Adventure Run and Bloggers Go Bananas!

Man last week was sure a fun one for blogger meet ups, running, and 4th of July fun!  After the super official 4th of July Mimosa 10K Fun Run, I had another running adventure lined up for the next night.  Every first Thursday in the summer Road Runner Sports at Greenlake does an Adventure run.  I've been meaning to participate for like the past 3 years but never did until last week.  And since summer decided to arrive it was  HOT one.

a whole lotta runners!

Here is how it works:

At 6PM sharp Road Runner reveals a huge map with a bunch of businesses on it.  You also get a GPS enabled map emailed to you if you pre-registered that tells you the distances between each checkpoint.

not my map, but a previous one stolen from here

Since I know the neighborhood pretty well my girlfriends and I quickly decided on a strategy.  We wrote down a few of the locations and took off!

You have exactly 60 minutes to run around, collect tickets, and get back to Road Runner.  Some checkpoints get your more tickets depending on their distance from the start and some you can get more tickets for doing things like jumping jacks, going on a slippy slide, etc.

We ran and ran and ran and went up a big hill, down a big hill, up another hill, and down again.  What I thought might be a super leisurely 3 miles ended up being a speedy, hilly 5 miles.  When we returned we handed in all our tickets to be entered in a raffle to win TONS of prizes.

Hydration, hydration, dehydration

They rattle off the winning numbers so quickly you really have to pay attention!  Seasoned Adventure Runners had creative ways to keep track of their numbers like placing the all on a long piece of tape in order...clearly I was a virgin!  Sadly, I did not win anything but one of my friends won a gift certificate to a restaurant and a Starbucks gift bag.

We all agreed it was a fun time and I will definitely be back next monday.  Seattle runners - mark your calendars for August 2!


Next up...Blogger Go Bananas!


Kerrie at Mom vs. Marathon was contacted by Dole to hold a bananas party and although we all thought it was a bit odd we figured why not get together, chat and eat yummy bananas?  That isn't weird at all right?  So, on Sunday afternoon I made the trek out to Kerrie's house and hung out with some super fun ladies eating all things bananas.

She definitely went all out with the bananas and monkey theme and even had "banana" music on for us to enjoy.  Some of the recipes were standard banana fare like banana bread, peanut butter and banana sandwiches and smoothies.  Other things that were surprisingly delicious included banana protein bars and banana chicken curry salad.  I will post recipes to both really soon...promise!

We indulged in all things bananas and then took a walk on the trail by her house just chatting about everything under the sun...it was so great to get to know these ladies better!

Zoe, Me, Chelsea, Mel, Kerrie, Nicole

Before we left we got a little swag bag from Dole that contained this contraption...Nicole's face sums up all our feelings/thoughts about this device.

Get your minds out of the gutter...it's a banana guard to keep your banana safe from bruising in your lunch box :)

Thanks Dole for thinking of a fun way for us ladies to get together and spend an afternoon!

Question: Do you love bananas?  Do you often eat them straight up or in smoothies, bread etc.?