My post-run view of the sunrise over Coffee Pot Bayou

Brian has a group from Meetup.com that runs on Sat AM. When it is this hot, they meet at 6am. I’m usually tucked in bed until 8:30am on Saturday and go to 9:30 yoga class. But last night we finished watching a movie (The Great Race, an oldie we had never seen and came recommended, but I slept through at least 30 mins. Partially because I was tired, and partially because it started very slowly) and after the movie Brian checked his email. He found that someone signed up for the run at 11:30pm and mentioned it was her first time running. Brian was planning on doing 8 miles as part of Sandy’s training for the Wine and Dine Half in Oct., so I said I would be a trooper and get up with his 5am alarm to lead a slower pack. I figured a 3 mile walk-run maybe 4 mins/90 seconds would be a good start. I’d remind her to hold in her core and relax her shoulders. I could use the stopwatch app on my phone. I was almost jazzed about it. I figured it would help me make up for the karma of my yucky run the day before.

So 5am came around, I slept until about 5:08, and then Brian checked his email and said, “That new lady isn’t coming. She backed out at 4:30am. Either her early alarm seemed like too much of a b*t(h or she stayed up all night.”

But there I was in my Lucy running shorts and Tees by Tina tank that doesn’t show sweat, and I wasn’t about to back out. Plus runtothefinish.com was having a 30th birthday virtual race – so I figured 30+ mins for her 30th bday was cool. So I did some back and shoulder warm ups on the rug, and at 5:45 we left the house with Alice.

When we arrived at our usual meeting spot, people kept coming. A couple that just moved from England, a woman training for NYC Marathon who was fighting back after a kidney stone bout, a woman who hadn’t run in a while but wanted to tail Brian, Sandy and Alice on their 8-miler, a guy who quickly said he was the oldest one there and had 14 miles to do but was happy to do the first 8 with company – and me, Brian, Alice and Sandy. (Meredith, you should have been there!)

I did about 3 miles and some yoga and checked my FB and still had time to get water and crochet a bit on a park bench while the 8 mile people finished. I had 2 women with me the first half of the way, and the NYC marathoner and the British couple much of the way back. I’m glad I got up and did it – and there were all these people out running alone that I wanted to stop and tell about our Meetup group so they would have friends, motivation, or just be safer running in the dark of early morning. But I didn’t bug any total strangers today.

We came home, showered, had scrambled eggs and a bit of bagel, and went back to bed until about 11am. That was half the fun!

I came home and prepped for my grocery shopping / couponing adventure. Publix was my friend today, as they let you combine store coupons with manufacturer coupons, had a lot of BOGOs and I had a “spend $50 take $5 off” as well as “Spend $50, get a $10 gift card for next time”. Our almost $80 became about $53, and I was able to stock up on pasta and shampoo. Then I hit Winn Dixie for the remaining items – yogurt, beer, fish and cookies for Alice to take to the party she is going to tonight. I also got some breakfast snacks that I am putting away as my Ragnar Relay treat. They had organic milk that was near expiring down to $.99 – $1.99, but we had a lot of milk at home already.

Which of course brings me to coupon finding tips! Today is BOGO day, 2 tips in one post!

4. Daily Deal Services: By now, nearly everyone has heard about daily deal services, the largest of which are Groupon and Living Social. Here’s how it works: You register with the site and receive daily emails and/or texts detailing major savings for various services and merchants. If you’re interested, just click on the deal, pay and download the attached coupon. Some give additional savings for signing up a friend, and some rely on a minimum number of purchases before you’ll be guaranteed a deal. Before going on vacation, you can edit your preferences on the site to sign up for deals in the cities you’ll be traveling in – and hopefully discover some fun restaurants at inexpensive prices!

5. Direct Mail Packets: Direct mail packets are envelopes stuffed with paper coupons delivered to your home. The most popular and steadily growing version comes from Valpak, delivered in light-blue envelopes roughly once per month. People call me at work about advertising in these sometimes. Like people are sitting at home thinking how badly their company needs to redo their website… usually not.

Grating taters

Tonight Alice is going to a back-to-school 9th grade swim party and Wendy is out babysitting, so Brian and I are making a yummy dinner for two: Sweet potato latkes (recipe from Eat Live Run). I’ve decided that grating potatoes should be considered an upper body workout. My biceps are happy I did not live 150 years ago!

Here is what I did not make for dinner but would love on the side: asparagus sautéed in truffle oil and wrapped in procuito. Instead I ate a nectarine. I just “grew into” those.

There is no BodyPump tomorrow because the trainers have training at the gym. I’ll probably do some yoga. Maybe I’ll do my nails!