Five Feel Goods (Running Edition)

Yeah, so I claimed I didn't want to do Five Feel Goods Friday any longer, but I decided I want to do one more. At least for today. You see, tomorrow morning I'll be running my first half marathon. I'm trying to get into this distance running thing, but I'm not that great. Maybe if I keep doing it then I'll someday be great. In high school and when I ran at college, I was used to running a little strip of the track. And usually I also jumped over hurdles as I ran down the strip of track. The race was over in the blink of an eye, and I was actually pretty good. I usually beat people. Well, I don't beat a ton of people in these kinds of races. And that kinda bugs me. Because I'm a fairly competitive person.

All the same, running is fun. It makes me feel healthy and it makes me feel tough. Even though I'm really not extremely healthy or tough. And for those of you that are trying to feel the love for running, here are five things that make me feel good and motivate me to go on a nice long run and (hopefully) not puke after.



1.

Fun running clothes are a must when you're running a race. I'm not into the whole matchy-matchy I took fifteen minutes to pick out my running outfit thing. But wearing clothes that are bright obnoxious colors always make me more legit when I am getting ready to run. I found these on Nike's website. That Nike, gotta love 'em.






2. 

I love using dailymile. It's an awesome website you can use to track all your runs. You can map your running routes out and see how long it is, track your times, and it counts up your miles for each week. You can also document how you felt during each run. It's awesome. And it doesn't just track running. You can track basically any type of exercise.


3. 

When it comes to running longer races, there are lots of nasty foods that give you quick energy. I tried these jelly beans over the summer for a relay race I did, and they were actually pretty tasty. And I swear they work! Every time I started slowing down and feeling dead, I'd just pop a couple jelly beans in my mouth and pretty soon I'd get a lovely burst of energy.



4.

Good music that pumps me up while I'm running is an absolute must. My playlist is seriously constantly changing. Sometimes I have mostly rap songs. Other times I have a lot of depressing piano serenades. And then there are those runs which are filled with classic rock and power ballads from the 80s. Above are ten songs off my playlist of around 40 songs for tomorrow.


5. 

Having great friends to run with is also a rad idea and probably my very favorite part of running in races. I would probably never go run many races by myself. I always go with friends so they can keep me motivated and so after the run is over we can party together.

I'm so excited to be spending this weekend in St George with my mom, aunt, and one of our other friends. It will be my first night away from BWell since we've been married, eek!

Wish me luck! If I don't cross the finish line after 3 hours, apparently they'll shut the course down.