I'll show you my cart, if you show me yours!

I assume if you are reading this you are somewhat into fitness and health. From that basic premise I assume that your shopping cart is filled with healthy things like apples, carrots and whole grain bread to fuel those long runs? Not so much here at Run for Good!

I do not know why, but I somehow get a perverse pleasure out of shopping in mass quantity for somewhat unusual things for races. 

One of my most memorable shopping experiences for a race happened at a regular grocery store, which was kind enough to donate a gift card for volunteer food. I have been told by many good volunteers that what they crave in the early morning of a race is sugar and carbs. Well, take a look at this cart! I got so many stares, presumably from people thinking I was feeding this to what must have looked like my big brood of children. And, of course the comments from the checkout staff, "Wow, that's a lot of donuts!" Thank you, yes, it is a lot of donuts!

For Run Scared this year we are doing a candy corn tasting bar. So exciting! That is right, did you know there is more than one flavor of candy corn? I found 7 different kinds ranging from traditional to caramel apple to Starburst flavor. After doing extensive candy corn pricing (another fun race director job), it turns out that Bartell's has the best price. When they went on sale last week I took my cart and wheeled on down the Halloween aisle with glazed over eyes and proceeded to pile in bag after bag of candy corn! Do you know how hard it is to predict how much candy corn 1200 people will consume? I still do not know if I got the right amount, I would hate to run low on candy corn. You know this stuff never goes bad either so pile in the bags! I actually use candy corn as a source of fuel for my long runs, its the perfect amount of sugar my body needs (my stomach cannot handle Gu's). So really it is an investment into my running future, right!? 

My mantra this week is, "Do not eat, do not eat, do not eat!"

I always feel slightly awkward about this situation, our runs are supposed to get people off the couch, motivated to be healthy and here we are feeding our participants candy corn. But, I guess running to earn your candy is better than just eating the candy without the run. We usually try to provide healthy items too like bananas and whole grain bread, chili and healthy energy bars. And, what is Halloween without candy? 

What is in your cart!? I bet you it is not as fun as mine! See you in the grocery aisles!