Posts Tagged ‘POM Wonderful’

A big THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the #runchat questions giveaway this week. We now have a great list of questions heading into Sunday’s #runchat (8 p.m. ET) and future #runchat sessions. Please keep in mind that we are keeping all the questions in a database, so if you don’t see your question this week, I am sure we’ll use it sometime over the next few months since we generally only have 6-7 questions for each chat.

Congratulations to Michael (@MichaelNic2 on Twitter) for winning the case of POM Wonderful juice. The random number generator picked No. 20 out of 24 total comments.

Don’t forget that the next #runchat is at 8 p.m. ET Sunday with me (@RunningBecause) and Scott (@iRunnerBlog) on Twitter. For another awesome giveaway this weekend, be sure to check out Scott’s post.

In mid-2010, Scott with iRunnerBlog.com and I launched #runchat — a simple hour-long Q&A on Twitter about running. The response was fantastic. After a few growing pains and rearranging of when the chat is, we now do #runchat twice a month — the second and fourth Sundays of the month at 8 p.m. ET.

Now that we’re several months into it, we want #runchat to be a go-to place for runners on Twitter. And I mean all runners — whether you’re just starting out with running your first few miles or if you’re a seasoned marathoner or a race winner, we want the chat to be a community for everyone. All shapes, sizes, colors and experiences welcome.

For #runchat to remain successful and to grow, we want your help. Scott and I want to know: what questions would you like to see featured on #runchat? If there are questions you’d like to chat about with other runners, this is your chance to speak up!

To submit a question, all you have to do is leave a question in the comments section below. If you’re on Twitter, please leave your screen name so we can give you a shout-out when/if your question is asked in future #runchat sessions. For every question that is submitted, you will be entered to win a case of POM Wonderful juice. A case consists of 8 8-ounce bottles of pomegranate juice — great for drinking and cooking.

A winner will be chosen using the Random Number Generator from random.org at 8 p.m. ET Friday, Jan. 7. You may enter up to two questions — each question left as a comment counts as one entry. Multiple questions in one comment count as only one entry. Please do not repeat questions from other users. Questions from previous #runchat sessions are accepted. Also, please leave a valid email address so I can contact you regarding the giveaway.

JAN. 4 UPDATE!
The giveaways for #runchat don’t stop here. Check out Scott’s post here on a giveaway for this week’s #runchat, sponsored by Road ID.

“You have to wonder at times what you’re doing out there. Over the years, I’ve given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.” - Steve Prefontaine

While running is often about self-satisfaction, it’s always fun to get others involved in the activity. For the second time ever, I did a guess-my-time contest for tomorrow’s Percival’s Island 5 Miler in Lynchburg, and I’m thrilled to have had so many guesses. I also want to thank POM for getting involved in this to and posting a link on Twitter to yesterday’s post. It’s exciting to have so many people helping push me to do the best I can possibly do.

You can view all the guesses in the Comments section. Thanks to everyone for dropping by! Good luck.

When I launched this site back in April, I promised to have some contests and giveaways, but unfortunately I haven’t done too much of that beyond giving away an awesome book (Thanks Steve!) and a failed attempt at giving away an event T-shirt (Half of Jess and another Steve let me keep it, and I actually have worn it quite a bit).

So fast forward to now … I’m ready to do contest No. 3 — a free case of POM Wonderful juice. Talk about some good stuff — in addition to drinking it, it’s good for cooking too. Even my 20-month-old son enjoys it.

So, how do you win it? Predict my time in Saturday’s Percival’s Island 5 Miler, being held along a flat paved trail in my almost-hometown of Lynchburg, Va. It’s really that simple — the person closest to my time to the nearest second over or under wins. If there happens to be a tie, the person under my time wins (kind of like “Price is Right”). If two people happen to predict the same time, I’ll use Random.org to determine the winner.

To help you out, I’ll give you some background to help predict the time. This is one of my favorite community races that I’ve done. The only problem is I haven’t done this race in three years. Back in 2007, I finished in 36:59, a huge improvement from 2006, when I had a time of 41:07. 2007, just like this year, was full of PRs. I’m not really shooting for a PR though — I’m really just continuing this test of how fast I can go in races and, right now, use them as speed work for marathon training.

The PRs I have set this year have come in the half marathon in March (1:42:52), the 5k in April (21:41) and the mile early this month (6:15). I’ll save you some homework: plug all those numbers into race predicting calculators and the times range from about 36 minutes to just under 38 minutes for a 5 miler. Would I like to set a PR? Definitely. I’ll see how I feel a couple of miles into it whether or not it’s realistic. One huge factor will be the weather. Saturday looks to be muggy, but not all that bad temperature wise. Also keep in mind that I have to run hills all the time, and this race is very flat.

To enter this contest, simply leave a comment below by 9 p.m. (ET) Friday. If you do not want the case of POM, please do not enter. Predictions given over Facebook or Twitter will not be accepted. Please leave a valid email address so I can contact you if you’re the winner.

Good luck!