My first giveaway!

It seems like most people I talk to either view exercising on the weekend as a ridiculous waste of their limited free time, or as necessary torture that they endure before getting to the fun activities. Therefore, telling people that I am looking forward to a 20 mile run on my weekend just as much (if not more) than I looked forward to my pirate cruise or seeing the Lion King in 3D doesn't really win me any normalcy points. And I'm already in the red in that area.

Nevertheless, I hopped out of bed at 5am this morning, because I couldn't wait to meet Kara, Lily, and Perry at Rosaryville State Park (the trail Kara and I did our last 50K on) for 20 miles of bliss.

After two emails and a Facebook message requesting that I bring them, I dug yesterday's 3D glasses out of the recycling bin, just for Perry.

3D glasses make running more fun

And since I did all that work, I thought it would be fun to do the whole run with them. Everything was 4D!

Tiny baby heads on sticks are totally normal to see in the woods.

Perry and Phil tried to build a bridge for the washed out stream crossing.

 The most important part of any run, is, of course, the food. We did one ten mile loop, then set up a snack station in the back of Kara's car.

 This picture does not do it justice. This was just as good as any aid station I've ever seen. We had Gatorade, Coke, Halloween Oreos, boiled potatoes, bananas, peanut butter (2 kinds), Nutella, pretzels, almonds, fig newtons, and twizzlers. I think I listed them all. My grandma always says how she doesn't understand why the contestants on Biggest Loser lose so much weight by working out, so why don't I lose weight while I run? Mystery solved. (Note: she wasn't saying I needed to. At least that's not how I heard it).

I thought boiling 6 potatoes would be way too many. The tupperwear was pretty much licked clean. And not just by me.

Perry decided to work on our cultural and architectural knowledge by making us run off the trail for an extra half mile up a hill to see this house. Oh, I mean this mansion. Here it is.

Totally worth the extra running

 After the mansion stop, I took a break at nature's bathroom. Phil, a member of our posse who I'd only met that morning, was nice enough to give me some toilet paper. I'm pretty sure trail running is the only social event where it's acceptable to someone you've just met for toilet paper, and then tell him to turn around while you used it.

We took a break at mile 18 to watch a horse show. If you want to piss Kara off, just ride a horse incorrectly in front of her, and watch out.

Perry's original bridge didn't work, so he build another one

Apparently Perry wasn't ready?

It's normal to ask people to take a group pic at a trail.

 Seriously, this run was so much fun, it honestly didn't even seem like a workout. Don't get me wrong, Kara was leading and keeping a killer pace. We ran the entire time, except up one big hill. Our average pace was 11:59, and I consider that pretty fast for a trail run. With our nonstop chatting though, it flew by. If you read Kara's blog, you know she's hilarious, but it's even better in person, without whatever restraint she uses when posting her thoughts on the internet. And if you don't read it, get started.

We ended up doing 21 miles in 4 hours and 11 minutes. We exited the trail at about 20.75, and Phil seemed a little confused as to why we were running around the parking lot, but I'd already ended one run at an uneven mileage this week, and I wasn't about to do that again.

In addition to the fabulous company, this run was also extra special because I got to try new things. Four new things, to be exact.

1. My Northface arm warmers, swag from my first 50K. Loved them. Until the first mile when I got too hot and took them off.

2. Click Espresso Protein Drink

Kara won it and doesn't like coffee, and thought it was gross. She was really interested in seeing my reaction when I took a sip, and I think she secretly was hoping I'd spit it out in disgust, which made me secretly nervous. I LOVED it though. Almost enough to buy some. Almost.

 

3. Cho-Pat compression sleeves. I'll be doing a full review of these tomorrow so I can actually see if they helped me recover. Right now they just feel weird. I've never worn compression sleeves before.

4. A Handful sports bra - which will be my first giveaway!

Jody from Handful provided me with a sports bra to review. As I was about to leave at 5:30 this morning, Eric told me I'd gotten a package (he'd just gotten home from work), and I was so excited to try out the new bra. And a little nervous. Jody had been so nice in her emails, so I really wanted to like the product. Plus, it's a little lame to be like "I'm doing a giveaway for this bra, it's a piece of crap, good luck!".

I don't remember the last double digit run I've been on when I wasn't yelling in pain in the shower because my sports bra rubbed so much against my rib cage that I was bleeding, and I'd chalked it up to being the status quo. This bra didn't chafe at all, and I couldn't feel it at all during the run. It looks like they are sold not too far away from me, and I am seriously considering buying a second one.

It is supposed to lift and separate, and avoid the uniboob look. Personally, that's not something I ever sought out in workout gear, but both Kara and Lily said they could  notice the difference when I asked them. I'm ok with looking like crap while I work out, but for the single ladies, why not hit the gym with some cleavage? 

I completely hate giveaways where you have 17 steps and you have to leave a comment for each one. I almost always skip them because I get annoyed. So, I'm making this easy. You don't even have to follow me, you can think my blog totally sucks and just be here for a bra. But, I'm not requiring people to tweet it or anything, so those people probably won't even know about it.  Handful has asked me to request people to like them on Facebook in order to win, which seems fair. We'll use the honor system there.

That's the color I have. And what my abs look like.

Two steps to winning: like Handful on Facebook, and leave a comment on this post, saying whatever the hell you want. Whenever I enter contests, I don't understand why I have to tweet about it when that just decreases my chances of winning. Not that I'm prohibiting it or anything, I'm just not forcing you to.

I'll choose a winner next Saturday (September 24)! Good luck!