Grand Slam baby!!!!!

ahhh me and my Angie <3

It's always so hard to put into words just how great the Runner's World Festival weekend in Bethlehem is.  Saying it's awesome and amazing just doesn't do it justice.  It's one of those things that you really just have to experience to see what I mean.  Being there this year with a new group of influencers and my #BRF Angie all who have never attended before, and seeing their reactions to the weekend made it even just that much better.  Watching them take it all in for the first time, just made me even more certain it has to be one of the best running events out there.  I thought maybe I was the crazy one going through a post Runner's World depression until I saw all of them posting about how they wanted to go back and were so sad to see it end.  I'll try to keep my word recap to a minimum and just show my experience through my one million pictures (YES FREE RACE PHOTOS!).

some of my loot as influencer.  LOVE Balega socks!

more great stuff!

My Runner's World experience started Thursday around 5.  I was for the second year asked to be an influencer for the festival, huge honor.  We had dinner at Runner's World HQ with Bart and David and all the editors.  All of my Altra friends were there which was awesome catching up especially Tiffany since she left me for Utah :-(  We played some silly games, had our tour and then it was time to go.

Very shortly after arriving back at my hotel, my #brf Angie and her husband Josh arrived.  I've probably said this a million times, but Angie is one of my best friends even though she lives in Iowa.  We seriously talk all day everyday but I hardly ever get to see her in person, so 3 days at Runner's World was a very special treat (BTW we are going to the Key West Half Marathon together in January!!!).

get out of our picture Josh!

Friday morning we were up and at 'em super early.  I was out the door running to the Artsquest/steelstacks with the influencer group at 6am.

running through Bethlehem early in the morn

It was very exciting to be doing my first November Project workout especially since it was being led by the founder Brogan Graham however I came into this weekend seriously exhausted from crewing/pacing Emir at OC100 the weekend before and I had no chance to catch up on any rest since he left right away for Trailfest in Utah.

so hard to get myself going!

Needless to say it was a rough go for me but it was still a fun experience especially since the workout was open to everyone and Angie and Josh came too.

After trashing our legs during November Project we had a full day of influencer activities.  We sat down with Brogan for Q& A, then we had sessions with Golden from Altra, Colleen from Icon fitness, Becca from ifit and lunch with Dean Karnazes.  It was a great day but I was totally done by the time the trail race came around.  This year they had Golden do his trail clinic before the race started which was a great idea and tons of people were there for it.

I went out hard for the trail race but after about a 1.5 miles I was done.  Just too tired.  I eased up and I still finished with a solid time.  But like last year I kept sneezing non stop and coughing.  There must be something at that trail that bothers me.  So weird.

My Tiffany!  She won the Trail race, badass!

Fellow Altra Ambassador Chris!

Next up was hitting up a place with Angie, Josh and fellow Bibrave Pro Chadd for some beers and maybe some balls ;-)

Saturday morning was the 5K and 10K.

Influencers Jess and Ryan, two new running friends!

 It was a little chilly but felt good once we started running.  I had decided after how I felt Friday that I would take these two races easy and put in a harder effort on Sunday for the half.  Now I always say that and never stick to it.  Thankfully I had Angie with me.  We started much further in the back than I normally would which helps to go slower especially in the beginning, it's pretty congested.  Once I was in that "easy" pace mode, I didn't have the urge to go any faster.  I had the best time with Angie during both races.  We chatted, we posed for cameras, stalked Bart and just enjoyed the beautiful morning in Bethlehem.  It really was awesome!

Chadd had set up a tent near the visitors center so we had a Bibrave meetup kind of thing.  Jess co-founder of Bibrave arrived with our awesome banner.  We had a great time hanging out.

Needless to say now I was REALLY tired.  Since this is my 5th year at Runner's World, I have attended most of the seminars and as an influencer I already had my time with Golden, Bart and Dean which are the ones I would have wanted to attend.  So while the seminars are WONDERFUL and I love them, I didn't feel like there were any for me personally so I opted for a nap which was amazing.

When I woke up I went to happy hour with the RW Editors, David Wiley bought me a beer and I had some personal convo with him, and an overall nice time chatting it up with the intimate crowd that was there.  We followed that with the pasta dinner which was all dishes from Shalane's cookbook, yum!  It was extra special because this is Runner's World's 50th birthday.  I felt very honored to be a part of their celebration and also celebrated their 5th year for the Festival.

Altra's best booth yet

This year's influencers were such an inspiring group of people!  We even had an Olympian in our group!

Sunday morning was the Half Marathon.  I felt more rested than I had all weekend but still not so great.  I still decided to give it a good hard effort and just see what happens.  The best thing about my #brf is she is ok with whatever I want to do.  We had so much fun Saturday but she did not care or get offended at all that Sunday I wanted to do my own thing.  That's why I LOVE her! (sorry Josh, get over it).  While using the potty and warming up a bit, I saw local friends who are super fast and of course she ended up winning the half marathon AGAIN, amazing!  I also saw my best work friend Becky in the corral.  We started together but I wanted to try to keep up with the 1:45 group.  I stayed with them for 2 miles but the pacer was going a bit faster than I wanted even for 1:45.  I knew it's because he was banking time for the hills later in the race but still I just didn't have that extra little bit in me to keep up.  I changed gears and took it back a notch.  Around mile 3 is when hills start and they literally just killed me.  My hammys were on fire and it was SO HARD to run up these hills.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized I literally haven't "run" a hill in forever.  I've been only running ultras this year mainly and I power hike all the hills all the time even in training.  Oops.  At some point during mile 3 my co-worker caught back up to me.  As it turned out, this was a really good thing.  I was getting in the mindset of giving up completely and really really slowing down.  She said to me"If I'm bothering you to run with, I'll go"  I said "If I'm going too slow, you can leave me but you aren't bothering me at all"  She said "Let's work together.  I want to be under 2 hours"  So it was settled.  We ran the entire rest of the race together.

We chatted on and off and just enjoyed each other's company.  Definitely without her I would have been SO MUCH slower.  We finished in 1:51 which is only about 5 minutes off my PR on this course.  Considering the junk on my legs going into this race, that was an outstanding time and a really good solid effort.  I was happy and she was thrilled as that was a lot faster than she thought she could go right now as well.  We hugged and gloated about how great we did together.

I had some time before Angie would finish so I went inside to say goodbye to all my Altra friends.  It's always so great to see them.  Next thing I know, Angie was texting me from the beer garden.  I never usually get to hang out too long after races but I knew I just needed to get to soccer a few minutes before 1 so that left me some time to play.  We had the best time drinking our beer and dancing and watching fellow runners finish.  It's no surprise that a running festival put on by Runner's World would realize having the beer garden right by the finish is a great idea.  And that's just it.  The whole weekend is for runners put on by runners so there's a ton of thought and purpose behind everything that goes on during the weekend.  It really doesn't get much better than that.

4 races in 3 days!

I know I didn't blab as much as usual but I just honestly can't find the words to do it justice.  Just look at the pictures and you will see what I mean.  You can also check out my posts from past years (2015, 2014, 2013) and all the Bibrave Reviews if you want even more info.  Every single year has been amazing!

Love these guys! (yes even you Josh)

Run Fast Eat Slow

I was given the book "Run Fast Eat Slow" to read and review as part of being a Runner's World Festival ambassador.  

Last year I was given the "Run to Lose Book" to read and review.  As you may recall, it really helped me to focus more on my nutrition and eating habits.  While things have been going well this year on that front, there's always room for improvement.  I also tend to get stuck in nutrition ruts where I just eat the same thing over and over.  I find something that's good for me and that I like to eat and then I get stuck on it.  It's not an awful problem but then I kind of get into boring patterns as far as dinners for the family.  I go through phases pretty frequently.  For a few months, I will be all into finding healthy recipes and making different things to mix it up.  The whole family loves it.  But then I think I get tired of having to search online for recipes and then figuring out what ingredients I do or don't have.  As a marathonmom, things can get pretty hectic around here so I don't always have the time that can take.  I suppose I could have invested in a cookbook or two but I have yet to find one that has the healthy meals I'm looking for and also that the majority of recipes are things I would actually make.

Then I saw "Run Fast Eat Slow" which is written by Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky, being advertised and I was intrigued.  Before I had a chance to look into it, it arrived on my doorstep as one of my gifts for being a Runner's World Festival influencer, Thank you Rodale! 

At first glance, I was a bit overwhelmed.  It seemed like some of the recipes were complicated and time consuming.  I'm not sure why I got that as my first impression because they when I sat down again and went through it to show Emir, I realized that many of them were pretty easy. 

Things have been pretty hectic around here the last few weeks with Emir's 100 miler, him traveling for Trailfest, me for Runner's World and him traveling for work.  So I haven't really been cooking a whole lot lately but I was able to try making a couple recipes from the book. 

I really enjoyed that Shalane and Elyse took time to write a chapter about their views on nutrition for running and the thought process behind their recipes.  I also love all the pictures throughout the book not just of food but of them ruuning.  Obviously a real runner's cook book! 

Once I took a more in depth look at the book, I realized that many of the recipes can be adjusted to fit your own personal cooking style.  For example there are recipes that include sauces, dressings or other types of ingredients that you can either make yourself (they include these recipes as well) or you can just buy at the store and use in the recipe.  There's also sometimes different ways to make a recipe so that it can be less time consuming.  For example the Flu Fighter Chicken and Rice Stew I made, could be made on the stove but could also be made in the crockpot.  I chose to make it in the crockpot.  I put all the ingredients in the pot the night before, threw it in the fridge so all I had to do was turn it on before work in the morning.  And it only took me about 15 minutes to get everything ready and in the pot.  The stew turned out really great.  Emir, Niko and I, all really liked it (Una is in a "I will only eat chicken nuggets and pizza phase).  It also was so hearty that it lasted for two nights dinners which is AWESOME! 

The other recipe I made was the Make Ahead Breakfast Burritos.  Now these are REALLY GREAT!  It only took me about 20-25 minutes to make the recipe which you end up with 6 burritos.  I'm sure you can adjust to make even more if you wanted.  The recipe specifically tells you how to wrap them up and freeze them.

It also tells you how to heat the frozen burrito when you are ready for one.  The burritos turned out delicious.  They are also soooo convenient.  I love just grabbing one out of the fridge and microwaving it at work instead of going down to the cafeteria.   Emir apparently loves them too because he was disappointed I didn't have more made up when he returned from his work trip. 

Even though I have only made two recipes myself so far, I did have a chance to try about 5-6 other things from the book at the Runner's World Festival.  We had an influencer lunch with Dean Karnazes which featured all foods from the book.  We had the fish tacos, the mango avocado sauce, the pita chips, beet hummus and a desert from the book.  I was shocked that I liked the mango avocado and the beet hummus.  I really hate mangoes and beets but both things were really delicious.  I'm actually going to get the ingredients for the hummus at the store today. 

At the pasta dinner, we had a pasta sauce, the bison meatballs and butternut squash topping for pasta that all were really good.  Once again I was surprised by the butternut squash because typically that's something I would not eat but I really, really liked it.  So it showed me not to shy away from recipes that have ingredients that I typically wouldn't eat because chances are, I will end up liking it. 

Overall, I think it's a great book, well put together and a really great cooking/nutrition resource for runners.  It will definitely be something I use a lot. 

All the Altras!!!

I am an Altra Ambassador and have received my Altras as part of the ambassador program. 

My Altra collection has grown significantly since the last time I wrote a review.  This year as an influencer for the Runner's World Festival  I was given the Torin 2.5 to test.  I know, crazy that as an Altra enthusiast, I have yet to run in one of their most well known, popular shoes.  The other three new models I have tried out this year are the Lone Peak 3.0's, Olympus 2.0's and the Paradigm 2.0's.  I have worn older versions of all 3 of these however all of these models are brand new to me.  I feel like they are worth the review since they all have had major changes since the old versions.