Happy Holidays & Happy New Year

After a longer than expected hiatus, I’m back! First off, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I realize my last post was about my upcoming Run Disney Tower of Terror 10-Miler race and I know I am LONG OVERDUE in writing a race recap! It was my intention to have that done before Halloween, but life got hectic and before I knew it the holiday season was in full swing. The holidays came and went in a whoosh and now here we are at the start of the new year! It’s absolutely crazy! How is it already 2015!? Is it just me or did 2014 zoom right by?

Team Villains!
Gaston, Queen of Hearts, Maleficent & Darth Vader!!!

I know I will still be writing/typing 2014 on stuff until June lol. I am happy to report that the husband and I did indeed make it through the Twilight Zone and finished the Tower of Terror 10-Miler strong! Along with perfect race conditions, it was clear that our training paid off as we both felt fantastic during the race. We felt strong and I think we could have gone even faster, but hey it’s Run Disney and we did have to stop for just a couple quick pictures along the course. I mean you don’t always see the Old Hag from Snow White or the Haunted Mansion grave diggers out and about in the Disney Parks! Other than those two photos, we were feeling so good that we didn’t really stop during the race like I’ve done for past Run Disney events. I just wanted to keep going and was really enjoying the course and race experience itself. I promise a full recap is coming soon, but I will close with saying that the Tower of Terror 10-Miler was by far my favorite Run Disney event so far!

October also was time for vacation! The Tower of Terror 10-Miler marked the start of our fall Disney World vacation. We had a great time enjoying Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. Our race companions, Cailyn and Josh, also spent the week in Disney with us. One of my favorite aspects of Disney is the food, and along with eating our way around the world with the Food and Wine Festival we also had some great sit-down dinners. We went to Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge for the first time and it was delicious. The Animal Kingdom Lodge was amazing too. Someday I will stay there! We also enjoyed a wonderful meal at the Contemporary’s California Grill. Following our dinner, we were treated to an amazing view of Wishes from the Contemporary’s observation deck. It was a great new way to watch Wishes, especially without having to deal with large crowds like you get when seeing the show at Magic Kingdom.

We had an Incredible time at Disney!

Other highlights: meeting Anna and Elsa from Frozen, The Frozen Sing-Along, and the Festival of Fantasy Parade. I didn’t think anything could top the Boo to You Parade, but I was so wrong. The Festival of Fantasy Parade was spectacular. We were lucky to have prime seating for it thanks to our fastpasses! It was an overall wonderful trip and I’m already looking forward to seeing Mickey and the gang real soon next month when I return to the House of Mouse for my annual girls trip!

After Halloween, it seemed like Thanksgiving came immediately and before we knew it, Christmas was here! Christmas is my favorite time of the year, and really I consider the months of November and December as the entire holiday season. We are always super busy during the holidays, but that’s fine because I love it all. On the running front, we started our Thanksgiving Day right with the Turkey Trot, our first race since the Tower of Terror-10 Miler!

Ready to Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving 2014!

Also in December I went to my first ever hockey game and it was a blast! I can’t wait to go to another! As for Christmas, we had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends. We got some great presents and ate yummy food. Like usual, I was sad to see it all end, but hey it’s now less than a year until next Christmas, right?!

First hockey game! Let's Go Pens!!!

We brought in the New Year in quiet fashion with an evening at home with our furbaby, Winston. Quite the party animals we are right?! Seriously after the hustle and bustle of Christmas, it was nice to spend New Year’s Eve on the couch with the Blacklist on Netflix and some frozen pizzas! No Blacklist spoilers please!

I am not one for New Year’s resolutions really, as I am more of a GOAL oriented person and prefer to set goals and challenges for myself as I see fit. One goal for 2015 is to try and be more regular with this blog and at least post once a month. I’d like to post more than that, but we will see how things go first.

Best wishes to you all for a great new year!!!

In closing, below are some highlights from my October Disney Vacation! If you are in a cold winter climate like me, I hope these pictures can bring you some Florida sunshine!

Hanging out with Snow!

Elsa enjoyed our Elsa shirts! Let it Go!!!

Tower of Terror pic to celebrate being ToT 10-Miler finishers!

Do you wanna build a snowman?!

Why hello, Smee!

My favorite princess, Cinderella, and her Prince Charming!

Wishes from the best view ever at the Contemporary!

Tower of Terror 10-Miler Costume Reveal!

Hello friends! Guess what?! We are only a FEW days away from the Run Disney Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 10-Miler! Wow! I am so excited to run into the Twilight Zone with thousands of my “closest” Run Disney friends!

As promised, it’s time to reveal our costumes for the race! Costumes and Run Disney just go together like macaroni and cheese. Like peas and carrots. Like popcorn and Buncha Crunch (seriously you must try it if you've never had this delicious concoction.) Costumes makes the whole race experience more fun. I mean, hello, it's Disney! Costumes galore are pretty much second nature in the house of mouse. If you are new to Run Disney or haven't done a Disney race yet, let me put it to you this way: if you wear just regular running clothes you are actually in the minority! So have some fun, embrace the Disney magic, and wear a costume!

I’ve mainly done the princess/queen side of costumes. I’ve dressed as Cinderella twice and Queen Elsa. However, since this is a villain-themed race and due to my love of the Disney villains, why not embrace the wicked side of Disney?! The husband and I will be joined by our friends, so a group villain theme is where it’s at!

Our evil little group will include Maleficent, yours truly; Darth Vader, the husband; Queen of Hearts, Cailyn; and Gaston, Josh! Due to heat and humidity as well as Florida still being very much summer-like weather, I kept my Maleficent costume rather simple. The Maleficent Evil Fairy Raw Threads shirt (which glows in the dark!) paired with a purple Sparkle Athletic skirt and a Maleficent horns headband. The husband plans to pair his Darth Vader shirt with black running shorts. Crafty Cailyn actually took an old Queen of Hearts Halloween costume that she created a couple years ago and made a few adjustments to make it running appropriate! Cailyn also worked her DIY magic with Josh's Gaston shirt! I can't wait to be dressed in our villainous attire!

Our Villainous Tower of Terror 10-Miler costumes!!!

When I decided to be the Maleficent of our group I had no idea that she would be the theme of this year’s Tower of Terror 10-Miler merchandise! So, now I am even more excited! I can’t wait for some Disney magic!

This is the back of my Maleficent shirt! It glows in the dark!!!

Safe travels for everyone else headed to the Tower of Terror 10-Miler! Will you be in costume? Who do you plan to dress as? Good luck to everyone this weekend! See you in the Twilight Zone!

It's Fall Y'all!!!

Well friends fall has officially arrived! This means so many things to me, like enjoying all things pumpkin including the Starbucks gem: the delicious, incredible and amazing pumpkin spice latte! Seriously Debbie Downers, I don’t care what’s in them, I will drink them regardless! But like my girl T. Swift says, “the haters gonna hate hate hate hate!” Fall also brings cooler temperatures to my area, which is great for running, as well as gorgeous foliage. It also means that it’s scarf/hoody/boots time for fashion purposes.

Then of course fall means Halloween. I love Halloween. Dressing up is fun, watching classics like Hocus Pocus over and over is great, and it’s also nice to treat yourself to some candy because hello, it’s a holiday! After Halloween we head right into the holiday season with Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations – my absolute favorite time of the year!

So True!!!

What else does fall bring?! It also means October is ALMOST here, which means my Disney vacation is super close! Today we are in SINGLE DIGITS for the countdown! I’m ecstatic to go “home” to my favorite place! This means the Run Disney Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 10-Miler is just around the corner as well, in fact NEXT weekend! With the insanely early registration process for Run Disney events, when the husband and I registered for this race months ago (I think right after the Princess Half weekend in February?), I was instantly excited but it felt so far away. Now that it’s so close, my excitement builds more and more every day. Starting our Disney vacation with a Run Disney villain themed event should hopefully be a fun time! I LOVE the Disney Villains! I won’t sugar coat it and I’m sure the race itself will be a challenge, but with the Run Disney extras that are just better than any other type of race, I’m pumped!

After I completed the Runner's World Run Streak on July 4, I gave myself a very brief amount of time off to rest (running for 40 days in a row without a day off isn’t the easiest) and to let my ankle that I tweaked during a late June 5K road race heal. After that, it was back to getting my base in solid gear and time to start the Tower 10-Miler training process. For more details on how our training has gone, check out my previous post here. With the race fast approaching the husband and I are in the taper phase currently. Personally, I enjoy the taper phase because that means the race is almost here! Do you like the taper phase? I know many runners have differing opinions on this so I’d love to hear what you think!

Official Tower 10-Miler merchandise!!!

We will also be joined by our friends for this Disney vacation! Cailyn, my BRF, and her husband, Josh, who also happens to be my cousin, will not only be embarking in Disney fun with us, but they are running the Tower 10-Miler as well! You can check out Cailyn’s hilarious blog here. Embracing the villain theme we all plan to dress up. I even got the husband to agree to a costume (sort of)! A costume reveal is coming up soon! So stay tuned!

Before the race, we will be hitting up one of my absolute favorite Walt Disney World events, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Did I mention I love Halloween? Well this special ticket Disney event combines my love of Halloween, Disney and the Disney Villains! Trick-or-Treating around the Magic Kingdom is open to ALL AGES and EVERYONE is encouraged to wear a costume! Disney characters, like Donald and Mickey, are also decked out in their Halloween costumes, which is super cute. The Boo to You Parade and Hallowishes are pure magic (like everything Disney) as well. While I give Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Parade a slight edge, the Boo to You parade is hands down my favorite Disney parade! I love seeing characters, like those from the Haunted Mansion, that you never see out and about otherwise.

The husband and I as Mario and Princess Peach for MNSSHP 2012!!!

We have group costumes planned for the Halloween party as well, but you might just have to wait and see the day of for that! Follow me on Instagram @lilrunner1485 or Twitter @lilrunner for my vacation updates! So now the last few days await before vacation. They will be filled with the normal work flow, a few more training runs, and packing! See ya real soon Disney! Happy fall to everyone as well!!!

Tower of Terror 10-Miler Update

Hello friends! Yes, I'm still here. I know, I know another blog hiatus again, but life gets hectic for a busy bee like me! With Tower of Terror 10-Miler training in full swing (more on that below), plus a very active August with lots of events on tap and the transition from summer to fall, blogging has taken a bit of a backseat. School is back in session as well and since my job focuses a lot on working with area school systems, work has been quite active too. Between running and working, I pretty much come home in the evenings, eat and go to sleep at what is likely a toddler's bedtime. Eventually I want to bring back some weekly review wrap-ups and I have so many ideas for other future posts, but now I just need to get my busy bee schedule in order and go from there. I salute you awesome bloggers that manage to post at least once (if not more) a day! You all are rockstars!

Me regarding the ToT 10-Miler!

So, enough basic chit chat, let's talk the upcoming Run Disney event, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 10-Miler! It will take place October 4, which is very exciting since that day is just around the corner! This Run Disney race takes place at Walt Disney World at night and features a villain-themed course, which starts and finishes at Hollywood Studios, my favorite Disney Park. To be fair I love all the Disney parks almost equally, but as a lover of movies, this park gets the slight edge for my number one. Plus it has some of my favorite rides and attractions, including the Tower of Terror of course! In addition, the race runs through Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. Like other Run Disney events, characters will be at various points on the course for photo opportunities. After the finish, race participants get free entry into Hollywood Studios for the Villain's Bash after party! The party lasts until 3:30 a.m. and runners (as well as spectators who paid to attend) get to enjoy some of the park's rides as well as get pictures with more characters. 

Tower of Terror 10-Miler Course Map!

I couldn't be more excited for this race, y'all! Did I just say "y'all?" YES, I sure did because seriously I am so pumped! This will be my first time doing the Tower of Terror 10-Miler, my first race at the distance of 10 miles (automatic PR right?!), my first night race and my first time running through both Hollywood Studios and the Wide World of Sports! Not to mention, the race coming up so soon means that my Disney vacation is almost here. Walt Disney World is basically my second home and I can't wait to return and be with "my people" who understand my love of all things Disney. Also, my busy bee self is really looking forward to a nice vacation, so what better way to get things started by showing my Disney Side with a race through my favorite place?!

Magic Band arrival means Disney is SO CLOSE!

Run Disney recently released corral assignments for the Tower of Terror 10-Miler, which again shows just how close this race is! Following the recent Run Disney tradition, there are more corrals as in year's past. The husband and I will be in corral D. D is for "Definitely Awesome!" If you are in this corral give me a shout! 

Having attended the Run Disney Marathon Weekend as well as the Princess Half Weekend, I've only experienced the half marathon course, which is the same for both the WDW Half and Princess Half, and the Enchanted 10K course. I am very excited to try a new Run Disney course. I've also read that the course has a small trail portion included, and while I've seen some complaints regarding this, the former cross country runner in me is PUMPED! I love running on trail type surfaces. Hopefully this part will be as fun as it sounds! I am sure this could all change depending on how I feel during the race, but the 10 mile distance also intrigues me. It's an unusual distance that you don't see many races set at, and I kind of dig it. Hopefully I still "dig it" as I'm sweating like a hot mess during the race lol! 

Training for the Tower of Terror 10-Miler has been more enjoyable than training for my last Run Disney event, the Glass Slipper Challenge. For the Glass Slipper Challenge I mainly trained solo and due to the polar vortex of a winter we had, I was confined to a treadmill for the majority of my runs, including long runs. While it has been a hot and humid summer of training, which has ended up providing some not so awesome feeling runs, it's been better overall. Since the husband is doing the race with me it's been more motivating and made the training runs, specifically long runs, much more enjoyable. Having a running partner always helps! It's also been nice to do long runs outside again (even with the hot weather) after doing so many on the treadmill over the winter. Reading past race recaps and knowing the Florida weather for early October, the race will likely be hot and humid as well. Since that's what the majority of our training has been like weather-wise, hopefully we will at least be semi-prepared. 

As for training plans, with the 10 mile distance we've basically just stuck to how we would train for a half marathon. We've gradually upped our long run distance each weekend over the past couple months. After a particularly brutal 9-miler, we noticed we were feeling a bit drained and took a weekend during our training to just do a regular maintenance run in place of a long run. I've read many plans that recommend runners take at least one long run break during their training, and I can say that it did help both of us. We bounced back the following weekend and had a much better long run! The long runs as usual haven't been easy, but we've pushed through. I'm proud that we've stuck to our plan! Often I find myself having to deviate from my set-out training plan, so I'm very glad that we've motivated each other to stay on task. This weekend starts our taper cycle since again the race is THAT close, so we plan to still do a long run but back off the distance.

Mickey pancakes with chocolate milk in a Cinderella mug is a great way to refuel while training!

For other Tower of Terror 10-Milers, how has your training gone? I am sure a lot of you, like me, are now in your taper phase as well. Let me know if you are planning to join me for this race! I'd love to know what you are looking forward to when it comes to running into the Twilight Zone! If you aren't doing this race, but are training for other fall races, I'd love to hear how that's going as well. I plan to do our costume reveal for the race (because Run Disney races are just so much more fun in costume), so stay tuned!

Fuel and Fitness

Runger. Every runner seems to have it. Runger is defined as a runner who has hunger from well, all the running that he/she does! I tend to suffer from runger big time. In order to help avoid runger as well as keep my energy levels up DURING runs, specifically long training runs, what type of fuel I take in is very important. As part of today’s Tuesday’s On the Run Link Up theme, let’s talk fuel and fitness!

Preach!

My fueling routine before runs depends on how much time I have between eating and running. For example, as an “after work runner” (at 5 p.m. on the week days), I generally eat a regular lunch and nothing “special.” Though I have been known to regret some lunch choices during a run, like wings! Yikes! But hey, I’m far from perfect and it happens. Below, I categorized my various fuel “go to” options based on time.

A few hours before: For a race day or a long run day that I have a few hours of time before, I like to eat toast with peanut butter, a bagel with peanut butter and/or oatmeal. A peanut butter bagel was always my go-to pre-race breakfast during my competitive high school and collegiate years in cross country and track. In fact, a peanut butter bagel is my top choice today if I have a few hours between a race and/or longer distance run. Often I will do toast and peanut butter instead, primarily because I always have bread at the house, and it does the job. This is both filling and an excellent fueling option.

Half hour to an hour before: Energy bars! My top energy bar pick goes to Clif Bars! While I don’t find very many energy-based fueling foods to be particularly appetizing, I actually really like Clif Bars. The standard Clif Bar is very much the same texture as a basic granola bar, but offers an additional boost of energy that’s perfect for running or other endurance based activities. I usually always have a Clif Bar before races, especially super early ones that don’t give me much time to eat “actual food” (I’m looking at you, early Run Disney wake-up calls!) I also often eat a Clif Bar or part of one before runs in general since they give me an extra boost. My favorite flavor is chocolate chip. Personally, I find the standard “chewy” PowerBar to be GROSS. I consumed way too many of those in high school running because there were less options available it seemed. (Eek! Does this make me old?!) However, it is still a good source of fuel and if you can handle the taste and texture, by all means have at it! When it comes to the PowerBar brand, I now prefer the Harvest bars. They are much easier to consume, taste better to me and get the job done! My favorite flavors are chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin! The other energy bar I'd recommend is the Snickers Marathon Bar. It's not the worst tasting energy bar on the market and gets the job done, especially for endurance events!

My FAVORITE! Jelly Belly Sport Beans!!!

Right Before/During: Hands down my favorite of all the energy products, Jelly Belly Sport Beans! My BRF Cailyn introduced me to these bad boys and the rest was history. They are quite yummy and give me the perfect energy boost. They are easy to get down right before a race/long run as well as during. I can usually feel myself perk right up during my long run when I pop even just a few beans. They come in a few different flavors. My favorite is the mixed version, which comes in a black package. Best part about these sport beans is that they also come in a resealable bag, which makes them super easy to bring on runs. As for gels, I don't think I will every truly really like an energy gel. The texture is just disgusting to me. However, I do take energy gels before and during races, specifically, because nasty taste or not, they are most definitely beneficial! I've tried various flavors, including PowerBar brand and GU, but Clif Gels are my favorite. Even though I'm not a real fan of any of the flavors, I think the Clif Gels taste the best and are easiest to take. They come in both caffeinated and non-caffeinated options as well as several flavors. Personally, I find the fruit flavored gels easiest to consume. My go-to Clif Gel flavor is always Razz (raspberry). As much as I dislike energy gels, they almost always give me a good energy zap during a long run.

Give me all the Clif Gels!

I hope these fuel tips help you if you are looking for ways to boost your energy for runs and control that pesky runger! What are your fitness fuel picks? I'd love to know! I'm always looking for new things to try. In fact, I recently purchased some Clif Shot Bloks to try. Let me know if you like them or not! Remember, the key to a good run always boils down to properly fueling yourself!

A Couple of Runners: Happy Anniversary!

A Couple of Runners!

I'm certainly not one for too much cheese when it comes to romance (unless we are talking actual cheese, like cheddar...one of the true keys to my heart), but today is special so I will make an exception. Why is today different?! Well, today the husband and I are celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary! That's right SEVEN years! Wow, 2007 was a LONG time ago! Seven years married and a whopping TEN years together later, he still manages to make me laugh at even the dumbest of things and is still my best friend. (Awww). It hasn't always been easy and we are far from perfect, but we've made it through the rough patches and come across stronger on the other side! More than that though, we have built a life together and made so many wonderful memories! Right now at year seven, I can honestly say this is the strongest our relationship has ever been, and I hope with each passing year we can grow stronger as individuals and as a couple.

Magical memories! What a journey it's been so far!!!

Running is a huge part of my life, and if it wasn't for my love of this great sport I probably would have never met the love of my life (again with the cheese, seriously this is really making me want actual cheese. A block of swiss would be a great anniversary gift *hint*. What can I say, I'm a simple woman). We both attended the University of Charleston on track and cross country scholarships. We met because we were teammates. We quickly grew from teammates to best friends and then one day, I finally gave in, threw caution to the wind, and agreed to date him. We clicked so instantly that I remember not wanting to date him at first because I didn't want to throw a perfectly great friendship away if things didn't work out. I am glad I had a change of heart and that he won me over. After all, this shy boy was still willing to date me after he had already seen me throwing up after cross country races (sexy!), and that's a keeper!

We are just a "Couple of Runners!"

While we have many different interests and are in some ways opposite, running has always been a common bond between us. The husband is my favorite running partner. Now that we are "retired" from our collegiate competitive years, it's nice to train together for races and to just have a running pal in general. We complain about the sucky runs together and celebrate the good ones. We even finish each others...sandwiches! Next up for us is the Tower of Terror 10-Miler and he has even agreed (with a little pushing) to dress in a costume for the race! That's true love!

This is how mature, married of seven years, couples behave!

So, happy anniversary to the husband, or as they call him Daniel outside of the blog world! We are just a couple of runners! I can't wait for our next run together, but more importantly I can't wait to continue our journey together! I love you!

Successful Streaking: RWRunStreak Review

Well, as promised, I now present my review of the 2014 Runner’s World Run Streak Summer Challenge! I wish I could have posted this a lot earlier, but as you can see from my previous update, the month of July basically came and went in a flash! For those who are just now checking out this blog or if you don’t know what the RWRunStreak is, check out this post. If you really don’t feel like clicking on another post, I will break it down for you: the Runner’s World Run Streak 2014 Summer Challenge was to run at least one mile per day from Memorial Day to the 4th of July, marking a total of 40 straight days of running. This was my second time completing the summer challenge. Like any challenge it had its ups and downs. It was good, it was bad, it was ugly (ha! see what I just did there), and best of all, it was GREAT. Using the good, bad, ugly (and GREAT!) system, here goes all about my streaking experience!

THE GOOD: I have mentioned several times on here that summer isn't exactly my favorite season. I’m sure my summer-lovin’ friends are sick of me counting down the days to fall (my favorite season, obviously, mainly due to two words: pumpkin spice!). Where I live, the summers are generally very hot, but even worse VERY humid. As someone who primarily is an “after work runner” due to scheduling, it’s very difficult for me to run early to beat the heat unless I do so at an ungodly hour, like 4 a.m., which I reserve for Run Disney events only! This puts my runs at the hottest time of the day. I am not a fan of the polar vortex we experienced this past winter, but generally I’d be happier running in 30 degree weather compared to the 90s dripping with humidity we have in the summer. Enough summer complaining (because *yay* it’s almost over!). With my distaste of super-hot humid runs (yet again another thing that Run Disney enables me to naturally tolerate more), I have often found my motivation to run lacking during the summer. It was different when I had a XC season to prepare for, but since I primarily run for myself and my fitness now, I noticed I would slack during the summer months. Last year I used the RWRunStreak to hold myself accountable and MAKE myself run, and it worked! I decided to go streaking again for the 2014 Summer Challenge. I knew I needed to build my base back since it was a bit off balance due to being burnt out from Glass Slipper Challenge training, the usual sinus/allergy issues as well as a car accident that tweaked my back. I also knew with the Run Disney Tower of Terror 10-Miler race taking place in early fall that I wanted to be prepared and ready to jump into training, specifically long runs. Needless to say, it was good to have the motivation to get out there every day from Memorial Day to the 4th of July. There were days I certainly didn’t want to even just do a mile, but committing to the streak forced me to just get up and get moving. Even with some injuries and muscle fatigue, I could see a clear difference from my first to my last run of the streak. It was the perfect motivator. It also was good that the duration of the streak brought about some of this summer’s HOTTEST days, which without my goal to finish, I probably would have skipped or slacked off if I’m being totally honest. Even after a bad run or a run I’m not exactly thrilled to do, I always feel good about myself after. Rest days are nice, but I always miss the satisfaction of completing a run no matter the distance. It was nice to feel good and accomplished each day of the streak!

THE BAD: With anything, especially with a challenge, it’s not all unicorns, sunshine and rainbows. Just like the previous year of streaking, I could really feel the wear and tear of running every day in the final few weeks of the challenge. It didn’t help that I was running on a tweaked ankle, which I experienced during the WV 5K (more on that in THE UGLY). Aside from being physically draining, it was very mentally exhausting as well. I am a runner that thrives with days off and I’ve always been this way, even when I was at my most competitive in collegiate XC and track training. The strain of no real rest day definitely got to me. There were some evenings where I came home, laid down and then got out the door for my quick mile after 9 p.m. At least I was getting in the runs, but as a person who thrives with schedule and routine, I didn’t exactly like how those late runs were completely throwing me off balance. There were days when I wondered why I chose to do the streak again. “Why am I so crazy?!” thoughts ran through my head several times! Running every day without a break is flat-out hard to do! It feels great to finish, but they call it a CHALLENGE for a reason!

THE UGLY: Now for the ugly. I won’t dwell too much here, because for the most part the RWRunStreak was a very positive experience. I probably wouldn’t need to include “THE UGLY” portion of this review if it hadn’t been for my aforementioned ankle snafu during the WV 5K. I tweaked my ankle pretty bad in that race. My own stubbornness and adrenaline came in handy, because otherwise I’m not sure I would have been able to finish the 5K if it was just a training run and not a race. It HURT. Also, normally I would have taken a few days off to give my ankle a chance to fully heal before attempting to run on it. However, I was DETERMINED to finish the streak, and with only a few weeks left, in my mind quitting wasn’t an option. I did have conditions for the streak set for myself that I would quit in the event of illness/injury, but since I could still run on my ankle thanks to the wonders of KT Tape (and my previously noted stubbornness), I forged along. I did back off my usual distances, which helped, but it was clear that my ankle snafu made the final weeks of the streak not  so awesome.

THE GREAT: As I’ve said, the 2014 RWRunStreak was GOOD, BAD, and UGLY. More importantly, however, IT WAS GREAT! The positivity of the streaking experience outweighs the negativity and all the exhaustion. My ankle eventually felt better, and as I mentioned in THE GOOD, by the streak’s end my runs were significantly better than how I started. Not to mention the sense of accomplishment of being a 2014 RWRunStreak finisher made all the crappy moments worth it. It was GREAT that the streak propelled me to push through and get out there EVERY DAY for a run. It was GREAT that I was able to build my base back and be ready to jump into Tower of Terror 10-Miler training. It was especially GREAT to know that I could set a goal and work to achieve that goal regardless of the obstacles that got in the way. Best of all, it was GREAT to receive the support and encouragement through the entirety of the challenge from my family, friends and social media guys and gals, like ALL OF YOU READING THIS! Thank you to everyone who supported me in this venture. You all are what made my RWRunStreak truly GREAT!

Let me know if you are a fellow RWRunStreak finisher! I’d love to read all about your experience! Not a run streaker? That’s totally cool! I’d love to hear all about your summer running in general as well as what motivates you to get out there!