Swag!

So this month I won the 12athon drawing! Go me! I'm pretty sure it was because I was long-distance mentally bribing the chickens. Took a lot of mental energy, you know.

Here's what I won:

Clockwise, from top: A "Gone Running" magnet sign, TrueLemon Lemonade mix (10-count), Clandestino banana bars in milk chocolate (brown), plain (white), and dark chocolate (dark brown), and TrueLime sachets (32-count).

Oh, and also one of these:

That's right, a 12athon shirt! It's awesome.

So far I have tried the TrueLemon's True Lemonade mix and the 12athon shirt, so here are my (glowing) thoughts on them.

The shirt--which is a New Balance NDurance short-sleeved tech t-shirt, screen-printed by Family Fun Club is everything it's cracked up to be. Fits well, a little long in the body so none of what my sister-in-law calls 'inadvertent bellydancing.' Does exactly what it's supposed to do: wicks. The printing is really nice and clear. The website was easy to navigate, and the gift card was easy to use. I'd recommend buying one of these shirts there.

Well, I mean, you can't get them anywhere else, but I digress.

The True Lemonade is awfully tasty. List price, I think, comes to 40 cents a packet ($3.99 for a box of 10), which is comparable with things like Crystal Lite Pure. It tastes . . . well, as I said to RWB, it tastes pretty much how you wanted Minute Maid lemonade to taste: not as sickly sweet and actually a little more lemon-y. It does taste a titch like stevia as, unsurprisingly, there's stevia in it, but I actually like the taste of stevia, so it's not a problem for me.

Here's what the packaging looks like--not really surprising:

And here is an excellent example of AA's blue period what it looks like mixed up. (Also the upper right-hand corner of my piano. No, it did not leave a ring. I didn't leave it there long enough to sweat.)

I'd recommend it, probably with some potassium salt thrown in, for a Gatorade substitute, and without just for drinking (which is what I've been doing with it). It's available both at TrueLemon's website, linked above, or at a lot of grocery stores.

June 12athon: Tipsy Edition (AA)

*hic*

No, I think I'm sober now. Maybe.

So the problem with being, well, me, is that I get drunk off of one beer. A double-fister RUI (12 points!) is therefore a bad idea.

I did it anyway.

On the left is the lightest beer I have in my house: New Glarus's Two Women. I kid you not. (In hindsight, I probably should have stolen Mr. Angle's hard cider, but there was only one left.) On the right is a mint julep, such as it was: bourbon, ripped-up mint leaves, a ton of ice, and some powdered sugar added after the fact, shaken a lot and definitely not stirred. It tasted just fine, thank you.

Hell, after the first slurp, it tasted more than fine.

So RWB had mentioned doing the Bi-Curious, as she is lazy, and I am also lazy, and in addition to being lazy, at a bad point in my training cycle (otherwise known as the 'I don't even know when my next race is!' point). So I said, HEY, I'LL BE AWESOME AND DO THAT TOO. So I did.

Here's my bike. It is an awesome bike, if 'awesome' is defined as 'comfortable.'

As a bonus, you also get my helmet and my trash and recycling bins.

Six miles of biking (actually, 6.12 miles):

And one mint julep later, I was so. not. sober. Of course, I still had six miles to do on foot, and a whole beer to drink. Yeah. Bad plan. Did it anyway.

I got home, babbled at my husband for a bit, and tried not to fall over in the shower.

Oh, and I think I haven't successfully claimed the Naturalist bonus for this quarter and I always pretty much wear the same shoes (Saucony Kinvara 2s, 4mm drop), so:

(Yeah, that's the same picture as always, but I haven't bought any new shoes yet, so.)

12athon (12) + Bi-Curious (7) + RUI Double-Fister (12) + Minimalist (4) + multiplier (2.3) = uhhhh . . .

*maths*

37.3?

Sure!

SOBRIETY IS OVERRATED.

June 12athon - RWB

Happy 12th! I woke up not feeling particularly well this morning, so I opted for the Bi-Curious challenge since running 6 miles sounded a lot more doable than running 12 at the moment. I ended up walking about 4 of the 6 miles anyway, but oh well:



The bike ride to the post office and back to mail a package wasn't bad, though. And this was the first time I'd used the watch for cycling, so that was kind of exciting, even if it didn't carry over the 'stop when I'm stopped' setting from the running mode and continued ticking along through the traffic lights.



And, for a few extra points, all in the Merrell Barefoot Dash Gloves, which do not glow in spite of appearing to do so in the picture. They are, however, awesome.

Happy trails to you . . .

. . . until we meet again? Today is apparently National Trails Day, and because of that, there was a 12athon Bonus run! 3.2 miles, on (unpaved) trails, for 3.2 points, and dressing as your favorite trail icon for an extra point. I did not do that, but I do have a picture of my favorite trail icon, if by 'trail icon' you mean 'wordless sign.'

(I think the guy is saying something totally safe for work.) The nearest trails to me are in a park that requires me to pay to park, and I'm not okay with that, so I normally run there, but I was not really into running 3 miles to get to trails, to run 3 miles, and then 3 miles home, so I drove 20 minutes (11 miles) to find another park. And ta-da! I found an unpaved trail!

Well, okay, that was actually a little thingy that went from one parking lot to another but from there I was able to find standard unpaved trails, with grass and weeds and mud and the occasional pile of rocks. I didn't get a picture because I'd put my camera back in my car by that point, so you'll just have to believe me. But you don't have to believe me on time! I can prove that.

I promise there are lots more posts coming; RWB and I did the Madison (Half) Marathon last weekend, and that meant LOTS of baking (no crap, 3 separate recipe posts coming, and a few reviews of crud), but for now, I will leave off here.