Beats by Dre Dre Winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered!  I loved so many of the "power songs" and will definitely be adding them to my playlist.

But I know the REAL reason you're reading this, and that is to see if you are the winner of the giveaway!

The winner is -

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats Carson! Please send me an email with your mailing address and product of your choice from here in the next 48 hours.

If I do not hear from Carson I will choose another winner.

Thanks again!

Until next time,

Jen 

Beats by Dr Dre Review + Giveaway (closed)

Disclaimer: I was offered a complimentary set of Beats by Dr. Dre earbuds in exchange for a review and giveaway.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Before a run or a workout, one of the first things I do is grab my headphones so I can jam out to some music during exercise.  Hearing the upbeat music keeps me motivated and even helps with my cadence.

I’ve been using yurbuds but am always open to checking out new products.  Staples was kind enough to offer me a pair of Beats by Dr Dre headphones of my choice (up to $250 value) to review and share my thoughts on.  I chose the urbeats in-ear headphones as they had a feature that my yurbuds do not - the ability to answer phone calls and control my music all from the cable.



I’ve read good things about the urbeats headphones so I couldn’t wait to try them out!  I had intended on using them during the Esprit de She 5k back in November, but silly me forgot to check how they fit in my ear…too big :(  Luckily, they come with 4 different size ear bud attachments, so you’re bound to find one that fits your ear like a glove!

I always have an issue with the cord on my headphones getting crazy tangled up.  These ear buds have tangle free cords AND came with a handy little pouch to store them in when you aren’t using them.  Super clever!  I also love that they come with a clip to help manage the excess cable during your workouts.  I always have an issue with figuring out where to tuck the extra cable so it doesn't get in my way - the clip makes that so much easier.



Once I found the perfect size ear bud for my body, I took them for a spin on the stair climber at the gym.  They.Didn’t.Budge!  The sound quality was also fantastic.  I couldn’t hear anyone else around me on their machines or their conversations.   I love having the volume adjustment on the cord as well.  It’s so much easier to use than using the volume control on my phone.  Answering phone calls is easily done from the cable without having to fumble to pull an ear bud out and pick up your phone to your ear.  (I forgot to take a picture of myself at the gym, but I’m using them now to listen to Christmas music while I type up this post!)



Want a pair of your own?  Staples has graciously offered the winner of my giveaway their choice of Beats by Dr Dre product (up to $250 value) from here.  I know you’re probably busy buying gifts for friends and loved ones, so why not take a shot and enter to win something for yourself, right?

Enter using the Rafflecopter below.  The giveaway will begin on Wednesday, December 11, and end at midnight on Friday, December 20.  The winner will be announced by Friday afternoon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Until next time,

#ChotallyAwesome

Last month I received an email from Chobani telling me they were going to travel across the country to meet some of their fans, and they wanted to make me one of their stops.

Say wha???

 
I emailed back enthusiastically willing to participate!

Well….the day was today…and it was #ChotallyAwesome!

I didn’t have a large group of people who were able to come…but two of my new running friends, Kevin and Cathy, were able to come by and participate in the fun!  We were sitting in my living room and heard what sounded like a large truck.  We went outside and saw the Chobani truck parking outside my house!

That’s right…the truck came to me!

I met Lee and Joe, the guys behind the wheel of the Cho Truck (if you’re reading…hi guys!)  They were awesome and let me be a dork and take pictures with the truck (I took some with them but they turned out to be too dark) :( 

Selfie with the truck!

We chatted a bit along with Kevin and Cathy, and then Joe and Lee gave me a goody bag from Chobani complete with a signed card welcoming me to the Chobani family, a beanie, a bracelet, water bottle, and glass Chobani cup along with FOUR CASES OF CHOBANI!!!  I was overwhelmed and surprised!

Then Joe took me over to do a quick little interview for a video they’ll be putting together once the Cho truck is done with its tour.  I was a bit put on the spot so I was all over the place, but I trust that Chobani has excellent people that work in their media department and won’t make me look like a babbling Southern girl! :)  I’ll make sure to post the video when I know that it’s done!

 
Kevin and Cathy didn’t walk away empty handed – they also got 4 case to take home and enjoy!

(Notice how the girls are the ones holding the yogurt)  :)

Not too long after we bid farewell to our new friends as they headed off to get some rest…they have more events in Atlanta to share the Chobani love with tomorrow and Wednesday!

Now it was time for me to make some room in the fridge for all this goodness!  I got Strawberry, Blueberry, Orange Vanilla, and Key Lime flavors…yum!

 
I know the hubby and I wouldn’t be able to get through all this so I’ll be taking some to work to share with my coworkers, some to my parents house this weekend to share with them, and enjoy some for myself.

My favorite part was receiving the card from the employees of Chobani – I’ll be hanging this in my cube at work tomorrow -

Chobani – a HUGE THANK YOU for stopping by my house and sharing Chobani with me and my friends.  You guys rock and I look forward to working with you in the future!!

Have you tried Chobani?  What’s your favorite flavor?

Until next time,

::Crickets::

So again...it's been nothing but crickets and cobwebs around here....and for that I'm sorry.

It's time to dust off the cobwebs and feed the crickets to my lizards (we have two bearded dragons and a leopard gecko) and get back to sharing with you guys!

I've hit the gym a couple of times but not nearly as much as I should be.  I need to get my ass in gear and just do it!

It's going to be a busy weekend for me - tomorrow morning I'm running the Jingle Jog 5k with Ramona and Sharon, then it's home to shower and cook because we're hosting a Christmas party for some friends tomorrow night!

I have lots of recaps to share with you as well as catching back up with my Foodie Fridays...what better time of year than now to share some tasty recipes?

Thanks for sticking around and i promise I'll be back!

Until next time,

Jen

#OnTheRoadToDisneyParks Meet up – Atlanta Edition

WARNING!  LONG POST AHEAD!!

I was one of the lucky 100 people to participate in the very first runDisney #OnTheRoadToDisneyParks meet up in Atlanta!

The night before was like a race night – I laid my clothes out, got my bag packed, and went to bed early.  I was like a kid on Christmas eve!!

I woke up bright and early at 4:30 a.m. and made it to Turner Field at 6:00.  My BRF Brandi and her parents were waiting for me when I got there.  We walked inside the stadium and got our fabulous runDisney shirt and a wristband.  There was so much excitement in the air!We quickly changed into our shirts, checked our bags, took some pictures and mingled with some old and new friends!
   

I finally got to meet Kristin from BamaGirlRuns!  Such a sweet girl and I hope to see her again soon! :)

We also got the chance to chat a bit with Darrell Fry, head of Disney Sports PR team.  He was nice enough to wish me a Happy Birthday!

 

Soon after, we gathered around to hear Michael Cain chat with us a bit about the itinerary for the morning then turned it over to Brian from New Balance.  He led us in a mini Good Form running clinic, telling us the four main things to focus on during a run were posture, midfoot, cadence, and lean.  The runDisney photographer caught a good picture of me focusing on tweeting while working on my form -

 
                                         Photos courtesy of runDisney

Michael came back on and brought out a very special guest….Mickey!

Bob Hitchcock then took the stage and asked if we were ready to run…of course we were!  We would split up into two groups – a straight run group and then the run/walk group.  Jeff Galloway would be leading the run/walkers and Bob and Brian would lead the straight run group.

 

We let the straight run group go first, and then we were off! (Please excuse the blurriness of my photos…it’s difficult to run and take good pictures at the same time)

We had our own police escort…Brandi and I agreed that it made us feel like we were leading a race!  The Atlanta Track Club was hosting a pacing group run for the Atlanta half marathon that same morning and cheered for us as we ran by.  I love the camaraderie runners have.

 

I have to say it was pretty awesome to run underneath the Olympic rings with an Olympian!

We did a quick loop around the State Capitol (fun fact – that’s real gold on the dome of the capitol and it was all mined in Dahlonega, GA…where I went to college!)

We headed back down to Turner Field.  I hung back and ran with my friend, Marie, who I met during the Publix half marathon this past March.

We were directed down a ramp where Brandi was waiting, and then we ran out onto the field!!  It was so incredibly cool to be out on the field.  We also played around in the dugout for a bit

 

If you haven’t heard, the Braves are leaving Turner Field for a new stadium in 2017.  Turner Field was first the Olympic Stadium where the track and field events for the 1996 Olympic and Paralympic games were held.  it was then converted into the baseball stadium that it is now.  If you’ve ever been to Turner Field and you see the large brick columns outside, those were left from the Olympic Stadium.  They have plans to tear down Turner Field, so I may have taken some of the rock from the warning track home with me (will post how I’m displaying it soon) -

We had another special guest waiting for us at home plate – Minnie Mouse!

 
                           Photos courtesy of runDisney

As Brandi and I headed out of the stadium, we decided to kind of recreate our video we made while running around Angel Stadium during the Dumbo Double Dare back in August (don’t laugh at us!)

We ran back up into the plaza area where they had a healthy breakfast waiting for us…lots of fruit, cereals, Greek yogurt, eggs, water, and coffee.

Our cue that the speakers were starting was a promotional video that runDisney had put together.  It started the presentations off to a great start!  Michael came back up and introduced our first speaker, Tammy Jacobson, Marketing Manager from runDisney.
Tammy announced a new hashtag that will be coming to Instagram soon called #WhyIRunDisney.  You can record and submit a 15 second video showing why you run Disney, and a select few will be chosen to have a home interview to go more indepth.  Keep an eye out for this soon!

Next up was runDisney’s own rockstar and guru trainer, Jeff Galloway!
He talked about his run/walk method and how he’s going to try and qualify for the Boston Marathon at Space Coast!!  If you see him along the course be sure to cheer him on!

After Jeff we had Tara Gidus, runDisney’s nutritionist -She expressed the importance of getting something into our body before our runs.  She also asked if anyone had gained weight during half marathon training (guilty party here!).  She said we often justify eating more than we should by the distance that we run.  I really need to remember this piece of advice!

I think everyone was excited about the next speaker….Ali from New Balance!They posted a teaser video about the 2014 runDisney New Balance shoes shortly after the Wine and Dine meet up, and we got a sneak peek of the second teaser video before it was posted to the public on Saturday!  This year, Sorceror Mickey and Pink Minnie will grace the sought after shoe.  It will be the same shoe style as 2013, and this year they will be adding kids shoes!
  
Here’s the video if you haven’t already seen it -

Ali brought up Barbara Parker, an Olympic runner from the UK.  She has been running since she was 9, but confessed to us that she has NEVER been to Disney World; therefore, she has not run a Disney race!!  I think all 100 guests gasped at the same time.  She joined the run/walk group since she is 15 weeks pregnant with her first child…a baby girl!…and wanted to take it nice and easy.Finally, Warren Green from Runner’s World spoke to the group.
Warren talked about Runner’s World’s partnership with runDisney for the Runner’s World Challenge and announced that it would be back in 2015!  I had the opportunity to speak with Warren after the event and we talked about the Runner’s World events in Pennsylvania.  He said one of the most popular events was the one mile dog race!  I would love to do it with Guinness if we ever found ourselves in the area when it was going on.

Before the event ended, we had the chance to get a picture with Mickey and Minnie….it’s just not a Disney event without some characters!
  
                                        Photos courtesy of runDisney

Brandi and I walked out into the stands and took a few more pictures of an empty Turner Field -

When we came back we saw one of our fellow ATLrunsDisney gals, Amy, being interviewed by Bob.  We hung around and then Bob got me up in front of the camera!

Here’s the final product of the video…you might see a familiar face in there ;)

After the interview Brandi and I took a quick peek into our new runDisney/ESPN Wide World of Sports bags and found an awesome runDisney hat!  We refer to it as our “Jeff Galloway” hat as it’s the one he’s seen wearing during the events.
Yep…we’re cool like that.

We took a few more pictures before heading out.
 
  
                   Team#runDisney                                            ATLrunsDisney
                                                  Photos by runDisney

Had to snap a picture of the bling for the 2014 runDisney race year before leaving!

Brandi, her parents and myself went out for a belated birthday brunch after the meet up at Chick-A-Biddy.  The food was fantastic and I will definitely go back!

As if the experience and the shirts weren’t enough, runDisney hooked us up with a fabulous bag of swag!

It included a runDisney/ESPN WWoS water bottle and drawstring bag, a runDisney hat, a magnet, a pen, a water bottle holder, lots of Luna bars, a Puma gift card, and a runDisney bracelet.
runDisney, there aren’t enough words to describe my gratitude for this fantastic event.  I met so many new running friends and had a blast with fellow runDisney enthusiasts like myself.  THANK YOU!!!

While they did not announce where the next stop will be, I highly recommend keeping an eye on runDisney’s Twitter page and the Disney Parks blog.  You can also follow with the hashtag #OnTheRoadToDisneyParks.

Have you been to a runDisney meet up before?  What was your favorite part?

Until next time,

  

LiveJournal Tags: runDisney meet up,Atlanta,runDisney,Turner Field,Jeff Galloway,New Balance,Olympics,ESPN Wide World of Sports,Disney Parks blog,Twitter