My Half Marathon Results

Well I finished the half marathon! I love to run and the Flying Pig Marathon is a great race to run! They have thousands of participants between several events over two days. They have a lot of entertainment throughout the race and there are a lot of very colorful participants. I saw several people dressed as pigs, two guys dressed as superheroes and my husband said he saw a nude person running (I am not quite sure where he would display his running bib!) Overall it was a lot of fun and I am exhausted! I finished with a time of 1:52:52, which was great for me considering the two plus mile hill up Mt. Adams (if you haven't been to Cincinnati it is loaded with hills and almost impossible to run a great distance without encountering hills!) I finished 1162 out of 10871 overall (both mens and womens half marathon runners), 293 out of 6860 (for the womens division) and 51 out of 1102 for my age bracket. I feel great about how well I finished and would definately recommend this race to anyone who loved to run!

Go Headband Review and Giveaway

Go Headband is a company run by a single mom named Kat. Kat is a long distance runner, she has run five marathons and one ultra marathon. She started running three years ago (and like me) is addicted! She has been through a lot in the last few years and running is her therapy. Kat started Go Headband last year. She runs 15-20 miles on Saturdays and sweats a lot, even in cold weather so she developed her headbands. They are made from a mositure-wicking fabric and there is also a small plastic strip sewed onto the front of the headband to prevent it from slipping. Go Headband works with the American Cancer Society and created "cancer sucks" headbands for the Chicago marathon runners. She also works with other charities including the American Heart Association. She does custom orders for run clubs and soccer teams.

Go Headband carries several types of headbands and running products. The headbands that she carries are bandanas, narrow style, winter headbands and the regular style. The headbands come in various colors and in solid or screen printed. They are also for both men and women. They can also be cleaned by washing them in the washing machine.

13.1 Light Brown Screen Printed Headband

Navy Blue Solid Headband

Blue Narrow Headband Just Finish

Slate Blue Polartec Winter Headband

Bandana Headband Forest Green

Go Headband also carries Hydration Packs. Hydration Packs are handheld and carry a water bottle. They have a padded handle and a small side pocket. The Hydration Packs are machine washable and when they are empty can be used as a sweat rag.

Handheld Hydro Pack- Brown Scrolls

I was sent a regular headband in blue with "Runner Mom" screened printed on the front. I wore it for my last long run on Saturday. I ran eight miles in 35 degree weather. Believe it or not I did sweat even in the cold weather. My head started sweating about two miles into my run. I felt the sweat but it did not bother me because it was caught in the headband and it did not get in my eyes. The headband worked great and it did not slip. I have tried other headbands before, but none have ever worked for me. The cloth headbands that I have used before have always slipped off and the plastic headbands are just not comfortable and give me headbands (plus they do nothing for sweat). I really liked using the headband and would recommend it to other runners or for just working out.

Buy It! You can purchase Go Headband products on their site. Click here to be directed to their website.

Win It! Go Headband has generously offered a headband to one of my followers! This giveaway is open to U.S. followers of this blog. The giveaway will end Thursday, April 21st at 11:59 pm. The winner will be selected via the Random Number Generator. Once the winner has been notified they will have 48 hours to email me with their contact information or another winner will be selected. Please leave a comment for every entry.

Mandatory:

You must be a follower of this blog and visit Go Headband and tell me what headband is your favorite.

Extra Entries:

Like Go Headband on Facebook

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I was not compensated for this post. All opinions about the products are my own. Go Headband provided me with a headband for review.

Tips for Running a Race

Picture from Boston.com

I love to run. I have been running for over ten years and in that time I have missed about a total of six weeks worth of days of running. I ran up until the day before I gave birth to all three of my children (I would have run the day I gave birth, but I was in the hospital). Last October I ran my first half marathon. Once I ran it I was hooked. I cannot wait to run my next half marathon in May. If you are interested in running a race here are some of my tips to training.

Wear appropriate clothing- I hate to be uncomfortable when I run. When I train for either of the half marathons in my area I am either training in in the winter or summer. In the winter I wear mulitple layers on top. For the bottom layer I like to wear a shirt that draws the mositure away from the body, since even in the winter I sweat when I run. I also recommend to wear something on your ears if it is windy. In the summer I also recommend clothing that draws mositure away from the body.

Run where you feel safe- I like to run in a very public open area. It makes me feel safer. I would recommend running with a partner if possible.

Start out small and build-up- when you are training to run a distance that is longer than you normally run start-out running a much shorter distance and build-up every week. Since I train for half marathons I add one mile onto my distance every week. I never run the entire 13.1 miles, since you should be able to run 13.1 miles if you can run 10-11 miles. There is an episode of How I Met Your Mother when one of the characters tells his friends that you don't train for a marathon you just run it. Well he woke-up the morning of the NY Marathon and just ran it. (Not a good idea!) He finished but afterward could not move his body to walk off the subway! My husband ran the half marathon with me in October. He had trained and ran a half marathon in May and was fine after the race. However, he did not train for the half marathon in October. He ran three times prior to the race. He finished more than a half hour after me and when he was finished felt very sick. He realized that not training for a race was not a good idea!

Find something to entertain you- I love to listen to music when I run. I prefer upbeat music because it keeps me going and helps me run up the hills.

Research the race you are running- I would recommend doing a little research on the race you are running. Find out if there are hills that way you can train on hills and they will not give you a problem when you run it. Find out if people tend to pass on the outside or inside. If you don't like to pass people and they pass on the outside stay towards the inside of the group.

Don't do anything new on the day of the race- Make sure you try out anything new prior to the race. I know I have to break in my shoes at least a couple of weeks prior to a race or else I will get a blister in the middle of my run and blisters on your feet while running are super painful.

If you ever wanted to run a race I highly recommend it. I love running and races are so much fun. They are also very addicting!