Winning Stuff Makes Up For A Running Slump, Right?

So this last week has been a good week for me in the world of blog contests! As posted last Tuesday I won a Road ID certificate. I promptly "spent" it on new wristbands for me and Colin as well as a pair of reflective laces for each of us.

When I posted about that win Zaneta commented to let me know that I had won her contest. Here's what I'm going to be getting in the mail soon! I'm very excited! I have never tried the Tri-berry GU and the chocolate ones look like they'll be fantastic. I actually already have a water bottle like this one, but it's over a year old and is due for replacement. Besides, the blue is far prettier than my black one!

Today's good news was that I checked back on a Facebook contest that I entered and found out that I had won that too! I get a Nathan Hydration Quickdraw Plus water bottle. At 22 oz. it's bigger than the one above (10 oz.). It should be perfect for my runs that are about 10km long. Another reason I like it is that it should fit in the cup holder on Spud's stroller. Right now we just chuck a Nalgene underneath, but it's really inconvenient to stop and take a drink. I've seen lots of other bloggers with this bottle and they all seem to love it so I'm pretty happy. I chose the green because I figured Colin might want to use it too (the teal was getting a little girly).

I'm really hoping that all this new gear is going to get me off my butt and out the door! Since the marathon I've run a whopping two times. Yup, that's twice in two weeks. Bah! I don't know if it's because I don't have the accountability of a clinic right now or if I'm burned out or what. Probably a little bit of both as well as the typical crappy Vancouver rain has shown up again for fall so my motivation is pretty low. I have a lofty goal list of working my way up to 4 days/week and 2-3 days of core work/week before the end of December. So far it's looking like that might start in November instead. Thankfully I have a couple of awesome running friends from my marathon clinic that are interested in fairly regular runs so that should help me out some. We're going for our first run tomorrow night and it'll be nice to have to honour that commitment.