August Virtual Races

Miles in 2013: 656
Days until NYC: 67

August in Central Florida is typically way too hot to have races longer than a 5k and even those are miserable.  Unfortunately, I still have some really long runs to complete as part of my NYC training.  Virtual races become a very motivating training tool.  The first of my two August Virtual races sponsored by Jost Running was a 5k with a really fun hot dog medal.  I used it to push me to do another set of 800's during our track workout one day.

 

 

 

I had a 20 mile training run this weekend. 20 miles in this heat and humidity is NO FUN.  Luckily for me I checked my mailbox on my way out to run and was greeted with the hot dog 5k medal and the cool spinner baseball half marathon medal!  I took that as my cue to run the 20 really well to earn my half marathon medal.  Of the 5-8 20 plus mile runs I've done I hate to admit that Sunday's was the best I've run.  After the run I tossed on my hard earned medal, it felt really great to be able to reward myself with some sparkly bling at the end!  Both the hot dog and the baseball medals were really well done!  I love sparkly medals and these both had a lot of shimmer to them.  The half marathon baseball medal was perfect size, sparkle, and a spinner!  I am really looking forward to seeing the September "Soaring" medals.

 

 



Medals and a sweet card

Hot and Sweaty but look at that medal! It's huge!

 

Not too shabby for it being 8,752 degrees outside!

 

 

A New Endeavour - Virtual Races

Miles in 2013: 553
Days until the NYC Marathon: 92 Days

For those of you who know me it's an understatement to say that I LOVE the running BLING!  I have a whole wall in my house to display my running medals - I even relocated some wedding photos to give my bling prime real estate on my wall.  To me passing those medals on my way out the door is a reminder of all of the time, miles, and hard work that I've put in.  It also motivates me to go collect some more, especially because they are so shiny!  I even started making ceramic medals for my training group any time we ran a 20 or more mile training run.  Recently I stumbled across something called "virtual runs."  To my none running friends they thought that meant they could lay on the couch and earn a medal.  That's not what this!  A lot of people don't have the luxury of living near frequent races or the ability to travel to them.  Enter virtual races.  The basic premise is you sign up for a race, pick the distance and run the miles wherever you can, your medal comes in the mail, and you celebrate your accomplishment.  The majority of these races benefit some sort of charity which I think makes them even cooler.  There are so many options of distance, charities, and medals to choose from.

Only about 2 years of running has produced all this bling!

For the next 3 months I will be participating in the 5k's and Half Marathons sponsored by Jost Running.  The August medals are super cute and baseball themed.  Proceeds go to the ALS Association.  The window for the 5k is next week so I'll be posting after I run those 3.1 (maybe a little more) miles.  The Half Marathon window is not long after that so it's a good thing a have a ton of miles to do this month getting ready for NYC.  Stayed tuned for my virtual race reports!

5k and 10k Medal (My favorite!)

Half and Full Marathon Medal