Run All the Races - VIRTUAL RUN!

About a year ago, I posted that I hoped to do a big giveaway when I completed my 50 half marathons in 50 states goal. It is hard to believe that day is almost here. In just a few weeks, on October 14, L and I will complete our goal - in VERMONT. We will have completed a half marathon in all 50 states + DC, and we will have done it together.

I have really enjoyed my journey and have met TONS of great people along the way, both runners, and those that go the extra mile to provide awesome products to runners (and other athletes).

I didn't want to do *just* a giveaway. I have blogged about it a few times already, but I have joined Team AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) to run the Tinker Bell half marathon in January. I am running in memory of my friend Bob, who was lost to suicide two months ago.

So this giveaway is a bit different, and I hope to raise money for Team AFSP while celebrating the completion of my 50 state goal at the same time. So... keep reading:

When: Starts... NOW and runs through midnight MST October 14, 2012
Where: Wherever you feel like racing. #runalltheraces

Here's where the fundraising comes in. 

$5 donation = 5K = 1 entry
$10 donation = 10K = 2 entries
$25 donation = half marathon (13.1 miles) = 5 entries
$40 donation = FULL marathon (26.2) = 10 entries
$50 donation = ULTRA marathon (50K or longer) = 15 entries

HOW THIS IS GOING TO WORK (hopefully):

1. Choose your distance - obviously you can donate the amount you are comfortable with, and extra donations are happily accepted. (Additional entries 1 = $5 donated beyond the amount noted above. Ex: Run a 5K and donate $15, receive 1 entry ($5 for the 5K) + 2 entries (for the additional $10) = 3 total)
2. Click here to donate to Team AFSP.
3. Leave a comment or email me (squirrelgirl44@hotmail.com) with your race distance and donation amount (I will calculate your number of entries, but if you want to include that in the email, it might help me out).
4. Please, please, PLEASE tweet and/or Facebook and/or blog about this! These vendors have very generously donated products for this giveaway/cause and a few shout outs to them would really make me (and them) happy! (copy me on any tweets please!! @squirrelgirl44 )
5. Run your race (or bike, or swim or whatever) take some pictures, write a race report, and email it, send me the link, or comment.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave me a comment so that I can get everything logged ASAP.

I'll post a link to all of the race reports once compiled.


Now, the million dollar question....


WHAT do you get out of this?


First off, knowing what your tax deductible donation does:

For every $50 I raise, AFSP can provide educational materials to 25 people, emphasizing the importance of early identification and treatment for those suffering from depression and other disorders that put them at risk.

For every $100 I raise, AFSP can educate a mental health professional or primary care physician about the warning signs of suicide; they, in turn, will reach hundreds (maybe thousands)of people.

For every $500 I raise, AFSP can train a new Survivor of Suicide support group facilitator, and the members of the group will be given a chance to be with other survivors who understand, and will know that they are not alone.

ALSO!!! You will get entered to win some of these cool prizes...


From... TEAM SPARKLE! Your choice of one regular sparkle skirt AND a pair of race legs!! You can find them on twitter @runTeamSparkle

From... PRO COMPRESSION! TWO people can choose from ANY color of the awesome marathon sock. I have FIVE pairs of these. LOVE them. The neon yellow MIGHT be my favorite. You can find them on twitter @procompression

From... ASPAERIS! These truly are #magicpants. If you haven't tried them yet, now is your chance. I put these bad boys on after the Austin marathon and was not sore. Not one tiny bit. You can also wear them under things like... sparkle skirts! Winner may choose any color of pivot shorts. On twitter @AspaerisPivot

From... RAZZY ROO! My favorite headband lady! She is now even doing custom work. Made in the USA, inexpensive, and the best customer service you can ask for. Winner chooses any headband! On twitter @RazzyRooBands (also, she is running a sale right now. 20% of EVERYTHING, use the code FALLSALE at checkout). Look at the cool band she made for Rock 'n' Roll Denver!!

From... NUUN! I have been using Nuun for about 3 years. I use it just about every day. I have tried every flavor (except banana... I can never find it!). Nuun has been kind enough to donate for TWO winners. Each will get 1 4-pack of Nuun and a Nuun water bottle. Sweet!! On twitter @nuunhydration

From... ALLIED MEDAL! Any standard metal rack. What??? Yes!!! These are the best metal racks out there! Anything on their site that is NOT custom and it is yours!! So many things to choose from! I have this one (obviously):

From... RUN PRETTY FAR! I first heard about these AWESOME shirts when I ran Ragnar back in April. These are the most comfortable shirts you will ever wear, hands down. Jenn at Run Pretty Far will donate ONE tank or shirt of your choice! My personal favorite is the "cake" shirt. I'll be sporting a tank at the Palo Duro 50k next month! Find them on twitter @runprettyfar

From... INK N' BURN!! They are generously donating ONE pair of arm sleeves! I personally LOVE the new Halloween line they have out and have ordered the Zombie sleeves for myself. This one is a great one if I have any guys out there interested in participating. Find them on twitter @INKnBURN

 
From FLIP BELT!! They are going to donate one of their awesome flip belts... IN ANY COLOR to the winner. Their website states that it even works with the iPhone 5 (I have tested with iPhone 4, and it worked great). I wore my Flip Belt during the San Francisco marathon, and it held everything I needed for the race. LOVE THESE!! (PS - the nuclear yellow looks AMAZING). On twitter @FlipBelt

From... YMX BY YELLOWMAN!! YMX is generously donating to TWO winners. Each winner has their choice of any classic tank or run top!!! I was lucky enough to win a long sleeve tri jersey from them during a twitter contest last fall. I ADORE IT. They are my go-to brand for stylish tops to wear - especially in winter. The only time I've ever (intentionally) raced in long sleeves, I was wearing one of their shirts. I am PSYCHED to be able to offer this to you! Aren't these beautiful?? Find them on twitter @WearYMX

One winner a day will be selected via random.org beginning OCTOBER 15. Winner will have 24 hours to get in touch with me to select their prize. After the prize has been chosen, this post will be updated to reflect that it is no longer available. (This MAY have to be adjusted... I have enough to give out that this could go on for weeks.) Thanks to overwhelming support from the above companies, I am going to do the giveaway prizes a bit different. I will select ALL the winners via random.org on October 15. If you are selected as a winner, email me ASAP (squirrelgirl44@hotmail.com) and rank the prizes in the order you would want to win them, with 1. being the items you would want the MOST. (On the day winners are announced, I will list the prizes so you can copy and paste - hopefully that will make things go a bit smoother).

Also... I might have a few other things to toss in there, and will add at my discretion. I wanted to get this up and running so that you would have THREE weekends to race!

****NOTE**** If you've already donated, THANK YOU, and there is NO NEED to donate again to join the race. To the two AWESOME ladies that have already donated, I have already set you up with entries.

Disclaimer: ALL of these items were donated to me by those fantastic companies. All of the opinions are my own. I only approached companies that I personally use and love. Let's show some love to these awesome AWESOME companies.

Friday the 13th Things

The trend seems to be 13 things... so here we go:

1. In just under 8 weeks of ultra training for the Moab 100, I have run 335 miles. That's insane.
2. I never thought I would say I "only" have to run 10 miles today.
3. I can't BELIEVE I was actually able to pull off having surgery and STILL get EVERY.SINGLE.MILE.IN. Thankfully, it was a "short & easy" week. (Again, who knew I'd every look at a 40+ mile week and think "easy."
4. Here are the races I'm CURRENTLY registered for in 2012. 99.9% dropping out of Edinburgh though :(

• Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Half Marathon (Phoenix, AZ - January 15, 2012)
• Tinker Bell Half Marathon (Anaheim, CA - January 29, 2012)
• The Austin Marathon (Austin, TX - February 19, 2012)
• Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans Half Marathon (New Orleans, LA - March 4, 2012)
• Moab 100 (Moab, UT - March 24/25, 2012)
• Platte River Half Marathon (Littleton, CO - April 15, 2012)
• SoCal Ragnar (Huntington Beach to San Diego, CA - April 20-21, 2012)
• Rock 'n' Roll Country Music Half Marathon (Nashville, TN - April 28, 2012)
• One America 500 Festival Mini Marathon (Indianapolis, IN - May 5, 2012)
• Pittsburgh Half Marathon (Pittsburgh, PA - May 6, 2012)
• Edinburgh Marathon (Edinburgh, Scotland - May 27. 2011)
• Incan Trail Marathon (Macchu Piccu, Peru - June 2/9, 2012)
• Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon (Seattle, WA - June 23, 2012)
• The San Francisco Marathon (San Francisco, CA - July 29, 2012)

5. Here are the races I currently have PENDING for 2012:

• Ralston Creek Half Marathon (Arvada, CO - February 12, 2012)
• Superhero Half Marathon (Morristown, NJ - May 20, 2012)
• Mt. Evans Ascent 14.5 Miler (Echo Lake, CO - June 16, 2012)
• Scotiabank Vancouver Half Marathon (Vancouver BC, Canada - June 24, 2012)
• Leadville Trail Marathon (Leadville, CO - June 30, 2012)
• Mad Half Marathon (Waitsfield, VT - July 8, 2012)
• Leadville Silver Rush 50 Run (Leadville, CO - July 15, 2012)
• Legacy Midnight Run (Farmington, UT - August 3, 2012)
• Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon (Idaho Springs, CO - August 11, 2012)
• News and Sentinel Half Marathon (Parkersburg, WV - August 2012)
• Denver Half Marathon (Denver, CO - September 2012)
• Rock 'n' Roll Denver Marathon (Denver, CO - September 22, 2012)
• Bear Chase Trail 50K/50Mile (Lakewood, CO - September 30, 2012)
• Marine Corps Marathon (Washington, DC - 2012)
• New York City Marathon (New York City, NY - November 4, 2012)
• Wine 'n' Dine Half Marathon (Orlando, FL - November 2012)
• California International Marathon (San Francisco, CA - December 2, 2012)

6. A "might" have figured out that she is going with me to California later this month. Sneaky and tricky, that one.

7. I joined a "challenge" to not weigh myself until the end of January. After years of weighing myself every Friday, this is going to be hard.

8. After weeks and weeks of eating JUNK, I think I mostly have settled back into my regular eating groove. I honestly feel so gross after binging, and then working out seems EVEN harder.

9. I've expanded my job search market. More on this later.

10. The weather here SUCKS. You know I hate winter, snow, cold, etc. Today? THE WIND. Add into it the snow on the ground and overall cold weather? It's FREAKING FREEZING.

11. I actually got talked out of entering a race. Who knew that was even POSSIBLE??

12. If you haven't done it already? DO IT NOW. Check out the virtual race and massive giveaway over on Giraffy's blog. And it's all for an AMAZING cause.

13. School starts on Tuesday. My brain has been "off" for a month. Hope I'm ready!

Happy Birthday and Virtual Race for MCM Mama!

Big Arvada Loop - Wednesday, August 25

I have not been getting in my long runs... Meaning, the goal I had for this morning was more than 3 miles longer than anything I have ever run before. MCM Mama hosted a variety of options for a big 4-0 birthday virtual race. Due to my current training schedule, nothing really fit... So I opted to double up the middle distance of 8.25 for a total of 16.5 miles. Um. Wow. So my ultimate plan was to complete this insanely far distance. In less than 3 hours. Before work. In order for this to work, I would have to get up ridiculously early. And I was SUPER nervous since I've never run anything further than 13.1 miles. So I didn't get much sleep, but at least I was smart enough to get everything ready the night before:

My alarm went off (even though I had woken up at least 3 times in the night to make sure I didn't oversleep). The finished outfit:

I headed upstairs - ahead of schedule!

Oy. I had no clue I would ever be this hardcore... haha. Quick breakfast:

Pre-race pic of me and my lovely sister that I convinced to join me since it was SO early and SO dark out:

L's friend, John, was insane enough to want to join us. That made us both feel better though. We headed out, and I knew that the course I had mapped was going to be a little hilly, but it was the easiest and most direct way to get all the miles in without having to cross too many busy streets. We took our first brief walk break pretty early, but that was after 2 miles of pretty big hills. We did not walk again until we had done the first 10K, and even then we only walked to open a bag of GU Blueberry Pomegranate Chomps (I had never had them before and don't think I'll get again. Product is sticky and bag was hard for me to open). Anyway, it was super nice temps out, mid 50s. SOOO much better than running the sweltering heat, even IF I did give up 3 hours of sleep :D

We hit the turnaround point, and it FINALLY started to get a bit light out. We had an emergency bathroom stop at about 10.5 miles (thank goodness we were by an open space that had a few port-o-potties!)

Went ahead and ate our "Espresso Love" GU and then headed out for the remaining 6 miles. My legs were a little tired, but it was nice having the company, and while we were somewhat slow going, the temps made it all bearable. The goal was to finish in 3 hours, but I mapped it about .2 short, and we finished in just over 3 hours and 6 minutes. I'd call that success for my longest training run to date! Thanks for the motivation to get me going, and a big happy birthday to you, MCM Mama!!

Splits:

12 min spilt is when I couldn't open Chomps and 13 min split is bathroom break

I am PSYCHED that I was able to run this far... only a few walk breaks, and a lot of them were unavoidable (crossing streets). I may actually be able to run this marathon without dying :D