Virtual Races/ Running Divas Shorts Winner

Their are several virtual races going on the New Year's Race  5K-by DAILY VITAMIN F

Got the NEW  YEAR 5K done this morning

 AND THE
 Resolution Fun Run over at RUN TO THE FINISH

I am running a  Resolution Race 5k here in Des Moines on January 1, 2012.  With our entry fee we got a fleece running jacket how sweet is that. 



Isn't this Jacket SWEET

 We signed up early for this race and it only cost us  $25.00, plus the jacket.  How awesome is that?   I can't think of a better way to start my New Years than running a race.  


Today I met Rachelle and Stephanie at In Training and we were heading to DSM to meet up with some of Rachelle's friend to run.   We got there around 7:30.  Our goal today was to run 12 miles.  We wanted to get to the bike trail early so we could get 6 miles in before we met up with the other girls. The other girls were only planning on running 6 miles this morning.  

The first 5.35 miles it was just Rachelle, Stephanie and I. It was so great to run somewhere else besides Earlham, plus we got to  run in the daylight.  How awesome is that?  It was  34 degrees when we started out. It  was the perfect  morning for a run.

When we got back to the car the other girls were waiting for us.   We stopped  to get a drink than we were off for some more miles.     Their was a couple of us girls  that had not ran together before. It was awesome running and getting to know some of Rachelle running friends.   We ended up running 13.50 miles this morning.

I definitely plan on running with them all again.

 I'm looking forward to 2012.  I anxiously waiting to see where my running takes me in 2012. 



Winner of the Running Divas Shorts is Kim at Finallyfit2011.  Kim email me at pinkhatrunner@hotmail.com and I will get it sent out to you.  Thanks every one for participating.


                              Hope you all have a great NEW YEARS.

HBBC Roundup #5/ Virtual Christmas Race 5k

                                                                 WEEK #5


Saturday- 5 miles, 45 min Jillian DVD
Sunday-  1 hour on the elliptical, 30 minutes weight/cardio.
Monday- 8 miles, 30 minutes on the elliptical.
Tuesday- 1 hour of weights/cardio, elliptical 45 min.
Wednesday- 6.13 miles, 45 minutes elliptical
Thursday- 1 hour of weights/cardio, 1 hour elliptical
Friday- 1 hour of weights/cardio, 4 miles

fruit/veggies-5  Total: 61 pts


             The Christmas Virtual Race 5K - By Daily Vitamin F

Great way to start my Christmas Eve morning, than it's off to work at the bank for 5 hrs. Spending Christmas Eve with my hubby and boys.  Than at 8pm off to church for  the Christmas Eve Service.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO  YOU ALL

Don't forget to enter my Running Divas Giveaway giveaway ends 12/30.

Spending time with my Sister

I've been getting up at 4:00 am pretty much every morning to run with R.   After so many days of those early morning runs I get totally wiped out.   I didn't have to be anywhere this morning, so I got to sleep in  alittle  bit longer than  I normally would.   People laugh when I tell them that I get to  sleep in till 6:00 am. YAHOO for sleeping in.

Finally, I  got my butt out of bed and headed to the gym.   When I got there I was pleasantly surprised to see my old running partner. She was getting a fast workout in before church.  I on the other had  was skipping church today to spend time with my  sis.   I was able to get 1 hour on the elliptical and 30 mins with Jillian, before I had to met Nickle.   I always feel so much better if I can get my workout in.  Nothing like getting those endorphins pumping. 

I met up with my sis around 10:00 and headed  off to Des Moines.  



Nickle and I



Nickle has a beautiful  Golden Retriever. I  just love this dog. She was just laying there listening to us talk.  I had to take a picture she is so cute.

We made a few stops and than it was time for lunch.  We decided to go to Perkins.  Had a great side salad along with a bowl of Tomato Basil Soup.  I literally cant get enough of Tomato Basil Soup this time of year. I love that stuff.

YUMMY SOUP

After we got done eating we did a few more errands than hit Walmart to get some groceries, before we headed  back  home.   I haven't got to spend much time with my twin sister, due to us being so busy with work and family commitments. It was  such a great day.  Nothing better than spending time with family.

      Don't forget to enter my Running Divas HERE Giveaway   

                                                                ends 12/30    

             What do you do when you spend time with your sister?

                        Are you all ready for Christmas?

CLICK WINNER/ Wearing Spandex vs Not wearing Spandex

Stephanie from Running to Health was the lucky winner of the CLICK package.   Email me at pinkhatrunner@hotmail.com with  your address Stephanie and than I'll get it forward to CLICK.  Thanks everyone for  participating. 

The other day I got up and decided I just didn't want to wear my compression shorts under my shorts.  I just wanted to let it all hang out as I call it.  Sometimes I get so tired of wearing compression short to hold the junk in the trunk in .

So when I got to the gym I thought I would hit the elliptical and get warmed up and than do a DVD.  When I got done with the elliptical, I decided to do the Last Chance Workout DVD.  I totally forgot that I didn't wear my spandex as I call my compression shorts and that the Last Chance Workout has some jumping in it.  It's not that I don't like to do jumping jack or jumping  stuff, but as I said early I didn't wear my spandex, because I just wanted to let it all hang out today. 

Thank Goodness, I was the only one in the gym that  morning.  The first circuit  of course called for  jumping jack along with some other jumping exercises.   As I started  to do the  jumping  jacks I hear this clapping going on behind me, than I remembered why I wear spandex to the gym.  My ass pardon my french and thighs were literally clapping together for me every time I did a jumping jack.  That is what I get for being a yo-yo dieter most of my life.   I've literally lost and gained the same 80 to 100 lbs most of my life.  I wish I could sit here and say I wont every gain those 80 to 100 lbs back,  but I've learned never to say never .


 

I would love to have these legs , than I would never have to wear spandex again.

I will say that running my first marathon in 2010 has changed my life. It made me go way outside my comfort zone, especially with my running.  I never thought I could run 10 miles  let alone run a marathon.  Than again  this year I was forced outside of my comfort zone in my running .  I had signed up for the Half Marathon, but I felt  in my heart that I was suppose to do the full marathon in 2011.  Knowing full well  that my running partner would  not be by my side as I was running it.  Lets just say it wasn't my best time,but I was just so darn  happy to be finishing my second marathon.

Now, I'm trying to decide what I can do to keep me motivated for 2012.    It's not written in stone yet, but I'm seriously thinking about running an out of state marathon.  Most people that know me know I don't like to travel or at least not more than 6 to 8 hours away.  I really am a home body.  Traveling tends to throw me way off of my daily routine.  That means my eating habits are not good and I get lazy and don't want to  workout on vacation, so I'm really not a fan of vacationing. 

There are  two other girls in Earlham that are trying to do a marathon in every state.  They have decided to do the Little Rock Marathon in Arkansas on March 4.   They have asked my running partner and I to go with them.  To be honest going out of state to do a marathon is really taking me out of my comfort zone again..  I also know that the closer it gets the more my  anxiety level will be rising. One thing I do know is  that God is always with me and through him I'm capable of doing anything.

                         What is going to keep you motivated for 2012?

           HAVE you lost and gained the same pounds over and over?

Don't forget to enter my RUNNING DIVAS giveaway.  Ends 12/30

Running Divas Review/Giveaway

Running Divas - is a clothing line that inspires women to live fun, active, outdoor lifestyles. A hip line of casual wear for mile-minded women that’s cute and playful, with slogans and styles that celebrate running — a labor of love.

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the package.  Marc sent me several things to try.  The one thing I noticed right off was all the awesome sayings that were on the shirts and shorts.  The sayings were very  meaningful to me.


I loved this shirt it was soft and so comfortable.  The saying on the front says "MARATON MOM" and on the back it says "RUN ALONG NOW'.  I've had the pleasure of running 2 marathons, so when I put this shirt on it just signified all that I've accomplished in my running.



Picture of the way the shirt fits.



The tank and the shirt had the same saying "freakishly strong" and on the back it  said "alot of me tells me that" .  When I put these two shirts on, I felt so strong and powerful.  It's amazing how words can affect  the way you feel about yourself.    The tank was so  comfortable and I thought it brought  out the  little sexy in me.  I loved the shirt to, it had a nice soft feel to it. 

Bringing my sexy back

Letting people know I'm "FREAKISHLY STRONG"

                                                                     

On the bottom back of the shirts it has "running divas".  Now it just doesn't get any better than that.  I'm very proud that I'm a runner and I  like to think of myself as a 'RUNNING DIVA". 

The shorts that I'll be giving away are a size L.  I really like these shorts,but for me they are to short.



Here is a picture of the short I'm giving away.



What they look like on. I wish my legs looked that good.

       HOW TO ENTER

1) (Mandatory) - Become a follower of  my blog, if not already.  1-entry

2)(Mandatory)  Like Running Divas on facebook HERE  and tell them the Pink Hat Runner sent you. 1-entry

3) Facebook, Blog, twitter,etc about giveaway. 1-entry for each

                                                    US residents only

                             The winners will be chosen by random.org on 12/30

                                                          Good Luck!

Don't forget to enter my CLICK giveaway.  It end tonight 12/9.



Disclaimer-The Federal Trade Commission mandates that I let you know that Running Divas provided me with the products free of charge. However, the opinion expressed is solely my own. 

3 Little Pigs / Living History Farm Race

This was my second year to run the  Living History Farms Off Road Race.  It's 7 miles of woods,creeks and corn fields.  I love doing this race.



I love dressing up in a costume for this race.  Tree's daughter came up with the ideal of dressing up  as  the 3 Little Pigs, now  how appropriate is that for a farmer's wife.  I was totally  up for that one.  We decided to get pink sweat suits and ordered the nose,ears,tail of the pig off the Internet.  Than Tree's niece decide to run with us, so we had to come up with a costume for her. It was to late to get another pig outfit ordered, so she ended up wearing Tree's hippie costume from last year. 

3 Little Pigs and a Hippie

The race didn't start till 9, but we new we needed to get there early, because it gets very crowded at this race. We met at the Kum and Go in Desoto  at 7:15 and followed each other  in to Des Moines. As we are getting off  on the off ramp their is a  long line of cars already.  Last year we parked at Living History Farms parking lot, but  this year we decided to  park at the hotel across the street.  Last year it literally took us at least 30 to 40 min to get out of the LHF parking lot.  This year it took us 10 min.



Rachele  in the slippers  and her friends that she runs with on the weekends



The first mile we ran around LHF and than threw a tunnel that lead out to the fields and creeks.  We kept a pretty steady jog. We couldn't run to fast because one of my friends that was running with us, normally doesn't run at all, but she loves doing this race.  So, I told her I would stay with her.   Tree's knees  have been hurting when she runs, so she was OK with not pushing it to much and just having a fun time with this race this year.  Tree and I would get to talking and than we would  get ahead of Laurel, but we would just keep looking back to make sure that we could see her.  If we couldn't  see her we would stop and wait for her.   Once we hit the creeks it wasn't a problem with her staying with us.  

Before we hit the creeks they have this hill you can run up one side and down the other. I always have to run up it and stop and take a picture of all of us at the top.



On top of the Hill



This  was the first creek we came to.  Their was this couple dressed up as a old man and woman. The man actually ran with a walker and the woman  was running  with a cane. It was a hoot to see them crossing the creek. 

Old man and lady trying to get up the creek bed with a walker and cane

 Tree and Penny.  So far we are  clean  Little Piggy's

As we are into the race about 4 miles we are still pretty clean pigs. Everyone was telling us we were the cleanest pigs they had seen. But we let them know these 3 Little Pigs wouldn't be clean for long.

This is Tree's daughter and niece running to the finish.  You can see one of the other 3 little pigs coming up behind.



This little piggy got dirty



I was so  happy this year that my twin sis got to come and watch me run this race. 

We had a blast this year. We're already trying to come up with  a costumes  for next year. 

                                         Do you like to dress up for races?

          What is the funniest costume you've wore to a race?

             Don't forget to enter my CLICK Giveaway open till 12/9.