Time for another edition of Friday Favorites, where I share about a few awesome things in my world….

Sonos Play 3 Speaker System I’ve been hearing about Sonos for several months now, and had done some research on this sound system. It’s a smart speaker system that streams music (such as your music library, Pandora, Spotify and Amazon music) through the Sonos app. The best part is it runs through WiFi and not bluetooth, which means the range from my phone to the speaker system is much greater. Plus, if you have more than one system, it will play to all of your speakers throughout your home. I picked up the Sonos Play 3 a few weeks ago and put it in our kitchen, and I love it. The system sounds great and it’s nice to have music playing while we are just hanging around the house or cooking dinner. Highly recommend!

Owen Rutledge Courtney Our friends Adam and Meredith Courtney gave birth to their new son Owen last week. We had the opportunity to go visit them on Saturday afternoon. Owen is absolutely adorable. Adam was on my Student Ministry Staff at Lawrenceville FUMC for several years back in 2007-2010 and has become one of my closest friends. I am thrilled for Adam and Meredith and this new journey for their family!

Anthology Candles One of my favorite rides at Disney is Soarin’ Over California, in Epcot. One of the reasons I love that ride is the amazing smells that happen during the ride. It has everything from mountain streams to ocean water to (my favorite) orange groves. However, in the past few weeks, the ride has been changed to Soarin’ Over the World, which means the orange smell is no longer with us. However, Rachel found a candle company called Anthology Candles that makes a candle called “Soaring Over,” and it smells just like the old ride!

Today I am continuing with the second part of the Peachtree Road Race recap from the 4th of July weekend.

Being in a earlier corral for the race had its advantages, mainly being able to start before the temperature got too unbearable. However, it did mean getting up pretty early to get over to the race start.

Flat Allen

I typically like to get to the race area a little early so I can get my bearings straight, stretch a little bit and find a bathroom. We ended up getting there a good hour before our corral was to begin, which gave us time to walk around and take in the atmosphere of the world’s largest 10K race. 

Once we got to our corral, the national anthem was sung and the first corral was off. We started making our way up to the start and before long we were off.

Rachel and I decided to take this race easy, since we’ve never run it before. Plus, with the humidity/heat already pretty strong, we knew we needed to conserve energy. The majority of the race runs down Peachtree Street and the crowd support was probably the best of any race I’ve been a part of. 

I was very pleased with the number of water stations for a 10K race. There were probably 4-5 total stations for 6.2 miles. Plus, there were plenty of people giving out water, beer, pizza, you name it…

The race has a fair amount of hills starting around mile 3, but honestly I’m so used to training in Atlanta that they didn’t seem to bother me too much. However, the biggest issue was just the amount of sweat that was coming off my body the last few miles. I was soaked. Several friends who have been running the PRR for years said this was the hottest one they’ve been a part of.

Near the finish line

We crossed the finish line (according to my watch) with a little under a 10:30 per mile pace, which I was pleased with, since the humidity was so draining.

Finished!

An added bonus was running into our friend Jerry Carnes, who works with 11 Alive News and was there covering the race.

My friend Jerry Carnes

We picked up our race shirts (which you don’t get unless you finish), our runner’s boxes, water/Powerade and made the trek back over to MARTA to head home. Unfortunately, the finish line is a good mile plus from Marta, so that part was not the best.

All in all, I very much enjoyed my first Peachtree Road Race. While the weather was pretty tough, I loved the course and crowd support. I look forward to running this race again in the future!

Post Race Dinner

Over the next two days I will be blogging about my experience with my first Peachtree Road Race on July 4th. Yes, believe it or not, this was my very first PRR, even though I’ve been living in Atlanta for almost 18 years and running for almost 10 years.

Over the past few years, I’ve been wanting to run the world’s largest 10K race, but with the race falling on July 4th, it can be difficult to work into the schedule. Several times, I’ve known I would be out of town over the holiday weekend, and therefore haven’t even tried to get in through the lottery.

This year, I decided I was running it no matter what! I signed up to be a member of the Atlanta Track Club, which guarantees admission to the PRR; plus, I went ahead and added in the Triple Peach Challenge! This includes the Atlanta 10 miler in October and the Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon.

An added bonus was a few weeks ago, we found a race number (in the same corral with me, no less) for Rachel, so she was in for her first PRR as well!

On Saturday, we headed down to the race expo at the Georgia World Congress Center. One of the nice things about living so close to MARTA is we could ride down to the expo/race and not worry about finding somewhere to park in the city. 

We were hoping to get down to the #werunsocial meet up at 10:30am, but didn’t account for the amount of time the MARTA trains would be running on a Saturday. Therefore, we ended up getting down there just after 11am, which is when the meet up was ending. I did gett to see a few of the #werunsocial runners, including my friend Brandi.

After that we got in the very long line to get into the expo. It was probably several hundred deep, but fortunately the line moved quickly, and we were able to pick up our numbers with no issues at all.

Once we picked up our numbers, Rachel and I walked around the expo checking out most of the booths. We picked up a few new running shirts in the process, as well as some extra SWAG. After about 30 minutes or so, we headed back home. We were ready to conquer our first PRR on Monday morning!

Disclaimer: I received the Aftershokz Trekz Titanium wireless stereo headphones 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!

Several months ago, I blogged about becoming a BibRave Pro Ambassador. One of the exciting parts of being a BibRave Pro is the opportunity to work with different brands, from wireless headphones and compression gear, to free race entries, sunglasses, and running shoes, in order to test out new products.

Recently I was asked to test out a new product: the Aftershokz Trekz Titanium wireless stereo headphones. I have been wanting to try out wireless headphones while running for quite some time. I was excited to try out these specific headphones because of the open ear design. Here is my experience so far.

The first thing I noticed once I took the wireless headphones out of their soft, protective, zippered case was how nice they looked. I really liked the bright yellow color. Additionally, they come with a charger, two silicon rubber bands to provide adjustability for smaller head sizes and a set of ear plugs.

The headphones in the box

Everything that comes in the package

After charging the headphones, I paired them (through bluetooth) with my iPhone and walked around the house with music playing and even made a quick phone call. Everything seemed to be working great.

First time wearing them

The next morning, I took them out for a quick 4 mile run to see how they do on the road. I started without a hat on to see how they would feel without anything on my head. And I was pretty impressed for the first few miles. I could hear my music very well and yet with the open ear technology, I could hear my surroundings so much better than before.

First run with the headphones

Then came the part I didn’t love…after about 3 miles, they started feeling a little uncomfortable on my ears. Between the sweat and the rubbing, I knew I was going to need to play around with them a little more to get them the way I would like them.

The next several times I ran with them, I tried a few different ways, from running with a hat to a sweatband and then with/without sunglasses. Each time, I  enjoyed the simplicity of the open ear and wireless technology. For me, I was still struggling some with the comfort level after about 4-5 miles. It was definitely something I had to work on with getting them adjusted to fit just right on my head.

I have since run in these headphones probably 10 times, and each time has been a similar experience. I am wondering if it just takes some time getting adjusted to having them run across the back of your head and over your ears. I will say, I was a little worried my sunglasses would bother me over the headphones, but that hasn’t been an issue at all. I even wore them out a few weeks ago on the beach during our family vacation and they worked well.

Wearing them on the beach!

Per their website…below are several of the features of the Aftershokz Trekz Titanium wireless headphones:

• Bone conduction technology that delivers music through your cheekbones, ensuring ears remain completely open to hear sounds
• Wraparound headband that is lightweight and flexible for durability
• Wireless Bluetooth connectivity
• Six hours of music on a single charge
• 2-year warranty

How do you get a pair for yourself? Check out aftershokz.com and use code”BIBRAVE” for 20% off!!! Plus, they are co-hosting our #bibchat on Twitter on July 5 at 9pm (Eastern).

Make sure to follow XX2i on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Longest run with the headphones!

It’s been a little while since I’ve done a blog post about some things that I think are awesome right now. Without further ado…

• AfterShokz Trekz Titanium Wireless Headphones I’ve been testing out these wireless headphones from AfterShokz for the past 4 weeks as a BibRave Pro Ambassador. I will have my full product review later next week. But I so far it’s been a mixed bag for me. I love running without headphone wires for sure. And the open ear design really is much safer and works perfectly. My biggest issue is it’s just not very comfortable after running with them for longer than about 45 minutes. Going to give it a few more training runs and try to see if I can adjust it a little more to make it more comfortable. “BIBRAVE” will get you 20% off if you want to try out a pair for yourself! Full review coming next week.

• Finding Dory Rachel and I love Pixar and Disney (if you couldn’t tell by the large number of blog posts devoted specifically to Disney). In fact, the very first movie we ever saw in the theater together was Finding Nemo back in 2003. We were very excited to see the sequel, and friends, it did not disappoint. We loved it. Two major thumbs up from both of us. While I wouldn’t put it above the original, it’s a must see if you love Pixar and Disney like we do.

• Hilton Head Island Beach Trip A few weeks ago, Rachel and I went to the beach with Rachel’s family for a short 4 days. We had a great time with her parents relaxing at the beach. I wanted to share a few pictures of our amazing time together. I’ve said it before, but I’m so grateful for Rachel’s family. They are indeed now very much a part of me. I wouldn’t trade them for the world!

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Rachel and I love watching movies. Several years ago, we saw movies in the theaters all the time. However, it has gotten so expensive to go to the movies, that we have become pretty picky about which films we pay money for.

Below is a list of the movies coming out over the next 4 months that I am looking forward to. My guess is we will end up seeing about half of these in the theater and the rest we will wait to rent down the road.

• The BFG (July): I love Roald Dahl (who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and, of course, Steven Spielberg. The visuals alone make this a must see.
• The Secret Life of Pets (July): The trailers looks hilarious. We will definitely see this in the theaters.
• Ghostbusters (July): I have mixed emotions about this movie being remade. But it does look really funny and has a great cast. Curious to read the reviews once it comes out.
• Star Trek Beyond (July): I very much enjoyed the first two Star Trek movies with this new cast. I will see it for sure, but I wonder if this will end up being a rental with the number of movies coming out in July that I do want to see.
• Jason Bourne (July): Yes! Freaking Matt Damon is back as Jason Bourne. Yes yes yes!
• Suicide Squad (August): Seriously, how good does Jared Leto look as the Joker in the trailers?! And the rest of the cast looks amazing as well. Very much looking forward to this movie!
• The Magnificent Seven (September): Denzel and Chris Pratt along with a slew of other solid actors in a western. Count me in!
• Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (September): Tim Burton is one of my favorite directors, and this movie looks like another crazy but visually stunning movie.
• The Girl on the Train (October): I am a big fan of this book, so I was curious to see when they would do a movie adaptation. Emily Blunt as the lead character is a great choice.
• Inferno (October): I love the Dan Brown (Robert Langdon) books. The two movies with Tom Hanks have also been very enjoyable. Probably a rental, but I definitely want to see it eventually.

I will dedicate a separate blog post in October highlighting the movies in November/December, including Doctor Strange, Trolls, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Moana and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

And there you have it: The movies in the next 4 months that I am looking forward to. What movies are you excited about seeing this year?

Over the past few months, I haven’t had any races on the schedule, so I’ve been able to run without training for anything specific. It’s been a nice break away after a busy 4 months with 4 half marathons and a full marathon.

This summer I only have the Peachtree Road Race on July 4th (the largest 10K in the world) before a busy fall race schedule.

One of the races I have this fall is the Chicago marathon in October. This means I will begin officially training next month in the Atlanta summer heat/humidity. That should be a lot of fun….

My race schedule for the rest of 2016:

• AJC Peachtree Road Road – July 4
• Disneyland Half Marathon – September 4
• Craft Classic Atlanta Half Marathon – September 10
• Chicago Marathon – October 9
• Atlanta 10 Miler – October 25
• Thanksgiving Half Marathon – November 26

Looking forward to sharing my experiences with training and running these races over the course of the year. It’s going to be a fun second half of 2016!

Sometimes life gets a little busy, but I’m still here. I’ll be back with a new blog post or two this week. Stay tuned!

When Allen asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, I of course chose Disney World. Since we go so frequently, we try to do something different during each trip, and we knocked out a few unique experiences over this particular weekend.

We made reservations to stay at Port Orleans – Riverside, as we had never stayed there before. As always, using our Annual Passes got us a great deal!

Allen can schmooze with the best of them, so upon checking in on Friday afternoon, he mentioned we were there to celebrate my birthday – and voila! They upgraded us to a Royal Guest Room.

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Now, I’m sure they mostly reserve these upgrades for children, because let’s face it: this room was insanely themed to Disney princesses. There was even a backstory! Ahem: Princess Tiana had invited all of her princess friends to join her in New Orleans, and they left behind some of their most prized possessions (I’m paraphrasing). There were magical touches throughout the entire room, including the piece de resistance: a light-up headboard (not kidding).

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One of the things I was most looking forward to while staying at Port Orleans was taking the unique transportation from the resort. Once we got settled into the princess room, we took a boat to Disney Springs from Port Orleans – French Quarter (because obviously we had to grab some beignets before doing anything else).

Once at Disney Springs, we were able to peruse the new Town Center area, which is basically like a fancy mall, but a fancy mall at Disney is better than a fancy mall just about anywhere else. We had a delicious dinner at D-Luxe Burger and I grabbed a free birthday cupcake at Sprinkles.

We returned to the resort that night and walked around a bit, but headed to bed early, since we had breakfast reservations at Be Our Guest the next morning.

Princess courtyard

I’ve never been to New Orleans, but I think it looks like this…

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a morning person. It takes something significant to get me out of bed on the weekends, and on my birthday, no less. Well, I’d say a chance to get into Magic Kingdom before rope drop is as good a reason as any!

We were able to catch the bus from the resort at 7:30 that morning, which gave us ample time to make our 8:25 reservation. (“Catching” might have included a bit of running when we saw the MK bus heading our way….)

When I was doing research before our trip, I learned that Early Morning Magic was also occurring that morning. This turned out to be a huge advantage for us, because several of the rides were open for guests! We took several (near-empty) photos of Main Street and Cinderella’s Castle, and then hopped onto multiple rides before and after our reservation, including the notoriously long-lined Peter Pan’s Flight and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

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Because we were at the park so early, we were able to get into even more rides with no wait time. Now that I’ve seen how the other (early) half lives, it will definitely be harder in the future to wait a significant amount of time for a ride (basically, like, 20 minutes). It was a great feeling, watching the park fill up and knowing that I was able to do everything I wanted before noon. It was a magical morning indeed!

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I’m going to gloss over much of the rest of the day, since Allen covered it in detail in a prior blog post, but let me recap: fun day, awesome friends, great food, and feeling very loved.

We enjoyed the rest of the evening at the resort, by hanging at the pool bar and partaking in another round of beignets (what? It was my birthday!). I also showed off the princess room to our friends, who also marveled in the intricate details (hence why we’re friends).

The next morning, Allen and I ate breakfast at the resort, and were able to take a few more fun photos. I was sad to leave – but I would definitely stay at the resort again (princess room or no)!

Till next time!

Welcome to the second part of “Keeping Up With The Whittakers”! A few days ago, I blogged about our experience at Disney for Rachel’s birthday. Rachel is working on a guest post reviewing her experience, specifically at the Port Orleans resort. Look for that in the next few days.

Last weekend, Rachel and I headed up to Tennessee for the Memorial Day holiday weekend. The main purpose of our trip was Rachel’s family reunion in Dover, Tennessee. We started off Friday afternoon by heading to Nashville to stay with Davis and Sherre Chappell for the night. Davis was the Senior Minister at Lawrenceville FUMC, where I served as Director of Student Ministries for 8 years. Davis also married Rachel and me!

Davis is now the Senior Minister at Brentwood UMC, which is just outside of Nashville. We have been wanting to get up to see them for the past few years and since we were driving straight through Nashville, we decided to leave a day early so we could see them.

We went to dinner at a place called Puckett’s Grocery, in Franklin. The food and overall environment were second to none! After dinner we walked around the Franklin area for a little while. There were some great shops and dessert places to check out. The whole vibe of Franklin was really cool.

After Franklin, we made our way over to Brentwood UMC so we could see the church. It is, in a word, “huge”! There’s a reason it’s one of the largest Methodist Churches in the U.S.

The next morning, after a great breakfast and conversation, Rachel and I made our way toward the reunion in Dover. We stopped off at the Parthenon first, as I’ve always wanted to see the replica in Nashville. It is awesome! We got some great pictures before making the journey to the family reunion.

The rest of the weekend was spent with Rachel’s mom’s side of the family. It was a great time with all of her extended family. They love to laugh, share stories and eat! (Sounds like my family!)

Her grandfather (Neil Moore) was born and raised in Standing Rock (Dover). So when Neil passed away last summer, her grandmother asked me specifically to come to the reunion and lead a few songs at a short memorial service out at Standing Rock. I was, of course, very honored to be a small part of the service. Rachel’s brother Travis and I played two old hymns and even Rock Top!

Some of my favorite parts of the reunion…

• Running a 10K with 10 other folks from the family. I ended up running the majority of the race with Grey Settle (Rachel’s first cousin, twice removed), who is 74 years young! This guy is awesome! I loved getting to talk with him during those 6 miles.

• Lisa (Rachel’s mom) and I winning a very competitive game of cornhole. Seriously, we were down huge and came back to win!

• Offering the blessing at the family lunch on Sunday for the whole reunion. Neil Moore used to offer this prayer every reunion, and I was asked to offer thanks this year. It was a huge honor.
• Being a part of Neil’s memorial service (see above).
• And, of course, being with Rachel and her family. I feel so blessed to be a part of this family. I love them very much.

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All in all, the past two weekends have been a lot of fun. Hard to believe we are in June and summer is beginning! I am 3 days away from the first of 22 different camps that we are hosting at the church throughout the summer. It’s going to be a busy one!