Forgive the bad photos on this post. We were in a hurry to go running, the sun was bright, and stuff.
To tell this story I first have to tell you about my friend Beth. Beth found my blog several months ago. She was training for the Thunder Road Marathon, and in searching for information about it, she found me. She lives in Athens, so of course she clicked on my Athens tab. And in looking through there, she saw that I ran the Terrapin 5K plus one more mile race. And she recognized me from the race! It couldn’t have been because I ran the race in a blue wig (in fact, that’s exactly what it was).
So of course I checked out her blog and saw she had run Marine Corps Marathon, a race I was wanting to do (and have since signed up for.) And with all these races in common, and Athens in common (she lives there, I visit there all the time), I’ve been reading her blog with interest ever since.
When I was in town a few months ago we ran together for the first time. I ran 3 miles, she ran 18 (no joke.) She was training for the ING Georgia Marathon in Atlanta (one race we don’t have in common … yet). I had a blast and was looking forward to running with her again.
Right before I came to Athens this month, I found this post by Beth. She had won some Bondi Bands in a contest and had been excited to run in them – until she tried it and they didn’t stay in her hair. Sooooo … she decided to share the love and do a giveaway on her blog. Someone could win her remaining Bondi Bands by telling of a clothing snafu in the blog comments.
I checked out the Bondi web site and was stoked. These look really cool. And I’m all about some really cool head accessories (I mean, I wore flowers in my hair in the Charlotte Racefest half marathon). I immediately left a comment and then kept my fingers crossed. She had 8 headbands to give away, so as long as more than 8 people didn’t comment, I was guaranteed at least one of them …
I’ll admit to being a dork and checking her site several times while I waited for the contest to end. And no one else had commented! I was stoked when, at long last, she commented saying that I had won all of them!
All of them turned out to be 9 – she had jokingly offered her sweated-in ones thinking no one would want them, but I told her that’s what washing machines are for and anyway, we’d already run together once so we were practically old friends. What’s a little sweat between old friends, right?
So yesterday she and Chris and I went for a run together, and she brought me the new headbands! I had Chris snap this picture, which is a terrible shot since the sun is in our eyes and the leaves are in Beth’s face – but I’m wearing one of my new Bondi Bands!
We ran 3 miles, including a really tough hill that we all had to walk part of, and another really tough hill that I walked part of, and we timed it perfectly so we’d end up at the bar where we could have 8 glasses of water and one glass of beer. Was so much fun!
Here are the other headbands, which I cannot wait to wear:
So, the moral of this story is Beth is awesome. And if you’re a runner you should read her blog – she’s run a few marathons and offers great insight. And she’s really fun – and you never know, you just might win something!
