Product Review: BUFF Pack Run Cap 🧢

Disclaimer: I received a BUFF Pack Run Cap to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews!

Today I'm going to be talking to you about the BUFF Pack Run Cap - a lightweight running hat that is easy to wear, train in, and take with you on the go! I was given the opportunity to test this product out over the last few weeks and I'm hear to tell you my thoughts.

WHAT I LOVED

So lightweight! When I say lightweight, I mean that when you have this cap on your head, it's likely you'll forget that it's there. I'm finding that I'm the kind of person that can be really fussy when it comes to hats, especially hats that I wear when I'm out running. If I can notice that it's on my head and it isn't fitting *just right* then I'm constantly moving it throughout my run to get a more comfortable fit. With this hat, you barely even know that it's there!

Easy to pack! *wonders if this is where it gets its name from* 🤔 But seriously, if you are unsure if you'll need a hat on your run or walk, you can easily fold this bad boy up and either put it in your pocket or put it in nearly any size bag without it taking up too much space. And, thanks to its lightweight material, you can be sure that it won't tip the scales for any of your checked bags at the airport.

UPF 50+ Fabric! One of my big concerns about running during the warmer months is getting protection from the sun. This hat provides that with fabric that will block 98% of UV radiation from the sun! I can be sure that I'm getting the sun protection I need when I wear this hat on my runs throughout the sunniest months of the year.

WHAT I WOULD CHANGE

Shape/fit of the hat. The only thing I struggled with when testing this product is that shape/fit of the hat itself. I honestly think it's because of how much dang hair I have on my head, but for whatever reason unless I put my hair into French braids, this cap would not stay put on my head or would not sit just the way I wanted (see my finicky attitude when it comes to hats above), and sometimes it would even fall off! Ultimately I think this is more due to my head shape/mane of hair than the actual hat itself, and maybe I have to test out a few more 'dos with the cap to finally figure out what works for me.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Overall I really like the BUFF Pack Run Cap! I strongly feel that the many pros of the product outweigh the one "con" (which is really just me complaining about having too much hair tbh haha 😂) and I think this would be a fantastic product in any runner's arsenal. If you head over to buffusa.com/bibrave and sign up for their newsletter, you can get 15% off your order of a Pack Run Cap of your own! 🧡

Check out some other great reviews of the BUFF Pack Run Cap from my fellow BibRave Pros:

Go Kelly Eli

Run Strong Run

iRunonBeer

Kooky Runner

The Reading Rush 2020 // Days 6 & 7 Recap + Retiring the Reading Rush

Y'ALL WHY DOES EVERYONE CONTINUE TO BE SO PROBLEMATIC?! 🤦‍♀️

I'm going to take you through my last two days of the Reading Rush, and then address what's going on regarding TRR toward the end. Keep reading for my thoughts on the group book situation and The Reading Rush as a whole.

DAY 6

Matching my outfit to my book for one of the vlog challenges!

I had a feeling that Saturday was going to be one of my worst reading days of the week, and I was v. correct. I had plans to have some friends over and between deep cleaning the house, running, and showering, I was only really able to get in about an hour's worth of reading on this day. I still was able to read about 50 pages of Scythe (and what a truly wild 50 pages it was!), so I'm happy I was able to read *something* before spending time with pals. We ordered sushi and - because the state of Massachusetts just approved it! - TAKE OUT SCORPION BOWLS! The ones we got were actually called Sumo bowls and they were incredible. We had a fantastic picnic in the back yard followed by a night of video games and chatting. Overall Saturday was pretty damn excellent!

DAY 6 STATS

Book(s) read today: 

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

# of pages read: 48 pages

# of books completed: 0

# of challenges completed: 0

INSTAGRAM CHALLENGE

Take a photo of your reading fuel ✔️

I've made it a little bit of a dangerous habit to pick up donuts from our local bakery every Saturday morning, so this challenge honestly fell on the perfect day! This was probably the easiest challenge to complete all week (and the most delicious)! 🍩

DAY 7

Sunday was a lot different than I thought it would be, haha. I woke up absolutely *exhausted* and took a total of zero photos (besides the Instagram challenge) the entire day. Reading while tired has always been a real challenge for me (heavy eyelids + an activity that often requires a lot of eye-power isn't the best recipe for success for me haha), so while I tried my hardest to finish up Scythe by the end of the day on Sunday so I could end the readathon with a nice neat bow of a finished book, I only got to page 318 before giving up and snoozing. If I had an audiobook of Scythe I'm sure I would have been able to finish it, but alas it just didn't happen and I ended the readathon with 4 ¾ books completed for the Reading Rush.

DAY 7 STATS

Book(s) read today: 

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

# of pages read: 125 pages

# of books completed: 0

# of challenges completed: 0

INSTAGRAM CHALLENGE

Use your books to make an artwork ✔️

If you watch my vlogs, you'll know that I bought this edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone with the specific intention of decorating and annotating it to create a unique keepsake for myself. (I bought this book BEFORE the JKR disaster of 2020... I will not be spending my money on any new books in the future!) I thought that this challenge was the perfect opportunity to get started. For these books, I want to decorate the covers with things that would specifically apply to the respective book that they're on. For Philospher's Stone, I went with a Hogwarts silhouette on the front (which I guess could pertain to all of the books, but this is Harry's first year there so I think it's most appropriate on book one!), the Sorting Hat's poem on the back, and quotes from Dumbledore and Hermione on the pages. I really love how it turned out and I look forward to continuing to decorate and annotate throughout this edition! Here's a few more shots of the decorations as well as some progress pics:

Before!

I outlined the castle with purple felt tip marker...

...then filled it in with gold Sharpie!

While I ~technically~ didn't finish Scythe during the Reading Rush, I did end up finishing the book this morning so I decided that I'm going to count it because WHY NOT? (P.S. Scythe was incredible and I gave it 5 stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) I'm actually so happy with how this readathon went for me because I honestly thought that I would maybe be finishing one book, but I ended up finishing five! I also read some truly incredible books this week (2 five star reads and 3 four star reads), which probably helped to keep me motivated throughout the entire week. The only books I didn't get to this week were The After Party and Everything is Illuminated, and the only challenge that I did not complete was the "Read the first book you touch" challenge, so not too shabby overall!

TBR UPDATE

The After Party by Anton DiSclafani (0/384)

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett (391/391) ✔️

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (248/248) ✔️

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta (416/416) ✔️

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore (356/356) ✔️

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (0/288)

Scythe by Neal Shusterman (435/435) ✔️

CHALLENGE UPDATE

1. Read a book with a cover the same color as your birthstone ✔️

2. Read a book with a title that begins with "the" ✔️

3. Read a book that inspired a movie that you've already seen ✔️

4. Read the first book you touch

5. Read a book completely outside your home ✔️

6. Read a book in a genre you'd like to read more of ✔️

7. Read a book set in a different continent than where you live ✔️✔️✔️

WEEK STAT TOTALS

# of books completed: 5

# of pages read: 1,846

# of challenges complete: 6

Aaaaaand now for the notsofunwhydoeseveryonecontinuetobesoproblematic part. 

It's no secret that the Reading Rush has had some issues and criticisms in the past, specifically surrounding their lack of inclusivity with the reading challenges they choose to have (many of which have been "physical" challenges and thus ableist. They also had a challenge to read outside this year when we are a global pandemic... questionable.) But the thing that has REALLY rubbed me the wrong way and has kind of been the nail in the coffin for me is the fact that they chose Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (a Black author) for their group book for the readathon, *hardly* promoted the book OR the live show discussion, and then during the live show joked around about how THEY DIDN'T READ THE BOOK AT ALL because they were "too busy to get to it", and then proceeded to turn what they advertised as a book discussion into a random Q&A.

Y'ALL.

I don't understand why they didn't see how harmful that is. For the two hosts of the largest readathon in our community (both white women, btw) to display in front of a live show of hundreds that reading this book by a Black women was not a priority for them? That's not really okay in my eyes. They have a lot of influence in our community and they should have used that influence to have a meaningful discussion about this book which delves into topics that our community needs to have conversations about. They had a huge opportunity to show our community that topics of race are important to be discussing and they not only missed the mark, but laughed about it and essentially said it was okay for them to not make this discussion a priority. Big yikes.

That all being said, this round of the Reading Rush will be my last. I really enjoy TRR and have fun participating each year, but honestly this year has made me really uncomfortable associating myself with it. I will still be posting my vlog (with a disclaimer relating to this situation at the beginning!) later this week, but until I see some serious changes made to TRR and the behavior of its hosts, I will no longer be participating in this readathon. Sorry to end on such a sour note, but it had to be said!

Anywho, I hope everyone had a great week last week, regardless of if you participated in TRR or not, and I'll be writing again very soon! 😊

The Reading Rush 2020 // Day 5 Recap

I was so happy to finally have a day without work during the readathon! The first thing I wanted to do yesterday was finally finish my outdoor book, Alex, Approximately. I woke up, took a shower, got some coffee, and set up shop in our backyard until I was done! It was such a pleasant morning filled with sunshine, a cool breeze, and a tropey AF young adult novel which is exactly what I wanted in my outdoor book. I ended up giving Alex, Approximately a solid 4/5 stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I also *finally* started in on Scythe, the book that has been SO HYPED UP for me! I was so nervous to get this book started because I was worried I wouldn't like it as much as everyone else, but I'm 145 pages in and I have to say it is definitely living up to the hype. I can't wait to read more of it today!

DAY 5 STATS

Book(s) read today: 

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

# of pages read: 330 pages

# of books completed: 1

# of challenges completed: 1

INSTAGRAM CHALLENGE

Take a photo of a book stack ✔️

For this challenge I wanted to display the 46 books that I've read so far this year. Knowing that it was going to be quite a large stack, I wanted to try a pyramid first. It was a bit underwhelming when it was done, though:

(the books that are turned around are representing the books I didn't have a physical copy of!)

I wanted the picture to be a bit more dramatic, so I stacked all the books on top of each other just to see how tall it would get. Brett made the suggestion of making the tower look a bit more precarious so he used his construction skills to make it look like this:

To be honest there were some moments when we had 0 faith that this tower would be able to stand on its own. It was wobbling like crazy as Brett was building it! But by some miracle it stayed up long enough for me to snap a few photos. 😂 This was by far the most fun I've had with an Instagram challenge this week and I can't wait for you all to see the vlog footage from the creation of the stack!

TBR UPDATE

The After Party by Anton DiSclafani (0/384)

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett (391/391) ✔️

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (248/248) ✔️

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta (416/416) ✔️

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore (356/356) ✔️

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (0/288)

Scythe by Neal Shusterman (145/435)

CHALLENGE UPDATE

1. Read a book with a cover the same color as your birthstone ✔️

2. Read a book with a title that begins with "the" ✔️

3. Read a book that inspired a movie that you've already seen ✔️

4. Read the first book you touch

5. Read a book completely outside your home ✔️

6. Read a book in a genre you'd like to read more of

7. Read a book set in a different continent than where you live ✔️✔️✔️

WEEK STAT TOTALS

# of books completed: 4

# of pages read: 1,560

# of challenges complete: 5

Today will likely be the worst reading day of the week as we have a few friends coming over this afternoon for drinks and hanging out in the back yard. I'm going to read more of Scythe while I wait for them to arrive, but I won't be surprised if I got more than a couple dozen pages read today. I'm glad there's at least one more day left after today where I can try to get at least one more book completed before the Reading Rush ends!

The Reading Rush 2020 // Day 4 Recap

Day 4 was my lightest reading day so far this week. As per usual, work was non-stop the entire day. Luckily, yesterday was also my last day of work for the week, so I now have a *ton* of time for the rest of the readathon to dedicate to my books! I tried to read more of Alex, Approximately, but that was quickly cut off thanks to a summer evening thunderstorm and I only got about 12 pages in before needing to come inside 😂 I had The Black Flamingo still to read, though, and I managed to finish up the story and give that beautiful book 5 STARS!!! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ My first 5 star read of the week! I absolutely loved this book and it's definitely been one of the top YA novels I've picked up in 2020. Definitely give it a read!

DAY 4 STATS

Book(s) read today: 

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta

# of pages read: 223 pages

# of books completed: 1

# of challenges completed: 3

INSTAGRAM CHALLENGE

Take a picture of your book with a matching background ✔️

Everytime this pops up on my feed as being part of my Reading Rush TBR, I get a handful of comments on how much I'm going to absolutely love Scythe. I think this is the book that I've gotten the most rave reviews about in a very long time! I have a lot of red throughout my apartment so I knew I could easily match the cover of Scythe with something in my home (and yes, I did get more comments saying how much I'm going to love this book!). I'm planning on finally picking this up during Day 5 - I wanted to save it for this weekend in the event it's just as binge-able as everyone is saying it is! Also fully prepared to order the sequels as soon as I'm done with this book. 😉

TBR UPDATE

The After Party by Anton DiSclafani (0/384)

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett (206/391)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (248/248) ✔️

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta (416/416) ✔️

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore (356/356) ✔️

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (0/288)

Scythe by Neal Shusterman (0/435)

CHALLENGE UPDATE

1. Read a book with a cover the same color as your birthstone ✔️

2. Read a book with a title that begins with "the" ✔️

3. Read a book that inspired a movie that you've already seen ✔️

4. Read the first book you touch

5. Read a book completely outside your home

6. Read a book in a genre you'd like to read more of

7. Read a book set in a different continent than where you live ✔️✔️✔️

WEEK STAT TOTALS

# of books completed: 3

# of pages read: 1,230

# of challenges complete: 4

The Reading Rush 2020 // Day 3 Recap

Yesterday was an unexpectedly busy day at work full of back-to-back meetings. The day flew right by and before I knew it, it was 5:30pm and I hadn't done too much serious reading yet. Luckily I woke up early and got a bit of The Black Flamingo read before work began, and was able to listen to some of the audiobook of Alex, Approximately when I ran out for coffee, but I was feeling pretty behind in my reading when my work day ended. 

After work I headed out to the backyard with the goal of getting at least half way through Alex, Approximately, which I was able to do before the sun went down! I also was able to get halfway through The Black Flamingo when I came inside from the night, and I'm really loving the story so far! I definitely think that will be a book I try to finish today because I'm enjoying it so much.

DAY 3 STATS

Book(s) read today: 

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta

# of pages read: 343 pages

# of books completed: 0

# of challenges completed: 0

INSTAGRAM CHALLENGE

Take a picture of your current read with your pet ❓

Sadly I wasn't able to fully participate in this challenge because we do not have a pet of our own! Because of this, I wasn't sure if I could still give myself a check mark for this challenge, so I went with a question mark instead, haha. I still wanted to make a post for the day so I took a cute pic of my current read while I was outside. I'm a little bummed that I wasn't able to participate fully in every challenge, but still happy that I was able to post something Reading Rush related to the feed. Hopefully the last four challenges are all things that I can fully take part in!

TBR UPDATE

The After Party by Anton DiSclafani (0/384)

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett (192/391)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (248/248) ✔️

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta (205/416)

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore (356/356) ✔️

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (0/288)

Scythe by Neal Shusterman (0/435)

CHALLENGE UPDATE

1. Read a book with a cover the same color as your birthstone ✔️

2. Read a book with a title that begins with "the"

3. Read a book that inspired a movie that you've already seen ✔️

4. Read the first book you touch

5. Read a book completely outside your home

6. Read a book in a genre you'd like to read more of

7. Read a book set in a different continent than where you live ✔️✔️

WEEK STAT TOTALS

# of books completed: 2

# of pages read: 1,005

# of challenges complete: 3

Today I definitely think that I can finish at least one of the books I have on the go. I'm thinking I'm going to focus in on The Black Flamingo just because I'm enjoying it so much, but if I have some extra time to sit outside and read Alex, Approximately, I'll definitely try and get closer to finishing that title as well! Maybe we'll have a two-finished-books kinda day?

The Reading Rush 2020 // Day 2 Recap

Another super successful day of the Reading Rush was had yesterday! I decided to pick up Alice's Adventures in Wonderland because this title ticked off quite a few challenges - birthstone, movie, and continent! I can't believe I hadn't ever read this story because I've seen so many adaptations of Alice in Wonderland before. I'm really glad I reached for this edition because even though the story is trippy in itself, the artwork that is used for illustrations throughout this edition really add to the whimsical nature of the book. Here's a few examples I snapped photos of:

Because it is a children's classic, and because I was reading an illustrated edition, I was able to get through this book fairly quickly. I think I wrapped up this book around 5pm or so, and I think that's pretty good while still working throughout the day! I went outside to take a picture of the book when I finished it up and there was a rabbit waiting for me on our front lawn. Such an appropriate coincidence!

DAY 2 STATS

Book(s) read today: 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

# of pages read: 306 pages

# of books completed: 1

# of challenges completed: 3

INSTAGRAM CHALLENGE

Cosplay a book character ✔️

For this challenge, I decided to cosplay Annabelle from one of my very favorite books, A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti. Annabelle is a character that runs across the United States for an extremely important cause. Because she is wearing an orange shirt, black shorts, and white running shoes on the cover, I decided to don an orange shirt, black shorts, and my white running shoes and hit the streets! It's been pretty oppressively humid the last few days, so eventually (once I got a good insta pic, of course) I needed to ditch the tee and go sports-bra only for the rest of the run. I haven't done that in a long while, so that's how you know it's hot! See my sweaty AF face below:

TBR UPDATE

The After Party by Anton DiSclafani (0/384)

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett (58/391)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (248/248) ✔️

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta (0/416)

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore (356/356) ✔️

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (0/288)

Scythe by Neal Shusterman (0/435)

CHALLENGE UPDATE

1. Read a book with a cover the same color as your birthstone ✔️

2. Read a book with a title that begins with "the"

3. Read a book that inspired a movie that you've already seen ✔️

4. Read the first book you touch

5. Read a book completely outside your home

6. Read a book in a genre you'd like to read more of

7. Read a book set in a different continent than where you live ✔️✔️

WEEK STAT TOTALS

# of books completed: 2

# of pages read: 662

# of challenges complete: 3

The goal for day 3 is to read and finish another book. I may try and finish Alex, Approximately outside now that work is over, but it is very humid yet again so I may just stay inside and read The Black Flamingo by the air conditioner. We shall see! You'll find out tomorrow, right here on my blog. 😉

The Reading Rush 2020 // Day 1 Recap

Reading Rush Day 1 was a huge success! I decided to pick up Bringing Down the Duke as my first book for the week, mainly due to the fact that I had the audiobook out from the library and there were 3 people in line behind me so I wanted to read it as quickly as possible. The goal for the day was to get the entire thing read, and I'm happy to say I accomplished it! I really think it's all thanks to having the audiobook playing as a read along with the physical book as it really helped me concentrate on the story. I ended up really enjoying this book as well, and I look forward to checking out the next book in the companion series that is coming out in September! I gave Bringing Down the Duke 4/5 stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

DAY 1 STATS

Book(s) read today: Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore

# of pages read: 356 pages

# of books completed: 1

# of challenges completed: 1

INSTAGRAM CHALLENGE

Recreate a book cover ✔️

For the Day 1 Instagram challenge of recreating a book cover, I decided to recreate the cover of Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson. I chose Since You've Been Gone because it not only is this an excellent summer read, BUT it also gave me the perfect excuse to go get an ice cream cone! 🍦 The weather was so hot that it almost instantly melted in my hand, but either way IT WAS DELICIOUS!

TBR UPDATE

The After Party by Anton DiSclafani (0/384)

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett (0/391)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (0/248)

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta (0/416)

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore (356/356) ✔️

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (0/288)

Scythe by Neal Shusterman (0/435)

CHALLENGE UPDATE

1. Read a book with a cover the same color as your birthstone

2. Read a book with a title that begins with "the"

3. Read a book that inspired a movie that you've already seen

4. Read the first book you touch

5. Read a book completely outside your home

6. Read a book in a genre you'd like to read more of

7. Read a book set in a different continent than where you live ✔️

For Day 2 today, I'm focusing on reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and I think I'll also start listening to the audiobook of Alex, Approximately while out on my run this evening for the "outside your home" challenge. I hope you all have had a great start to your Reading Rush and I will be back tomorrow with my updates from Day 2! 😊

The Reading Rush 2020 // My TBR!

The Reading Rush is NEXT WEEK! 😱 I posted my TBR over on my channel a couple of days ago, but wanted to share it here as well so y'all will know what I'll be reading for this year. My TBR is quite ambitious to say the least, especially with how my reading pace has been over the last year (i.e. slow). I've already reserved a few of the audiobooks for these titles that I could find so I'm hoping that helps with how many books I can complete, and there's also some books that could potentially double up on challenges so I can hopefully get to 7 completed challenges for the readathon. In a perfect world, I'll be able to read all seven books, but you never know what curve balls life might throw at me next week that will take me away from reading, so I'm just going to try my best and enjoy myself as much as I can throughout the week! Anywho, here's what I'm reading next week:
1. A book with a cover that matches the color of your birthstone(My birthstone is emerald!)

The After Party by Anton DiSclafaniCan also count for challenge #2
2. A book with a title that starts with the word "the"

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta
3. A book inspired by a movie you've already seen

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis CarrollCan also count for challenge #1Audiobook secured for this title
4. Read the first book you touch(See my TBR video for how I landed on this title!)

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran FoerCan also work for challenge #3 and challenge #7
5. Read a book completely outside your house

Alex, Approximately by Jenn BennettAudiobook secured for this title
6. A book in a genre you've always wanted to read more of

Scythe by Neal Shusterman
7. A book that takes place on a different continent than where you live(I live in North America!)

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie DunmoreAudiobook secured for this title
I'm still trying to figure out how I want to tackle vlogging next week. Part of me wants to daily vlog, but another part of me really doesn't feel like I will have the time or energy to upload a vlog every day on top of attempting to tackle this GIANT TBR. I may just do a dedicated week vlog, and update daily here on the blog with my progress as that feels a lot more manageable for me. I still plan to complete the daily Instagram challenge on my page and complete the daily video challenges which you will see in my vlog, so stay tuned for those! Overall I'm going to try to balance being a productive reader with having fun next week. I can't wait to see how it will go!
What are you reading for the Reading Rush?

Chicago is CANCELLED 😭

Disclaimer: I received entry to Smuttynose Rockfest Half Marathon to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

The 2020 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, scheduled for Sunday, October 11, and race weekend activities have been canceled by event organizers and the City of Chicago in response to the ongoing public health concerns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. pic.twitter.com/ASTBlFbIEX

— Chicago Marathon (@ChiMarathon) July 13, 2020

I got this notification on my phone in the middle of a meeting this afternoon. I know I was expecting it but I'm still just so BUMMED to see it in writing! The 2020 Chicago Marathon has been cancelled and will not be running as scheduled this October. 😭 If you remember from my last post, Brett and I were making bets on how far into my training I would be when we officially got the news. He said 8 weeks, I said 5. Turns out we were both wrong, as today would have begun my fourth week of training (if you could call it that lol)! As disappointed as I might be, I am already thinking of the positives:

1. I no longer have to wonder about when the announcement will finally come. Being on the hook about this race has really messed with my mental game and I've found it really hard to focus or stay motivated to go out on runs.

2. As a direct result of #1, I honestly haven't been consistent with my training for Chicago. Now that I know for a fact that it is cancelled, I can focus back on other aspects of my physical health like flexibility and strength training which have definitely suffered during the quarantine. I'll add back in mileage after I've had the chance to work on these other pieces of my fitness!

3. I still (as of now) have Smuttynose to look forward to this October! I know that other races in NH have been running in the last few weeks, so I'm hopeful that I'm still able to head up to Hampton in early October to run the Smuttynose Rockfest Half Marathon. I'm hopeful that because it is a smaller local race it will hopefully be able to remain on as planned, but I guess we'll just have to wait to find out. If you're interested in joining me in October at the Rockfest Half, head over to hamptonrockfest.com and use code "SAVE10" for 10% off your registration!

4. Depending on how the situation in Florida develops (it's not doing great right now, y'all), I still might be able to visit my parents on the weekend Chicago was originally scheduled, and maybe even run another race while I'm down there! I'm not entirely sure what the smartest decision is for that right now, but we'll keep an eye on it and potentially take another trip in 2020.

5. Chicago's contingency plan is GREAT! They're offering either a refund or a deferral to 2021, 2022, or 2023. I'm so glad that they're being so flexible with their runners. I might defer to 2023 because I'm not entirely confident that we'll be out of the woods yet this time next year, or even the year after that, but I'm going to give myself to think about it before making a final call.

6. I still have one marathon on the 2020 race calendar - Rock n' Roll Savannah in November - so we'll see if I'll be running another 26.2 come the fall. There might still be hope, y'all! 🙃

So, at the end of the day, everything's going to be fine. I'm glad I have time to refocus on my fitness, and perhaps get my head back in the game when it comes to training. I want to find discipline and motivation again. I want to keep showing up for myself. Now that Chicago has been cancelled (or really postponed, since I'll definitely be running this race in my future!), I feel like the pressure is off a bit and I have room to grow and recenter as an athlete.

How are you feeling about the Chicago cancellation?

Do you have any races still on your 2020 calendar?