Sole Sister Virtual 7 mile Run

I participated in Gone For a Run's Virtual race series this weekend with the Sole Sister 7 mile run.  I did mine on Friday and admit I did not worry about pace very much as I had done a long run the day before and had some tired legs.  also there were a lot of hills involved.  Disclaimer: I was given free entry to the run in exchange for posting about it before and after the run.

I was sent the bib, tank, medal, and a shoe charm, but sadly on the morning of the run I couldn't find where I had set the tank so I ran in something else.

I did tape on the bib just for fun, even though there was no one who would see it on.

All the smoke from the fires in Idaho, Washingto, Oregon and the western part of Montana made the skies grey. It seems to suck a lot of the color out of the world.

these cows are the only ones that wondered why I had on a race bib.

If you like to participate in virtual runs, they have two more on the website right now, a beer run and a Halloween themed one (Halloween already?!) They do sell out though so if you are on the fence, be quick!

INKnBURN: From Admirer to Addict to Ambassador

Earlier this spring I went in search of a pair of shorts to go with my Team Beef tank.  I was tired of wearing plain black and wanted something that would pop a little more,  have some fun to it.  I had worn a red sparkle skirt a lot last year and was just ready for something a little different.

I found two options I really liked one was by INKnBURN and the other by New Balance. I hadn't tried either before and it's a little scary ordering online so I tabled it for awhile, but then I kept seeing Inknburn on another blogger I follow and she was very encouraging about how much she loved it.

I ended up ordering a pair of denim Inknburn shorts.  Rebecca was so right when she told me I wouldn't regret it.  I loved them. It wasn't long before I ordered another pair. and another pair.  They all went with my Beef tank!

Team Beef Montana girls and our INKnBURN shorts at Ragnar Northwest Passage

But then I caved and ordered a tank.  Then a cami and a pair of tights.  Before I knew it that was all I was running in. It was all I wanted to run in. All my other things are getting neglected so I sold off a bunch of running skirts and shorts to buy more INKnBURN things.

#buyalltheINKnBURN

So when the announcement came out they were taking applications for ambassadors I applied and Tuesday I got this email.

Dear Christy, 

Thank you so much for applying to be an INKnBURN Ambassador. We'd like to extend our congratulations and offer you a much sought-after spot in our Ambassador Program!

I of course accepted!

INKnBURN is a small company and they make all of their clothes in the USA.  They make unique, fun products that are high quality.  And they are not mass produced, which means if you see something you like, you better get it because once they sell out, they are gone!

New designs are released fairly often and sometimes they  do pre-orders like they did with the Halloween designs. So, if you go to the website and don't see anything you like in your size, check back often for new designs.

They clothes are tested on ultra runners, so you know that if they can run in them for 50-100 miles and love them, then the clothes are great for shorter distances for sure!

Let's look at some of their new line Metamorphosis

It's so pretty, and unique, right?!  The colors really pop and when you get these in the mail, it's so amazing how much more detailed they are in real life.

So when all do I wear my INKnBURN?  For running

and yoga

more running, but also cross training, elliptical, rowing machine, HIIT training, etc

traveling in comfort

every day wear.

and now I get to do what I was basically already doing, tell people and show people how much I love INKnBURN and I am an official ambassador too.  In the next couple of weeks I will be reviewing their clothes and telling you my favorite things about each style.

Last day of summer vacation, first day of school

Last week I told my kids to decide together what they wanted to do the last day of summer vacation. They put their heads together and decided they wanted to have a cousin sleepover and then go for a hike the next day.  Only 2 out of the 4 available cousins could spend the night, but they still all had a blast.

My son really wanted to go hiking in what I consider the back part of the ranch and see the house my dad lived in when he was a baby. I had just moved cows there Saturday and was itching to get back in there are explore a little more myself so it worked out perfect.

My sister in law went along also.  As the road is pretty rough getting back in to the old house we parked and walked in.  The kids were troopers and had so much fun exploring as we went, finding feathers, an old animal trap in a tree, cool rocks, looking for treasures etc, but when we finally came over a hill and saw the house they took off running for it.

My dad, his three sisters and their parents lived in this tiny house, with no running water, no electricity, no telephones when he was younger.  Clearly it has seen better days.

It was fun to ride through here with my aunt and hear stories about the place. I love family history.

The view out on of the living room windows,  I could handle that! The trees near the bottom of the picture is where the water came from.

view out the living room window

We explored around and found the root cellar, the old double seater out house that was occupied by a rattlesnake, a sheep dip, all kinds of treasures.

and we found these initials (or is it a brand) carved into a sandstone rock with a date. I can imagine the person who carved them would be happy to know they were found and the kids were super impressed with them

Little cowboy also decided he really wanted to ride his horse. This had me a bit torn as he decided it as I was getting ready for a run. In the end I blew off the run and helped him with his horse. I decided since it was the last day of summer vacation I would rather spend that time with him. He is growing up so fast!

Lil Cowboy, Pepper (the horse) Gunpowder and Tip (the cats)

And there was a captive audience in the corrals to watch him ride.

We ended the day by heading down to the open house at the school and dropping off all the school supplies.  Today is the first day of 2nd grade for lil cowgirl and 3rd grade for lil cowboy.  I will get in my missed run today. 

Race, no race

Race day started out pretty normal...

Pre-race thoughts

• its going to be really windy
• but at least it won't be hot
• that 700 ft climb well over halfway into the race is going to kick my butt
• I have already run 28.6 miles this week this will put me at 37.1 miles
• toying with running with no music

I took a flat me picture the night before,

I got drove in to the race and intended to get there a little early to get good parking and use the porta potties, plus I wasn't completely sure where I was going to be parking so I wanted time to scope it out.

No one was there when I got there.  I start to wonder if I have the right day, so I check their Facebook page and after quickly scrolling see Saturday the 22, so I decided I must be parking in the wrong spot and off I go.  Nothing.  So maybe since it is so windy everyone is waiting until closer to the race to show up?

No one. Finally I see one other lost person. We scroll through Facebook again.  Volunteers show up Saturday, racers on Sunday. We were there the wrong day.

UGH.  I already had plans for Sunday.  I made the Sunday plans because I thought the race was Saturday.   I went grocery shopping and home instead.

In the category of stuff you can't make up.. I was driving home from work Friday and managed to drive right over a 5 gallon bucket that someone had dropped in the road.  It, of course, got wedged under my car and started making a terrible noise.

I quickly pulled over into a parking lot, which conveniently happened to be the parking lot where my sister works and went in to look for some good man help.  As luck would have it, a nice young man was standing right at the desk and he was able to get out the bucket with a bit of maneuvering.

Yay!  Reminded me a bit of when we were driving home from vacation a couple weeks ago and a tire on my car blew out on the interstate.  A quarter mile from the exit where there was a tire shop.  We put the spare on my car and I ended up coming home from vacation with four new tires. I love it when little problems work out easily.

I have to admit I am super bummed about missing the race, but since I already had a plan for Sunday I decided to skip the race.  There are always more races, I really hope it works out to run the Warrior Run next year, it looks like a really awesome run,

and we still haven't found the toad that is on the loose in the house,  We thought maybe we heard it, but it turned out to be my son playing a game on the iPad.

Odd Distance Race and Things You Can't Make Up

I am thisclose to signing up for a race tomorrow.  I wasn't going to do it originally because it has been so hot and the race doesn't start until 10am. It has also been smoky from all the wildfires.  Now the weather is looking pretty good, the smoke is supposed to clear out and I am rather itching for a race.

I can either do a simple 5k or do the 8.5 mile warrior run.  I think the warrior run will be on trails some and have a lot of elevation changes as well as uneven terrain.  I am of course leaning towards the warrior run.

 The Warrior Run is a challenging course starting along the same Swords Park Trail, rounding Skeleton Cliff, looping back and climbing to Yellowstone Kelly’s Grave before dropping into the Black Otter Trail System taking runners by the Old Swords Homestead, Across Alkali Creek Road and back into the trail system where runners will be faced with a 700 plus foot vertical climb of steep rock terrain before heading back along Swords Trail to the finish. 

8.5 miles seems like an odd distance, they did give an explanation I thought was pretty cool

Why an 8.5 Mile Course?

 Most run events consist of a 5k (3.1 mile) run and in many cases a 10k (6.2 mile) run. Our run is different by design, we do have a traditional 5k run, and The Warrior Run which is an approximately 8.5 mile course. 

The Montana Warrior Run could be another run in a line of running events throughout the year. A traditional run would indeed help us reach our goal of awareness and funding for veterans and veterans issues in our area, however I wanted this to be more than a timed run. I wanted to create a course that required those who chose to participate to have dig just a little deeper to finish. It is my hope that those who participate will reflect not on their performance in the race, but rather reflect , honor and perhaps relate in a small way through the sacrifice of sweat and pain those who sacrificed with blood so that we can gather in peace for such an event. 

For those of you questioning if you can finish the Warrior course, or concerned that you may be embarrassed by your performance...don't. Tie on your shoes, run, walk, help a buddy, keep moving and finish. It may be long, it may very well challenge you, and it indeed might hurt, but in the end you will, in a small way through the sacrifice of sweat, honor those who have sacrificed so much for you. 

And in the Stuff You Can't Make Up category..

Wednesday the kids found a cricket in the house. I asked them to catch the poor lost fellow and put it outside.  My son dutifully caught it but then proceeded to chase his sister and cousin around the house with it.  To his delight they ran and screamed and gave him all the reaction he was hoping for.  Somewhere in the commotion the cricket got dropped in my daughter's room.

not a cricket but same sort of thing

This was cause for more calamity and drama. I tried to reassure her it was just a cricket. Her panicked answer to my calming words were shrieked "WHAT IF IT LAYS EGGS"?!

That, my friends is where I lost it,  I laughed. Then all the kids except little cowgirl were laughing with me.

Fast forward to Thursday.  I get home from work and the kids happily come running over to the car and give me hugs.  Before I can even ask "how was your day"?  I am getting a "Don't worry if you hear croaking sounds in the house, we caught a toad and put him in a container, but he got out and we don't know where he is"

We never found the toad.

We still haven't found the cricket.

I wonder if they found each other and now all I have is a toad in the house.

Do you suppose it will lay eggs?

random photo from our vacation

Three Things Thursday

1. As I was running yesterday I kept noticing all these purple flowers in the ditch that seemed to match my shirt so I gave in to temptation and tried to get a picture with them.  It was harder than I thought since they were short and I didn't want to pick them.  My dog wondered what the hay I was doing sitting in the ditch and kept trying to give me kisses.

Not a bad picture of me and my little pooch, but doesn't quite do what I wanted it to.

2. Yesterday was long run day... and I worked at keeping my pace SLOW. So hard sometimes, but I had a pretty good speed workout the day before so it was easier than normal. My goal is close to 9 minute miles.

3.  My sister in law sent me this after staying with her family for a couple days.  I am a morning person, she sleeps in a little more usually.  Of course you could reverse it, I think it is torture to stay up until 10pm.

4. (oops)(Three things Thursday, four things, whatever, it's my blog) I haven't had my hair trimmed since February.  I could never have a high maintenance hair cut. I have an appointment on the first day of school! so ready for a trim.  This is the longest my hair has been in a long time.

The other exciting thing is the gal who is cutting it used to be my hairdresser 14 years ago, but then she got married and moved and I have been drifting a lot since then.  I found Carol again, she is back. I hope she is as good as I remember!

I hated my last hair cut although it didn't grow out too bad, so this next one surely has to be better.

End of Summer Fun and Running

4 and a half weeks until my next half marathon.  I know that I could go out and run one right now as I have already done several 12 mile runs, I just really feel like I have skimped on speed work.   I meant to follow more of a plan, but somehow never got around to hunting down the plan I followed the last training cycle.

A little bit I feel like life has been busy, but a little bit it was just being lazy too.  The plan I followed last time was a tough one and really pushed me.  I think I just didn't feel like pushing so hard when it is so hot out.

Although lucky for us a cold front has blown in and we hit a high of 63 yesterday....awesome!  We took advantage of the weather and went for a hike.  We all wore our boots to avoid filling up our shoes with cheat grass seeds.

These rocks really make for endless fun exploring, fort building and imaginations.  I love that my kids love them as much as I did when I was growing up.

I also got in a run in the morning of course and for the first time in months wore sleeves.  The air had a fall like chill to it and I loved it.  I think Cola did too.  See him in the top middle picture below, he often runs in front of me and turns around to look at me like that.  I think it is his way of saying "Isn't this great!?"

Also do you notice how my shoes match my shorts? Certainly not a requirement, but it does really complete an outfit!  InknBurn is killing my budget lately for things other than running clothes.  They keep coming out with fun new designs that I think I have to have.  Lucky for me I could pass on their Halloween pre-order as I don't usually do Halloween runs.

My daughter has caught on to my InknBurn addiction and now she talks about how cool it is too.  I pre-ordered her a pair of robot capris so we can be matchy matchy.  She is so excited!

It rained yesterday afternoon so the kids and I lay down on the floor together and listened to it for awhile, then we got silly and took a bunch of selfies while we listened to the rain.

The thunder was so loud at one point that my son could have sworn someone was pounding on the roof!  They go back to school in one week!  Summer is almost over.

Sole Sister Virtual Run and Practising Safe Selfies with Bison

Gone for A Run is having another fun virtual run that I will be participating in called the Sole Sister Run.  It is a 7 mile run. 7 miles is one of my favorite distances to run.  This one will take place August 28-30 and isn't sold out yet, but you can bet it will!  So far all of their virtual runs have.

 When you register you are sent your race packet which contains a tank, medal, bib and shoe charm.

I think the medal is the best of the series so far. and so pretty!

and it comes with a Sole Sister shoe charm.

Features

• Virtual race will be held August 28th-30th
• Virtual race packet includes race shirt (either a Women's Everyday Tee or Unisex Lifestyle Tee), gorgeous finisher medal, real bib (no downloads!)
• Must order by August 18th to guarantee on time packet arrival
• You also have the options to order wineglasses, bracelets and magnets.

SO if you haven't already and want to get signed up soon!


I went on vacation with the family recently and one of the places we visited was the National Bison Range.  In the visitors center they had a stuffed bison so we took a picture with it there.  That way we wouldn't end up in the news like so many idiots that go to Yellowstone National Park and want pictures with bison.

Later we met this guy. I think he really wanted to cross the cattle/bison guard and meet us.  He seemed like a friendly fellow after all.

Despite my husband's objections, I took a safe selfie with the bison. 

 How many virtual runs have you done this year?  This will be the 4th one I have signed up for!

Are you the kind of tourist that wants to pet the bison?  Not me! 
 PS I finally have internet again!  Three weeks without it was a long time!  What is the longest you have gone without it lately?

No internet is the drag for blogging

No internet has not been good for my blogging. I don't like posting from my phone but I am getting desperate! 

The last two weeks have been fairly busy with a trip to Idaho and school shopping.

Idaho was fun. We stayed with my sister and law. I got in a couple great runs with some amazing views and so many more trees than I usually see!

We spent a day at a lake and went stand up paddle boarding, kayaking, and did some boating. 

On the way home we blew out a tire about a half mile from a tire shop and I got new tires on my car!

Running is going good, I got in a good long run this week and was loving being home in my wide open spaces!

and did some speed work today.

5 weeks and 3 days until my next half marathon and I am looking at another half marathon in October! 

I will also be signing up for a virtual run that my friend Katie Bangs is putting on

5K On The Farm will take place on Saturday, September 12 at Bangs Family Farms, located about 20 miles north of Inverness, MT. There will be a timed 5K Run/Walk and a timed 1 mile run/walk. Packet pick up will begin at 9:30 a.m. and race events will begin at 10:30 a.m.

5K On The Farm is a unique race held on a northern Montana dryland farm and ranch. The course is run entirely on high-grade county maintained gravel roads at Bangs Family Farm and gives runners a view of farmland, ranch pastures, mountains, and prairies. Lunch will be served to race participants after the race, and all participants will receive a race t-shirt and goody bag.

Race proceeds benefit education and leadership training for Women in Agriculture through Montana Farmers Union.

 

You can do it in person or virtually. Check it out here https://runsignup.com/Race/MT/Inverness/5KOnTheFarm

Hopefully I will have internet again soon and can go back to blogging regularly and reading them too!