Happy Birthday to my Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday! To start out the day, my parents and aunt and uncle and cousin came to watch my 5k race this morning (I'll do a RR early next week!) and then walked around the festival for a little bit... it was a blast! It was so much fun! I laughed so hard all day! It was rather chilly though with the wind! I think the high temperature was 68!

After we got home, my mom decided that she could do whatever she wanted on her birthday and took a nap for a couple hours, and then got up and started making dinner because my youngest sister is home this weekend from college so my mom made her favorite dinner and my boyfriend came out to eat with us. After dinner, I got out the peach cobbler I tried to make last night for my mom's birthday! I think I shall name it "Fail Cobbler" ... Disclaimer: I have never made cobbler in my life and am just discovering that being in the kitchen can kind of be fun if you're not a kid being made to do the dishes and actually want to be there! Here's the recipe I used just in case you guys dont know how to make cobbler either!! So, here's the story in mostly pictures:

I found a recipe and got the ingredients



Skinned and sliced the peaches (I only used 6 out of the 10 I bought) and combined them with sugar and water to boil for 10 minutes





Made the dough with sugar, flour, and milk





Melted the butter in the pan



Combined them in the pan as the directions said and put it in the oven with cinnimon sprinkled on top



**Here's where I realized that I failed miserably!! I noticed that the dough wasn't rising like it should and looked at the recipe again because I was pretty sure I did everything I was supposed to. "Self-rising flour" WHOOPS!! I used all purpose flour and didn't add any baking powder!! MAJOR FAIL! Well I guess it wasn't quite a major fail because everyone really liked it still, especially my mom which is what really counts since it was her birthday afterall!

So happy birthday to the best mother ever and I'm glad your day wasn't a fail like my cobbler!

Long Run Recap & SPIbelt Review

Just a quick note: I got a new email address just for my blog! Please feel free to email me there with tips, questions, random thoughts... or just shoot me a fun email!! runners.luck@hotmail.com

Wednesday I was supposed to meet up with Jess (the girl I met up with last week to do my long run), but I received a text at 5:30am that she was ill so I headed out at 8 by myself. I had 10 miles planned and decided I would drive to the nearest bike path so that I could be surrounded with other people getting their workouts on!

Let's go back in the past a couple weeks ago... SPIbelt sent me one of their belts to try out and review... ok, now back to the regularly scheduled program... SOOOO, I decided to test it out on my long run! I strapped it around my hips, put my phone, key, and 2 GUs (review to come later) in the belt. I was actually surprised it could hold that much! I then put my ipod on, grabbed my water bottle, and headed out.

At first, I was definitely aware of the SPIbelt because I hadn't worn anything around my waist to run before, but then... it started bouncing! We're not talking like little baby bounces, we're talking bounces from the ground to the sky sort of thing... and all I could think was, man... I really wanted this to work! It's such a useful thing to have on runs!! So I stopped, unsnapped the belt, tightened it up and snapped it back in place around my hips.



I was a bit paranoid that it would bounce the whole 10 miles and I would end up carrying it the rest of the way. SURPRISE!!!! The SPIbelt actually doesn't bounce at all if you adjust it to be the right size!! DUH! I took my first GU around 30 minutes into my run and was feeling pretty good.. strong, consistent, content. I was having fun saying hi to all the runners, bikers, and walkers! The sun was out, it couldn't be a more pretty day!!

I had a tractor (and its driver) follow me for about a mile... every time i would speed up, the tractor would speed up, every time I would slow down, the tractor would slow down. Finally around mile 6 the tractor passed me, which is what I had been trying to get it to do the last mile! I guess the guy driving was just really impressed by my form! ;) I took my second GU around mile 6 and it was starting to get really hot out, and I was running out of water (again). So I took a detour and stopped by my boyfriends place of work and said hi to him as he filled up my water bottle for me. He informed me that he would be going on lunch in about an hour and would be coming to my house... so I had to sprint the last 2 miles so I could make it home in time to make him some steak! hahaha!! my boyfriend cracks me up ;)

Remarkably, I felt a wave of new energy wash over me and I picked up the pace the last two miles! I passed an older gentleman and he told me that I was doing a good job of making sure I'd live to a good old age! lol... made me smile! I ended up doing 10.14 miles with an average pace of 10:30 which is 38 seconds faster than the pace I was "supposed" to be running at! I got back to my car feeling really good and I had completely forgotten about the SPIbelt being around my hips!! The one that I tried out is the basic belt, but they have many different kinds out! They have a water resistant belt which would definitely come in handy if you sweat a lot! Really though, I sweat quite a bit and my phone was dry when I got done in the original SPIbelt! They also have race specific belts, and belts with inner pockets, and they even have a race number belt! It is one size fits all so all you have to do is adjust the band to fit your body whether you want it around your hips or waist. I give SPIbelt two thumbs up!! Go check out their website to see the awesomeness for yourself!! Thank you SPIbelt for letting me review your product!

Well, I have my 5k race tomorrow and I think I might have spectators!! woohoo!! So I need to head to bed!! I'm terrible at going to bed at a decent time!! Goodnight everyone! I wish everyone luck who is racing this weekend!

** SPIbelt sent me a belt to review, but the opinions are all my own and reflect the way the product worked for me and no one else.

If you have a product you would like me to review, or would like to host a giveaway on my blog, please feel free to email me! My email address is runners.luck@hotmail.com

Tidbit Thursday

1. I was orignially going to do a recap of the long run i had yesterday in todays blog post, but im feeling lazy and tired so I decided to save that til tomorrow probably.

2. I was going to do "Three Thing Thursday" like everyone else but decided I had more than 3 things to share and didn't want to follow the leader (i make my own rules) so... "tidbit thursday" it is.

3. Only 22 days and 8 hours left until my first half marathon! I am sooooo excited!!!

4. Did you know that I have curly hair? I think its a pain and can never get it to look cute like everyone else who has curly hair so i usually just throw it up in a ponytail... which still looks kinda funny (i think i need a new stylist)

5. my laziness is also effecting my punctuation and capitalization

6. I have a 5k race on saturday and the temperature is going from 93 degrees to 72 degrees in one day! (according to the always correct weather forecast here in ohio) I need to find a long sleeve running shirt fast!! I guess I could always wear cotton... I used to wear cotton to run in all the time... im becoming a running diva!! nooooooooo before you know it, I'm gonna start liking the color pink!! haha, sorry to running diva mom who is actually really awesome.. didn't mean it as a bad thing to bea running diva, just that it would be so unlike me lol ;)

7. I was a part of Tall Mom on the run's 80 miles in august challenge... we had til today to finish out our mileage which means i got to include my long run from yesterday! I finished the challenge with 76.72 miles!! :D

8. I've realized that I have no idea what Im doing when it comes to running!!! Yeah, I know to carb load before big runs and races (the night before) and to take something a long to drink and wear a hat or sunglasses for protection... but what about after my half marathon? what then? am I supposed to take a break from running? keep running 20 or more miles a week? cut down my miles til i have another big race? *sigh*

9. Grade reports came out today which means it seriously is official.. im graduated!! I still can't get over the fact that i have a degree! lol... so cool!! (thanks to everyone for the congrats comments!! thanks for helping me celebrate!) Now just to finish out my sign language interpreting degree and i'll be golden!

10. Im going with my dad to pick up my sister from college tomorrow for the long weekend... its a long ride so i'll probably start reading "Gone with the Wind" for the 100 day challenge from run, courtney, run or crochet some more leaves for my mom's afghan! You can read more about it (and all my other crafty things) over at The Start of Something New

11. Just realized that I probably could have named this post "Ten Tidbits Thursday" but now since I just had my eleventh thought, that title is now out of the question... goodnight all! Have a wonderful Friday!

Twin Update

Thank you so much everyone for praying for my twin!! She just got back after being at the ER for 5-6 hours and the tests and spinal tap came back NEGATIVE!! The doctors said it was good to get checked out anyways since her coworker was diagnosed with it! Thanks for praying, it meant a lot!!

Please Pray!

My twin is at the hospital right now... she complained last night and all day today about neck pain, fever, headache among a few others... we found out that a girl she works with is being quarantined at the hospital since yesterday and just last week a 19 year old girl died of meningitis... so please keep my twin in your thoughts and prayers that she doesn't have meningitis!! Thank you so much!!