Babies and bikes and bondibands!

After sleeping in today, I got to watch my sweet baby cousin for the morning while his mom got some work done.  He was the sweetest thing and I was lucky enough that he took a 2 hour nap.  Dalton is only 7 months old but already weighs 23 pounds.  Carrying him around is a workout in itself.  Love that sweet boy!

How can you not love him??

Then me and the madre walked 3 miles and it was muggy as all get out!  Seriously.  I was sweating bullets and trying not to die.  During my April half marathon, Momma really messed up my bicycle and here we are three months later finally getting it fixed!  Thank goodness.  We spent two hours at the bike shop getting them to fix the brakes and cables.  Yay for being able to use biking as cross training again. 

Do you love giveaways???  I dooo!  My good friend Kim  is currently sponsoring a giveaway and her special prize is the super awesome BondiBands.  So go on over and check her out HERE and hopefully you can win.  But you'll have to beat meee!

I really love this BondiBand

What else do you have in store for the weekend?



No red carpet?

I've been seeing these blogger award posts coming into my Google Reader and have been totally enjoying learning such random facts aout all you amazing runners.  Well, finally the fabulous Nikki at The Worth of My Sole chose me to recieve a Blogger Award.

Nikke is so neat and loves the Karate Kid just like me and hates cold weather too.  We are destined to be BFFs!  She has the cutest little family and even loves frozen yogurt.  I hope she doesn't think I'm a complete blog stalking ceep.  But, go check her out and bask in how fabulous she is.  Thanks again, Nikki! 

Now I need to go hire Rachael Zoe to be my stylist for the awards that have no red carpet.  A girl can dream.  Well, here goes my blogger award post:

Favorite Cartoon Character

No caption needed.

Favorite thing to photograph

Best nieces and nephew award.

My favorite thing to cook

Cupcakes.  (My best friend Ashley made all these because she has patience.  I don't.)

My favorite exercise

Beating a boxing bag senseless.  Please disregard the face.  I promise I'm nice in real life.

Favorite movie

You're killing me Smalls.  The Sandlot is a classic.

Favorite article of clothing

I have a slight obsession with Nike Tempo shorts.

Favorite flower

Pink gerber daisies.

Favorite breakfast

Biscuits and sausage gravy.  MMMMM.

Favorite book I've read recently

The movie was great too!

Favorite place to be

Anywhere on the water.

Add your own:

Favorite day of the week

This song is strangely addicting.

So there you have it.  My post about myself for my blogger award.  Here are the SIX awesome bloggers I want you to get to know:

Kim:  Another Running Mom

Heather: Endless Jubliee

Megan: Fit Crafty English Teacher

Julia: Pain, Pride and Perseverance

Rachelle: Running for Trevor

Kristin: Running to Somewhere

Happy Tuesday, and consider this my acceptance speech.



Race Recap: Pilot Fireball Moonlite Classic 5k

Tonight I ran in the Pilot Fireball Moonlite Classic 5k, a flat and fast course that our Knoxville Track Club sponsors.  I did it last year in 35:58 and at the time, I thought that was good.  However this year I really wanted vengence on the course and hoped to break 30 minutes for the first time EVER.  I had planned on breaking 30 no matter what, but I set myself up for heartbreak.

The first mile flew by and I looked at Garmin and to my horror it was only at 8:45.  I was going almost 2 minutes faster than I had planned on going.   A water stop was located right at mile 1, but I never drink on shorter runs, so I opted out.  Bad idea.  I knew if I did not walk then I was going to be sick, so I got over to the side to walk for a bit.  It was sooo unbelievably hot, but I felt cold under my sweaty skin.  At this point, I was just hoping to break last year's time because I knew I was going to be sick.

I lugged through the next two miles and did my best at a strong last  .2 miles.  Multiple people got very sick and had to have medical attention.  The heat and lack of proper hydration were definately not in my favor today.  Official times aren't in yet, but it was around 32:55 when I crossed the finish line, a whole 3 minutes faster than last year.  Not a PR, but not a PW.  I'll take a course PR anyday. 

They served fresh watermelon slices and shaved ice after the race.  Note to all race directors: perfect post race food.  One day I'll break 30 minutes, and although that day was not today, I'll live and get 'em next time.  Hope y'all have a happy holiday!

P.S.  I know you are incredibly devestated that there are no pictures, but the camera is broken.  Sad day, I know. 

stalking and hopping!

In the past week, I've met a lot of new bloggers and began following stalking a lot of new people!  I love learning about so many different people and learning from them.  I'm one of those people who love talking about fitness, reading about fitness, and hearing other people tell their fitness stories, so all these new blogs I follow are really inspiring me. 

I recently talked to Jill over at Life As I See It about her new Fitness Friday Blog Hop.  All you have to do is add your link to her page, then every Friday the links will be posted and you can find dozens of new people to follow.  How neat is this??  Love it!  Check out the stalk hop by clicking below! 

Race report from Pilot Fireball Classic comes tonight!

I'm pretty sure I was being followed.

Tonight I met a girl I went to high school with for a quick 4 mile walk on our local bike trail.  It seemed hot outside, but I barely broke a sweat, so I was so disappointed.  I'm already in holiday mode, so I donned some patriotic wear for our 4miler.  Such fun.  It was great to catch up and talk about the random things in life like how we can't breathe while walking up hill and how big our pit stains were.  Fun, I know.  Btw, Lindsey is in culinary school right now.  Super jealous.

As we were walking, a car came onto the trail  behind us and low and behold it was my dad.  So glad it wasn't some total creep trying to kidnap a 20 year old.  He was like "uhh hello daughter you look skinny today".  Thanks for the self esteem boost, Pops.  Good times.

I have a night 5k tomorrow.  It is a flat course, so I'm hoping to break through my slump and FINALLY break 30 minutes.  We'll see.  I'm not prepared, but good things come to those who run slow, right?  Right.

The look of determination. 

How cool am I?  Proud to be an American, for sure.

Why you gotta be so mean?

Last night I took my niece Halli to see Taylor Swift in concert.  T-Swizzle sold out a long time ago, but we were able to snag some seats last minute.  I was so excited to not only belt out every single lyric to all the songs that I know, but to spend some time with my mini-me. 

I painted my nails for the occasion. Big. Deal.

Let's pretend for 5 seconds that Halli was more excited than me.

Inspired by Taylor's fashion sense.

We arrived early enough to see the opening act  take pictures of ourselves and see a few people we knew.  Our seats were in the perfect location, and TSwift put on a great show!  I tried to outsing Halli the whole time, but I'll just give her dibs and say that she was cooler than me.  Good concert, good time, and bad parking garage traffic.

Will the REAL 12 year old please stand up?

T-Swizzle!

Fearless.

Do you have any guilty pleasures in music??

Dollywood and Sleepover!

Yesterday my friend Tyler and I went to Dollywood, a local amusement park in my area.  We arrived a little late and had to park in the farthest parking lot, but to our surprise there were no lines anywhere we went!  We hit up the roller coasters and the obstacle course.  I am considering walking all over the park in the heat my exercise for the day as well as the obstacle course.  We had to climb, crawl, zip and trek over tight ropes and other various things.  Super fun stuff.  It is currently Kid's Fest at DW so we attended "The Gazillion Bubbles Show".  Legit as it comes.  Some dude can do soooo many cool things with bubbles that you would never even imagine could be done.  And we had Taco Bell for din din.  But I got a plain chicken soft taco, so that's healthy right?

Taco Tyler ordering for me. 

I know he's cute!  Good arm candy for sure!

On the way home we decided to stop in Pigeon Forge for another thrill ride.  They call it the SkyScreamer and after I saw the video they made of us, I'd say it is the perfect name.  I freaked out a little, but it was SO worth it.  Loved it!

Having a minor stroke before climbing on board the skyscreamer.

That thing swings around.  You know it looks scary.

As if my day was not already busy enough yesterday, I drove the thousand miles that stands in between me and Chandler to spend the night and have a night of mayhem.  Her little brother joined us on our adventures and practically mauled me before I even got out of the car.  Love that family.  We went ghost hunting, and tried on Chandler's clothes, and looked at basketball goals, and watched movies.  Cool, I know.  They didn't even judge me from being all nasty from DW either. 

John Christian is too busy scanning the sky for UFOs to pose for pictures. 

Night time joy.

Chan chan loves me and my sweaty self.

Happy weekend!