Today could quite possibly be my favorite day of the year and I’m filled with joy. Well the best besides my birthday in October, it’s

Hooray! Tonight I’m going to put in some recovery miles. Though running Monday was a little rough, I definitely think it has allowed my soreness to go away. Tonight I’ll be running a little bit probably a nice little 2 miles out and back. I’m excited to run tonight and then to start working on my speed for the upcoming San Fransisco Half July 26! Remember, if you want to start running, go slow, and take your time. Running is to be ENJOYED!

I think during training I got a little overwhelmed with the schedule and got really burnt out. I have missed just getting in miles and working on fast miles, and got tired of running for anyone else besides myself. I know that I’ve learned my lesson and I know that getting in more miles will make me much faster as well. I can’t wait to go on a relaxing long run this weekend in San Luis Obispo!

Yesterday I got some sweet ‘official’ race photos from San Diego this past weekend. Normally I thought there would be a lot more pictures taken on the course, but there was one spot at mile 22ish, which this gem was taken:

And then we have the lovely finishing photo. Don’t worry the clock tells lies. My chip time was 4:28, since I crossed the finish line earlier than the clock said. I’m not lying to you people! Yet, I am kind of bummed that the clock reads that in my finishing pictures.

Though I’m not too totally jazzed on these photos, perhaps the woman in the black in front of me ruined them, they aren’t the worst so whatever works I guess. I am still waiting for my medal picture that I must see. At least I look like I’m running in these two pictures. There is one that I look like a crazy race walker. Obviously I didn’t post it. :)

As for a sweet review that I totally must tell you guys about, the wonderful and delicious Pop Chips. They sent me a sweet package to review (and since I work in advertising, I have to give them MAJOR props on their marketing and packaging) and I’m not going to lie, I was a bit skeptical. I love me some “baked” chips and didn’t really know what to expect when eating these “popped” chips.

For me, they felt like they almost have the ‘I want to be a ricecake’ mentality, but were thin little round chips. Excuse the horrible picture, but this is about how thin they are. They are crispy and not greasy at all. I have seen these in the stores and just never bought them because they were a little more expensive than the other chips, nor am I one to try something that I don’t already know. Perhaps I am a creature of habit? Anyways, I took one bite of these and they were delicious! They have much, much more flavor than a regular potato chip and they aren’t weighted down with salt and artificial flavors. I didn’t feel like a greasy little piglet after. Major bonus.

So they look a little different than chips, but they taste different too, much better. I even had my co-worker test all the flavors with me and he really enjoyed them, even enough to buy them as well. Mr. R stole a bag and I told him he could only eat them if he also contributed to my review. His response when I asked them how they were via text? ” BOMMMMMMMBYYYYYYYYYY” Good one. He is now a convert as well, and I saw some bags in his cupboard. I really like the Salt and Pepper ones but all the flavors are really tasty. They are just lighter and better than other chips that I’ve tried, hands down. Their only downfall is that their bag is a little bit smaller at the grocery store and they aren’t the cheapest, but at the same time, sometimes I have seen some deals on them, in which I’ve stocked up.

It takes a lot for me to pay full price for anything, including food at the grocery store, but I would pay full price for these. I know, I know, sounds bad that I won’t pay full price for food, but remember I live in CA. It’s expensive. Their taste and nutritional info is outstanding and I felt like I was actually eating a healthy snack instead of just getting some chips that were loaded down with unhealthy ingredients. Next time you are in the super market, check them out, they are delicious and worth the extra .50 cents.

So get out and run and then eat some Pop Chips, or at least visit their site Pop Chips. You won’t be disappointed if you try them, promise!

Tomorrow will be some sweet running deals! I am already excited planning my next outfit for my next race. Well I’m already excited for my next race. I openly also admit I’m a freak.

xoxo

First off, I have to let you all know that my blog is temporarily moved back to http://www.chicrunner.blogspot.com/. Please update your feeds, and reader. I will let you all know when it switches back, but right now I’m having issues with the hosting and will be here for a while. I promise an exeptionally wonderful giveaway though once the issues get fixed, so stay tuned and for now stay at the blogspot.com location! Now onto some sweet pictures.

It started off on Friday night when I got this super cute pillowcase from my Aunt. It has all different type of running things and accessories on it and I LOVE it! It was such a great surprise and I took it with me to San Diego for good luck! She is amazing and made it by hand. I used to always get pillowcases from my mom for every month when I was away at college, so pillowcases are very special to me.

Once I got down to San Diego, Alisa and I were hunnnnngry girls and so we went to the Richard Walker’s pancake house for some grub, it was delicious! I totally recommend it!

There was a huge blogger, tweeter meet up at the expo at 1 pm. Here’s maritza, tara, julianne and aron, some of my favorite girls from Northern CA.

….and here’s all the Bad Girls of Running at the expo! Yea, I guess I didn’t get the memo to wear a white or black shirt :)

Here’s my running twin, aron and I! She is the absolute best and I loved being able to run a large part of the marathon with her. We look alike in a lot of race pictures and have some of the same clothes to run in, but in person we look nothing alike. Oh well, she will always be my running twin!

This was the huge group at dinner! There’s a ton of people in here and I consider this to be my ‘running club’ that I’m apart of. It’s a forum on the Runner’s World Website that I post in. There’s a ton of super dedicated and hardcore runners in this bunch. We even have a lot of age group placers in this picture, including an Age Group winner! Amazing job.

This was race morning, with Alisa and Kristen. That was my lucky banana. Yup, we were waiting in the portapottie line! :)

Then I ran a marathon….. Those pictures aren’t up yet, but I’ll post them when they are released and I steal them…. But here’s the afters!

Mr. R met me at the finish! He thought that after I texted him what had happened at mile 8 that I would quit and he texted me, “Do you need me to come get you” and I just texted him back, “No I am almost to mile 20. I hate this.” Then 20 minutes later I texted him again, “This sucks ass” He was sending me funny supportive texts while I was dying at miles 20-26. I almost didn’t want to check my phone because I was scared I was going to cry. I crossed the finish line and texted him, “Done, Tuck! hahahahaha I want wawa.” (Thanks Iphone predictive texting for changing my bad word! ha ha) He was a great sport and was super helpful, I am so thankful that he was there.

Then to my surprise, My roommate and her mom came down! I totally wasn’t expecting them at all and it was a great surprise. Notice I’m holding my chocolate milk with a death grip.

The Roomie and I. So happy she came…. and she gave me my prize of the day, worth more than any medal… a tampon! ha ha ha.

Then here is Ryan Hall and me. He signed my name Danick. Cool Ryan. Thanks! ha ha. Great meeting him even though I was pretty delusional and talking to him about twitter. Funny thing is I watched him race in High School many times, we were in the same CIF and state sections, he blew my mind then and still does today.

More and more pictures are slowly trickling in, so I’ll post more if I get more. I didn’t take many pictures and I’m pretty sure that my race photos will make resemble a puppy suffering on the verge of death, but hey, I got my medal.

Last night I ran for 1.5 miles, and let me tell you, it was rough. I was shuffling along and almost felt the need to apologize to the people I ran past. I got home in around 17 minutes. I really think that it helped a lot in my recovery today though. I just feel like I ran 20 miles, not like I tortured myself. So today will be my day off instead of yesterday. Last night I watched the Bachelorette, and wow, that was interesting to say the least. I have been stretching a lot though and feeling better than I thought I would. This weekend I’m going out of town for a Bachelorette party and I’m SO excited to get away, do some serious relaxing and run a great first long run after my marathon! I can’t wait.

I already signed up for the San Fransisco Half Marathon (the first half) for July and I realized today that it’s already June and it’s next month! I can’t wait to go up there though and race again, my beloved distance. I will be talking about some training plans and how I hope to get faster for that race in the near future. Tomorrow I will be posting a ton of reviews of cool stuff that I have tried recently. Hope everyone else is recovering nicely as well and you all enjoyed the pictures thus far!

xoxo

Wow, why do race photos always come out horrible? Does everyone else experience this?

I know it might possibly be because you are out of breath, hurling your body towards the finish line, sweating, and wearing ‘running clothes’, but man, I really need to smile more, and not look like I’m ready to die. These are the pictures from the last race I ran, the Seal Beach 10k. Notice the super cool Zensah armwarmers too, that I never had to adjust and they never moved!

I think this was at the beginning of the race, maybe? And why does my leg look so weird?