Some exciting things came in the mail yesterday! One was my very first StrideBox ….

 …and the other was my new Go Sport ID.

I’ll start with the July StrideBox. I love the packaging. It makes for a great presentation. The tissue paper makes it feel like you’re opening a little gift, which you pretty much are. Great timing since my birthday is next week!

Inside I found some nutrition bars, an energy gel, some kinesiology tape, and a StrideBox hydration bottle full of hydration options – perfect for the summer heat!

The box also came with two Stride Guides that tell you a bit about each of the products, what the retail price is, and where to find them on the internet.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s inside. I will link to each of the product’s websites listed on the Stride Guide to keep this from getting lengthy.

The products outside of the hydration bottle included a Bearded Brothers Fabulous Ginger Peach energy bar, an apple pie flavored PR Bar, a double espresso Body Glove Surge Gel, and some SpiderTech pre-cut kinesiology tape.

Inside the hydration bottle I found a sampler of six different hydration products. The top row has a tri-berry GU Brew electrolyte tablet, a berry flavored ZYM sport drink tablet, and a grape flavored Nuun electrolyte tablet. The bottom row consists of some HDX grape flavored hydration mix, some lemon lime Vega Sport hydrator mix, and a packet of tropical punch flavor Healthy To Go! acai energy mix.

I am excited to try out each of these products. The main reason I signed up for StrideBox is to try out some different hydration and fuel products. Each month, you receive a box with an assortment of running gear, accessories, and nutritional products. It costs $15/month and you can cancel at any time. And now on to my new Go Sport ID!

I first became aware of this product through Sweaty Emily and her post about gear. I had been on the hunt for some type of ID to wear while running and this was exactly what I was looking for!

I have the Inspire band which allowed me to put a motivational quote on one side and my ICE info on the other side. I liked that I could make my ID a “functional” accessory that I can wear on a daily basis.

I utilized my favorite inspirational quote from 2 Chronicles (also on the right sidebar of my blog). My favorite color is currently purple, but that has a tendency to change. So naturally I had to get the 8-pack of bands so that I could switch it out as my little heart desires.

That orange band will become very important this fall as I cheer on my Hokies at football games! How could I not be decked out from head to toe in maroon and orange, including my Go Sport ID? If only they specifically made it in burnt orange. Official Virginia Tech colors are Chicago maroon and burnt orange… but I’m sure you knew that 🙂

Disclosure: I was not compensated by StrideBox or Go Sport ID for this post. I purchased these products with my own/Barry’s money (what’s yours is mine, honey) at full price and these companies probably do not even know I have a blog. I just thought I’d share about my new stuff!

Do you subscribe to StrideBox or any “surprise” boxes?

Do you have an ID like the Go Sport ID that you use while out exercising?

Have you ever tried any of the products in this month’s StrideBox? Do you use any of them regularly?

This evening I went for an easy 3 mile run. I ended up running an average 9:34/mile pace which is pretty quick for me on an easy day. My breathing was fine, except up the bigger hills. My legs felt a bit fatigued, but I didn’t feel like I was running too hard. Funny enough, I ended up doing a progression run. My mile splits were 9:39, 9:37, and 9:27. Now if only I could do that when I was trying to do a progression run.

I ran on the roads around our house. Do you know of that show Duck Dynasty? If you don’t you should check it out sometime. I think season 4 is supposed to premiere on A&E in August. You may not like it the first episode, but it’ll grow on you. I think they’re really funny. But now I’ve gotten off topic.

The reason I brought up Duck Dynasty is because today I saw Phil on a scooter. Okay, so it probably wasn’t him since he lives in Louisiana, but it looked like him! He honked at me as he drove by. Have you ever heard a scooter horn? It sounds like Roadrunner from Looney Tunes.

Another interesting tidbit from my run today: I did not get chased by any dogs! This is unprecedented for me when running on the roads around our house. I really enjoyed it.

Since I’m already sharing random things, I will share one more. My schedule got so messed up from having the day off work and running a race yesterday. All day yesterday I kept thinking it was Saturday and that today was going to be Sunday. I had to keep reminding myself that it was going to be Friday and I needed to remember to go to work. Luckily (or unluckily?) I did remember and went to work today.

Have you ever watched Duck Dynasty?

Tell me something random from your day!

Did the holiday throw you off? Who went to work today?

Let me preface this by saying that this was a very small, low-key race (my kind of race). Also, it appears that the 5K course was actually 3.3 miles long, but I’ll address that in a bit.

Instagram {turkeyrunner}

Shortly before the race, I bumped into Anita, Glenda, Wendy and a whole group of Sole Sisters. I took a pre-race picture with them “prom style” (as in we all turned to the side) and hung out prior to the start. At 8:45 we made the short walk over to the start line, I did some stretching, and we were briefed on the race course. The 5K would be a simple out and back. The race also had a 10K that had a slightly different course, but everyone started together and the start and finish were in the same place. The race did end up being flat! I was skeptical.



Photo courtesy of Glenda Scott

The weather for the race turned out pretty ideal, especially for July. It was overcast, in the low 70’s, and only slightly humid. It poured all day yesterday and the weather forecast called for that to continue today. I am glad it held off for the race!



Photo courtesy of Glenda Scott

The race course didn’t have mile markers, and if I had known that I would have run with my Garmin instead of my Timex stop watch. I got to the turn around in 13:36. Interestingly enough I had only seen two men and one girl on their way back. The girl ahead of me was only about 30 seconds ahead at the turn around. The turn around was not clearly marked. There was a water stop there (we were told there was a water stop before the turn around) and if there was a sign I didn’t see it. But I thought this was where the girl in front of me had turned, so I asked the man working the water stop if this was the turnaround and he said yes.



Photo courtesy of Glenda Scott

During the last half mile or so, pink shirt started to pull away from me. I tried to push but there was nothing there. I think she crossed the line about a minute ahead of me. I ran the second half in 14:04, huge positive split, and crossed the line in 27:40. When I crossed a woman handed me a card with the #4 on it and told me to go over to the table where they were collecting bib tags for placing. Turns out I placed 4th overall and 2nd overall for women! How cool. I know I’m not fast, but it was pretty neat to be so close to the front of the finishers.



Sole Sisters cleaned up today- everyone placed either overall or in their age group!

Overall I’m pretty happy with this race. I don’t feel like I ran as well as I could have, but at the same time I feel like I ran with the same effort as I did two weeks ago at my last 5K.

Today was a sad day in our house. We had to make the heart-breaking decision to have our Toby dog, Barry’s childhood dog, put to sleep. Toby lived to be 17 years, 2 1/2 months old, which is a long life for a dog. Nevertheless, it was still a tough decision. Loving a dog means making the impossible decision to let it go when it’s quality of life is no longer there. Toby had gotten to this point. We will shed tears that he is gone, but we will also celebrate the long life he had.

We drove down to Barry’s parent’s house afterward to lay him to rest alongside other dogs that they have had. Toby was lucky to have a human like Barry who gave him a great life. He left this world knowing how much he was loved and cherished.

Camping in 2009

Today is a rest day from running for marathon training, so I spent some time with my old friend Jillian doing some 30 day shred cross training. Yesterday Barry and I celebrated one year in our house. And by celebrate I mean we acknowledged it… no party or anything 🙂

We closed on our house around Memorial Day last year and moved the weekend of June 30 to July 1. Some of you may remember this weekend as The Derecho Event. That’s right- we moved during a line of severe thunderstorms that came in one right after the other. The power went out the first night. We had moved all of our large furniture, but were still making back and forth trips from our old house moving all of the other stuff, with the help of my mom. We actually had a hard time getting back to our old house due to downed trees on the two lane roads around our house. Trees also came down at our new house.

The worst part: our old house still had power, but the new one didn’t. However, the new house was where our bed and the majority of our stuff was. It was quite an experience. The power stayed out for the next 6-7 days and it reached 100 degrees on most of those days. Barry’s parents brought us their generator on the second night without power, so we were able to save our chest freezer and fridge full of food. We were also able to run a window AC unit and charge our cell phones.

Luckily we didn’t intend to use this satellite dish. It was left by the previous owners. We also had a branch from the tree in our front yard come down, and to this day it still has a gaping hole in the middle.

Once we got through that first week, we focused on settling in to our new house. We bought new living room furniture and I learned how to put together many things, including a DVD cabinet, a hall tree, and rocking chairs. I put all three of those together with little to no help from Barry. A proud moment for me (after the frustration passed).

Over this past year we have done many projects. Prior to moving in we painted the entire main level, had a heat pump installed, and Barry and his friend installed a chain link fence around the backyard to keep the dogs in.

My Dad built us a landing and steps off of our deck that would go into the fenced in yard. Previously the deck only had a rickety stairway that went into the driveway.

Thanksgiving was spent installing four new windows across the front of the house with the help of my Dad. He came back in April and helped us do the other two that were left (the previous owners had done the other 3 on the main level already).

We kept losing shingles from our roof anytime we had strong winds, so this spring we decided to have a new roof installed. We went with a metal roof, which will hold up better to the weather and the way the wind comes in. It seems like we’ve done so much in the course of a year, but I’ve learned that the projects never stop with home ownership.

In the future we are hoping to replace our garage door, paint the porch, and build some steps to connect the driveway to the porch. Barry is going to get some good use out of that leather tool belt I got him for our anniversary!

How long have you lived where you currently live?

What do you live in? House? Apartment? Yurt?

Do you rent or own?