Tag Archives: marathon

#RnRNOLA 2015 New Orleans Marathon Recap

I am so grateful for mother-in-law for accompanying me on this trip, for taking great care of me and my girls and making wonderful memories. It would not have been possible without her.

I am so, so, so very glad I decided to a Rock ‘n’ Roll event and it only took me two years of talking about it before I actually did one.

I picked the Rock ‘n’ New Orleans Marathon (#RnRNOLA) for a few reasons. It was close to home (5 hrs driving distance), it was in January, the city is amazing, flat, and full of history, and most importantly it was the week before my birthday. Yes, it is one of my birthday presents to myself.

The trip ended up being a girls trip: my mother-in-law, two munchkins, and me! The Thursday before the trip I had all the symptoms of catching the cold that was making it’s way through my house; no wonder my taper week felt terrible. Continue reading →

October Stridebox Review

“StrideBox is a fun and exciting way to discover running products and accessories. Each month, as a member, you will receive a curated box of apparel, accessories, and nutrition products to fuel your training sessions, workouts, and races.” – Stridebox

Box of October goodies:

-Skratch – Matcha Green Tea & Lemons by SkratchLabs
-HoneyMaxx – Sports Hydration – Orange by HoneyMaxx
-Bonk Breaker – Cookies n Cream by Bonk Breaker
-Barnana – Organic Coconut Vegan snack by Barnana
-Honey Stinger – Organic Energy Gel – Chocolate by HoneyStinger
-ProBar – BOLT Energy Chew – Berry Blast by ProBar
-BottleBand – Blue by BottleBand
-Sticker – Don’t be Average, BE AWESOME!”

Continue reading →

$100 Athleta/Old Navy/GAP Giftcard Giveaway! (CLOSED)

October 20, 2014
Jen Bendewish
95 comments
Athleta, free stuff, GAP, giveaway, marathon, marathon training, old navy, run, running gear, workout, workout gear, yoga

Congrats to the winner – BirdieBee52 on winning the giftcard! Take a moment to hop on over to Pinterest and follower her too!

Last week, the Fall 2014 Athleta catalog arrived in the mail. It was intercepted by my husband (who happens to love workout gear). I was surprised to see him flipping through the pages when I walked in the house after work. The commentary that proceeded went a little like this…

Husband: “What is Athleta?” Continue reading →

My Favorite Fall Activity: Running Through Spider Webs

September 22, 2014
Jen Bendewish
9 comments
Autumn, Fall, marathon, run, runner, spider, spider webs, spiderweb, training, web

So… that’s totally a lie.

Running through spider webs is the one part of Fall that I absolutely dread and I am guaranteed to run through a few before winter sets in. The joyful experience usually goes something like this….

Up at o-dark thirty… find some running clothes, dig through gym bag or purse to find my iPod, get a few things situated and head out the door. Hit Play on the iPod, get my Runkeeper app going on my phone and start off with a slow, dreadful pace and wonder how I will get through all the miles ahead of me. At this point I am on high spiderweb alert with eyes strained looking for any faint glimmer of light reflecting on a web. After a few miles I usually find my groove, tune into my music, zone out of reality, and then bam… face first into a web and instant karate chopping, skin crawling, and sprinting all occur at the same time. Why… why, why, why does my face always come in contact first????

Long after a run is over and I’ve taken a shower and made it to work I still suffer from the creep crawlies. Should a hair graze my shoulder or a piece of lint touch my arm, I will jump as if the spider had been hiding all day, waiting for the perfect opportunity in the day to jump out and freak me out one more time. Ugh.