What's a Big Game Runch?

Training for my big spring race, the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run (CUCB), began this weekend. I'm excited that training began, I'm excited to be coaching the training for Potomac River Running (PR) in Reston, I'm excited to be part of the official race blog team! That's a lot of excitement.

I'm also a little nervous about fitting in my long runs. Last year, I ran my long runs with PR training. This year, since I'm coaching, I will need to fit my long runs in elsewhere on the weekend. Fortunately, there are at least a dozen Reston Runners BFFs who are running CUCB and they are doing long runs on Sunday mornings. I am so grateful for the serendipitous scheduling (and my husband's flexibility and my dad's willingness to help babysit). Coaching on Saturday mornings and long runs on Sundays!

Part I - BFF Run 

Today I split my long(ish) run into two so I could enjoy time with the BFFs who started at 8 and the PR "Big Game Runch" which started at 9. I was grateful that Lynn was up for the double duty and joined me for the juggling of runs.

We are currently doing 2:4 walk:run intervals, so we did 12 minutes out and 12 minutes back with the BFFs before driving over to PR. It was nice to have some one-on-one time to catch up with Lynn while we maintained the conversational pace of an easy long run.

Part II - Big Game Runch Run

What is a Big Game Runch? It's a fun run, followed by brunch, to kick off Super Bowl Sunday. The festivities were co-hosted by PR Reston and Nike. Nike rep Ashley brought three kinds of shoes to test, including the soon-to-be-released Lunar Tempo. Since I'm a stability kind of gal, I stuck with the Air Zoom Structure 18. I was pretty psyched that Ashley had brought them in a size 6 for my Cinderella feet. I swapped the standard insoles for my Superfeet and thoroughly enjoyed running in test shoes for the second part of my run.

We stuck to 2:4 and did 18 minutes out, 18 minutes back. We covered the same section of the trail as we had run the day before during PR training, and it felt downright balmy after the frigid temperatures of the preceding day.

Ashley & new PR Reston employee Max show off the shoes

Jen & I display our test shoes.
Jen made a joke about baby shoe & mama shoe...

Marian, Jen, Lynn, me & Gina ready to hit the W&OD trail

After the run we got to enjoy the brunch. Beverages ranged from coffee & water to mimosas & Shock Top Belgian White. Coach Shannon noted it has an orange on the label, so it is clearly a breakfast beer. Food included bagels, scones, doughnut holes, a variety of fruits & veggies, and some cookies. It was quite a spread and definitely hit the spot after my back-to-back runs. In addition to the brunch, Ashley raffled off five prizes - that's a lot of prizes for a fun run! Three half-zips and two pairs of shoes.

My friend Gina won a pair of shoes!
(photobomb courtesy of Coach Shannon)

Unknown feature of  Nike "ninja" jacket: beer smuggling

Thanks to PR Reston and Ashley from Nike for the fun run, great brunch, and generous raffle prizes! It was a great way to start a Sunday.