And the first batch of running mammas go to…

You all probably know this already being they just went to the first 20 who asked, but just in case anybody needs to be super sure, here’s the list of who’s getting those gorgeous little running mammas to put on their car thanks to BuildASign.com:
The 26.2’s

• Cynthia O’H
• Mum on the Run
• Brandi
• Laurie
• Kris
• Running Fool
• Mom to the 4th
• Erin
• Erika
• Megan
• Katie

The 13.1’s

• Angela
• Erica H
• Jessica Azar
• Jenditty
• Holly
• Kadie
• Darlena
• lifeasarunningmom
• Tammy
• FinallyFit2011
• The Automomma

And yes, I know that’s 11 of each not 10, but how could I leave out just two of my dear running mammas? Not. Right. So, I didn’t! But I am going to close the door on the stickers (for now) because I do need to get to shipping them out so I can get them all in your hot little hands. So if you see your name on that list send me an email at runfastmommy@gmail.com and I’ll fill you in on the details. If you missed it this time, don’t worry! I’ve got plenty more to hand out. Just keep one eye peeled to this blog and I’ll let you know when they’re up for grabs. In the meantime, don’t forget to enter my Crave the Cute Giveaway! There’s still plenty of time for that.

P.S. If I missed a blog or anybody’s got a website they’d like their username linked to just let me know and I’ll get to it asap.

GNC Giveaway Winner

Just got back from the Michigan Challenge Balloonfest (which is super sweet btw) so sorry for yet another late night post. I’ll be short and sweet and get straight to the winner which yes, yes I did let my 5 year pick at almost midnight. Somehow after a super busy day of running around she managed to stay awake for the entire car ride home which was anything but short. I figured since she was up she might as well pick the winner of the $100 GNC Gift Card and that winner is…

 

lwknop

And yes, I do realize that is just a bunch of letters but that’s what this mystery person entered the giveaway as and that’s who the Little Miss chose. So congratulations lwknop!!! Please send me an email at runfastmommy@gmail.com and I”ll fill you in on all the details.

If you don’t happen to be lwknop, don’t worry there’s still more goodies to win, check out my Crave the Cute Giveaway for starters and then swing by my Running Mamma Giveaway after that (although, no promises on that one. I may have already given away all I have to give, I haven’t had a chance to go back and count the entries yet.)

 

Running Mamma Giveaway

Here we go again! And this one’s pretty sweet.

Ever hear of BuildASign.com? Me neither. That is until I was contacted by them and asked if I was interested in doing a review. I honestly was not entirely sure what I’d do with a sign when asked, but at the mention of my logo. I was intrigued.

So I perused their extremely user friendly website to see what all exactly they had to offer and what I could perhaps do with my little running mamma that sits atop each of my posts (please tell me you all have noticed her. You have no idea how long it took me to draw what was in my head with a silly little mouse and cursor. Can I just say sooooooooooo frustrating?)

Now, Megan, my contact from the company, had sent me a few ideas to get me brainstorming, but pretty much gave me the pick of all BuildASign.com had to offer and man, they’ve got a lot to offer. Pretty much if you can print on it, they can make it. Everything from custom bumper stickers and window clings to banners and flags to signs, signs, everywhere are signs. You name the size, you name the material, they’ve got it. You can build it from scratch or you can start with one of their templates and adjust it to suit your liking.

But I have to admit, my brain’s been slightly fried for the last little bit here. It seems like I’ve been in this daily struggle of too much to do and too little time to do it in as of late. So, I asked for help and not only was Megan so patient with little ‘ole me throughout this whole process but she took the time to create something for me based off of what I piece mealed over to her that I wanted. Basically, that was something to stick on my car that had my logo on it and was simple.

Here’s what she came up with… Now, she gave me full access to change it around however I liked and I did get on and play with it for a little while, so I can say with confidence it’s so very easy to customize on their site, like trying to get your two year old to eat a candy bar or something. No problems there.

But ultimately, I just kept coming back to Megan’s original design. Sweet and simple. I love it. I couldn’t wait to yank that boring old generic 26.2 car magnet off and stick this new sticker on, because I am not only a marathoner. I am a marathoning mamma! And THAT is an entirely different kind of runner all together. We could vehemently disagree on politics, religion, lifestyle, or the appropriate sort of bathing suit to wear to your child’s parent & tot swimming class (seriously, I’m in the middle of this now and in SHOCK. Some suits are kid friendly, some not so much, particularly when your two year old is clinging onto you for dear life if you catch my drift), but within 5 seconds of meeting you and learning you are both a runner and a mamma, we are bonded for LIFE. It’s like there’s almost an unspoken code that goes on there, an understanding that’s lost on nearly everyone else you meet. I know some of your sacrifices. I get why you run. You don’t have to explain a thing to me or even speak another word about it, but somehow, I just feel we’re connected. Anybody with me on that?

And I know what some of you are saying out there, “that’s just great Kelly, but I’ve got to run a whole frickin’ marathon to get one? You’ve got to be kidding me. I mean, seriously, I have no time as it is to train and for crying out loud, what about a half mary. That’s no easy feat either.” And since I KNEW some of you were going to say that (RunSis) and you are of course right in your thinking, I had these made too:
Pretty sweet eh? That’d be a purple 13.1 if you can’t tell from the picture. Can’t say I’ve ever seen purple on any sort of 13.1 car decal before.

Megan was awesome enough to send me a TON of these to give out. They are actually bumper stickers, but I stuck mine up on the corner of my rear window instead. Wouldn’t want anybody to miss it now would I? I’m not going to give ALL of them away at once though, you’ll have to keep an eye on the blog and I’ll randomly surprise you by giving them out a batch at a time. Tonight, I’m going to start with 10 of each. And we’re going to do this a little differently than we normally do. This time, it’s going to be first come first serve. So if you’d like a 13.1 or 26.2 mamma runner for your very own car (or any other place you’d like to stick her I suppose), leave me a comment and let me know which one you’d like. No requirements necessary this time around (you can thank me later all you non-social media types). All I ask is that you drive her around proudly :-)

Many thanks to Megan and BuildASign.com!

P.S. If you count all the comments and you see I’ve already got 10 of each, leave me a comment anyway. You never know. Sometimes, I can’t track down the winner.

Tragedy at the Track

It’s so pitiful really. How soon one bubbly little butterfly of a 5 year old girl at her summer track program can be reduced to tears, sobbing, scrapes & blood that is.

Yes. We had our first major public athletic injury at the track meet last night. After an hour and a half of spinning, twirling, dancing, running through sprinklers (with that stinky egg smelling water-FAN. TAS. TIC.), holding hands, and oh yes, a few actual running or runningish type events thrown in there for good measure, things were going swimmingly. The Little Miss was ear to ear grins and fully confident she would be taking home a ribbon for something. She had no idea what, but just knew it would be something nonetheless. 

Then came the last event. The 100 meter dash. I had moved from my perch near the finish line where I had been giving my best effort to entertain my two-year old, The Tiger. I moved partially because The Tiger was no longer entertainable, at least not in the confines of her stroller and a full out fit was nearly inevitable, but also because the Road Runners (the team name of the 4 & 5 year olds,  although I’m not exactly sure why since I would hope not a one of them would be ever running on the road at this point. Maybe it’s a little more Wylie Coyotish? Do they even know that cartoon these days? They should probably be Baby Jaguars or something, anyhow…), they were getting a little antsy waiting for their turn at the final event and I thought a little more supervision, at least for mine, was in order.

At long last, The Little Miss took the ready position at the starting line. Ready position, as in the kind of ready position she’s supposed to get in for t-ball, squatted down a little, hands on her knees (maybe that’s what threw her off? No ball was hit in her direction). On coach’s command, she took off, giving it EVERYTHING she had. Unfortunately, about 10 steps in, everything she had with her upper body turned out to be much more than everything her legs had and she bit it. HARD.

Now, don’t worry too much. She was able to stop all that wicked fast forward momentum propelling her to the front of the pack. In an awesome display of toughness, she brought herself to a complete stop with…her face. But she did thankfully come to a stop eventually. But it wasn’t only her face that took the beating. Her hands, knees, legs, collar bone, and even her stomach all had some nice scrapes which we’d later discover after washing the track off of her.

And her brand new white running shirt I just bought her? Um, yeah. It pretty much looks like she went and laid under a four wheeler or something. It looks just exactly like a giant tire track down the front of her, might I repeat, NEW, shirt. For future reference, should you register your child for a track program that will take place on a black track and have the brilliant idea to pick out a nice new shirt for him or her to run in, if your options are black or white, the correct choice is NOT by any means white.

So what did my baby do after her major wipeout? She got right back up! (So proud) Sobbing, she started heading towards the finish line. Now, I’m not entirely sure whether or not she was heading down that way because she thought I was still standing there or because she just wanted to finish the race, but she had fallen pretty much right in front of me and I could see she had quite a bit of blood happening. So in an effort to both put an end to her misery and prevent her from freaking out when she realized she was bleeding, I hollered at her and waved her over. Her coach was nice enough to lift her over the fence to me so we could go get her cleaned up. “Oh man, that her hurt,” he said when he got an up close look at his little piece of road kill.

I left Tiger with my mom and took my beat up little princess to the bathroom by the hand, tears streaming down her face the entire way. Now, I’m sure it hurt. But she really only had two major concerns. One, she didn’t finish the race and get to help her team. And two, she wouldn’t get a ribbon for that race. **BEAMING WITH PRIDE RIGHT HERE FOLKS** I assured her that if we hurried and got her cleaned up, there were still a lot of kids that needed to run. Coach would probably give her another chance to run her race, but she’d need to stop crying because if she was still crying when we asked, he’d think she was still hurt and might not let her. And let me tell you something, if ever I needed a lesson in sucking it up, I got it right there! Hurt, banged up, snotty, sniffling, she found some way to stop crying. That’s how bad she wanted it.

Unfortunately, the weather had looked kind of questionable the entire time we were there. In fact, we started a little late because of some heavy rain just before go time. By the time my Little Miss & I got back out to the track, a mere 5 minutes at most later, the skies had turned to seriously threatening and Coach was getting sever weather alerts on his phone. He decided to call it and just in time. By the time my girls were strapped in their car seats a torrential downpour had hit. Needless to say perhaps, but The Little Miss was crushed.

So I did what any good mom would do at that point. ICE CREAM!!! We headed straight to the nearest restaurant and got her a great big gigantic banana split. I even let her suck the melted ice cream up with a straw at the end. Am I the coolest mom ever or what? At that point, I figured there’d be no salvaging the shirt so what the heck? Might as well let the girl have some fun in it. And because I know you all want to see the ice cream, blood, track covered brand new only worn for an hour or two shirt, here you go:

And as for my little champion. Here’s her pretending to be majorly injured this morning…

It’s not nearly as impressive now as it was last night when it happened and she was covered in black track soot (which was literally ALL over her, mixed with some blood on her face).

And here’s her proudly showing her “battle scars” which I told her proves she tough like a solider. She LOVES soldiers and man does she dig that!

So like mother (and father) like daughter. Both my husband and I had been known to fall a time or two at a track meet in our day. Me at my very first one, just like my kiddo. But I am entirely thrilled that it’s no skin off her back (it was her front) and she’s already ready to run another day. MY GIRL!!! Because what else can you do when you have a bad day? You pick yourself up and you go again and THAT my friends is an awesome lesson for her to have learned…as painful as it might have been.

 

P.S. Alrighty ladies and gents, I’m going all out and making this ANOTHER TWO POST DAY!!! You heard me right folks! ANOTHER giveaway is coming tonight and this one will have 20 winners! WOOHOO!!! Now don’t get too excited. It’s not like iPods or a free running shoes or anything. Actually, it’s rather inexpensive, but it’s super cool and you CAN NOT get it anywhere but here. They were all specially designed just for me and I’m THRILLED to get to share them with some of you all. So what the crack am I talking about? You’ll just have to pop back in tonight and see :-)

P.P.S. Time’s running short, real short, as in it ends tonight short on the $100 GNC gift card giveaway. Get in it while you still can! And while your scrounging around for some goodies, don’t forget to enter my Crave the Cute giveaway too!

Crave the Cute GIVEAWAY

Seriously look!!! Can you all believe it? Two posts in one day (well, maybe if I can get it all put together in the next 55 minutes and yeah mom, I know. I’m up way too late, but I’m an insomniac anyway so I might as well do something productive with my time while I wish I were sleeping).

My 5 year old daughter known to you all as The Little Miss had her first track practice tonight. As a former trackie myself, I was thrilled people. THRILLED!!! And especially because she loved every minute of it. The races, the long jump, the softball throw, the obstacle course, her own personal water bottle, her fancy pink and silver for running only shoes, the silly band exchange between newly acquired friends, some little boy declaring his love for her (ok…those last two were not exactly planned portions of the running program, but she enjoyed them nonetheless.)

She was actually kicking some butt too in the 100 meter dash until her specially designed for running and totally adorable hair bow fell out of her hair which she LOVES and thus had to stop running and go back to get (don’t worry, no ribbons were awarded tonight. It was just practice and she has made it fully clear that if something like that happens during the actual race she will NOT. STOP. RUNNING. not when a ribbon is on the line).

And I know what you’re thinking. What exactly is a specially designed for running hair bow? Oh, well I’m so glad you asked :-) Now enter, Crave the Cute.

A couple of weeks ago, right after I signed The Little Miss up for track and field, I was contacted by one of the extraordinarily creative owners of Crave the Cute, Jenny, who offered me a chance to test out one of their totally precious hair bows for running. Bows they created after Googling running hair bows and finding the prospects seriously lacking.  In fact, they found nothing although every other sport seemed to be very well represented. Annoyed with the feeling their sport was being slighted, Jenny and her co-owner Angie, took it upon themselves to right this wrong, and put an end to the discrimination of runners by hair bow manufacturers once and for all (in other words, they made some hair bows for runners).

Of course I was thrilled, to help these fine ladies out and I knew The Little Miss would be ecstatic about a new hair accessory and she did not disappoint. Upon opening our package, she first gasped “For me?” and then set to picking which of the two hair bows she would make her very own.  Here’s the ones we received:    

She decided on the 2nd one and even though we got them about a week ago, she remembered and reminded me REPEATEDLY today, that she’d need her hair bow for practice tonight. Here she is at the track modeling her bow and refusing to look at the camera (although, in her defense, RunDad was attempting to blind her with the sun in that first picture. The 2nd? Completely distracted).

And of course we need a few actions shots, right?
  

Softball throw (the girl with the green shirt who was running the event would be wise to turn around and look don’t ya think?)

 

Dancing in line for the long jump because after all, what else WOULD one do in line for long jump?

    LOOK AT THAT!!! Who knows long jump?Perfect hitch kick or what? That’s my girl!

I’m pretty sure she jumped 19ft. The picture’s deceiving ;-)

Kicking some butt in the 100 meter dash, before she lost her precious bow. Don’t worry, I’ll talk to her about putting that tongue back in her mouth ;-)

Now, in the bow’s defense. It did survive all events up until the last one AND it survived on the head of not just nay child, but my wild child 5 year old and that’s saying something. PLUS, I was in a rush to get out the door so I just clipped it quickly in her hair, which she has A TON of and it's hard to get anything to stay in, even her teacher at school once complained that to me. Next time, I’ll clip it to the pony tail holder itself and I’m sure it won’t go anywhere. These are some seriously high quality, heavy duty bows, not your run of the mill picked it up at the grocery store will probably break upon first use variety. These are awesome! And so so so cute!

AND I’ve got another one, that I’m highly tempted to keep, BUT alas, a promise is a promise and my promise was to give it away.  So if you’d like to snag yourself that other purple hair bow I’ve got my hot little hands on either to wear at one of your races yourself, or to give to a little sprinter in your life, here’s all you have to do:

REQUIRED FOR ENTRY:

1) Become a follower of this blog (upper right column) and leave me a comment to let me know you want in. And that's it. Could it get any simpler?

Want to better your chances? You can score yourself additional entries into the contest by doing any of the following (1 additional entry per method, limit 5):

1) “Like” Secrets of a Running Mom on Facebook

2) “Like” Crave the Cute on Facebook

3) Follow Secrets of a Running Mom on Twitter

4) Update your Facebook Status about this contest.

5) Tweet this contest.

6) Post a link on your blog about this contest.

7) Email everyone you know about this contest (or at least the people you think would be interested.)

8) Come up with some other creative way to promote this contest that I’m too tired to think of right now and let me know what it is (so I can steal that idea and use it in future giveaways to take over the world. Muwahahaha…ok, see. Way tired.)

Just leave me a comment (only one necessary) to let me know you want in and what your chosen methods of entry are. I’d HIGHLY recommend you choosing the method to “Like” Crave the Cute on Facebook. If you do, you’ll receive 10% off of your first online order with the discount code facebook10. And really, who doesn’t love a discount?

All entries must be received by 11:59:59 PM on July 5th. I’ll randomly select a contest winner old school style (big bowl, slips of paper, you know the drill) and announce the winner on the 6th.

Good luck!

P.S. Time’s running out on that $100 GNC gift card giveaway! So quick, click here for details before you miss your chance! Only 2 days left!

Um…I just ran

Yes, I’m very pregnant.

Yes, I told you all I was going to hang the running shoes up for awhile.

Yes, I had some weird pregnancy happenings early on that had me a little nervous (brace yourself here comes the big BUT, actually multiple buts…)

BUT, I do have the green light to run from my OBGYN.

But, we’ve figured out that the weird thing growing in there with my kiddo is a fibroid tumor, kind of big one, but it’s actually stopped growing, not causing any pain, nor harm to the baby and we’re just going to leave it alone. It is what it is. Nothing really we can do about it, at least not now.

But, the baby is doing GREAT!

But, I haven’t had anymore strong contractions nor any bleeding in about 3 weeks.

But, everyone in my family is running.

But, I just started coaching a pregnant mama and have been talking/thinking about pregnant running non-stop for the last week.

But, my 5 year old is about to start track & field and she really really REALLY wants to run in a kids race which is not going to happen unless mom or dad goes too.

But, I’ll be careful, watch for any indicators of a problem and STOP immediately.

But, I’ll wear a heart rate monitor and keep my heart rate down.

BUT my doctor said I could (did I say that already? I feel like I should add so there or something at the end of that one.)

So I did it! I just picked up, put on the running shoes and headed downstairs for the treadmill during Tiger’s nap while the Little Miss was out running  errands with her Daddy. I only went about a mile and a half and I went sloooooowly (funny how what seems kind of like a slow pace for you normally, sort of seems pretty quick while carrying a few pounds of bouncing baby in your belly.) Since I haven’t run other than to chase my toddler around in quite awhile, I opted for a run/walk, run 2 minutes, walk 2, keeping an eye on my heart rate the entire time. And can I just say: WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!! It felt so good to stretch those legs and break a little sweat again. I’m thinking 3X a week sounds about right. Now to find some cute maternity running clothes…

P.S. Last week to get in on that $100 GNC giftcard giveaway. Don’t miss it! Details here.

P.P.S. I have EVERY intention of making another post tonight. And you’re going to want to make sure you come back for this one. It’s another GIVEAWAY!!!! In fact, I believe I have 3 giveaways to post this week so, you know, bookmark me or something. :-)

P.P.P.S. Yes, that’s a foot on my kid's head, a minute earlier and it was in his/her eye. Go figure!

The Recurring Running Dreams

So most of you know, I’m **sniff sniff** not running at all right now. I’m a big fan of women who keep right on running through their pregnancy, but for me a few little red flags early on with this one has me opting to slow down, waaaaaaay down and just play it safe (that whole story is right here if you missed it before and you’re interested.)

But in my dreams, I’m not only running, I’ve had a few very interesting running escapades, two of which in particular, seem to be popping up on a somewhat frequent basis. So, I thought I’d share. You all can feel free to give me your best psycho-analysis of what they mean (and yeah, I know they probably just mean I’m craving to lace up those kicks, but I’m sure you all have a much more creative humorous interpretation that will be fun for us all to read. So fire away).

Dream Numero Uno:

I’m breaking the news to some member of my family, my husband, my parents, my sister, someone. I’ve made this major decision.  And by major, I mean big. BIG.  The whole tone of this dream is, “Sit down. I’ve got to tell you something.” Basically, after giving it a lot of thought, I’ve decided I’m going to try out for the cross country team…at my local high school. Seriously. And no, I don’t mean I’m 15 or 16 again in the dream. I’m still me, 32 year old mamma of two with one on the way. In fact, my two kiddos are running around under foot the entire time I’m talking. The last time I had this one, my mom, after I tell her,  in all seriousness says, “Honey, do you think that’s really going to be a good idea when you’re nine months pregnant?” At which point, my dreamself seems to be entirely confused for a few moments, then takes stock of her enormous belly and says, “I know, but I really think I can do this.” So lookout Eagles, you’ve got some mighty tough competition coming this fall.

Dream #2:

I’m not pregnant anymore. I’m competing in some kind of endurance running event, which I initially thought was a marathon until the course winds its way to the side doors of a building. The doors lead into a locker room, “transition 1”, where I am supposed to change for the next portion of the race. Only there’s a problem. I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing on the next leg. I have no clothes to change into and I don’t have a transition area setup (which for everybody else is a locker). So basically I’m just standing there, watching everybody trying to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing, finally settling on the idea that I’m just supposed to change my shirt. (Why? No clue.) Suddenly, I find a locker for myself and grab a shirt. Then I run into a bathroom stall figuring I’ve already wasted enough time, I might as well take two more seconds to pee.

Upon doing so, I realize the ONE thing you don’t want to discover mid race has happened. Yep. I started my period. And to make matters worse, I’m entirely unprepared for this. No pads. No tampons. No nothing. Not even back in my magically appearing transition locker. And nobody else has anything either or at least they’re not sharing. So I did the one and only thing you CAN do in a situation like this….I woke myself up (HA! It was a dream remember. No sense running on your period with no feminine products if you don’t have to!)

So that’s them. And just for your background knowledge, I’m no stranger to weird dreams while pregnant. I can still remember being near the end of my first pregnancy and dreaming that I was in the hospital, but not a regular hospital. It was like a strange hidden secret hospital in the middle of a forest somewhere. Everything was white or metallic, futuristic and cold. The doctors were dressed entirely in white and spoke in strange accents. I don’t recall whether or not the baby I delivered was a boy or a girl but that was probably because I was distracted by it’s giant massive head, larger than a full grown adult’s, which was sitting on top of it’s perfectly formed, but teeny weeny body. And by teeny weeny I mean, about like the size of a quarter.

The child was also semi-transparent. The entire dream was about me trying to protect my weird alienish baby from some unknown but very real danger. It was so strange, but I’m pretty sure I was having that one b/c I was absolutely TERRIFED of delivering my husband’s child after being repeatedly warned by various members of his family about him having a giant head when he was born. TERRIFIED. (For the record, she did have a big giant perfectly round, non-coning head, but hey, I survived. I was even game for a couple more.)

As for these recurring running dreams, I don’t know. Anybody got any thoughts, dream analysis, wild made up interpretations? Or how about any weird pregnancy/running dreams of your own you’d care to share? I’m all ears…

P.S. Did you see? I’m giving away $100 GNC gift card. Click here for details.

P.P.S. Yes, Miss A I will (eventually)post a picture of me with the baby bump. In fact, it’s about time I gave you all a little update on me, baby and…um…friend(?) don’t you think?

The Hydration Police + A GIVEAWAY

Ok so I’m venting first before we get to that giveaway, but it’s about time we did another one don’t you think? How’s a $100 GNC Gift Card sound? Interested? Then read on my friend. Read on.

First, in the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that I have issues, specifically hydration issues. Ever since my first marathon in Detroit a few years back in which I ended up with a wicked case of hyponatremia (Fancy Nancy’s word for low blood sodium), I’m a little bit sensitive when it comes to the issue of hydration because, to put it bluntly, to not be properly hydrated blows massive chunks in a major way. In fact, it can even be life threatening.

So when I saw this little article called What You Need to Know About Runner Hydration  posted by Active.com’s Facebook page last week, I took a little peek and found myself fiercely annoyed, partially with the article, but more so with many of the commenters (my apologies if you happened to see that article too and commented. I surely am not referring to YOUR comment ;-).

You can read the article for yourself if you like, but the basic premise is this: drink when you’re thirsty, no more no less. Badda boom badda bing. You’ll be good to go. Now here is the point where I’d like to pick apart various aspects of the article and a few logic problems in even some of the arguments made by “the experts” such as this statement from William O. Roberts, M.D., past president of ACSM and long-time medical director of the Twin Cities Marathon. "Slower, back of the pack runners who aren't sweating as much don't need to replace so much fluid." (I’m sorry, has he not ever taken a look at the back of the pack? Not only are some of these people sweating MORE than the ones up in the front, they are doing it for a longer period of time and because it takes longer for them to complete their race they are often doing so during a hotter portion of the day which would make a person what? Say it with me now…sweat more. HELLO?)

And this by Timothy D. Noakes, M.D., a professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and author of The Lore of Running, speaking on why thirst should be the only indicator as to when you should drink, “It is the only system used by all other creatures on this earth. Why should it not also be ideal for humans?" (Um…I don’t know…maybe because humans actually know that they’ll be running for another 15 miles and that the weatherman said the temperature is going to reach 90 degrees while they’re out there doing so?)

But rather than go through each and every point where I said to myself, “yeah, but…” let me just for the sake of space, move on, because when I finished the article what was even more frustrating was the FB comments in which I was introduced for the first time to the hydration police. Did you know there is such a thing? I had no idea.

Now, in case you’re like I was, blissfully unaware of their existence, let me fill you in. Apparently, there is a whole slew of people who have the one the ONLY answer, for all of us silly runners on exactly how we should hydrate. Never you mind that these hydration laws vary from officer to officer.  The important thing is to just drink more in your daily life and use nothing on your runs…or drink exactly 16 ounces of water before and 16 ounces after….or use ONLY Coconut Water…I mean flat pop (that’d be soda for those of you who are not from MI) and nothing else as nothing else stands even a remote chance of meeting your hydration needs. (Note to reader: I did not actually go re-look up the comments and cite the hydration laws specifically as commented. If you would like the accurate law for your area from your officer, please check the Active FB page, find the post and contact your officer specifically. I can not be held responsible should you find yourself charged with the breaking of a hydration law and subject to a penalty of…well, I don’t know, but it’s probably something like being forced to suck down a few Gu Packets of your least favorite variety with no water to wash it down or something like that. Hydrate at your own risk ;-). Apparently, these people are THE official source for proper running hydration for EVERYONE. Any other ideas on hydration are just wrong, at least according to the self appointed fluid patrol anyway.

PEOPLE! This is so stupid! If there is a hydration law it’s this: Everybody’s different, and thankfully the Active article is salvaged at the end when it admits just that. What works for me, may not work for you or your cousin’s uncle’s sister (which would probably be your aunt then eh?). People vary in size, sweat rate, the amount of sodium in their sweat, what their stomach can tolerate, and on and on. Runs vary in length, duration, and weather conditions. Science changes. Technology improves. What’s true today isn’t always true tomorrow. So when it comes down to it, really each one of us has to figure out what we need on a run by testing it out. There is no one size fits all answer for how to hydrate on a run which is unfortunate because it IS vitally important. Trying to adhere to someone's surefire hydration rule when your body is telling you otherwise is not by any stretch of the imagination a wise move.

YES! If you are thirsty, you need to drink (DUH! Really, did we need scientific experiments to tell us this). But perhaps drinking a little swig of a sports drink that’s high in electrolytes (G2ProSeries is one I like because it’s higher in electrolytes than the average bear and I kind of like the taste, but it’s not by any means the ONLY one that works. Ok sidetracked. Where was I? Swig…sports drink…ah yes…), every mile or two works better for me because I’m generally lost in my thoughts when I run and I don’t think about being thirsty until it’s too late, waaaaaaaaaay too late and then it’s really hard for me to recover from. PLUS, I don’t like that sloshy stomach feeling I get if I have to chug a lot at one time.  But that’s just me, and it’s taken some trial and error on my part to figure it out. But let me say it one more time, everybody’s different! In fact, I am going to PROVE that to all of you out there, particularly any newbie runners, who are still scratching their heads.  Just wait and see…

Now, let’s move onto more fun things :-)

I don’t know about where you live, but it’s certainly getting hot around these parts. Other than today (which was just beautiful!) it’s been more Augustish than Junish lately and if that’s any indicator of what summer is going to be like this year, we’re all going to be in need of a few extra hydration products I do believe! Fortunately for us (go us!) Jeffrey, with GNC has offered both little ‘ole me and a lucky one of you a GNC gift card so we can do just that (OR you could just buy whatever your little heart desires. As you wish my dear :-).  So let’s get to giving away shall we?

Requirements for Entry:
1. Follow this blog (upper right corner) OR become a fan of Secrets of a Running Mom on Facebook.

2. Become a fan of GNC on Facebook.

3. Follow both GNC and GNC’s Marketing Director, Jeff Hennion on Twitter.

4. Leave me a comment. Letting me know you’ve done all of the above and also how you hydrate on a run (see…here’s the part where I show you the wide variety of ways to tackle hydration, how everybody’s different, and all that jazz).

I know that’s more requirements than I usually…um…require, but the good news is that Jeffrey said they do a lot of giveaways on their FB page and Twitter accounts and besides, seriously, I left you all the links right there so we’re just talking a few clicks and since I know you all are constantly logged onto Twitter and Facebook anyhow, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. ;-)

But I know you probably want a few ways to earn some MORE entries for such a sweet prize right? So I’ll give you a few more for doing a little PR work and promoting this contest. Don’t worry, nothing too tough. You could email your friends, post it as your Facebook status, tweet it, blog about it, put a link on your blog, mention it on a chat board in your favorite running community, whatever you can come up with to spread the word. For each different method you use, I’ll give you one more entry into the contest, limit 5, just make sure to include in your comment what methods you used.

This contest is open to U.S. and Canadian residents only (sorry my international friends, them’s the rules this time.) And if you’ve already won a GNC gift card in 2011, then you are unfortunately not eligible this time around. All entries must be received by 11:59:59 PM on June 24th, 2011. The winner of the $100 GNC gift card will be selected randomly by either my Tiger Toddler or my T-balling 5 year old from a giant bowl filled with all of your names on little slips of paper (we’re old school here and, hey, it’s fun for my kids). I’ll announce the lucky gal or fella the next day.

Best of luck to you all! And happy hydrating!