Hippie Runner Belt Review and Giveaway

A while back, I purchased a Hippie Runner Belt for myself because I needed a different option for a race belt then what I had been running with. The belt is really neat because it has two pockets, one smaller than the other. The larger pocket is large enough to fit my phone or camera and I use the smaller pocket for my ipod nano, with all of this the belt manages not to bounce.  I wore this belt exclusively through the marathon training and during all of my races this fall, and I have been very happy with it. I love the loops for the energy gels, they are secure and easily accessible. Not only has this belt proven to be great for running, but I had forgotten my mic belt for my Zumba class but thankfully I had this belt in my car, and it turned out to be perfect for my mic pack. 

The wonderful people over at Hippie Runner sent me some of their awesome headbands and two belts to giveaway to you, my awesome readers. So, there will be two winners, each will win a belt and two headbands. 

* Hippie Runner provided me with the headbands and belts to give away, my opinions are my own.

Contest ends 12/5 @ 11:59

Mandatory Entries (leave a separate comment for each)


1. Like Hippie Runner on Facebook and let them know Lucy from Run Chunky Run sent you.
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Optional Entries (leave a separate comment for each)


3. Follow me on twitter @LucyATL
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5. Make a donation to my coach's fundraising efforts here, you can read more about it here.
6. Tell me about something special that your family does to celebrate Christmas.

Three Things Thursday

1. I've been busy working on a Zumba event to benefit Toys For Tots. This is the first time I am putting together my own Zumba event, it's very exciting.

2. This time next week, I'll be resting up after half marathon #5. I think I will have earned my thanksgiving meal. I'll also be getting ready for the real race... Black Friday shopping. I may be a nut job, but I love the insanity of it all.

3. Ok, so I was thinking of compiling a list of "you know you're a runner when..". Help me out, and give me your "you know you're a runner when" ideas.

Face Plants, Grocery Store Trips, and Black Balling

Can you believe that most of the above happened during yesterday's run?! I had my dear friend Christina join me for this one. The way it was planned out that I had to run the middle 3 miles of this 7 mile run straight, without my intervals. I walked the first bit, reset the garmin and off we went, it was going well until the "incident". I am going to be honest with you, I think that Christina may in some form or fashion been responsible for the face plant I managed to do going down a hill, I think she stuck a tree root or a foot in my way.... she's tricky like that. Anyways, I managed to take a nasty fall. The best part of it was that the first words out of my mouth were "gotta pause the garmin". Thank goodness that I was wearing the trial pair of contacts that the eye doctor gave me because I would have probably damaged or broke my glasses. I got some scrapes and road rash, and my knees are SWOLLEN, and they hurt. After this, the run turned into a walk with bouts of slow running, my knees were just not going to cooperate. Not to mention that my hips and glutes were sore, I'm pretty sure it my body's way of punishing me for not going to ART Tuesday. Plus, it was just par for the course because it seems that every time that Christina and I run, I'm hurt and/or sore. I know Christina is worried about being black balled as a running partner, but lucky for her she's safe for now.

Wait, yesterday's adventures get better. When Christina realized we were getting close to the supermarket, she asked to stop and get something because her stomach was unsettled. This pit stop ended up being the funniest part of the day, we went in picked up 2 bananas and Christina picked up a bag of rolls. She hauled her bag of buns the 3.5 miles we had left to cover. She was quite the sight.

Tough Decisions, Insanity and General Badassery

With Rock N Roll Savannah this weekend, I think it's high time that I let you all know what's going on with this race. So, after the 18 mile long run a few weeks ago, I made a very difficult decision to drop down to the half marathon. I had a multitude of reasons, but mostly because the joy of running had sort of been sucked right out of me, and everything in my life was suffering with the training. I was crying almost every long run, and dreading them as well, it was not a good place. I still have some mixed feelings about dropping down but ultimately, I am doing what I feel is best for me and my health. I have some friends coming to run the full in Savannah as well, and I feel bad and feel like I have let them down. They have tried talking me into staying with the full, and I have been tempted but I have to stick to my guns on this one. Now, don't think that I have given up on those 26.2 dreams, I have just postponed them a little. The new plan is to run my first full in Tulsa for the Route 66 Marathon, I was inspired by Kelly and my coach Lesley. I'm just postponing the ultimate act of badassery until I feel that the world can handle all of this awesome badassness that is me.

Now on to the insanity, this is all half marathon related. After this weekend, I am going to be eligible to to join Half Fanatics, and I think I might... we'll see. So, I have run three half marathons this year thus far and plan on finishing out the year with three more. I have already signed up for half marathon #5 on Thanksgiving morning. The one that I would like to sign up for as my 6th is Zooma Atlanta, the only thing keeping me from signing up is that this race is two days after Thanksgiving. So, 6 half marathons may not seem like much to some runners but in my books it's pretty darn badass, and adds more medals to the collection.

North Face Endurance Challenge Atlanta 5K Race Report

This was my very first trail race, and when I set out to Pine Mountain, GA that morning, I was nervous.  I had done a few short run at a local hiking trail, but I knew this race would be different. I got to Callaway Gardens to park and catch the shuttle over to F.D. Roosevelt State Park at some ridiculously early time that morning, and ended up on a bit of a wild goose chase to find the correct parking lot. It wasn't such a big deal for me because the 5K people were the last to go, but I felt bad for the half marathoners and 10Kers that were in the same situation. I got the right lot, jumped on the very luxurious yellow limousine (aka the school bus), and enjoyed the heated bus and quiet ride to the start/finish area. Guess what I realized as soon as the bus started moving, I realized that I left my Garmin in my car sitting on the passenger seat... way to go superstar. As I got off the bus, and I was approached by none other than runblondie26 (if you have a minute, check out her blog, she's AWESOME), mind you, we'd never met each other before she recognized me from twitter. I'm sure that's what all the big celebs feel like, I am sure that the sneaky paparazzi was hiding in the bushes just waiting to take our pictures too.

While, I was waiting for my race to go, I decided that I just HAD to take my picture in front of the North Face Challenge logo thing. Well, this would prove to be a mistake because it would cause the one and only injury from the day. After the picture below was taken, I managed to smash my shin into the stage and it left a sizable bruise, and it bruised my pride a little too. 

While waiting, I also got to see a friend of mine (who also happens to be a Zumba instructor) and hung out with her and her friends before the start. Most of them were doing the 10K, so I got to see them start and cheer them on. Guess who happened to be there to give each wave of races a pep talk? None other than the Ultra Marathon Man, Dean Karnazes. 

You can almost spot him, he's in the blue shirt with the white visor.

After Dean's pep talk, we were off. Right after we started, I started to freak out just a little because I didn't have the garmin on. It turns out that not having the garmin was probably for the best because I am pretty sure that I would have cried if I had seen the pace and the distance. I am pretty sure that at least the first half mile was all uphill, it was deceiving too because just as soon as I thought that it would start leveling out and/or start descending, it didn't, we just kept climbing. It was so steep that there was no way that I could even run up it, trust me, I tried. The course had been marked 4 out of 5 in difficulty and technicality, and they weren't lying. The other thing that I had to keep track of was the actual course, it was marked out with purple ribbon for the 5K. So, there was one point where I had just gotten caught up in my music and was just going with it, then I realized I wasn't sure if I was still on the right path, I had to take a minute to gather myself and look for the markers. Then, I realized I had quite the difficult path ahead, check out the pictures.

These were the markers, the purple was in there somewhere.

Found the markers again and on my way again... score!

Had to get around this...

Not sure if you can get a sense of how narrow this was and how severe the drop off is.

I kept on, and then I heard it, it was the DJ at the start/finish, and it was such a sweet sound. Little did I know when I heard the music, that it was going to be a bit of a tease because I still had a little bit further to go. I saw that I was getting close to the road, and then I got to cross the road and the finish line was right there, but it wasn't going to be that easy, instead of the straight shot to the finish, I had to go back into the woods. This was quite possibly the toughest race I've ever run, yup, you read that right. Mentally, I was doing wonderfully; physically, this race was demanding. Am I stupid enough to do this race again next year? Yes, yes, I am.

So, guess who I got to meet after the race?! Dean Karnazes! This would normally been super awesome except for the fact that I got a little star struck and acted like a dork when I actually met him. At least, I got my picture taken with him.

Peachtree City Classic Women's 5K 2011 Race Report

Alright, it's time to clear out the backlog of race reports. I've had a lot of races, and the reports have been piling up. 

This race marked my first race in my second year of racing, and I decided to treat it like a training run. I ran this race last October and it didn't go so well, this year was a completely different story. This was the most fun I had in a long time. 

I got to see Sarah and Shannon before the race, although it was only briefly because I had to get to the start, they were doing the 15k and they started after I did. Why didn't I do the 15k? Two reasons, first of all, I am too slow for what their time cut off was. Secondly, I had another race the following day and I wanted to save something for the following day. 

I ran this one on my own and kept it easy, didn't race it, just enjoyed. Everything came together for a perfect morning. First things first, the weather was perfect for running, it was in the 50's with enough chill in the air to wake you up. Funny little side note, I suck at the Celsius to Fahrenheit conversions, I understand weather in Celsius except when it comes to running, I know how to dress based on the Fahrenheit temperature. I'm so weird. Back to the race, I was wearing my new favorite shirt from One More Mile which seems to make me feel better about being slow. I wanted to wear my new Racing It Off tee but I have a problem... I realized after I ordered it, that I don't have a white sports bra which sucks if you want to wear a white shirt. Back to the race, the music was right, I was feeling great and the miles seemed to fly by. During the race, I just thought back to the disaster of the 2010 race where I cried, and was so caught up in all the bad things. What a difference a year makes. 

After the race, I stuck around because I wanted to watch my friends finish their 15K race. It was so cool to see my friends finish and getting the chance to cheer them on. All around an awesome way to spend a morning.