’d never run that fast again and should just quit then.  I really love running marathons, but running that hard isn’t fun at all; it’s actually miserable (while you’re doing it).  But now it’s got me thinking, what could I do?  Could I run closer to a 3:10 than a 3:15?  I don’t know.  I think I’d like to get into the Ultra thing maybe like this girl.  I don’t know.

***Official numbers and crap:

3:14:31, 2nd in my age group, 9th woman and 52nd overall.  (it was a smaller race – 1500 marathoners)

Some splits:

Mile 1 – 7:47

Mile 5 – 7:33

Mile 10 – 7:17

Mile 15 – 7:21

Mile 20 – 7:18

Mile 25 – 7:17

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***The winners of the Sweat Pink tank tops are:

#202 Heather at Bake, Run, Live

#321 Jenn at FrostBites

#404 Sarah J at FasterthanaSnail

Congrats and can you please email me at sr@skinnyrunner.com your size (S-XL) and mailing address.

After the race I wasn’t hungry for about 30 minutes and then hit the “I’m starving and will eat a dirty child” mode in a hot second.  I was headed out to lunch so I tried not to do too much damage but drank a chocolate milk, little bag of prunes and a Tiger’s Milk bar from my post-race goodie bag.

 source

We met at Longboarder Cafe in Oceanside which was perfect because it was on the way home, had pickles and mimosas, and the football game on TV.  done deal.

 source

Cheerleader extraordinaire Heather and daughter #2 and Chiara who had a HUGE 35 minute PR. 

Nicole who is an absolute riot; girl is funny.

And Julie in the middle who’s one of the newest members of the SoMuchCoolerOnline Ragnar Relay team along with Sandy.

I wanted some salt so I had a Cobb salad with pickles instead of bacon.  so good.  try it.  write me the royalty check later.

When I got home Jaymo had the champagne flutes out and the bubbly chilling.  Did I say he was a good man or did I say he was a good man?

And then I ate an entire jar of pickles. NBD.

But before I could start popping bottles I had to deal with this mess in my car:

I swear I’m not a total slob but geez, someone living out of their car wouldn’t even be that messy.

I’ll have a race recap up tomorrow, but more importantly, did you hear Heidi Klum and Seal are separating?  Thoughts? Did not see that one coming.