TotR: A Year in Pictures

April from Run the Great Wide Somewhere, Patty from My No Guilt Life, and Erika from MCM Mama Runs host Tuesdays on the Run.

This week is about a year in pictures.  Today I'm doing my running year, but I'm thinking about doing some non-running pictures in a different post!

10k PR

Disney Princess Weekend 10k

Shamrock Run - racing anniversary!

Beaufort Twilight Run - best picture

Run the Bluegrass - first half!

Red Shoes Run - with out of state family

Nike Women's Half DC

Big Nasty Mud Run

Sunbury 5k - 2nd place age in age group

Disney Wine and Dine Half

First Turkey Trot

Space Coast Half - Ray's first!

Bridge Run 15k - 5k and mile PRs!

What was your favorite race this year?

Lauren

Wine and Dine Weekend

This past weekend, my boyfriend (Ray), roommate (Austin), and I headed down to Orlando for the Wine and Dine weekend!

Here's a recap of before and after the race, and I'll get to the race next!

We arrived Friday night and checked in.  We were staying at Port Orleans Riverside, and it was GORGEOUS! I'm absolutely in love with this resort, and hopefully we can stay here again sometime.  It was a little pricier than the value resorts we normally stay in, but I loved every second of being there.  It was a great atmosphere, and all the Disney details were perfect!

This is actually Saturday morning, shhhhh

After getting settled into the room, we headed off to the Polynesian.  We have a #runnerslove meet-up, where I got to see Meg, Lauren, and Kristy again (so exciting!) and a few other bloggers I hadn't met before.  I so wish I got to spend more time with all of these lovely ladies, but there was so much to do!



After that, we headed up to Kona Cafe for dinner.  Here you can see my #runnerslove headband, and my lovely pineapple.  It's the Lapu Lapu, and I've been wanting to try one since Princess weekend.  They're expensive, but this time I decided I was having it!  We also had lots of great sushi and food.  I was absolutely stuffed by the end of it, but I think it was a good day/night before the race dinner.  Nothing fried or heavy.




Saturday morning we woke up early to get to the expo before it opened.  We went to the food court at POR for breakfast.  I had a ham and cheese croissant, chocolate milk, and got a pain au chocolat for later!  We were able to get in to the expo early, which was super exciting.  There was no line at all to get my bib.  The official Disney merchandise was cleared out of the Field House by that time, it was just bib pick up and a photo opportunity.

We headed over to the Josten center, and truly got into expo mode.  I headed straight for the official merchandise, before too many people got to it!  The maroon jacket I really wanted was only left in XL's, which was kind of sad.  I did end up getting a grey I Did It shirt, a purple hoodie, and a magnet for my car.  Ray was sweet and bought me a purple tech shirt as well.

Austin was able to get a few things for his girlfriend, who was back at home, so that was sweet of him!

I also got 3 SweatyBands, 2 SparkleSkirts (one for my costume that night), one of Jeff Galloway's books (now signed by him), an orange hat for my costume, and probably a couple of other things I can't remember now.  Everything is in various states of being unpacked, so no pictures for now!





After the expo, we dropped everything back off at the hotel, then hopped on the boat to Downtown Disney.  I think this was a really calm and relaxing way to get there, even if it took a little longer!

We went to Raglan Road for lunch.  We got parmesan garlic truffle fries as an appetizer, which is one of my favorite Disney foods.  I had a grilled chicken breast sandwich (I don't remember what else was on it), and ended up bringing half of it back to the room as my pre-race food.

After lunch, we did a little bit of shopping.  I got a couple of presents for friends at home, and a Disney Vera Bradley backpack and matching wallet.  So, I'm no longer using my matching wristlet in my Disney Dooney purse, but my OCD will just have to live with that, since now I get an actual wallet with card slots, etc.

We hopped back on the boat and went to the resort to rest for a bit.  I was going to try to nap, but that didn't end up happening.  I hydrated as much as I could, rested, and tried to stay calm!  That didn't go very well, but I tried my very best.

I ate the other half of my sandwich around 4:30, I think, which ended up working well for me.

Around 6:30 I started getting ready, and was on a bus around 7:15.

The rest of the race will come in another post, but for now we're going to time travel to Sunday morning!

We woke up way earlier than I wanted to, but we had to check out and get back over to the Polynesian.  Side note, the Polynesian has now become the Pomeranian in our apartment, thanks to a forgetful roommate!  I had made reservations at O'hana, because I'd heard so many good things about it!  Let me tell you - nothing disappointed!! I'm absolutely in love with this place, and I got to have Mickey waffles for the first time ever!  Everything was perfectly cooked and absolutely delicious!! And I loved seeing the characters.

We stopped at the Florida mall on the way home so I could stop at Lush, and that sadly ended our wonderful weekend!






Have you been to O'hana? Were you at Wine and Dine?
Lauren

Updates and Reviews

Hi everyone! I know I've been slacking lately, but it's been finals week after 5/10 extremely stressful weeks of classes, but I now have off until August 12th, so that's exciting! With my EnergyBits giveaway, Ben J. won! So hopefully he'll be enjoying his bits soon. Congratulations Ben!

 I was also on a cleanse for about a week, so I took off from running because I didn't have very much energy to do much of anything. I know starving yourself isn't the right way to go about weight loss, don't worry! I'm well educated. But I had a weigh-in with my parents who essentially pay me to lose weight. I know, it sounds weird, but they know with school and all I need some type of incentive to keep losing weight until I'm back to a 'healthy' one. I've been completely off track this past week since weighing in, but I'm hoping to get back on track. I'm staying at my parents' house to take care of their dog for the next week or so as they're on vacation, so hopefully with no school work and a big kitchen to work in, I'll be able to do well.

I've tried a couple of things from my StrideBox. First, I had the Gu-Brew TriBerry flavor. It had the same effect on me as Nuun, I think. It was a bit of a tart flavor, but that made it refreshing when it was nice and cold through a work-out. I also tried the Bearded Brother's energy bar, and it was ... interesting. It's quite a heavy bar, but not in a bad way. It was alright, but there was something off about the taste to me. I think it was just the dates in it, since those were the main ingredients, but just not quite my thing. If I liked dates, I think I would have really enjoyed this!

I'm looking forward to getting back into my training and healthy eating, especially since there's hardly any time left before Tower of Terror!

Any tips to get back into things?
Lauren

Finally fell for the craze

So! I'm sure at least most of you have heard of SparkleSkirts. I was intrigued by the promise that they wouldn't ride up, but they are a bit pricey. 

I finally caved and ordered the shorts, since they were about $10 less. And I was absolutely ecstatic when they lived up to their promise!! I have finally found shorts the perfect length that do not ride up, even on my chubby legs. I've even taken them through just over five miles in just over an hour, and they stayed right where they were when I left my apartment. 

Needless to say, I was hooked. 

When I saw that the Rock N Roll skirt was endangered and on sale, it didn't take much for me to jump on the deal. 

I absolutely love it, and will of course wear it for RnR Savannah in November. I haven't taken it for a run yet but it's so so comfortable, just the right length, and fun!

If you haven't tried SparkleSkirts, I can't recommend them enough. Leah Powell, the owner, is absolutely amazing. There are even hand written notes in each package! It feels like getting a package from a friend, not a company. 

Have you ever worn them? Which do you own?

Lauren

EnergyBits Review and Giveaway!

A few weeks ago, EnergyBits sent me a sample to review, and they want to let one of my readers try it out too!

I've used Clif SHOTBlocks, but nothing else as far as energy goes.  Also, EnergyBits seemed to be more of an ongoing energy option than a quick boost right before or during exercise.   Being a science major and all, I wanted to conduct at least a somewhat controlled experiment with eating the same foods at the same times, etc. but that just didn't happen.

But I did take my bits just before my 5 mile run on Sunday, my longest run to date!  I wasn't feeling running at all that day, was tired from my boyfriend working at 6 a.m. the 3 days before, and various other things. 

I opened up my bits (and forgot to take pictures, I'm a horrible blogger!) and counted out my 25.  They do have a slight smell of fish food.  Well, I suppose they are algae, so technically speaking they are fish food.  At any rate, I decided to take them 3 at a time, each with a big gulp of water.  There's a slight unidentifiable aftertaste, but nothing a couple extra swigs of water won't take care of.

So with my bits and water in my belly, I started getting ready and headed off to the gym.  And it actually did help to perk me up!  The bits gave me a great source of very natural feeling energy.   I wasn't buzzing and bouncing all over the place, and there was no crash after.  It made me feel more awake and alert.  I loved the feeling the bits gave me.

Unfortunately, I probably won't continue to use them.  The absolute ONLY reason is because I hate swallowing pills or any pill-type things.  With the remainder of my bits, I am going to try to chew them, since that's possible as well.  If that works for me, I'll gladly continue to use them, so I'll update everyone on that!

And now, you have your chance to win your very own sample of bits!  You have one week to enter, and feel free to share with your friends =)

Good luck everyone!
Lauren

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