Rock n' Roll Seattle - the not running part

First, unrelated, but I love a good deal, I love compression, and I love orange.  Lucky for me, Pro Compression is now launching their Marathon sock in ORANGE. You may recall that Pro Compression was one of our sponsors for Team So Much Cooler Online Ragnar SoCal a few months ago, and their magic baby blue socks saved my legs during the 203.5 mile relay.

You can buy your very own orange compressiony socks HERE, AND, you when you do that, you should also use coupon code SOM610 for 40% off (making the socks $30, with free shipping, I KNOW). Code expires July 10th!

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So, if you missed the recap where I'm a giant quitting whiner, you can read it here.


Friday, I flew into SEA around 1:30, and took the light rail up to the expo. I am freakish, and I LOVE public transportation. It's one of the highlights of any trip for me, and I try to figure it out when I travel. It's like a fun challenge. Also, it's cheap, and way less stressful than renting a car. I hate driving in strange places. And based on all the driving that other people did while I sat in the back seat, I would have REALLY hated driving in Seattle. Awful.

Quick run through the expo, and then it was time for a blogger meetup, hosted and organized by Tall Mom, with John Bingham speaking.

After the expo, Kim and S drove me to Alma's house....

hint: it's not here....

And the three of us got ready to head back into downtown Seattle for the Brooks/Online Shoes Girls Night Out event.

After they (carb) loaded us up...

...we had the opportunity to hear a bit about the Brooks story, the Run Happy philosophy, and dig into some fun shoe design details. Brooks is solely (ha, get it?) a running company - that's their thing, their focus.

They gave us a sneak peek at a new shoe, the Pure Drift, that will be released for sale soon.... 5.1 oz, and only $100 price point.

It has a low drop (I think 4mm?? But don't quote me on that....), but you can ALSO remove the sock liner to make it a total 0 drop shoe. Interesting!

We were all invited to try on the shoes from Brooks Pure Project line, and their Core line...

My picks? The Brooks Glycerine 10 (grey/pink on my right foot) and the Brooks Pure Flow (purple on my left foot)

I'm normally a Saucony girl, but I've been dying to try out the Pure Flow for awhile.

so purple!!

HUGE thanks to OnlineShoes.com and Brooks for a super fun night!

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Saturday evening, I was kind of a disaster. Luckily, Hotel Alma was open, has a couch, and a tv. We watched a Motley Crue documentary, and the track trials, and then I crashed.

Sunday morning, Alma and fam took me to Alki Beach

...and her #1 favorite bakery. Followed by Pikes Place Market, and her #2 favorite bakery. I love anyone with a #1 and a #2 favorite bakery.

And then ice cream.

And then Target, to buy a new bag. I was super stoked on my way in that I fit everything I needed into ONE backpack. And then I got all the things, and....

all the things no longer fit in a backpack.....

After an argument with the TSA chick about her phone scanning device not working meaning I needed to get out of line, print a boarding pass, then get BACK in the line I just spent 25 minutes in, I boarded my flight, with my connection in SLC. Apparently, I only managed to leave myself 28 minutes between flights? And snagged myself a seat in the very back of the plane? Oops. When I fiiiiinally got to the gate, the agent  greeted me with, "Oh, you must be Heather.".

Yep. Sure am.



Things I love. And things I don't.

I am damn witty. Look at that title. How has a marketing company not snatched me right up yet?

Things I Currently Love

1. The fun folks at Juiceology sent me two flavors to check out recently.

They are DELICIOUS. The Blueberry Acai was my favorite - tangy, sweet, flavorful. Loved it. The Peach Mango was also good, but very sweet for my tastes - I tried adding some water to it, and it was better. But that's just me - I prefer to save my sweets-consumption to chocolate and baked goods. But that Blueberry Acai... I could drink that stuff like it's my job.

From their website...

All of our juices get a powerful dose of micronutrient extracts, which are designed to be easily assimilated by the digestive system.

Made from our own blends of the freshest fruits, vegetables, whole grains and herbs, these extracts boost the nutritional value of our fruit juices without boosting calories or affecting the fruits’ pure, delicious flavor.

The label and nutrition info...

Interesting. In general, I'm not a big fan of drinking your calories. I dig that there's at least some nutrition coming from this - it's not just empty calories.

Plus, they're big on sustainability, which gets them a giant thumbs up from me.

2. I got this in our Trick or Treating. Fascinating.

it's like Nutella, but all caramel. Huh.

3. It took me awhile to get on the greek yogurt train, but this stuff is delicious.

4. !!!!!!!!!!!

5. My CEP Compression Socks.

Love, so hard.

6. Holiday's that I don't have off..

7. My Allied Medal Hanger....

I need a new one.

Things I Don't Love....
1. The Jerk Shin. Did you know, no amount of KT Tape....

or even wearing Tommie Coppers....

...fixes a stress fracture?

True story.

Whatever.

Take THAT, Jerk Shin.

We must travel in the direction of our fear.

This post was full of glorious, pain-stakingly selected images, because I swear, I know how boring and tough it is to read through a billion lines of just text. However, my photobucket was over max bandwidth, thanks to a picture i posted somewhere and have now removed. So I know pictures aren't showing, sorry about that, should be back to normal soon. But in the mean time, enjoy my bullet points and descriptions of what I intended this post to look like.

• I've been in a funk lately. Nothing is wrong, necessarily. I'm not unhappy, at all. Just feel... unsettled? I don't know. It's disconcerting.

{pretend there is a picture here of a superhero LOLCat leaping to my rescue}

• And when I can't pinpoint why I'm funk-ish, it's tough to figure out how to undo the funk.

{and one here of an LOLCat with a verrry low Care-o-Meter}



• I'm really, REALLY excited that I accidentally found that one of my favorite bands of ever is playing locally, THIS FRIDAY night. Seriously, it was fate. I'm destined to be at this concert. And, it was $18. NOTHING in OC is ever just $18. Fate, obviously. AND, they're playing my favorite of their albums in full. Weird, right? But glorious for me!

{here's a non-picture of the Lemonheads It's a Shame About Ray album}



• There's still time to register for the Richard Leary 6-Hour Challenge. There may (or may not....) be a couple other SoCal bloggers and myself hanging out on a blanket celebrating *ahem* a great race after we're done with our laps. And by celebrating *ahem*, I mean brunch. Obviously.



• If you don't think you can make it out on Sunday for the local event, there's a great satellite option as well - only $35, and you still get the tee and the fancy lookin' medal! Plus, the race benefits two great causes, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (link HERE) and Train 4 Autism (link HERE).



• The lovely Jesse at Journey Thru Life is celebrating a birthday today - go say happy birthday!
  {Random picture of Gabby with a french fry mustache}
  
  Becka reminded me this morning that we have FIVE RACES TOGETHER in 2012! That's SUPER exciting for me, because she's pretty much one of my favorite people ever, and it's rough on our BFF'ness that we live states apart. 2012 has to be fantastic now.

{picture of baby animals as BFF's, because we're cute and super cuddly. It's true.}



• I did a "recovery" "run" on Monday night after the worst 10 miler ever on Sunday. We tried to jog, but man. That was tough. Tired legs are lazy legs. BUT, it worked - I felt GLORIOUS yesterday. Who knew... Oh. Right. ALL THE OTHER RUNNERS did.



• The RnR NOLA madness Monday... holy crow. In general, I'm not really a fan of the RnR races. Too big, too expensive, not Disney, not worth it for me. I was talked into RnR Seattle, thanks to peer pressure from THIS one. But otherwise, I'm really not interested in NOLA, I don't really care for the city, the RnR series is just too big, too expensive, and not Disney enough for me. But that didn't stop me from spending a fair amount of time trying to convince The H I should go. Turns out, he knows us, oh so well. Heh.
  
{picture here of our text convo, concluding with him saying "You are not turning into Becka". Rude.}



• And now that he's aware he was kind of being punked, I apologize, H. It was all for my amusement. I'm a terrible, terrible wife. And you're stuck with me.

{Giggling LOLCat}