26.2 Quest: March 2011

And The Winners of the Sony Walkman Players Are.....

The Sony Walkman giveaway has drawn to a close and it is time to pick the winners. Random.org was once again close at hand to pick the winners. I promoted this giveaway both online and also at the local running group. I was excited to see that when the winners were chosen that there was a winner from the blogger community and another one from the local running group.

Don't forget that if you are not one of the two winners you still can get your very own Sony Walkman MP3 Player at a discount by going to www.sony.com/runningmate.

In one way or another injury will always slow you down. This may be voluntary or may be forced upon you by your body or doctor, but sooner or later injury will slow you down. Now, I am not saying you will definitely get injured, as there are some very fortunate runners that have remained injury free (I think a total of 2 of them). I also am not saying that the ultimate outcome will be that you are slower as that would just be an ignorant thing for me to say.

Injury just seems to be a part of running for most people. I know of very few people that have been able to avoid a running injury. If you spend any time on Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, or Dailymile you will see someone talking (or in my case whining) about being injured, dealing with an injury, or recovering from an injury.

Nearly a year ago I was contacted with the opportunity to review the new at the time Sony W Series Walkman® MP3 Player and give one away to my readers. I will not go back over all the details, but if you would like to read what my review was you can visit the review post and see what I thought about it.

A few months later I was once again contacted. This time they were offering to sponsor me in an upcoming marathon which I was quick to accept. I ran the Soldier Marathon, my second marathon, last November wearing their shirt but not wearing the MP3 player on race day since I believe running a race is so much more enjoyable when you take the time to get to know those running around you.

The night before a marathon or half marathon is one of the key times for me to prepare for what the next day will hold. Last night wasn't much different other than the fact that I put it off till the last minute. I didn't start any of the planning till after 9:00 pm which is when I needed to start winding it down to get some much needed sleep before the early morning wake up call.

I did get everything ready and drifted off to sleep shortly after 10:00, but only after setting the alarm for 4:45 am. I needed to leave by 5:00 and I had everything ready so I could do a quick grab and go. This is kinda typical for me for the big races that require a really early departure time and it has always worked fine for me.

Let me start by wishing everybody that is running the Publix Georgia Marathon or Half Marathon tomorrow good luck. And to prove that I am not a Marathon Snob, good luck to everyone else running any other marathon, half marathon, 10k, 5k, 1 mile, training run, walking the dog, or any other activity that gets you moving. It is not important what event you run, or even that you run an event, what is important is to get active and get moving!

The Publix Georgia Marathon and Half Marathon are just two days away and even though I am running the half marathon in lieu of the full marathon, I am still excited for this weekend. The excitement and anticipation may not be quite the same as it would be if I was running the full marathon, but that is to be expected.

Today I am heading down to the Expo at the Georgia Dome to both pick up my number, but also because I am volunteering at packet pickup. I have volunteered for different races, including the mile 18 water stop of this Georgia Marathon a few years back, but have never volunteered at the Expo before. I am really looking forward to the excitement of all the runners today.

We are less than two weeks away from the Premier of the Movie MY RUN, the story of the real life super hero Terry Hitchcock; the 57 year old man who ran 75 consecutive marathons in 75 consecutive days to bring awareness to the struggles faced by single parent families.

If you have not yet had the opportunity you need to watch the trailer and get your tickets. March 31st will be here before you know it and the tickets may sell out way before that.

Today 26.2 Quest will be dedicated to a completely non-running post written for my favorite Non-Running Parter. I would post a picture of this favorite Non-Running Partner, but she would absolutely kill me given that she doesn't even post her picture on Facebook where her profile picture is the one you see in this post.

As you can see by the picture, her hobbies don't include running the roads, however she has been known to run from store to store at times. Even though she doesn't, hasn't, and probably never will want to run she still knows more about running than many runners I know. She knows this because she supports and listens to me, even when it doesn't interest her.

Last night was the first Fleet Feet Tuesday Night Group Run at their Lawrenceville store. It was a great kickoff event with over 50 people of all levels showing up to enjoy the company and run. It was great to see many friends that I haven't seen since the last group run of last season, and especially fun to run with them.

We ran the same 2.5 mile loop that we ran last year and made it around two times for five miles. We ran it at an easy pace and I was happy to feel no pain the entire time in my thigh. This run was very encouraging considering the Publix Georgia Half Marathon is this Sunday and I was still a little nervous about my thigh even after the last two good runs.

This is going to be short and sweet. The CSN Stores $50 winner of the recent giveaway has been chosen via random.org. We had 56 entries and I plugged that information in and clicked for the winner. The winning number was 16 which made The Green Girl from The Journey of a Running Green Girl the lucky one.

The Green Girl, please send me an e-mail at info@262quest.com and I will reply with your code.

Thank you everyone for stopping by and entering. While you are here why not take a moment to subscribe via Google Friend Connect, RSS, or by joining our growing community at the 26.2 Quest Fanpage or following @262quest on Twitter. What, you say you are already a follower and love being a part or the community? Then the next best thing to do is tell everyone you know about it - Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and anywhere else is encouraged and appreciated! :)

Win A Pair Of MY RUN Movie Tickets

I am really looking forward to the MY RUN Premier. March 31st will be here before you know it and the theaters will be filled with runners - will you be one of them?

Thanks to the producers of the MY RUN Movie, I am giving away another pair of tickets for one lucky winner. It is going to be really easy to enter, and you don't have to live near me, you can live anywhere there is a theater playing the MY RUN Movie. To find if it is playing near you, go search here. If you are planning on going as a running group you will not want to miss out on the deal to get FREE Tickets that I mentioned in my last post about the movie.

I haven't run in a week to try and give my thigh a nice rest from the consistent nagging pain. With the pain I had been having following every run that took a day or two to get over I thought it was time for a forced rest. At the time, the Publix Georgia Half Marathon was just over two weeks away so I decided that was the best time to take the break.

The thigh has been feeling good almost the entire time, but I knew that wouldn't be the case if I would try to run. The pain was typically only there if I ran but even though I didn't feel the pain each day I knew I still needed to give it at least a week.

If you have not yet purchased your tickets to the nationwide premier of the MY RUN Movie you need to do so quickly before your local theater sells out. We have one lucky winner here today but the rest of you still have your chance at going by purchasing your tickets for the event here.

Billy Bob Thornton narrates this story about a real life super hero Terry Hitchcock; the 57 year old man who ran 75 consecutive marathons in 75 consecutive days to bring awareness to the struggles faced by single parent families. watch the trailer

I feel funny calling this a plan since this is probably the furthest from a plan that I have ever had going into a race. The plan in a nutshell is, run and enjoy.... with a twist. The twist is that I am not running the Publix Georgia Marathon, but will in fact be dropping back to the Half Marathon at the Expo.

I have thought about this a long time, called all my lifelines, and yes even polled the audience here, on the 26.2 Quest Fanpage, and even on Daily Mile and I have decided that I will play it safe and drop back to the half marathon distance. This was not an easy decision and I did flip flops throughout the process that would make any politician jealous, but ultimately I put pride aside and have decided on the 13.1 instead of the 26.2.

Well the Publix Georgia Marathon is just two weeks away. As you well know I have not been able to train for it like I wanted to for many different reasons. Though there were countless small reasons two main ones have really defined my training during this 26.2 Quest. The fact that I didn't give myself enough time to train sufficiently, and the resulting injury, became the two biggest reasons why I couldn't train like I wanted to. Now I find myself with a decision to make, and it is not a fun decision..... Should I Stay, or Should I Go?

I committed later than I should have and so I started serious training late and too far behind in the schedule to catch up adequately. I was confident that it wouldn't be an issue because I have done this before and I know what I need to do to get across the finish line. That confidence turned out to be my initial step in the wrong direction.

CSN Stores Giveaway

If you have been reading lately you are well aware of the trouble I have been having with keeping positive about running with this nagging injury. That coupled with a higher level of stress lately has really made me want to just get away from it all. When CSN Stores recently contacted me and mentioned the fact that they were one of the best luggage stores out there I was tempted to do a review on some luggage for an exotic vacation somewhere instead of passing the $50 Gift Code on to you again..... but I will once again suffer for my readers as I pass along the chance to own something wonderful from CSN Stores.

Thank you to everyone who entered the Ryders Eyewear giveway. For those of you who said that you didn't like the sunglasses, and that they were too round.... I was not giving away a pair of sunglasses to make you look like John Lennon, you needed to read just a little bit of the actual post and then you would have known :)

There were 75 total entries including the few that answered the question right for an extra 5 entries. The correct answer was that they had just celebrated their 25th anniversary.

I have been taking a lot of time off these past few weeks trying to get this thigh back to where it should be. I am going to keep this post upbeat because I have already had the depressing one earlier in the week, and I don't want to go there again. I know what I am going to have to do to get this thigh back to normal but I don't want to do it. I am babying it along and it is not getting any worse so I think that is the option I am going to take till after the Publix Georgia Marathon in just three weeks.

I was recently talking to my kids about the upcoming March 31st showing of the MY RUN movie. As I explained the movie and the fact that I would be going to see it my daughter Payton started begging me to take her with me. I figured she would be interested in going, but I had no idea how much interest she would have.

And The Winners of the Sony Walkman Players Are.....

Injury Will Slow You Down

Win A Sony Walkman

Publix Georgia Half Marathon - The Results

Let's Run The Publix Georgia (Half) Marathon

Packet Pick Up and Volunteering

MY RUN Movie Tickets Winner

My Favorite Non-Running Partner

Five Pain Free Miles, But Feeling The Effects

CSN Stores $50 Winner

Win A Pair Of MY RUN Movie Tickets

After A Nice Rest - Let's Go Running

MY RUN Movie Ticket Winner and Bonus Tickets!

Publix Georgia Marathon - The Plan

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

CSN Stores Giveaway

Ryders Eyewear Winner

What Is This Thing They Call Running?

Do You Want To Go See The MY RUN Movie?