In case you’ve been living under a virtual rock, you’ve seen the Leibster award floating around the blog world. And now, it’s made its way to little ol’ me, thanks to two stellar bloggers, Kristen and Heather. I think these posts are so fun, and I appreciate the nominations from these two lovely ladies!

If you have, in fact, been living under a virtual rock, here’s what the Liebster is (borrowed from Heather’s blog, because heaven forbid I take the time to write my own description): “If you haven’t heard of this award, it’s an award for bloggers given by bloggers. When you are nominated for the award, you answer a set of questions asked by the blogger who nominated you and then nominate 11 other bloggers, and give those bloggers a set of questions to answer.”

So, here we go. I’m answering both sets of questions. Try not to get too bored. I’ll start with Kristen’s, since she nominated me first.

1. How did you choose your blog name?
Yay, starting easy! I live in the sticks (rural). I run. I am a redhead. And I’m a super nerdy English teacher who loves alliteration.

 2. Why did you start blogging? I have a whole page telling this story. I’m not sure why I thought it warranted a whole page, but there it is. Basically, I need to write more (back to the English teacher thing), and I really like to talk about running but not all my friends and family love to listen to me talk about running. And also, I wanted free stuff. That hasn’t panned out so well, because as it turns out, you have to have readers to get free stuff.

3. What is something that you love about yourself? My ability to laugh at just about anything. 

4. If you could pick your dream career, and money wasn’t an issue, what would you do? Is “professional do whatever I want-er” a career? But seriously, I’d be a writer. One who travels a lot. And still teaches on the side, but can afford to do it. Ha. 

5. What motivates you? Chocolate.


6. What are two goals you have for 2014?
1. PR in the marathon
2. Screw my courage up to submit a piece of writing to a scholarly journal (a nerdy English teacher one)

7. If you could give your 16-year old self a piece of advice, what would it be? This question inspired this post, which is much more than one piece of advice.

8. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained one quality or ability, what would it be? My apologies if this is TMI, but I’d definitely choose the ability to digest food like a normal human with no issues.

9. Where is one place you have never been that you have always wanted to go? So. Many. Places. One of them is Ireland.

10. What would constitute a perfect day for you? Wake up in the mountains. Go for a trail run. Eat breakfast and have coffee on the porch of my cabin (that has electricity and indoor plumbing so is really a house). Go hiking with the husband. Read a book on the porch of said “cabin.” Have dinner and a glass of wine around a campfire. Go to bed.

11 Are you going to pass the torch and nominate 11 other bloggers? I’m not, because I’m a loser. And also, I don’t think I know any bloggers who haven’t already been nominated. 

And now, for Heather’s questions (I thought it was funny that the pictures were different on each blog):

{1} What state do you live in? Another easy one! Colorado.

{2} You won a free entry for ANY marathon in the world, which would you choose? Ooooh, is this really happening?! At first, I thought I’d pick an international one, but I wouldn’t want to plan an international trip around a race, because I want to eat and drink whatever and walk all around. So I’d say New York, because that puppy’s expensive, and I’ll never be able to run it otherwise.

{3} Will you run a marathon? Have and will again, yes.

{4} What does training look like for you, when you are in training for a race? For a PR-goal marathon, I like to peak at 70 miles/week. I do one or two quality days (tempo and speed) and a long run, and the other days are easy. I also try to strength train twice a week, even if it’s just bodyweight work in my basement.

{5} What is your favorite course to run? The Estes Park Marathon has been my favorite race course thus far. So beautiful.

{6} How many hours of sleep do you get?6-8. I really try to get at least seven, but it doesn’t always happen. But I function very poorly on fewer than six.

{7} What is your favorite spring/summer activity? I’m guessing you mean besides running… so hiking or gardening.

{8} What is something on your bucket list? Go to Europe!

{9} What is your favorite food? Depends on the day. But one of my all-time favorites is angel food cake with strawberries. Yum.

{10}What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Call me crazy, but I don’t eat ice cream. If I have more than a couple of bites, it hurts my stomach. Not sure why, but it always has.

{11} What is your favorite quote? This classic from A League of Their Own: 

Thanks for the nomination, ladies!

If you’re a blogger and haven’t gotten the Liebster yet, I nominate you! Answer all those questions.

Choose one (or more) of those questions and answer it in the comments!