Flat Mama Friday April Fools Edition #REALwomenmove

This weekend is the April Fools Jester Challenge in Atlantic City! I will be running the 11k tomorrow and the Half Marathon on Sunday!

My 10k outfit, mostly from the 261 collection at Skirt Sports!

Throwing a little Boston in for the Half Marathon.

And the extras. Nala doesn't get to go though. Being a cat and all.

Are you racing this weekend?

Wordless Wednesday #REALwomenmove

Stray Boots Tours, Active Vacation FTW

A few years back we discovered Stray Boots Tours (I am blogging via phone, I will try and add links on Friday!) in NYC. Now they are in a lot of major cities, and they have an app!

The teenie and I did a tour in Philly over the weekend, and the family did one in New Orleans on Monday!

Stray Boots is a scavenger hunt that takes you to a lot of places you would never find on your own. We never knew there was a piece of the Berlin Wall in NYC before we took a tour!

Sometimes there is a trivia question, a task, or a photo op. You get points for completing them. We have yet to get a perfect score, but we are optimistic!

Both tours covered about 3 miles of walking easily!

Some of the photos.....

The statue was missing, so we improvised...

March like a soldier. 

Feed the pig.

Favorite oversized game piece

LOVE

I didn't do it!

Cathedral

Beignets 

Hot Chocolate 15K recap #REALwomenmove

Hot Chocolate Philly was, hands down, the most organized race I have ever been in. We arrived in Philly on Friday afternoon, parked the car using Parking Panda (with a Groupon! Score!) and walked the half mile to the hotel.  

After we all checked in, we walked the short walk to the Convention Center for the expo, and got on line for bib pick up. Their system was amazing! There was no predetermined bib number, you showed them your confirmation (mine was in my iPhone's passbook) and they printed a label that went on the bib. 

Around the corner you picked up your swag, already in your swag bag. It was a small expo, but they had several photo ops which we took advantage of!

After the expo, the teenie and I did a stray boots tour, which I will blog about separately! It's too much info for right now!

We had dinner at Maggianos and turned in early.

Race morning was wet and windy. It rained all night, but stopped just before we went outside. The teenie decided last minute to run the 15k and pretty much regretted it instantly. She was freezing!

We met up with Gigi and her friend, plus my friend Susie, and jumped around until it was time to go into the corrals.

The sun actually came out just in time to start,  but the wind remained insane the whole race.

We all started out together, but Eileen and CA pulled ahead right away. My Plantar's Fasciitis was rough and my foot just wouldn't warm up, so at about mile 2, everyone left me behind. Including the teenie! She caught up with Gigi and ran with her.

The course was an out and back along the river, and the water stops also had marshmallows, chocolate chips, and tootsie rolls. 

I caught up with Eileen at the turn around, and stayed with her, as her foot was bugging her.

Morgan texted me when we were at about mile 8.5...

With no training, she finished her first 15k at 2:00:15, it was her first long race ever! Gigi even convinced her to run a half with us in the future!

We finished and got our bling, and headed over to get our mugs.

The mug was amazing! The center had a cup of hot cocoa, there was a section for dipping chocolate, and it had a banana, pretzels, marshmallow, and wafer cookies for dipping! Yum! The teenie will be taking them to college to use as a

Snack cup.

We walked back to the hotel and showered, stowed our stuff and walked another 1.5 miles to the Tap Room to meet Gigi for lunch.

Fried PB&J. It was super tasty. 

What a long day! Thankfully, Gigi dropped us off near our parking lot, and we headed home.

There is definitely another Hot Chocolate in our future!

Ohhhh, the morning after? Not as nice. Allllll that candyyyyyyy.......

Have you ever run a Hot Chocolate?

Flat Mama Friday, Hot Chocolate 15k Edition

So earlier this week i prepped our shirts for the race. At the last minute, the teenie decided to join me!

Making my own iron ons turned out to be very easy! The paper was under $10 at Target, and it took maybe a half hour to make all three shirts! The red one is for next month.

We are ready for Philadelphia!!

Are you racing this weekend??

Here is a pic from my birthday run yesterday....

#FabulousFitGear Swap, March Swap

                                    

 

 

Today I was going to write about my birthday run (which I have to do still, morning chores sure to get in the way of my marathon training!) when I realized that I forgot to post about the Fabulous Fit Gear Swap yesterday! Fail!

This month I was paired up with MB from Tutus and Tennies. I was so excited, she visits my blog ALL the time, and I love hers as well! She knew that I would be running in the NYC Marathon, so she hooked me up with some goodies to help me train!

OH the joy! Lots of yummy Power Crunch bars, Energy chews, Island Boost gels, and Cherry Cola Honey Stingers. I have never tried any of these, and I am excited to test some new forms of energy on my runs! She also included an awesome cooling towel, which will come in super handy when I am training this summer! I also got a cute luggage tag from sunny Florida, that I am pretty sure my son is going to steal. Purple is his favorite color and he is a Lego addict. I better hold on tight to it!
I LOVED all of my goodies! Thanks again, MB!
Want to participate in the April swap?
So how does it work? 

• Each month you can sign up for the gear swap. You will be matched with another swapper. You will purchase $20 worth of gear that you think your swapper would like. (if they are into YOGA DO NOT buy them Crossfit gear, please)  It’s a great way to share your favorite items with people who are also interested in great gear.
• You MUST sign up through the form by the 5th of the month, and agree to ship your gear out by the 15th of the month.
• You will email your match and get an idea of their workout gear likes and dislikes, ask for sizing if you plan to look for apparel, no one wants gear that doesn’t fit.
• The Best part YOU will also receive a package each month from your match!
• Get great gear and meet some new friends throughout the month.
• CURRENTLY ONLY open to people in the United States.
• On the last day of the month, you can share (Blog, tweet, facebook, instagram) your new fit gear with the hashtag #fabulousfitgear

Easy, right?
Hope to see you swapping in April! I have to hurry over and sign up now!

Not Even Remotely Wordless Wednesday, Jeff Galloway Edition

Where are the days doing? Tomorrow is my birthday, and Friday I head to Philly with the teenie and my friends for Hot Chocolate's 15k!

Marathon training is chugging along, very easy since its pre-training. I had almost 75 miles in March!

How is your training going? What is your big race this year?