Race Report : ADM Recovery Challenge 5K

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Julie @ ROJ Running

On Saturday my friends, coworkers, and family took to the grounds of the Interval Brotherhood Home in Akron, OH for the first annual ADM Recovery Challenge 5K! R/C was an obstacle course run filled with lots of fun for runners of all ages and abilities. I saw toddlers on the course and I know a man approaching 80 also completed the challenge!

Personally I brought my Mom, sister, and Jason along for the fun. No one will believe me, but I was up and ready on time! I opted to wear my Pretty Muddy shirt, hoping some people who want to check it out in the fall. As a happy Zensah ambassador I also wore a pair of my compression socks. My legs were comfy the entire time and as usual I received SO MANY compliments. One lady told me I was the “Best Dressed” another said I should win “Best Socks” about a mile later.

It wasn’t hard to figure out where to go from the field for parking and we made our way into a gymnasium area. I have to give the race committee props for the wonderful execution of parking and registration. Some first-year events fail on both accounts, but both seemed to be smooth and flawless for me. The ladies picked up gear while Jason registered. I also scoped out the prizes table. Then we formed a line and all pinned each other since we were required to wear bibs on our backs. SWAG included a blue t-shirt, various promotion pamphlets one of those reusable cloth grocery bags, pens/pencils, band-aids, a lint brush and several pieces of food/candy.

We all went outside to enjoy the nice weather and ran into my friend and coworker Deonna and her new boyfriend Thomas.

Soon we were all off and into the excitement of the race.

Mom and Becky “ran” off ahead while Deonna, Jason, and I all walked the course and chatted. Along the way we saw another coworker, Nellie, and had a blast overcoming obstacles like a spider’s web, jumping logs, a balance beam, low crawling, hale bale climbing, tire jumps, and of course the grand finale of a slip-n-slide type finish!

For even more great pictures check out the Flickr stream for the race.

There were two different water stops along the way, plenty of course markings, and WONDERFUL crowd support. After we had Subway sandwhiches, fruit, chips, candy and lots of other goodies along with more water. For those who have never done a 5K I think it was a great event. Speaking as someone who had never done one before, Jason enjoyed himself. I think it was also Deonna’s first time and she liked it too! Mom and Becky were all smiles. I may have been the only one not overly excited, but I guess it may be because some of the obstacles were a little too “kid friendly” for me. This was about families and community support though, if I wanted rough I should go do a Tough Mudder, right?

If you’re local I would highly suggest you come over and run with us next year for year #2! I mean let’s be honest, looking at those pictures you KNOW you could have spared $25 and joined in, right?

Turn Any Light into the Spotlight!

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Julie @ ROJ Running

Last week I had the great pleasure of attending the “Turn Any Light into the Spotlight” event at Charles Scott Salon in Rocky River. The event was hosted by ELLE magazine and Wella Professionals. I learned about it from a new Blogger outreach service called Canopi. In exchange for attending and writing about my experience I was treated to a night of pampering.

I drove about an hour to my location, where I was relieved of the annoyance of driving by valet service! Once inside I walked to the reception area, looking around and being amazed at the beauty. Well beauty except for the ELLE cover featuring one of my top 5 celebs I wish would just go away and not come back. Haha. (Not being a hater, not wishing anything bad upon her, just don’t care for anything about her).

Everything was black & white with pops of color. Even those working the event were wearing little black dresses with bold heels. There was a lovely sitting area, the nail salon section and the various hair stations. I would learn the spa and makeup area were toward the back and left. It was a little time lord science with how expansive the inside was compared to what you might expect.

After entering, I was offered champagne with strawberries, but asked for a bottle of water instead. I was brought tap water and after confirming 3 times it was “plain water” I tried it and told one of the ladies it tasted “funny”. She told me it probably had strawberries and other fruit in the serving bowl. Trying not to be too irritated I explained I have allergies and it would be great if I could have the bottle of water. They of course apologized and I wasn’t too upset, but the fact remains I asked if it was normal water, they said it was normal water, it wasn’t normal water. The rest of the night I was too nervous to trust the food, and for sure missed out on some wonderful treats! I know from other people there was a desert area, but I missed it completely!

Soon I felt better as I was being treated to a fabulous night. My hair dresser curled my hair and showed me a fun new cone type tool. I really liked the wave effect it had on me, and wish I had some type of spray or gel to hold it. All their products were scented so I had to pass.

Once my hair was done I decided to skip makeup and wondered around talking to various blogger friends. I saw Julie and Julie. Met a girl named Katie and saw a girl I already knew named Katie…who had a very special 25th birthday on Friday! I saw Kimberly, but didn’t get to talk with her and there was also Crystal who I always love talking with because she has one of the warmest smiles I have ever seen. Oh and I saw Jess too, a girl I met my first year of running and have only seen via social media the past several years.

Other highlights included meeting the owner of the salon, professional pictures with a backdrop (one of my weaknesses), and a live DJ. I joked around with my blogger girls that I should start a new blog called “Don’t let the Coach purse fool you: I don’t belong here”. The thing is though, no one was making me feel this way except myself. The staff was warm and welcoming, the attendees were warm and welcoming, not a single judgment was passed, except by me on myself. OK and by me when I saw “Color for your hair down there”.

Tell me that isn’t funny to you! Anyway….after I calmed down and enjoyed the experience I opted to have my nails done. I have only had my nails done professionally one other time. When I went to Kansas City to see my friend Jen last January. I blame it on trail running, but really I miss having my nails look nice. I used to spend HOURS in middle school and high school painting them and decorating them with toothpicks and fun design. I took to Twitter and Instagram for some help in picking a color and settled on yellow. It’s been fun having bold, bright, spring time nails. It was certainly a step outside of my comfort zone and I’m glad I went for it.

Wella and ELLE also gave us nice little gift bags when we left featuring samples of their hair products, a water bottle and the latest ELLE issue. Canopi will also be sending a special gift to my house. I’m excited to see what other goodies I will receive!

It was a lovely evening and I’m glad I went. I know this isn’t really a fashion blog, but I’m still a female and for me embracing being a female approaching 30 sometimes involves pampering and looking pretty. Thank you ELLE, Wella and Canopi for the experiece. Ladies (or men) in the Cleveland area you should check out Charles Scott Salon & Spa (two locations) and Bloggers you should look into hooking up with Canopi for the inside scoop to your local events. I leave you with this picture, which I found on Q104′s site (a local radio station) following a link to their review. Obviously, I wasn’t tagged in it, but I’m still excited to be in an image used by someone/something important.

Make sure you check Twitter and Instagram with @WellaHairUSA or the tag #ELLEMagazine for other moments from the event.

Friday Food : Cherry Limeade LaCroix

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Julie @ ROJ Running

Most of you know I am obsessed with Cherry Limeade. You may have figured this out when I made Cherry Limeade Sugar Cookies this Christmas. Well now I have done it again with Cherry Limeade LaCroix! Well, technically it’s just Cherry Limeade water, but have you tried LaCroix water? It’s a sparkling water, but it doesn’t have any artificial colors or sugars. And I mean no sugars at all, not even tricky natural sugars like stevia that still sucks. Haha. I love it because the bubbles and can trick my mind into thinking we’re drinking pop, but we arrrreeeennn’t! They even have their own recipes section.

Cherry Limeade LaCroix

What you need:

1 cup cherries (I used frozen, pitted)
1 can LaCroix lime water

Directions:

Combine cherries and water in a blender, pulse or blend to desired consistenc

Comments:

Okay I admit this is a rather “easy” recipe, but for all the people flocking to homemade “-ades” this tastes just as great and doesn’t have any sugar in it other than the sweetness in the cherries. I also see all the fast food places like McDonald’s or Dunkin’ Doughnuts advertising their frozen drinks. This makes my teeth and stomach hurt when I think of all the weird stuff tossed into those mixes. Try this instead and throw in ice cubes. You’ll have your own frozen delight in just minutes and at a fraction of the cost, both to your wallet and your health.

LaCroix comes in a lot of different flavors including lemon, lime, coconut, raspberry, orange, and just original “water” type flavor. If you don’t get a flavored version consider adding lime or lemon juice extract to make your -ade?.

How about all of you. Do you like flavored water? How do you trick yourself when you need a treat? Maybe you don’t need to trick yourself at all?

Oh and for those wondering, I’m not connected to La Croix, I just like ‘em!