the 1st annual giblet jog challenge.

I know you've been waiting for this blahgesphere. If you follow my running buddies Ashley the Running Worm and Kristen the Running Lawyer you will know we've all been touting an announcement for a few weeks. Well it is here my friends.

Between the three of us, we came up with an incredible idea:
Oh yeah, THAT just happened. Watch out Kansas Turkey-Type races, we shall descend upon you and show you shock and awe. All permitting we stay healthy and injury free of course. We tend to be an injured lot. But permitting we are all healthy, this will be a FUN weekend. Twenty-three miles total, in two days. I hope to go all out at the Turkey Trot, get a good fall Wichita race under my belt, and run the Gobbler Grind 1/2 for kicks and giggles. There will be no goal or PR for that one. However I do hope to PR at the 10 miler. All of this, of course, depends on my foot healing!

However, good news on the foot front, things are looking up. I ditched my crutches last Friday, ohhhhh the wonderful moments I've had. It's like I have an entirely new trick. WALKING. The foot is doing well, still a little sore on stairs, but overall, doing well. I will start running in two more weeks.

one year. 200 posts. killer race training kit giveaway.

Two-hundred posts, a few stress fractures, a first marathon, a first trail race (half marathon), a 5K age group win and PR, some tears and stress, lots of good running memories, lots of good running buddies, tons of new blahggie buddies, and a Fair Weather Runner blahgiversary.

Since I am out on running any fall marathon, I thought I'd do a clever little giveaway. A giveaway of my marathon training essentials, that I clearly don't need right now, and pass them along to you. I know everyone has their own preferences and likes, so these are truly mine, these are all the things I use when training, whether for a half or a full (which really I've only done one of). So here you go.

To enter, it's simple. Leave a comment. If you aren't a follower, follow me and comment (can't win unless you drink the kool-aid, yeah shameless i know). If you want an even bigger chance? Blahggie shout out. FRW style, which means make your shout out a haiku... because that's just how I roll. I'll pick a winner next Friday.

The goods:

• Nike running socks | call me a sellout, old school, not a TRUE sock connoisseur, but they are still hands down the best socks I have found for me and my feet
  
  
• Cliff Shot Gel | all natural, and all awesome, i am a natural kind of girl, so when i found the cliff shots are all natural, and taste oh so much better than GU--sorry GU--i haven't looked back
  
  
• Cliff Shot Blox | also all natural and also all awesome. my cousin rachel taught me the trick is cutting them up, brilliant, and it works. the orange ones are like eating an orange crush pop
  
  
• Nathan hand held bottle | i only discovered this right before i got hurt last month, but i love it, super handy, super easy to carry, and an awesome color of green
  
  
• Body Glide | yep, can't live without it, we all know the deal. love it
  
  
• Gatorade Powder | or as i like to call it, old faithful

I should mention these will all be new, not the stuff I used, just in case there was a question about that. Because GROSS.

Thanks for a good year blahgesphere, I hope you will like my essential training kit as much as I do. Cheers to fall and running and happiness and fun. Also, another big announcement coming, involving myself, Kristen the Running Lawyer, and Ashley the Running Worm. Yep, keeps getting better. And I'm so proud of myself, keeping empty promises. Because later next week you are also getting....wait for it.... WAIT FOR IT.... Picturepalooza Version 1.0.

For good measure, here's my first ever post: First, the Irony...

best part of my day.

Reading THIS post, about me, by THIS GIRL! Who is a wonderful blogger/triathlete/runner/student/wonder woman.

Man, I have never read anything about myself like that before. It's a little surreal, and really cool actually. Mostly I am one of those girls who assumes she is having bad shiz talked about her behind her back. Yeah I'm a skeptic.... a long held skeptic... poor Ed. So thanks for proving me wrong OneLittleTriGirl, you made my gimpy day.

I also love OneLittleTri because she spelled my name right, SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT!! Something that rarely happens! I could squeeze your face.

Also, I cleaned out and organized all the non kitchen/bathroom drawers in my house, I was in organizing heaven. So gratifying! Yeah... bit of a organizational nerd. Right here. Rebekah with a k and a h... nerd extraordinaire.

Another thing that made my morning entertaining was reading one of my sister's responses to my honest scrap post. She had no idea I had been a vegetarian.... chirp..... chirp.... we went through a phase.... for about 25 years. We'll just leave it at that. I heart you Krish, there has GOT to be something I don't know about you...

And I'll leave you with this blahgesphere. Tomorrow is a very, very big day for your little FWR. So. TUNE. IT. IN.

ohhhh that's shiny.

You know what I love? Hmmmm??? Yes. Shiny things. I'm distracted by them on a nearly hourly basis.

Okay, that said. Do you know what my favorite shiniest object EVER is? A marathon space blanket.

And do you know what? This weekend marked a monumental event for my cousin the running Rachel (who i'm visiting in next month in chicago and have blogged about here and here, and from now on when i mention her, i will make the parenthesis about her progressively longer pointing out all the times i have mentioned her on my blog)... she got her first marathon space blanket.

*rachel hanging onto shiny object for dear, dear life, you can't see her hands... because IT'S A DEATH GRIP*

Even though it was her third marathon, and a marathon she ran on a whim, on a total of about eight training runs leading up to it this summer. Longest being 15 miles. Yeah, she was supposed to run the half, but got to the expo, was CLEARLY distracted by the thought of getting said shiny blanket and went for the full. Nuts? Perhaps.Rockstar? Definitely. Oh and she did this whim marathon 40 minutes faster than I ran my first one... on a whim. Choice words I have!!

*rachel with her dad, they both ran the full, that was his 19th, wow.*

Congrats on No. 3 (on a whim) and on getting that oh so coveted first shiny marathon object! And for for running an amazing marathon on little training. Someday I'm going to grow up and be like her, even though I'm three years older... And currently can't run. Meh.

*and this picture was just plain ridiculously fun. happppiieeee! who get's this good of a mid-marathon picture? seriously?! awesome*

She reads my blog, so feel free to leave her some mad props!

best part of my day.

The fact that I'm not going back to work until Monday. Wonderful.

Also getting ready to make headway on my new book that Ed randomly got me just because a few weeks back, "Born to Run." This book puts those who are smug about their six-minute miles (oh, we all know the ones) and ultramarathoners to utter and complete shame. If you are cocky about your running, I dare you to read this book.

It's about a tribe living in the Copper Canyons of Mexico who can run 100s of miles in a pop. Two days straight, barefoot through rough terrain, after a night of full out partying. Like it ain't no thing! Inspiration indeed.

Speaking of books, if you want to win a book, a book that hasn't even been released yet, go HERE!

honest scrap.

I'm getting to this about a month after the fact, but Mel at Tall Mom tagged me for this ME-ME. The rules are to link back to the presenter, share 10 things about yourself that your readers may not know that are true, and then pass it on and notify the people you pass the award on to!!


10 things about Me:
1. I used to be a vegetarian, in fact I grew up in a Veg home, even though my mom never forced being Veg on us (but she did sure instill into us not eating junk, which i soooo appreciate now that i'm 30 and will totally pass that on to my children) in college I just decided I wanted to be. Then I met Ed. And we had dinner at the Outback one night, and I saw his steak, he offered a taste. I then proceeded to steal his steak from him, gobble it up and have been loving me some beef and BBQ ever since! I'm a good Kansan.

2. I am what I like to call "particular," others probably call this picky. I'm very particular about how my food is prepared, what I eat, how I look, my clothes, my house, my laundry, and germs, but I don't expect others to be this way.

3. I was homeschooled. People never guess when meeting me that I was homeschooled... I take this a huge compliment. The reason my sister didn't know who Ted Nugent was, is basically because we were homeschooled, the Nuge doesn't really fit the homeschooler 'mold.'

4. I almost went to law school, I actually met Ed at a law school open house at Washburn University where I didn't realize he also went to WSU (the undergrad we both graduated from) and we happened to be in the same class at WSU... and apparently he knew who I was, so I was the a-hole. I saw how passionate Ed was about law, realized I couldn't compete with him and his brilliance and decided to get a masters degree instead. I made the right choice. Ed puts nearly every lawyer out there to shame.

5. I have an enourmous crush on Alec Baldwin and his character on 30 Rock. I've never had a celebrity obsession before, EVER, not even as a kid. But dang it if I don't heart me some Alec Baldwin, I want to squeeze his face.

6. I am naturally blonde, I don't dye or color my hair. Ed calls me the super-aryian (oh lord i hope those last two words don't bring the crazies out on my blog). Oh but I do dye my eyebrows, beacuse if I don't, I look like i'm 10 years old.

7. I have played piano since I was 12, I was offered a nearly full ride scholarship to a local University to major in Piano, but I just didn't want to do it, so now I'm up to my eyeballs in student loan debt, but sticking to my guns, I made the right decision.

8. I was never a fan of dogs until I started running and decided I needed a running buddy. Ed found my delicous Milo-Miles at the Humane Society, I hated him the first week we had him, now I treat that dog like a mother treats her 2-year-old! Yes I'm one of THOSE dog owners. And yes I put antlers on him at Christmas (Ashley that was for you).

9. I have three siblings (two sisters and a brother). I can't imagine having four kids, mad props mom how you did it is beyond me, but I also can't imagine not having all the fun we had growing up together.

10. This is the doozy, the one that's one of those things you don't really admit to people outside of your house. Here goes. I like popping zits and clipping toenails (others, not mine). Gross, but ohhhh so satisfying!

Passing this Award to fellow Kansans (as is my ME-ME norm):
Lacy
Oz Runner
Kristen the Running Lawyer
Ashley (she was born Kansan)
Meggers (also born Kansan)
Britt
RunnerMark

crutch monkey.

This is just for RunnerMark, who made the excellent suggestion that I write tips on how to have fun on crutches. He pointed out since it's mostly runners who read my blog, eventually a few of you will have the unfortunate fate of being on crutches at some point and time. So this is my gimpy gift to you fellow running-potential-to-be-on-crutches-blahggie buddies.

Some fun things only those of us on crutches can do, and fun things to do while on crutches. DON'T LET THE MAN KEEP YOU DOWN fellow crutchers:

• A crutch monkey party trick is balancing on my crutches, i'm up to a good 10 seconds, that doesn't sound like long. But wait until you are on crutches friends, you will see, 10 seconds is darn impressive.
• Mel at Tall Mom pointed out the glory of crutch swinging, to me this means that while crutching you pick up both feet and swing your legs forward, then take a crutch, then swing, so on and so on. I do this a lot at work.
• The sheer joy of shoving a door as hard as possible because it has to be open enough to crutch through in time, it's gratifying. It's like a little game, I've had more than one door slam on me, and for those who witness it, they get a good laugh. I aim to please.
• This is also gratifying, and only works if you have a nice chubby kitty. I love it when I'm greeted at the door by my chubby cat Frank who proceeds to headbutt my crutches and purr at them, he has a thing for them I think.
• My current favorite is irritating Ed by using my crutches to purposefully knock things off of something, like papers of the desk he is working on, or magazines off the end tables. Hours of entertainment!
• Another party trick I'm honing is the running in the air trick, yeah, I balance AND run. That's talent!
• The last party trick is kicking, like I'm 50! I'm on crutches and I kick, and I punch because I'm on crutches!
• Lastly, I am a pirate. Always a Pirate. The intern at work has requested I actually dress as a Pirate for Halloween, he will walk up behind me and be all "Arrrgghhhh." It's stupid but for some reason it makes me laugh every stinking time.

I know it makes me sound nuts, but once you're on those puppies for awhile, you miss them when you don't have them anymore. They were propped up on the couch the other day next to Ed's head and he was all... your crutches smell, not bad, but like rubber. This is true, and I'm admitting I'm crazy because I find the smell of my crutches comforting. I also enjoy having them to hang on when standing around talking to people.

I won't miss getting frustrated at all the a-holes who will walk out a door somewhere (like a restaurant) when I'm alone and just let it slam and walk on by... would it REALLY be that hard to wait two seconds and hold the door for me fat old engineer dude? REALLY? You and your aircraft industry badge can't burn one more calorie by holding that door a little longer. Thank you sirs. Because that happens A LOT. But in the end, it I will miss my little crutchies a bit. So here is a haiku, an ode to my crutchies:

You aid me to walk
Your smell is delightful crutch
I will miss you so

the shoes are piling up.

I've received quite a few boxes in the mail lately, full of shoes, wonderful shoes (and some other stuff thanks to great buddies)!

Here's the booty to date:

*shoes from irish cream (who's running chicago next month. WORD)*

*3:53 marathon shoes from my cousin rachel (now that's a sacrifice, I held onto my marathon pair)*

*shoes from tall mom (she also sent me treats of nuun which i can't wait to try and a sweet card along with some yummy smelling lotion, awesome)*

*shoes from lacy*

*shoes from teacherwoman*

*two pairs (i had lost track and threw in a wrong pair on accident) from x-country 2*

*shoes from cami - these came all the way from germany. cami wrote an entire post just about her shoes traveling, so incredible!*

*and this rouge pair. ed was cleaning up and tired of the shoes, so he took them out of their boxes (the way i was keeping track of which shoes were from whom) and put them all in one big box. so I don't know whose these belonged to. but thank you*

Lastly, I work in radio. I totally plan on capitalizing on this for my little shoe drive. I have received 29 pairs of shoes so far. And I'm closing in on needing to get these sent. So this morning I had a meeting with our sales manager and the host of the top morning radio show in Wichita, and both are totally on board. It will be awesome. I'll know more next Monday after another meeting, we are going to look into teaming up with a local shoe store as well. I. AM. AMPED!!

All this means the shoe drive is being extended, until I reach 100 shoes, but hopefully with the help of my amazing radio co-workers, I will surpass that goal. So all of this means that you can still contribute. HINT HINT.

best part of my day.

Actually I should say best part of my week. Coming home and finding this little package that was left for me from this wonderful girl, lacy:

*the note was hilarious, a little inside joke between lacy and i that i laughed over for the whole time i was gimping around making dinner (yes i've learned the fine art of cooking on crutches). it was so sweet and so funny*

*the best part was the package, decorated in stickers. i'm keeping those stickers and putting them on my runner's world 'pace calculator' chart that's on my fridge. lacy just informed (via email, since we still have yet to meet and really it's becoming comical that we haven't) me that she almost wrecked while bringing these to me, making them all the better!*

This came from my friend Lacy. A friend who I've never met, yet live down the street from. A friend who it seems I have several random connections, have heard a lot about, and who has a blog. I call her a friend because the past two and a half weeks she has been the most encouraging force during this injury through emails. And now from a simple package of Nutter Butters. Which I'm inhaling even now! YUM. Thanks Lacy, you are amazing, and my biggest inspiration. Running blahgesphere, if you need some motivation, some encouragement, and to read through a great story, you should read Lacy's blog.

She has come back from a horrible pelvic fracture to run speedier and speedier times, she qualified for Boston at that little OKC Marathon this April. Yes we run so many of the same races, have crossed paths so many times. So crazy. She wins and places in most local races, and she is a mom and an overall amazing person. Lacy I hope you don't mind me pimpin' your blog!

ALSO, my friend Meaghan has a great BOOK giveaway, go and check it out HERE!

i hope oprah doesn't eat me.

As I made note of earlier, I am going to Chicago next month. My biggest fear isn't that I'll cry while volunteering at the marathon, still be on crutches, eat too many chicago dogs or that I won't want to leave. EVER. No, it's that Oprah is going to hunt me down and eat me. First, because I am quite delicious, secondly mostly because Oprah, in my opinion, is bat piss crazy. Period. So why wouldn't she hunt down a random tourist for a mid-afternoon snack? Yeah, not an Oprah fan. I realize by writing that last sentence I risk losing blahggie buddies, but hey.. it's a risk I'm willing to take.

That is all. Thank you blaghesphere.

Oh wait. One more thing. This is what my yesterday afternoon looked like. Go to Doctor. Doctor said it's probably not a stress fracture. Told to ice, ibuprofen, rest and if it's not better come back in yet another week to check for stress fracture. Freak out and have total and utter meltdown on the way back to work from doctor. Get to work. Proceed to freak out about almost everything in my life and have internal meltdown while smiling and nodding at everyone. Go home. Open bottle of wine alone because Ed went to Oklahoma. Fall asleep on couch covered in Nutter Butter crumbs and spilled wine. Life is good....

Also. I still hate James Taylor. And SOMEONE is poking the bear on Twitter in regard to Oprah and James Taylor BOTH, it's like the perfect storm. I have a bag of vomit and animal poop ready and waiting to hop on the aeroplane to Chicago with me. BRING IT.

all the things. and chicago.

Oh goodness. I have a lot of randomness to share. First off, I'm close to being to my 200th post and my one-year blahgiversary. I have something in store for you, very exciting. Kristen the Running Lawyer can confirm because I told her all about it last night during our wine and chocolate tasting we were at. You know it's got to be good if we came up with it during a wine/chocolate tasting. Yeah. I had a good night last night!

Second. I can't believe it's been eight years since 9/11. I remember I was visiting my cousin in San Diego when we were sleeping and got a call from our mom's about what had happened. It was a creepy eerie day. And I had no way of getting a flight back home. It was a mess, but nothing compared to what had happened in NYC and DC. WOW. And what a resilient country we live in eh?

Third. I will be at the Chicago marathon. Clearly not running, nope but I will be volunteering! My cousins Brian and Rachel (the running rachel who i've posted about here and here) live in Chicago. And since I'm injured and can't run, and since our big trip got cancelled, I refuse to sit and feel sorry for myself. So instead I'm going to visit my super fun, beer brewing, dog loving, chicaco living cousins. We will be there for four days, one of which will revolve around the Chicago Marathon. So if you are running Chicago let me know and I'll look for you and cheer extra hard for my blahggie buddies. We will be at the Fleet Feet Aid Station at Mile 16.5 (i'm pretty sure).

Fourth. I go back to the doctor, MY doctor, this afternoon. I hope to have some answers, although I'm 90% sure I already know the answer. My guess is another stress fracture. But we'll see.

Fifth. Don't miss Tall Mom's Giveaway HERE!

Denver.

Despite my crutch-tastic state (yep still hauling my crutches around, foot still hurts, although it isn't quite the size of the Pillsbury dough boy anymore, so there's improvement), Ed and I made an extremely last minute decision Thursday morning to go to Denver for Labor Day.

We stayed with a friend of Ed's who he went to school with, he has an amazing house (with no furniture, he is a total bachelor, pretty entertaining really) on a quiet little lake with a view of the mountains. I have a few pictures, but nothing of consequence, since we didn't really do anything of consequence (unless you count me kicking some butt at rockband). You can't really do anything too exciting on crutches. But the weather was amazing, and Denver is a FUN city. We did manage to hit up a Colorado Rockies game, and downtown quite a bit, but after that the foot (and my arms) gave out, so we were low-key the rest of the weekend.

So there is your explanation as to why I haven't been posting! I'm not sure you were concerned, but I thought I'd offer it up anyway. In other news, I'm trying to keep up with doing abs, arms and think of leg exercises to do while not using my foot. Suggestions welcome. Happy September!

best part of my day...

Two words. Nutter Butters.

Seriously.

Thanks for all of your kind comments, it really does help! I'm feeling much better (mentally) and think I'm ready to be happy for ya'll and your running. Now I have about 200 posts to read and comment on. Sheesh. My foot is feeling better, I can put a little weight on it here and there. It isn't swollen in the mornings, just at night, I think that's a good sign. There is one specific spot that is really painful, still feels like someone is jabbing a knife into my foot.

I'm keeping the hope that this isn't a stress fracture, and that I'll still run a half marathon this year. If I can't run the Wichita Half (i'm starting to think the wichita half and I will simply NEVER get along). I want to go and kick my sister Kris' butt at a half marathon in L.A. I have a reputation to uphold. I may be the youngest kid in my family... but dang it if I am NOT the fastest! The battle of the Running Gibsons shall ensue. Not that we are competitive.... chirp.... chrip...