Growing up, part of the fun of being a teenage girl was taking those horrible personality surveys.  "What kind of flirt are you?"  "Are you a good best friend?" you know the kind.  Where you notice the trend immediately and answer all A's so you can be the best kind of BFF!

Well thanks to Runner's World, you can re-live those teenage memories and find out what kind of runner you are!  Actually, it was an interesting quiz and made me think about why I actually run.  So give it a shot and head on over there to TAKE THE QUIZ! 

And if you feel like it, read more to find out what kind of runner I am and maybe even share your own results. 

The Color Run is coming back to Grand Rapids this weekend, so I thought now would be a great time to do a flashback about one year to when I ran my first Color Run. 

It was one of my first 5ks and the one that I had originally used as my motivation to start running again, so it's a nice trip back to see how far I've come and also to give a shout out to The Color Run for helping motivate me to get started.

Over the next couple of days, I'm going to be working on putting together a Calendar of Events for upcoming races.  If you have an event that you want listed, please just shoot me an e-mail (click on the icon above!). 

It's going to take awhile to get everything listed, and due to my desire to keep my sanity, I'm only going to be listing RUNNING events.  Meaning, sorry, but I won't be putting dualathalons and biathalons and triathalons on the calendar...  For now.  Maybe in the future!

If you have any comments or suggestions on how to organize the calendar, lemme know!  I'm open to suggestions.  As long as they're the right ones! ;)

RUN STREAK UPDATE: Yesterday was day 3.  Did 3.1 miles and set a new PR for my 5K time.  I thought to myself "Huh, Day 3...  3 Miles.  I wonder what would happen if I did 1 mile for every day of the runstreak?  Nope, never mind.  That's insanity."  So don't expect that trend to continue.  But it did work out well.  :)

So I was SUPPOSED to be in South Dakota still this past weekend.  But things change and sometimes you get done delineating wetlands faster than you thought you would.  And you end up back at home, with nothing to do.

And then a facebook post pops up about this race.  One you had thought about doing before realizing you would be in SoDak (South Dakota, for the uninformed).  But now you're not.  Now you're home.  With nothing to do.  And your morning run SUCKED. 

What's a girl to do but show up last minute for a run in downtown Grand Rapids?  Especially when the race swag includes a pint glass and a sweet tech shirt. 

So about an hour before, I signed up to run my first ever Streets of Fire 8k.  (Seriously, an 8k?  That is a WEIRD distance for a race, but why not...)

And lemme tell you, it was GREAT!  This race was in Downtown Grand Rapids, running in a mostly residential neighborhood, but had some nice hills to it and some visual interest along the golf course.  But most importantly, it felt GREAT. 

Remember how I had been complaining that my run that morning had SUCKED?  Two miles.  Two LONG miles, where I had side cramps and foot pain and had hated deciding to run.  But this, THIS WAS GOOD.  I started out at what felt like a good pace and then just made a decision that I would pick the person in front of me and pass them.  And then pick the next person ahead of me...  and pass them.  And I did really well with this for the majority of the race.  And as a result, I set my personal best time for a 5k distance, as well as beating my predicted race pace for my upcoming RAGNAR in September.  My only bummer was that I finished fourth, missing out on a "medal" by one spot.  But the girl that finished third...  Man!  I passed her for a brief moment when she stopped for water at the last aid station, but then she went FLYING!  And I had no hope of catching her. 

But I was still pretty excited.  And I made a few connections with some members of the Grand Rapids Running Club, who organized the event.  It was very well done.  Registration and check-in was simple and even though I was a last-minute addition, they still had plenty of shirts (in my size!) and pint glasses, as well as a discount card to a local bar and a nice little tote bag. There was plenty of water and gatorade along the way and at the end plus the added bonus of PIZZA when we finished. 

According to my Nike+ GPS Watch:
Distance: 5.0 miles (8k)
Time: 47:41
Average Pace: 9:28 / mile

Another great local race is the Lakeshore Miracle Run 10k.

This race is held along the Lake Michigan shoreline, just south of Holland.  A portion of the proceeds form this run go to benefit the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital and is organized by local running stores, Gazelle Sports.

I signed up not only to run this race, but also to volunteer both before and after.  I've found that a lot of race directors are willing to have some of the participants come out early and help out, with either registration or course set-up.  It's been a great opportunity to meet others in the running community and sometimes even get some free swag.  Who doesn't love an extra tee shirt?

It's finally done!!!

After signing up last September, and gaining and lose team members, Team Buns & Guns finally ran Tough Mudder!

A couple of my friends and I signed up to run Tough Muddder's inaugural event here in Michigan several months back and then we proceeded to being training for what we anticipated would be one of the most fun, challenging, and badass events we had ever participated in.  We had done Warrior Dash the previous year and LOVED it.  So we were ready to bring our crazy to a whole new level.

And it was totally worth it.

Ok, so here's the deal.  I've been pretty busy so far this year with runs already...  Which means I've got a bit of a backlog to get caught up on with race re-caps.  Plus all the new stuff I want to share with you all!

So bear with me, as I'm going to be posting some things out of chronological order in the next couple days.  It's gonna make the O.C.D. part of me crazy, but I feel it must be done.  And in the end, it's really what will be best for all of us. 

It will be worth!  So stick with me!

Ok, so I'm a little late to the band wagon...

And I may have tried (and failed) once already...

But there's always a second chance!

Saturday morning I made a decision that I was gonna give myself another shot at starting a run
streak.

What is a run streak, you might ask?  Well, it's pretty simple.  For those of you that haven't heard of this phenomenon, a run streak is where a runner makes the simple commitment to run at least one mile every day. 

That's it.

Seems easy enough right?  1 mile a day, every day?  Psh!  Piece of cake.  At least, that's what I thought when I saw the Runner's World Run Streak back before Memorial Day of this year.  And then LIFE happened.  I got busy.  I got tired.  And my streak ended after 4 days.  And then I tried to compromise...  "Well, if I run TWO miles today, then that's like running 1 mile every day for the past two days, right?  Totally..."  But who was I kidding.  I was cheating.  

BUT, here I am again.  This time committed.  And holding myself accountable, via this blog.  Yupp, That was the whole logic behind this thing.  That if I had an outlet to tell everyone about my run streak, I might actually follow through on it this time.  Plus, my non-runner friends are sick of hearing me talk about running.  But that's kinda how I feel listening to them talk about changing diapers, so we're even.  :)

So as I write this post, I am currently at a run streak of TWO WHOLE DAYS.  And about to make it THREE tonight.  I know, you're super impressed.  But stay tuned, and I promise you that the streak will get longer and longer...

<3 

Welcome!  I'm not gonna waste a ton of time here introducing myself.  If you wanna know more about me, check out the "About" section at the top. 

BUT!  If you want to know about cool events happening in the Grand Rapids/Holland, Michigan area, or cool national running events...

Or, if you wanna see funny running jokes (they make me laugh!)...

Or, if you wanna read cool running and fitness-related tips...

Or, you just wanna waste some time at the office...

Then you should stick around!  I promise, it will be nothing if not entertaining.  And maybe just that sometimes...  :)


P.S.  I can tend to be sarcastic...  A skill honed at a young age.  Please bear with me on occasion. ;)