Bye Bye February – I had a blast

March is right around the corner so let’s review my February, shall we?

February was a crazy month for me. It’s gotten so busy that I caved and bought a planner for myself. BEST DECISION EVER.

The Happy Planner from Michaels

I’ve been using an online calendar for the past few years, but I really just like writing plans down on a piece of paper. It makes me feel more productive. Anyway, here’s how February went down.

Networking – I kicked off the month by attending a networking event for the life sciences. I’m expected to graduate this summer and I’ve been pushing myself to get out there, meet people, and hold informational interviews. It’s been nerve wracking, but I’m doing it. With a lot of hard work and luck, I may actually find a job post-graduation. Fingers crossed!

Vegas – The day after the networking event, I went to Vegas to celebrate a friend’s birthday. I’m not a Vegas partying kind of girl, but it was fun to go to the club and dance around for a bit.

On our way to the Wynn

I also gambled at a table for the first time in Vegas and won $10 at Roulette. Hooray! I quit after one bet though. Didn’t want to develop an addiction. I often get fixated on things and gambling is just not one of those things I want to get fixated on. The temptation was real!

BibRave Pro – I became a Bib Rave Pro this month and it’s been a blast interacting with the BibRave team. I’ve also been testing out a few products by XX2i Optics and BUFF (R) and will post my reviews of them soon. 🙂

Races/Run Streak/Training – I did not run any races in February. Disappointing, right? I know I am. BUT, I did sign up for more races this month. I signed up the Rock N Roll Carlsbad5000 in April, the La Jolla Half Marathon also in April, and my biggest sign up was for the Dopey Challenge in Jan 2018. *Gulp* I hope I didn’t bite off more than I can chew.

Anyway, this month was kind of a slow month for me running wise. San Diego has been hit with random storms and it’s been really cold out lately. But fear not ladies and gents, I still hit my running goals for the month. Today is day 97 of my run streak. HOORAY! I am 3 days away from finishing my 100 day run streak and I couldn’t be more excited. Double HOORAY! I learned a lot from the run streak and will post about my experience on it soon. 🙂 I also ran 83 miles already with one more day (today) to run. I hit my goal in 27 days! WOOHOO. To date, I have run 181 miles. Only 819 miles and 10 months to go! 🙂  Barring a huge injury, I am on track to finish 1000 miles this year. Yay!

My Birthday – I turned 29 this month! Holy crap. I celebrated by having an Archery Tag event set up by UpShot Archery. Like the name implies, it’s a mix between archery and tag. You shoot the opposite team with arrows that have had their tips replaced with a foam ball. It’s a super fun activity and I recommend everybody try it out at least once in their life. You’ll totally feel like Katniss from the Hunger Games.

My group of friends at archery tag 

The same day, non-birthday related, I did this escape game. If you’ve never done one, I would encourage you to try one out. You’re placed in a locked room and have 60 minutes to solve puzzles to escape the room. Think the movie SAW, but not gruesome and no one is harmed. 🙂 Some are more intricate than others and often times, there are groupons or living social deals for it. This was my 4th time doing an escape room and it was probably the scariest one I’ve ever done. Disclaimer: I am a HUGE wimp. You can read my review of it in link above. There was “blood” on the walls and a “demon” hiding in the rooms. *shudder* The good news though is that we escaped within 45 minutes. Hooray!

We survived!

So there you have it – my February. How was your February? Did you do anything exciting? Accomplish any goals? 

 

 

 

 

My birthday wishlist!

Yikes! Where has February gone? February, although a bit cold, is my favorite month because well, it’s my birthday month. Hooray! And in honor of my birthday month and with my birthday coming up in 5 days (on the 27th), I thought it’d be a nice time to come up with a wish list for myself. And you know, if you wanted to get me something, I wouldn’t say no. 😀 I am, afterall, a lover of nice surprises and gifts. 🙂

Without further ado, my running wish list in no particular order.

• Motivate Wraps from Momentum Jewelry – Overall, I try to be an optimistic person, but I also get overwhelmed very easily. That’s actually why my username is “If I just breathe.” When I get stressed out, I remember to take a deep breath and things will be okay.

  

  My favorite so far

  I love that this company makes jewelry with motivational sayings on them. I have a few Sparklets from them, but I’ve had my eye on their motivational wraps for some time now. One day, I’ll get one. 🙂

• Chicago Marathoner Map from RunInk – I will make this little baby mine on October 8th give or take a few days depending on how I recover. LOL. Chicago will be my second full marathon and I’ve already decided to get a map for each of the 6 Abbott World Marathons I run. I already have a NYC marathoner map from this company and am just in love with it. Every time I see it, I’m reminded of all the blood, sweat, and tears I put into training and running the marathon; the reminder makes me incredibly happy.

  

  That’s my name in the upper right hand corner! 🙂

• A pair of Ghost 9 (size 8) from Brooks or a pair of Vazee 2090 (size 8.5) from New Balance  – I am a lover of running shoes. That feeling when you try on a pair of new running shoes gives me a natural high. I’ve been running in Brook’s Ghost shoes for years now. They were the first real pair I trained in and they have kept me injury free. Back in December, I got my hands on a pair of the Vazee 2090s and fell in love with how fast I could go in them. With a year of 9+ races, I am definitely going to need new shoes. #runnerproblems

  

  Ghost (left) and Vazee 2090 (right)

• Sparkly wide headbands from Sparkly Soul – Okay, let’s get down to it. My head sweats…a lot. I blame the long hair and the bangs. I love having bangs, but they’re not as nice when I’m pounding the pavement for 10+ miles and the sweat has hit my eyes and blinded me. LOL. I am, of course, exaggerating. It does sting a bit though. I have a headband from Sparkly Soul and I love it. It’s my go to headband 99% (because I forget to bring it 1% of the time) when I race. AND it doesn’t give me a headache like most headbands do. 🙂

  

  Who can resist a sparkly headband?

• Gift card from Disney – I didn’t announce it officially, but if you follow me on instagram or twitter, you’ll know that I made the jump last week and signed up for the 5th annual Dopey challenge (5k on Thursday, 10k on Friday, 1/2 marathon on Saturday, and a marathon on Sunday). Thank goodness I did too because yesterday, the challenge sold out. Whew. Anyway, for those of you who know Disney, you know that Disney related things do NOT come cheap. Registration for the Dopey challenge alone cost me a little less than $600 and I still have to find a flight and lodging. Yikes. Therefore, a gift card would help. 🙂

  

  Holy smokes. Did I really sign up for this?

  So there you have it – my personal wish list. What’s on your wish list? Any particular item I should look out for? 

Rock N Roll Race Series Promo Codes

Updates for discount codes can also be found on my discount page here (And for Rock N Roll Vegas 2018, use code “BRPVEGAS10” for $10 off the half/full and “BRPVEGAS5” for $5 off the 5k/10k!

This year is turning out to be an amazing year (political things aside). BibRave, the group I recently became an ambassador for, has partnered up with the Rock N Roll Race Series and you know what that means, right? I have promo codes for all of you on ALL of their races. Yes, you heard me. All of their races. Yippee! There are some races that aren’t open for registration yet (like Las Vegas), but once they open, you bet that I will have a code for you. 🙂

Yippee!!! Me jumping for joy.

If you’re just joining me now on my adventures , you should know that I love the Rock N Roll Series. The Rock N Roll San Diego Half Marathon was my first half marathon. It also happened to be my 10th and in a few months, it’ll also be my 14th half marathon. You get my gist? I love these races. The energy that these races emit is contagious.

This year, I’m also scheduled to also run their Carlsbad5000 in April and the Las Vegas Half in November! The Carlsbad5000 is on one of the fastest 5k courses and I’m hoping to PR in the 5k distance here meaning I’ll have to run a sub 24 min 5k. This will be my second time running Carlsbad5000 and so I’ll know what to expect, but damn, I’m going to have to gun it from the start. EEK! I’m scared because my run streak has tired me out a lot these days, but I’m hopeful that once I finish my run streak in early March, I’ll have enough time to train for the 5k on April 2! As for the Las Vegas Half, I get to run on the Las Vegas strip AT NIGHT. How cool is that?

If you want to join me for the Carlsbad5000, you can use the code: BIBRAVE15 and save $15 on registration. That’s a great deal considering the full price is $45.99 right now. The code BIBRAVE15 can be used for any of the following Rock N Roll races:

Washington DC – $15 off Half and Full, valid until 3/4

Mexico City – $15 or 270 Pesos off Half, valid until 3/12

Dallas, TX – $15 off Half, valid until 3/12

San Francisco, CA – $15 off Half, valid until 3/19

Carlsbad – $15 off 20k or 5k, valid until 3/26

Raleigh, NC – $15 off Half and Full, valid until 3/26

Madrid – 3 €/£ off Half and Full, valid until 4/16

Nashville, TN – $15 off Half and Full, valid until 4/23

San Diego, CA – $15 off Half and Full, valid until 5/28

Seattle, WA – $15 off Half and Full, valid until 6/11

Chicago, IL – $15 off Half, valid until 7/9

Dublin – 3 €/£ off Half, valid until 8/6

Queretaro – $15 or 270 Pesos off Half and Full, valid until 9/24

Lisbon – 3 €/£ off Half and Full, valid until 10/8

Merida – $15 or 270 Pesos off Half, valid until 10/28

Also, if you have a race in mind, let me know and I’ll keep an eye out for a discount code for you. So, have you run a Rock N Roll race? Which one? And how was it? 

 

Love Yourself

You’ll have to excuse me for quoting a Justin Bieber song, but I thought that in honor of Valentine’s Day, I thought it’d be appropriate to talk about love: more specifically, self-love. It is something I struggle with frequently. There are days where I feel on top of the world and then there are days where I wonder if I will ever amount to anything. Those days are the worst. So today, I’d like to focus on things that I love about myself, mentally and physically.

– Katherine Henson

Wearing my heart on my sleeve – Growing up, I was constantly teased for being overly sensitive. My feelings were easily hurt and it got so bad that my so called “friends” “dumped” my butt for being so emotional. Looking back on it now, I wish someone had told me to ignore them and that being emotional wasn’t a bad thing. It took me a long time to accept and I’m still not 100% there yet, but I’ve grown fond of my emotions. If you’re someone I love, you will know it. If it’s something that I want badly, you know I’m going to go for it. This passion that I have for others and for running; It’s rooted in my emotions and I couldn’t be more grateful for it. Loving my body – Like most girls, I grew up idolizing models/celebrities. I wanted to be paler like the Korean pop stars. I wanted longer legs and a slim build. No matter how hard I tried and trust me, I tried. There was not enough papaya soap in the world to make my skin lighter and there was definitely no way, I was going to gain six inches in leg length.

Now that I’m a runner, I have found a new appreciation for my body. My body is a running machine and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to realize this. My legs, once called “thunder thighs”, and my so called “cankles”are now what push me forward on a run. They destroy hills and can run for at least 26.2 miles. 🙂 Their strength and durability are their best attributes and I wouldn’t trade my legs for anything in the world. As for having lighter skin, well, I’ve grown to love my  freckles and tan complexion. I think it gives me character. 

Today, I am loving myself for being a badass. What are you loving yourself for today?

 

I’m a BibRave Pro!

I have some great news that I’ve been sitting on for about a week and have decided to now share it with all of you. Apologies for not telling you sooner, but I had to let all the excitement die down or else you’d be seeing exclamation points all over this post. LOL. Okay, are you ready?

Bib Rave Pro 2017

I have been selected to be a BibRave Pro!

So what does that exactly mean, you ask?

Well, as a BibRave Pro, I get free race entries and running products to test out. I’ll post the reviews on this blog and you are completely welcome and encouraged to pick my brain about the product. I promise these reviews will be solely my opinion and no one else’s. Not only will I be reviewing races and products, I’ll also have access to race discount codes for certain races. I will be creating a page for those discounts soon so stay tuned!

Being a part of the BibRave Pros also means that I belong to an awesome community of runners that constantly motivate each other to keep going. We meet up once a week on Twitter (Tuesdays, 6 pm PST) #BIBCHAT and chat about the product of the week and other running related things.

Here’s a little bit of information about BibRave. The company launched in 2013 and works with races and brands to help them engage with runners and ultimately drive more sales and registrations. BibRave.com is also a website where you can find and review races. It’s like YELP, but for races. I personally find it useful because the review is from the runner’s perspective. I’m always scrambling around trying to figure out the logistics and some runners will give tips on how to avoid the stress. Runners comment on ease of bib pick up, weather, elevation, aid stations, and any race thing you can think of.

If you would like to learn more about being a BibRavePro (ambassador), click here.

 

 

 

 

 

Monday Motivation – Bucket List Race Challenges

A week and a half ago, I went back in time 10+ years ago and reflected on how far I’ve gotten since then. In that same post, I briefly mentioned that I had a plan for the future. Since it’s motivational monday, I thought today would be an appropriate time to tell you about them.

Awhile back, I wrote about my Half Marathon Bucket List. It was a list of 8 races that I had either already done or wanted to do sometime in my life. Well, I will have completed 5 of them by the end of this year so why not add a few more to the list? I’m only in my late 20s. I have a lot more races to run. 🙂 Without further ado, a few more additions to that list:

The Abbott World Marathon Majors (WMM)- I read about this on a fellow blogger’s page and even though I hadn’t even run my first WMM race (NYC marathon), I knew I wanted to complete this challenge. The WMM consists of six races – New York City, Chicago, Boston, London, Berlin, and Tokyo. All of the races except for Boston have lottery entries, which make them fairly difficult to get in and even if you did get into all of them, running the Boston marathon requires a speedy qualifying time. At my current age, I would need to run a marathon time of 3 hrs 35 min. That’s a 8:12 min/mile pace. Holy crap. If you remember, I ran the NYC marathon in 4 hrs 48 min. That means I would have to shave off over an hour of my time to qualify. That’s insane! Luckily, there are other ways of entering these races (i.e. charities, tour companies, etc) and Charlotte over at The Runner Beans does a very good job at highlighting them.

So why do I want to finish this particular series? Well, I do like to shoot for the stars when it comes to goals and also, the medal is amazing.

The Six Star Finisher Medal

If you manage to run all 6 races, you get the lovely six star finisher medal. There doesn’t appear to be a time limit so my hope is to enter a few lotteries each year and hope I get into at least one a year. New York City has already been crossed off and I’m running Chicago this year. Woohoo. That means I’ll have 4 more to go. I’ll be entering the lottery for the 2018 Berlin race this year and hopefully, I’ll be able to get in. *Fingers crossed.* Boston will definitely be last on my list. I’m going to try time qualifying and I’m sure the training will take years. Who knows? If I stay at my current pace, I can qualify at age 69. LOL. I’m hoping it won’t take that long, but you never know.

The Dopey challenge – This challenge is aptly named. You run a 5k on Thursday, a 10k on Friday, a half marathon on Saturday, and a full marathon on Sunday. That’s 48.6 miles in four days. On average, I log about 20-25 miles in seven days. LOL. Okay, I admit I may have gone off the deep end with wanting to do this challenge, but hear me out. Last month, DisneyWorld had their marathon weekend. The running community on Twitter blew up my feed with pictures of people having a blast at DisneyWorld and I’ve always loved Disney related things. LOL. So the idea of running the Dopey Challenge kind of just got seeded into my brain. I obviously wouldn’t be running for time. That’d be crazy. I’d take photos with all the characters and get my fill of Disney. The marathon distance even allows runners to ride the Mt. Everest rollercoaster midway through the marathon. LOL. How cool is that?

Credit to 40 bibs for this fabulous photo of her medals.

For finishing the Dopey challenge, you get six medals – one medal for each race, a medal for the Goofy challenge, and a medal for the Dopey challenge.Registration for these races open up next week and it’ll be their 25th anniversary (5th anniversary for the Dopey Challenge). I’ll probably be signing up unless someone talks some sense into me. 😛

So there you have it, my new additions to the bucket list. I can’t wait to run them all!

What races are you looking forward to? Have you completed one of these races? How did it go?

 

 

The Great Chocolate Race (Long Beach) – Race Report

It’s February! Hooray! Can you believe it? I can’t. If only the next four years could pass just as fast. Hah!

Now, onto my race report. This past weekend, I ran the Great Chocolate Race in Long Beach, CA and I’ll just get right to it; I placed 3rd in my age group! Although it was most likely due to it being a smaller race, I’m still thrilled! I’ve never placed before in the top 3 before and I couldn’t believe the screen when I saw it.

3rd place in my age group!

The Logistics

Cost – $32.50 ($42.50 with a Race Grader discount and an additional $10 off because I got 3 of my friends to sign up)

Distance – 5k or 10 mile (Yours truly ran the 10 mile)

Theme – CHOCOLATE!

Swag – Long sleeve technical tee, a box of godiva chocolates (4), and a shiny new medal

Location – Long Beach Convention Center and surrounding areas (waterfront)

My Experience

The day before the race, I decided to try and run an easy two miles. It turns out those two miles were nothing but easy. My feet felt like they were blocks of concrete and each step I took felt very tough. I ran a full min/mile slower than I normally would and it wasn’t intentional. I was as fast as my legs would let me go. It was frustrating, but I decided to brush it off and made the trip to pick up my bib. After picking up my bib, I made my way over to a friend’s and had dinner with friends. My main goals that night were to hydrate, stay optimistic, and get a good night’s sleep, which I thankfully did.

Morning of, I woke up a few minutes before my alarm. I put on my new Lululemon shirt that I got from the Lululemon 40/80 Strava challenge, Champion capris, Flipbelt, ate my favorite HoneyStinger waffle and was on my way.

Sparklets from Momentum Jewelry and a Sparkly Soul headband to complete the outfit

The race had two distances, the 5k and the 10 mile. I ran the 10 mile. This race was really beautiful. I’m not sure what it was, but I really enjoyed the scenery. We started off at the Long Beach Convention center and made our way around the Rainbow Lagoon park. The lagoon was really calming and I think it really set my mood for the rest of the race because I wasn’t really focused on time.

Rainbow Lagoon Park (Credit: Photorator)

I just focused on enjoying the course. We ran along the shoreline and there were just so many boats. We even saw the Queen Mary. Apologies for the lack of pictures. I wanted to really enjoy the moment and not have to take out my phone for photos. I ran this race with a few friends and as we crossed paths during the race, we would high five each other. My friend finished 5th overall and was even able to record me racing to the finish. Yay! I’m thankful for fast friends. Hah. Once I crossed the finish line, I grabbed my new shiny medal, my box of godiva chocolates, and went to watch my other friend finish.

After grabbing my 3rd place medal, I had to get a photo taken.

The swag from the race minus my technical tee. Oops.

All in all, I had a great time at this race. Would I run it again? Maybe. It is a 2 hour drive to get to so it’s a little inconvenient for me, but I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who is in the area to run it. The race was a great way to complete the month of January.

So how was your January? Did you run any races? Or are you training for a spring race?