Jingle Jolly Jog 5k Recap and NYX Lippie Countdown Day Two

On a whim I signed up for the Jingle Jolly Jog 5k run by the West Orange Junior Service League. Some people I work with had been discussing doing this race after they run the OUC Half Marathon and after some (ok, virtually none) debate I decided to join them. While registering I looked back and realized that my last race 5k had been in December of 2015, back when I lived in Illinois, so a Santa themed run seemed like a great reintroduction to the distance!

Packet pickup ran almost all week, but I waited until the Friday before to go and claim mine. I had some concern about shirt availability because I waited until super late to register and was hoping for an extra small, which isn't a commonly ordered size. Much to my surprise there were still plenty of shirts available! Now I know I normally don't obsess over the race shirts but give me a quick second to go off my normal track. The shirts for the Jingle Jolly Jog are amazing.. They're a nice soft, Christmas green with a tear away tag which is a huge plus in my book. I prefer clothes to either have a printed on tag or a tear-away tag because I'm always self conscious that the tags are sticking up. When I say these shirts are soft I don't mean a cheap soft but more of a ready to wear, old tshirt that's been well loved, type of soft. My plan was to race in the shirt so I'm somewhat themed but this idea was quickly scrapped because I'd rather not put pin holes in something I fully plan on wearing.

In addition to the tshirt one of the sponsors also provided a drawstring bag that was filled with various goodies! Though I won't use the drawstring bag, other than maybe at the barn, this was a nice gesture that made me smile.

The bag included a few pens, a purse size bottle of hand sanitizer, a magnetic clip, and a pocket first aid kit that may or may not end up in my tack locker.

It also included pamphlets from the sponsors with coupons, and a few brochures from the charities that will be receiving the race proceeds. This was nice because I liked being able to see who is getting the money and what they do for the community.

My favorite item in the bag though was a little postcard from the West Orange Junior Service League. This postcard was a simple thank you note for supporting them and on the back it listed all the charities that will receive funding from the race. For me this instantly set the race apart from other locally run races. I like knowing where funds are going, and this showed that the WOJSL really wants to keep their benefactors in the loop. Because of their transparency I have already bookmarked the WOJSL to keep an eye out for future events. 

Arriving at the location I was a bit dismayed to see that we had to drive down a construction road and jump a curb to get to the parking area. I have a little car and just had to repair two tires from nail punctures so I wasn't excited to drive in an area that may have that risk again. Despite this the parking was extremely organized and well thought out.

Before the race I was happy to see that there were baby pools filled with water bottles and ice for the participants to enjoy. This isn't something I commonly see at races so it was a welcome gesture. The race began after a prayer led by the announcer and it was a quick start. One thing I wasn't fond of was that I didn't see any timing mats at the start and finish area so I wasn't entirely sure about when to start my Garmin. 

The first mile felt quicker than I planned but I felt like I was in a good place. I completed it in 9:13 and hoped to keep it around under 10 minutes per mile. According to my Garmin I failed at this. Mile 2 felt rough for me. There were Florida hills, which in any other place would be considered an ant hill, and sand all across the course. Because I've been running on strictly flat ground I was a bit unprepared for the hills. This is something I'll have to work on because at this point in my running "career" lack of hill training shouldn't be an excuse. Mile 2 was my slowest mile and took me 10:56. Mile 3 was similar to mile 2 but I was determined to not let this race get the best of me and completed it in 10:12. The final 0.1 mile was a sprint because I could see the finish line and wanted to power through it. The biggest issue I had with the finish was that there were cones across the course that looked like they were directing you to a side road. I almost turned down the side road then did some quick mental/visual math and decided to power to the finish. This turned out to be the correct decision and I finished the race in 31:01 which made my overall pace a perfect 10 minute mile. I'm not happy with this time but I am highly amused by the overall pace.

Overall, I''m not thrilled with with my time. I could have done better, but it was good enough to earn me my first age group award! I took 3rd in the 25-29 age group and got a cute little bronze medal in addition to the participant medal!

Overall, I would happily do this race again. The only negatives were caused by my lack of training. I know better but I didn't think while training. At least I know for my Princess training that I need to get out and do hill repeats or long hill runs to get that endurance and muscle strength back.

Now onto day two of the NYX Lippie Countdown. If you're wondering what they heck I'm talking about please see this post from yesterday. After my enjoyment of Eden from yesterday, I was excited to see what today had in store for my lips.

Today's color ended up being Soft Spoken from the Liquid Suede collection. I was excited to see this because I've been eyeing the Liquid Suede collection but have always hesitated because I already have too many full sized lip products. 

As you can see Soft Spoken is an extremely pretty shade that I initially had issues finding the correct words to describe. After looking at other blogs I tend to agree with their description of this being a mauve nude shade. This has that nice boldness of a mauve but is, like the name describes, softer and more of an everyday fall color. The application is extremely simple as this includes NYX's standard doe foot applicator. This is highly pigmented and applies extremely easily, but also cleans up easily if you color outside the lines. 

This lasted nicely through drinking my morning tea and only required a second application after lunch. Now, I did find this lip color to be a bit more troublesome than yesterdays. It retains a bit of a sticky feeling for an hour or so. This isn't bad and I didn't feel like it was going to peel off on my cup but I was constantly aware of it being on my lips. The second issue I had is one that's common with matte lipsticks. This color settled into every line on my lips and did make them look a bit drier than normal. Now, this didn't make me look dehydrated like some matte colors have done in the past, but it didn't have that healthy and plump look that I usually like. 

Despite the heaviness and the settling I would use this color again for an all day wear. It is too dark for a weekend color but I tend to prefer soft pinks and true nudes on the weekends.