its been a few..... (Jessica's Gifts winner too!)

Sundays long run? well the first 6 or 7 miles felt awesome, then my knee started killing me. We had to stop & walk several times. So discouraging! I think part of the problem was my calf and hamstring were tight. I reallly need to start stretching more. My longrun parter, S, has decided to run RnR New Orleans as well!! She convinced one of our other girlfriends to fly out with her, so it will be a good group of us running now. so excited!!

Missed monday and todays gym time. Drama with my relationship again is to blame. It seems like the arguing has been nonstop, all on the same topic. He cannot be bothered to make a decision on when to tell our families about our wedding date and start planning. He says it doesn't feel right, right now. Did I mention the wedding date is less than 8 months away, and this is the second one we've had? I've seriously had it with his indecisiveness.

Tonight after work, I decided cleaning & decorating were needed. I did a much needed cleaning of the downstairs, followed by christmas decorations & putting up the tree. Love my 3 piece fakie from Target :)

Jessica's gifts winner? 

that would be Kandyce @ Konfessions from Kandyce! Please email me at sgrigely at hotmail dot com with your address, and I'll get it out to you!

look for a great new giveaway tomorrow! wish me luck getting my ass to the gym in the morning!

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Manchester Road Race Report

It was cold! Probably around 22 degrees F, and windy. We had a late race start of 10am, but this is a 15,000 person race. Last year, we ended up way in the back of the pack and spent the first mile dodging baby strollers, and stupid kids that were darting around in your way, or would run run run then stop directly in front of you. This year, we decided to go early & try to get to the front of the pack. We got to the shuttle buses around 8:15, and at the race start about 8:30. Met up with my friend A (who had the blood clot), she & her husband were watching because the race had sold out. We lined up around 8:45am, at the front of the pack behind the seeded gates that you needed a qualifying card to get in to. Stood around freezing, and chatting until 10am, then we were off!

Mile 0-1 - My feet were numb, it actually took the whole first mile to thaw out. I amazingly kept up with my brother & his friend who were starting out slow to warm up. 10:09 


Mile 1-2 - The hills began. The elevation & length of the hills was killer. I had to take a short walk break once on my way up the steepest one. 11:10

Mile 2-3 - The killer hills continued until about mile 2.5, then it was downhill time. I am at my best on downhills. I fly through, pass as many people as I can, and try to make up some time from slugging up the hill so slowly before. I KILLED this mile 9:27

Mile 3-4 - Starting to get tired, HR was high. I had to walk a couple of times for 20 seconds or so. felt pretty good for most of this mile. 9:56

Mile 4-4.77 - pushed it with all that I had left. Some point here, I felt a splash of water around my ankles. At the end of the race, I realized this was the cap to the water bottle on my fuel belt falling off. No one had said anything to me when it fell. Oh well. Finished the race feeling tired & thirsty with a Garmin time on 48:01. 7:17 for the last .77

Official finishing time of 48:00! Perfectly even! I killed my time of 53:12 from last year & made my impossible goal of beating it by 5 minutes. I felt great after the race, and made some plans with a few friends and my brother to add a 10k & a 5k to the schedule for next weekend. My long run partner, S, will be on vacay so instead of running the 12 miles alone, I am going to split up my long run into races next weekend. 10k sat, 5k sun & 3 more miles on my own on sunday. not too bad to deal with.

Wanted to share my excitement on a couple of new things! First is my new Sugoi running jacket Kevin bought me for my birthday! I love it so much! Perfect color, has great reflectability, and the sleeves are even removable to turn it into a vest. They are held on with a super strong magnet. 

The other thing I'm excited about is the pair of Ryders sunglasses that Scott at Outside PR sent me. Full review & giveaway to follow!

The thing I'm not so excited about? I know so many of you rave about Gu & how much you like it. Scott at Outside PR was awesome enough to send me a sampler pack of Gu to try. I'm wondering if I am doing something wrong with taking it, because I just could not handle the consistency. It was way too thick, and I couldn't choke it down. I liked the flavor (pineapple) that I tried on my longrun today, but had to toss it away because the consistency was so gross to me. any suggestions?

Tomorrow is the LAST DAY to enter my giveaway for Jessica's gifts running necklace HERE.

couple of great giveaways in the works so be on the look out! I'm off to the mall for some shopping (for me haha), so I'll recap todays long run later. Happy running!

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Jessica's Gifts Review & Giveaway!

I first stumbled upon Jessica's Gifts during a giveaway at Training with a Track Coach & His Adorable Wife. I instantly LOVED these necklaces. I couldn't decide what I wanted, so I bought my sister one for christmas (no details in case she's reading).  Then, lucky me won a $25 credit from Stacie at Impossible is Nothing to Jessica's gifts. I narrowed it down to a few choices.....

 

I finally decided on this:

love it just as much as I thought I would!

Jessica asked if I would be interested in hosting a giveaway, and I knew you would all be as excited as me to win some of this fabulous stuff! I love the quality of the pieces, how sleek and cute they are, and even the packaging Jessica puts them in! They are perfect for gift giving this holiday season. Plus Jessica makes custom pieces, and personalizes them any which way. I can't wait to get a personalized one with a new PR half marathon time or my first full marathon time. Jessica is a runner herself, so she knows what we want and I love it.

Want to win this???

One lucky person with receive a love to run necklace and chain from Jessica's Gifts

How to Win

Please leave a separate comment for each entry

1. mandatory - be or become a follower of my blog

2. Visit Jessica's Gifts Etsy shop HERE and tell me what you love

3. Follow Jessica's Gifts on facebook HERE and let her know Running to Health sent you

4. Follow Running to Health on facebook HERE

5. Spread word about this contest on your blog, facebook, or twitter (1 for each)

6. Make a purchase from Jessica HERE & earn 5 bonus entries!

The giveaway will be close 11/29, good luck!

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