Hello, hello!
I am having a blast at the Runner’s World Festival & Half! Yay! Here is a recap from Friday!
Workout
Our first full day in Bethleham kicked off bright and early with a 3-mile shakeout run with Bart Yasso, who, if you didn’t know already, is the coolest guy I ever. He has done so many amazing things, and I just want to listen to him tell me stories from his life.
Bart took us on a gorgeous route around Bethlehem.
We stopped a few times so he could point out various landmarks, including a number of especially beautiful views.
Finishing 3 miles… and an enthusiastic fist pump from Theodora!
Yay! My long lost friend!
Breakfast
After our run, we enjoyed a healthy breakfast””I grabbed a plate of fresh fruit and a yogurt-berry-granola parfait, which, as soon as I finished, I refilled my cup for round two. FYI: There was a lot of “round two eating” yesterday. All of the food here is so good; I just couldn’t help myself.
After breakfast, we heard a Altra Zero Drop Footwear product presentation. (Altra is the primary sponsor of the Runner’s World Festival & Half.) Co-founder, Golden Harper, discussed the brand’s various “zero drop” shoes and shared his motivation for developing the company.
Golden was an All-American runner (he ran a 2:45 marathon at age 12 – holy crap!!) and worked in a running store for many, many years, so he saw the need for more natural footwear that didn’t cause people to heel strike (which is known to cause various running injuries), so he started to develop and test “zero drop” shoes. (He used to make them at home with the help of his family.) Over time, his idea grew into something more and he watched his shoes help eliminate injuries in people who thought they couldn’t run anymore. Now, Golden is working to spread the word about Altra all over the world.
The Altra story was really neat to hear, and I could tell that Golden was 110% behind everything that he said and incredibly passionate about his product and running, in general.
During the Altra presentation, each of us had the opportunity to write on their “Running is”¦” board.
My response:
Golden also took us through a “Learn to Run Clinic” to teach us how to run more efficiently and help minimize injuries. His session is summarized here: Learn to Run.
After our time with Altra, we participated in a “Recovery for Runners” session with Melanie Douglass, who is a registered dietitian, NASM-certified personal trainer, and AFAA-certified instructor. She also helped develop the Runner’s World Cookbook.
The session was sponsored by Pro-Form, a company who makes treadmills, ellipticals, and other fitness equipment.
Proform gave us some fun, yoga-inspired equipment, so Melanie incorporated it into her class. The Infinity Fitness Band (I heard a rumor you can find it at Walmart) made regular yoga a zillion times harder by adding resistance for building strength and increasing/encouraging deeper stretches. It felt so good to stretch my tight hips and hamstrings, especially before race day!
Lunch
After the “Recovery for Runners” session, it was time to eat! Lunch featured recipes from the new Runner’s World Cookbook, which I love, love, love and highly recommend.
This cookbook is legit with all sorts of delicious recipes, including vegetarian, gluten-free, low-calorie, recovery-specific, and quick meals. Of course, these recipes were created with runners in mind, but lots of people would enjoy this cookbook. All of the recipes are made with wholesome, easy-to-find ingredients that are both nutritious and delicious, and almost half of the 150 recipes are accompanied by a beautiful photograph. Long story short, you’ll definitely see some of these recipes on CNC in the future!
The lunch menu featured a number of recipes from the Runner’s World Cookbook.
Food time!
Plate #1 was immediately followed by Plate #2. I loved lunch!
Dessert was phenomenal: Banana Oat Energy Bars”” I ate three of them.
After lunch, we had a special VIP meet-and-greet with Olympic Gold Medalist, Summer Sanders, who was such an engaging speaker. She has had an amazing life and career””definitely check out her bio.
Summer is featured in the November issue of Runner’s World. I haven’t read her piece yet, but I’m excited to read it on the plane ride home tomorrow.
Our next activity of the day was the “skirt Olympics” with Running Skirts and Bart Yasso. It was basically a sprinting relay that involved putting on various pieces of clothing from Running Skirts””first a skirt and then a pair of compression socks. I’m not sure who ultimately won (it was a frantic five minutes of fun), but Bart definitely looked handsome in his running skirt.
credit: Instagram @RunEatRepeat
credit: Instagram @relentlessforwardcommotion
Our final event of the day was a trip to the race expo to pick up our packets, bibs, t-shirts, and hats for those of us running the Hat Trick. (Hats for the Hat Trick? Love it.) But before we grabbed our race packets, we attended a Pro-Form and iFit demonstration to learn about the Boston Marathon Treadmill, which is the coolest thing ever: HD marathon workouts, including the Boston Marathon course, a Speed Ring that let’s you adjust your speed from your finger, and iFit technology that allows you track, record, and customize all sorts of workouts and data. Seriously. Coolest thing ever.
Packet pick-up time!
Getting our bibs and packets was a piece of cake. For the Hat Trick, we got one bib for all three races and then went to a separate line to pick it up. After that, we went upstairs to a different space to get our t-shirts and hats, so the lines flowed quickly and efficiently.
The actual expo was great with all sort of vendors, products, food samples, and demonstrations.
We spent about an hour there wandering around and checking everything out before heading back to the hotel.
Dinner
After all of that fun and excitement, I was exhausted. I went with some friends to grab dinner from the salad bar at Ruby Tuesdays, but, instead of joining them for a movie, I changed into my PJs, hung out in my hotel room, and then went to bed semi-early. (I am an old lady.)
Hey, it was a nice way to spend the evening before back-to-back races the next morning!
More adventures to come!
Question of the Day
Finish this sentence: