Hello and happy Friday! Today is a happy day because:
1) I am officially on “spring break” from grad school! I’ll be spending the break in DC with Matt looking for apartments (we move back in 2 months — gah!) and getting wedding stuff done instead of partying on a tropical island, but I’m still excited for a breather, especially after 2 back to back exams yesterday.
2) I ran 11 miles this morning!
Normally I do my long training runs over the weekend, but my running buddy Elle was heading out of town today for break, and I knew I’d rather do the run with her early than tomorrow on my own. So this morning it was!
We met bright and early at her place and set off for an epic journey through Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and back.
Right from the start, I knew it was going to be a good run. My legs felt good, I felt fresh mentally (running is such a mental game), and Elle and I were both chatty. The scenery was also entertaining and the miles started flying by.
Around mile 6, I ate this HammerGel — and I also carried my CamelBak as usual for water.
I love Hammer Gel, but I was not a fan of this flavor. Blech. It was another freebie from a race packet… I need to go buy more of the espresso flavor, my favorite.
We did an out and back run, which I love for mental game, because then I can think: “Oh, all we have to do is run 5.5 miles, and then turn around!” Makes it sound way more manageable than 11, or whatever my final distance is. Before I knew it, we were done! Success.
Splits:
- Mile 1: 9:01
- Mile 2: 8:52
- Mile 3: 9:35 (this whole mile was a steep hill — at least it wasn’t at the end!)
- Mile 4: 9:04
- Mile 5: 8:54
- Mile 6: 9:01
- Mile 7: 9:14
- Mile 8: 8:53
- Mile 9: 8:41 (downhill! so glorious)
- Mile 10: 8:52
- Mile 11: 8:52
Hooray! Total distance: 11 miles. Total time: 1:38:59. Average pace: 9:00 min/miles. AWESOME run — it was hilly and hard but the miles flew by. A big change from last week’s 10 miler!
The run was also fun because I had some new gear to test out. While in the middle of studying on Wednesday, I heard a knock at the door, and was excited to find a fun package from New Balance! As I announced awhile ago, I’m running the Reach the Beach Relay race in May with a bunch of other bloggers, and New Balance is our sponsor. They sent all of us on the team some fun new running gear and accessories to enjoy as we continue our training!
I was especially excited about what the gear came in — a duffel bag! Every time I go on an overnight trip, I think to myself “Anne, you need to buy a duffel bag.” And then I promptly forget. I’m so glad to finally have one. 🙂
As for the gear itself, a couple of things I was most excited for include these socks (which I love — I had a pair already from a past blog conference):
I wore them on my run this morning. 🙂 I love how they have “L” and “R” socks!
(I totally just had to check this picture to make sure I had them on the right feet. Lol.)
I also was in love with this cute running jacket they sent:
Which I tried out this morning as well — HUGE fan. It passed my biggest test, which is that it didn’t ride up at all around the waist! Super comfy for all 11 miles. Plus it has cool little hand warmers you can flip over your fingers so you don’t need to wear gloves! And the underneath was hot pink. 🙂
Another thing they sent was this awesome hat — which at first glance looks normal…
And then you discover it has LED lights in the brim for running in the dark! How cool is that?!
That will be SO perfect for our relay race when we’ll all be running overnight!
Anyway! Another thing included in the package was a new GPS watch.
I was tempted to try the new watch, but as you guys know, I already have a GPS watch (my trusty Garmin), so I figured it would be more fun to share the New Balance love and give this GPS watch to one of you to enjoy. 🙂 It looks pretty sweet!
I’ll select one random commenter to receive the watch and will mail it off for you to enjoy! All I ask is that whoever wins puts it to good use. 🙂
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Here’s how to enter to win the GPS watch — each option is an additional entry!
- Leave a comment telling me why you want this GPS watch.
- Follow me on twitter if you aren’t already, then tweet about this contest (include a link to this post and @fannetasticfood). Leave another comment telling me you tweeted.
- If you have a blog, mention and link back to this contest in one of your posts, and then leave another comment letting me know you blogged about it.
- Mention and link back to this contest on Facebook, then leave another comment telling me you Facebooked it. Please make sure you have “liked” fANNEtastic food on Facebook, too!
Be sure to post a separate comment for each entry option you do.
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U.S. residents only, please. Good luck! I’ll announce the winner on Tuesday (March 6).
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ALSO — for those of you that want to stock up on some New Balance gear or shoes, I have a coupon code for you all good for 15% off and free shipping at shopnewbalance.com. It is valid from now until March 10, 2012. Code: NBRTB12ETB487. Enjoy 🙂
