What's Up Wednesday & A Winner

So...what's up?

Mother Nature is being funny in Maine. Last week I was running in a tank top and 60* sunshine

yesterday I was running with frozen snot hanging from my face. 

yesterday was only a hour run, (just about 7 miles) and I have the perfect loop around my house. It was COLD, temps said 33*, "feels like" report was 20's and the winds were pretty cold. It was the last 2.6 miles HOME where the winds got brutal. OUCH. 

But welcome to Maine. It is November. This should be no shocker that it gets cold here.

What's YOUR weather challenge? Do you like hot? cold? 

Ever since I finally got the courage to cut off all my hair, I also got the courage to have a little fun with it.  I got it set into my mind that I wanted pink hair. Of course, Pinterest was of no help...

with my new cut I knew that I wanted it pink just in the back, underneath. I could NOT find a pic that would show my hair stylist what I wanted...then on a visit there, the salon owner had exactly what I wanted (just a shorter version). 

It's more purple right now...but we needed to do that to cut the "yellow" in my hair. Im really digging the purple actually. Pretty soon it'll be HOT PINK. And we cut a little more off too...

My parents hate it.

My daughter thinks it's cool.

My husband is indifferent.

I love it. It's fun and it's me. 

I finally feel like I have my running mojo back...I missed it. I am looking forward to the long runs again and being out in the cold yesterday made me feel so ALIVE. I loved it. 

So to all my Southern California friends...I'll be there in February!

Speaking of running...I recently got a pair of Athleta Bare Run capri pants in (REV3) blue which are AhhhMaaazing. The color is awesome and they are super cute. Never mind super comfy. Totally rocking my world right now. 

What's something NEW you have that is making you smile? 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WINNER: Now to announce the winner of my Old Pool Glassworks giveaway. Chosen at random by writing the entries down on paper and picking out of a Powerbar hat...

Jen, please hit me up so I can get you in touch with Renee to design your prize!!

Thanks to all who played along! I have some more really fun, cool giveaways coming up very, very soon!

Contest: Quassy

It's that time of year again....
Time to make the pilgrimage down to CT and brave the hills of Quassy.

Last year there were horrific rains and winds on Saturday for the Oly race and beautiful weather for the half on Sunday. This year they temps went from 40's straight to the high 80's in a day in Maine and the temps in CT promise to be up there as well.

Here's to absolutely NO temp acclimation for me!

I cannot control the weather but I can control my reaction to it. It is what it is...
so here's to some hills.
Lots of hills.

HILLS HILLS HILLS.

Let's have a fun little contest to celebrate my favorite race...not time focused but bike focused.

In a way....

Last year Quassy was my first race with my beloved Quintana Roo, PinkiePie. I "christened" her at mile 43 of the bike and it was very memorable moment.

To celebrate one year of pee-tasticness and my (revenge) return to Quassy,

GUESS WHAT MILE OF THE BIKE I PEE (first pee)
I plan on being very well hydrated too.

The person closest to the mile that I pee on the bike will win a fantastic package from me!

TriSlide
Foggle
TriSwim products and 

some Powerbar love in there too!!

One entry per person.
In the event of a tie, I will choose one winner thru random selection.
Entries will be accepted until Sunday 6/2/13 at midnight.
Winner will be selected once I return from Quassy and can walk normally.

VLOG: Let's Pick a Winner!

#snOMG has hit Maine so I thought this would be a perfect time to dust off the video recorder and pick a winner of the Injinji socks giveaway with Lola!

we wrote out each name for each valid comment on pink paper

and then cut each name into a tiny strip

then we folded each piece of paper 

and put them in a big red Tupperware bowl

Were YOU the lucky winner???

Shoot me an email at jsmall14(at)maine.rr.com and I'll get you hooked up with your socks!! 

A Winner and More Quassy Fun

My life was an absolute chaotic mess of bad news just before the race. 
What a stress fest it was-it was presenting itself physically too!

Our clothes dryer went kaput just days before and I had to go and buy a new one (that was not in the budget!) and then even more good news, the clutch in my husbands truck also went kaput on his way home from work on Thursday. (really?? really!!)

He was staying home with Lola all weekend while I was gone and it was not looking good for me to take my car (which is awesome on gas) down to CT. My training buddy, Marc was coming down to CT with me to volunteer at the race and we could have used his truck but that giant V8 is a gas guzzler for sure!

We had my husband's truck towed to our mechanic and we were told that the truck should be ready on Friday-by the end of the day the latest so I was in the clear to head out Friday morning as planned with my car.
Fun note about this: the problem was actually much bigger than the mechanic thought and ended up having to do more work on the truck all weekend, leaving my husband stuck at home with an active toddler, with no car and massive rain storms that brought in over 7 inches of rain over the weekend itself. This would also end up costing waaaay more than we thought, as well. Great, more $$ gone! 

The Rev 3 Mobile

I arrived at the Quassy on Friday afternoon and the first thing I did was set out on the hunt to find Coach. I quickly discovered that she would not be making it to the race due to medical issues. Now, I was a tad on the devastated side to find out she would not be there--but I know she is no wuss and would have been there if she were able.
Another Fun Note: She had actually emailed me mid-week (twice, actually) about it and to nail down a race plan but I never got those emails. Late Friday night I got notification that she tweeted about my lack of communication. I got all panicky and started back-tracking thru social media and my email accounts to see what I was missing. Ah-hah! there were those two emails I missed...sitting in my dang spam folder. (Hey Yahoo! she's in my addy book so why is this being dumped into my spam folder??) I called her (which I never do!) and we cleared the lines of communication. 


I made my way around the park and sought out my Rev3 Peeps!! Then it was time to get my new blueseventy wetsuit and hit the water for a practice swim!!

with the awesome LJ

 The water was amazing--so warm. Actually, too warm. By the time I got to the first buoy that was set up for the Oly race the next day, I was sweating!! I got in a swim, got a good feel for the wetsuit and it was time to eat! I was famished!!

with the beautiful Jacqui Gordon! we were rockin' our Rev 3 Shimmer suits

It was going to be an early start to the day on Saturday since I was volunteering at the Oly race as a bike marshall on the course. It was time to eat, get some info to Coach and get some rest.
Saturday would prove to be a very long day with lots of action!!

______________________________________________

A big thank you to 1BandID for allowing me to review their product and participate in a giveaway for my readers. I love being able to work with products that I support and use myself so ....


There were 41 valid entries into the contest. 


The winner was chosen by Lola. I asked her to pick a number between 1 and 41. Lola picked the number 26, so the lucky winner of the 1BandID is.....


JEN at COLOR ME HAPPY


Jen, please shoot me an email at jsmall14(at)maine.rr.com and I will make sure you are rockin' a 1BandID lickity-split!!

Pumpkin Love & A Winner!

I made the most amazing, accidental discovery this week!
Well 'tis the season for PUMPKIN anything and everything so I have be experimenting with all kinds of pumpkin this and pumpkin that...


After an early morning CrossFit workout this week, I was in a hurry to grab a bite to eat. Glancing into my fridge, a couple of things grabbed my attention-


Vanilla Greek Yogurt
leftover pumpkin puree from the previous days breakfast of Pumpkin Pie French Toast


then inspiration hit!

I mixed some Greek yogurt (about 3/4 of a cup)
with a big scoop of pumpkin (~2 heaping tablespoons)
I added some cinnamon, clove and nutmeg (you could, of course, use pumpkin pie spice mix)
then a dash of stevia (or your favorite sweetener)
a splash of vanilla
some walnuts (feel free to substitute pecans, almonds)
and finished it off with some granola-I used Maple Pecan flavor from Sweet Home Farm granola (yummmm)
You could use any crunchy cereal you have on hand or your favorite granola. This is the key ingredient-it mimics the crunch of crust!!


Mix it up and enjoy. Fabulous
Tastes just like Pumpkin Pie!!
but without the guilt.


My next pumpkin experiment??
Pumpkin Chia seed pudding!
I found THIS recipe, THIS recipe and THIS recipe.
They all look simple & delicious-I think I am opting for recipe #3 with the protein powder.

What Fabulous Pumpkin recipe do YOU love??




Want to know what else is fabulous??

Sparkly Soul headbands!!
I am so pleased to announce the winner of my Sparkly Soul giveaway-
There were 118 entries 
Random.org selected #98


Crossing a finish line with a smile on my face makes me sparkle!
from Jill R

Jill R please email me at jsmall(at)maine(dot)rr(dot)com so I can get you hooked up with your Sparkly Soul headband! 


I want to say welcome new followers to Miles Muscles & Mommyhood
thank you to all readers for taking the time to read about the craziness that is my life.
And no worries if you did not win THIS giveaway, I have some more awesome giveaways coming up!!
hint hint 

The 1st winner is...

Well my trusty old Canon PowerShot is no longer
I got this camera as a baby shower gift from my mother in law & I was super excited since I did not have a digital camera. This camera has captured over 7,000 images in the last three years and has served us well. Moments of time frozen forever! From my pregnant belly

at 38 weeks-it would still be another 4 weeks until Lola made her debut

to the last downloaded pics of us playing Flickin' Chicken

It has been dropped countless times and kept working like a charm. Sadly, just a couple weeks ago it stopped loading pictures to my computer :( I tried getting a new USB cable but that did not fix the problem.
After a bit of research, I discovered that sometimes this just happens.
SO I broke down and ordered a new (fancier!) Canon and it should be here any day.
That being said, I do not have any new pictures to share nor do I have pictures of how the first winner of the LIKE IronCowboy was picked.

Of all the comments left on my blog and on my Facebook page, each name was written on a piece of paper and put into the "hat" (actually, it was a bag). Lola then picked-

Not Lola's hand and not that "hat" we used

wow. he is fabulous!! put me in that hat! -katie

Congrats Katie!!
Please contact me so I can get you your awesome prize!!
What did she win??
A cool water bottle from Life Fitness (it'll match her new bike too!!) and a bunch of LUNA and CLIFF bars!!

If you did not win this week, don't worry. You can still win!!

I have had a couple more amazing vendors come on board to donate prizes to get LIKES for IronCowboy's page.

Here's how you can earn entries:

• Like IronCowboy on Facebook-leave me a comment on my blog OR let me know on Facebook.
• Share the link to get likes for IronCowboy on Facebook. Tag me in the post or leave me a comment so I can keep track of SHARES. Each time you SHARE you earn an entry. There is NO LIMIT to how many entries you get, just let me know.
• Spread the word on your blog, on Twitter, via email, write it on the bathroom wall...
• All entries roll over week to week. How long will this GIVEAWAY last?? Until we reach the goals of 15,000 likes on the page OR I run out of prizes.

What is the prize for NEXT WEEK??

I'll give you a hint--it's from Triathlon Rocks.
If you read my blog then you probably have a pretty good guess as to what this prize will be!

Fall Friendsy & A Winner

Whew!! What a fantastic weekend.
First, I am so sorry for the delay in getting this post up but I am having issues loading pics from my camera. I really, really, really wanted to share some of the awesome pictures I took this weekend and I have been working tirelessly to try and figure out the problem.
I have yet to find a solution so...you will have to deal with pictures I have lovingly hijacked from Facebook!! ha!

Now, don't be TOO jealous but on Saturday I got to spend time with these amazing lovelies

Dawn pushing Lola and Porter in the BOB!

I know!! Awesome!!

Mandy (aka Caratunk Girl) and PORTER!
Mandy made her way "down south" for the weekend and we made plans to meet up in Portland to walk around the Back Bay. My bestie Dawn was able to come along so it was going to be a fun afternoon!
We were hanging out at the meet up spot when I saw this adorable little ball of fur in front of me I squealed with delight!! Lola, Dawn and I ran out of the car and I'm screaming OH MY GOSH!! IT'S PORTER!!!!
Really, Mandy--I was just as happy to see you too!! I promise!!

The Happy Couple

Lola is IN LOVE.
Bigtime.
We were in TJ Maxx yesterday and she saw a bunch of dog treats and insisted we get a bag for Porter
Shhhhh-it's for Christmas!!

Thanks for the pics Mandy!! As soon as I get my camera situation figured out, I have a ton of awesome photos to share :)

It was fantastic to see Mandy again and discuss all things tri. Between the 3 of us, it was a trigeek meeting for sure!
It was a beautiful afternoon and I had a blast spending time with Dawn, Mandy, Lola and Porter.
We decided that next summer when Jason comes to Maine to race Rev 3 Maine we are all going white water rafting. How fun is THAT going to be??
Who is coming to Maine for the Rev 3 Half in August 2012???
Join the fun!!

l

Lots of friends came out to run the first Harvest Half-can't miss me in that bright orange Saucony gear!!

Sunday with the first Harvest Half Marathon. This race was put on by the Northern York County YMCA all along the Eastern Trail. It was a perfect day to run too! Cool and sunny.

I have been helping my friend, Marc train for his first half marathon so I agreed to pace him for his first race.
He set a goal of 2 hours but I knew he could (and would) push a little harder.
He was even made an honorary TOUGH CHIK for the day and wore my new PINK Tough Chik visor for the race!

Only about 5 miles left to go!

He finished in 1:53:56!!

It was pretty impressive, the winner of this race ran a 1:09....Um, hellzya!! (in my dreams...)
Dawn also ran her first half marathon with another good friend, Jen.
Jen has become a running fool over the summer and this is her 3rd half in several weeks!! GO JEN!!




Jen, Dawn and Todd on the way out



on the way back & smiling-always a good sign



Stephanie just ran the Maine Marathon a couple weeks ago in the POURING rain. Talk about miserable conditions-she decided last minute that it would be a good day to run so she joined the fun.

a happy girl running for an "easy" 1:46 finish (she's an animal!!)

I was super psyched for my Y buddy, Keith. He nailed a 1:30 half.
I wanna run like Keith when I grow up!!



So as you can see, it was an amazing weekend spent with friends doing things we love to do!!

Now, for the winner....

There were 218 entries for the Tough Chik contest. Each eligible comment was put into a spreadsheet for easy reference. Then I used Random.org to pick the winner for me

Random.org picked #39

Comment #30 was from
Carrie @ Maine Mom on the Run!!
"follow you on Twitter"

Congrats Carrie!!
Please email me at jsmall14(at)maine(dot)rr(dot)com
so I can get you hooked up with your Tough Chik prize!!



Run for Cash 5k RR

This weekend was the 7th annual Captain Christopher Cash Memorial 5k race.

If you have been reading my blog since the beginning, you know that this race is close to my heart.

Last year I got to know Capt. Cash's mother, Nancy after running this race; then I did The Run for the Fallen in Capt. Cash's honor.

This was such a fun race last year! It was Lola's first race, I snagged a 3rd place AG finish and had an amazing day all around. The Run for Cash 5k is one race I will each and every year until I cannot run anymore.

This year clouds and rain did not damper the spirits of the race or it's participants. I was happy to see such a big turnout despite roar of thunder and lots of rain.

Lola participated in the Kid's Fun Run. Last year it was a 50 yard dash for the kids. This year?? It was an entire lap around the track--A quarter mile!! And Lola did it with a smile in the pouring rain.

Ready to run! (the tee was too big for Lola!!)

She's ready to SPRINT!

Yeah-she totally chicked those boys by A LOT!!

I ran with her and as she started to slow down towards the finish, I pointed out the finish line and reminded her that she would get her medal once she finished.
That was all my little girl needed to hear MEDAL
She SPRINTED the rest of the way and was SO PROUD of her medal!!

Gotta show off the bling to Marc!

Showing Jim her medal

Soaked and cold but she has her medal!

Lola was soaked to the bone and freezing cold so Lola and her Daddy packed things up, headed home to warmth and dry clothes. Luckily, I had several friends there with me and could catch a ride home later if need be...or I could just run home.

It was time for me to warm up and get ready to run. I had some reasonable time expectations for myself on this race-modest expectations since I have not really done much speed work since a majority of my training has been volume focused around the Timberman 70.3!

I met up with my Dailymile friends, triathlon friends and ran around the venue a bit to warm up then it was show time!

BANG! and they are off!

The Leaders heading up the first climb of the course

The first mile of this race is a slight downhill to the ocean and then a sharp left. Felt great
Mile One split: 6:36

Then the course takes another sharp left and up you go through the main strip, a gradual climb. Things level out for a bit and then you hit the turn-around. This is when you start seeing the leaders heading back to the finish line! I love that!! Still feeling strong!
Mile Two Split: 7:37

After the turn you take a different way back though town, essentially all up hill climbs. Short climbs but continual. Hill, level out for a bit. Another hill, level, another hill. Then it is one final climb and take a right onto the finish. Felt good on all the climbs and glad to see my pace held.
Mile Three Split: 7:37 (hmmm-consistence!)

and then the final 1/10th split: 0:51 for a 6:41 pace

Post race with Jim

Happy Jen after snagging 2nd in AG

Official Race Time: 22:42

2nd place in Age Group

15th Overall Female

60th Overall

This is a new 5k PR for me and I beat my expected race finish time by over a minute!! So I am very pleased with how well this race went and I am hoping to bust this PR at next months Ocean Park 5k which is flat and fast!! I do have a specific number in mind but keeping that to myself for now!

Funny story-there is a local elite runner, Christine Snow-Reaser, who seems to be my good luck charm. Last year at the Kennebunk Beach 5k I attempted to keep pace with her the first mile in the pouring rain. This year, I was with her for a bit again in the pouring rain.
Each time I run with her in the rain, I set a new PR.
Of course, I had to tell her this after the race!!

Christine Snow-Reaser and me

I also want to congratulate my friends Marc, Jen R. and Kate who all set new 5k PR's themselves on that day!!

Jen R is all smiles! She later ran the Warrior Dash-so badass!!

Marc's PR Finish! I even got his official race time on "film"! wooohooo

Kate's AWESOME FINISH!!

The Dailymile Crew! Me, Kate and Jim

Now for all the guesses as to my final time!

The winner? Karien with a guess of 22:40-You were only 2 seconds off! Great guess!