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Three Things Thursday

1. I have jumped on another social media bandwagon. No, not Twitter. I think I’ll stay far, far away from that one…

I have to say that the power of suggestion is strong in the blogosphere. Quite a few of the blogs I read have been promoting the Endurance Athlete Project. Essentially it’s Facebook for the physically fit! I’m actually kind of excited about it. I don’t follow a lot of blogs on their fb profiles simply because it made my regular fb too much. However, this makes it a little easier. My only problem is that starting out I’ll have to be the cyber-stalker making all the friend requests… We’ll see how it goes.




2. I went for one cold, rainy run today. Nothing like being committed to a run with a running partner. We seemed to hit the worst rain of the day – total downpour and windy. My DWR jacket had nothing on the rain. I think the only part of me that was dry was my stomach – it was shielded a bit by the stroller. Of course it’s beautiful sunny breaks now…

3. My hip flexor is dumb. I had severe hip flexor pain during my marathon (not that I knew what it was then, just that I couldn’t lift my legs) and it’s started to act up again. I don’t know if it’s from pushing the stroller and being out of alignment or from running faster. I haven’t really upped my distance lately – the longest I’ve run is about 15km. All I know is that I have to start doing Colin’s physio strength and stretch exercises. ERGH!!! I’m so bad with doing workouts at home… obviously I’ll have to add them onto the core work I’m also supposed to be doing. Hello, New Year’s resolution!

Posted by  |  December 9, 2010 | Categories: Endurance Athlete Project, hip flexor | 5 Comments

Nothing To Do With Running (This Is Where I Live…)

Here are a couple of videos of Vancouver so you can see what it’s like where I live. Enjoy!

The first is a time-lapse of the Winter Olympics this past February. It’s not that busy here all the time!

The second is by the same people and I just think it’s pretty cool. The fog was a totally random weather occurrence – at least it was beautiful from up above… We were all living in pea soup at ground level!

What does it look like where you live?

Posted by  |  December 7, 2010 | Categories: Vancouver | 3 Comments

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner…

Sorry for the announcement late in the day – I just got home from work and remembered that I had intended to select the winner this morning. After inputing all the entries into a spreadsheet (necessitated by the two ballots for being a follower) I punched the grand total of entries into random.org. Here’s the winning number:







Congratulations to:



Please contact me at running42km.blog (at) gmail.com and I will email you the e-certificate. Thanks to all of you who entered and welcome to my new bloggy followers/friends! I’ll try to get around to your blogs soon.

Posted by  |  December 5, 2010 | Categories: contests, CSNStores, winner | 2 Comments

Three Things Thursday

1. I just had my first Christmas orange. By this I mean a mandarin orange. And I must specify that it was a Japanese mandarin. Stores might try to entice you to buy the Chinese mandarins – they’re usually cheaper – but they just don’t compare! This is a big thing in my household – once we’ve started getting oranges (by the boxful, of course) we know Christmas is just around the corner. Spud was excited to try it with me, but once it was in the bowl he turned up his nose, which I was fully expecting. He deigned to suck some juice out of a piece, but that was it… I love these oranges since it’s a tradition that Santa leaves one in the bottom of our stockings. On Colin’s request Santa leaves his to cool in the fridge.


2. I went for a run today. Not a long one, but enough to get my legs moving (9-1/2km). Felt really good since I haven’t been out to run since Sunday.

3. In case you’ve been in a cave/haven’t been reading my blog/didn’t care somehow missed it – and it’s all I’ve been talking about for a week – I giving a $35 CSN Stores gift card away and the contest is open until tomorrow night. I’ll announce the winner on Saturday.

Posted by  |  December 2, 2010 | Categories: Christmas, CSNStores, Three Things Thursday | 1 Comment

Why Would Anyone NOT Want To Enter A Contest?

Because they don’t know about it.


I think I may have made a fatal error. I thought that putting up a contest on Black Friday would be genius. Save money for Christmas, I thought… Buy a present for yourself, I thought. However, I seemed to have forgotten what a family oriented holiday Thanksgiving is in the US. Here’s the realization I’ve come to:


No one was online last weekend – they all took a bloggy-sabbatical for 4 days.

This can be the only explanation for having only 3 people enter my contest. It’s not like I even make you become a follower. That’s just for bonus entries!

So this is me begging you to enter reminding you that I have a $35 CSN Stores gift certificate up for grabs. Contest ends Friday! Click here to get all the details!

Posted by  |  December 1, 2010 | Categories: contests, CSNStores | 6 Comments

Money For Christmas Presents! *Contest*

It’s Black Friday! Time to start (or finish) your Christmas shopping! To help you out I’m hosting a contest from CSN Stores! They’re letting me give away a $35 gift certificate redeemable at ANY of their sites.* Whether you’re looking for coffee tables or something to put on them they have what you’re looking for. They even guarantee delivery to the US by Christmas Eve for any item that’s marked with a snowflake!



To enter:

Mandatory: Browse around CSN, then come back and tell me what you’d buy – it can be a Christmas present to yourself or, if you’re feeling generous, for someone else. (+1)

Extras:

Be or become a follower of my blog and comment to let me know. (+2)

Leave me a comment telling me that you’ve linked this giveaway to your blog. (+1)

Contest will end Friday 3 December at 11:59pm PST. Entries will be put into a spreadsheet and the winner will be chosen by random.org. I will announce the winner’s name on Saturday 4 December.


*Shipping costs are NOT included.

Posted by  |  November 26, 2010 | Categories: Christmas, contests, CSNStores | 43 Comments

Happy Snowy (non) Thanksgiving

As you know, we celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada on the second Monday in October so we’ve long since had our turkey dinners and days off. However, because most of my bloggy friends are American, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are all enjoying time with your friends and family!


Here’s what I was up to today…







In running news, I got to run with friends last night and, thankfully, it was not snowing at that point. It was just really cold. I actually wore the tights that I bought as a Christmas present… my mum said I could if it meant that I wasn’t going to die of exposure! I’m supposed to run again tomorrow night, but all the snow is supposed to turn to rain by tomorrow. If the sidewalks are going to be a slushy, nasty mess we’ve already decided to call it off.


Please stop by again tomorrow – I’ll have a Black Friday giveaway!

Posted by  |  November 25, 2010 | Categories: snow | 1 Comment

Where’d This Come From?

Okay, I know a lot of you have to run in weather far worse than we’re experiencing right now, but what the heck? Out here we are used to RAIN! We don’t do cold. The whole city has a conniption when it snows more than 1cm. I know I should just bundle up, but when the wind-chill is -17C and there are gusts of 40km/hr I just can’t get myself out the door. Never mind that I also have to bundle up a 3 year old… We’ve been staying in this week. On the plus side, I’m going out for a run with a friend tomorrow night and there’s a small hope that we might get a white Christmas this year!

Posted by  |  November 23, 2010 | Categories: cold, weather | 4 Comments

The Good News And The Bad News

Might as well get the bad news out of the way first. There will be no awesome Sugoi giveaway. I just couldn’t find anything that was a) inexpensive enough and b) properly sized. I could have gotten some accessories, like arm warmers or socks, but the size selection was poor by the time I arrived. Given that the majority of my readership is female I figured unisex size L or bigger was a bad bet.


Two pieces of good news:

1. I now have properly fitted running tights. Granted, I can’t wear them until after Christmas (hooray for money from my in-laws), but that’s okay. Here’s what I picked up at the sale:




$25: SubZero Tight – these should be super-warm and have a DWR (Durable Water Repellent) finish. These are going to be my go-to winter tight.




$25: MidZero Tight – Thermal, but doesn’t have DWR. Should be good for spring.




$15: Piston R+R Knee High – Compression! Mine have a fluorescent green toe stripe. They’re about 1/2 a shoe size too big according to the chart (Large, when I really need a Medium). The ones I snagged from Colin that are the same size fit pretty well, but had been stretched out before I stole them. Fingers crossed that these work for me so I can run in them.

It totally pays to rifle through bins. I found the socks in with other loose pairs and when I asked the guy if there were more he was really surprised that I’d found a pair. I guess he thought they’d sold out. The SubZeros were found on the second trip to the tights and the MidZeros were scored in the change room when a woman with whom I had been in line said they didn’t fit her. Overall I saved myself just over $150 off of list price. So awesome!

2. I do have a contest coming up next week! Not Sugoi, but equally as good. Let’s just say that one of you will be getting some help buying your Christmas presents…


Posted by  |  November 20, 2010 | Categories: Sugoi sample sale, tights | 3 Comments

Christmas Card Exchange

Let’s face it, I am not imaginative or organized enough to have thought of this! I barely get my cards sent out before the New Year… Luckily (pun intended), Zaneta over at Runner’s Luck is taking the time to put it all together. You can read all the details and sign up here.


Posted by  |  November 16, 2010 | Categories: Christmas Card Exchange | 3 Comments