Wow, so many fun and exciting things have happened this past week!! Let me rewind and recap for you starting from Monday.

The Monday Night Run
I’ve been meaning to do Super Jock ‘n’ Jill’s (a fabulous local Seattle running store) TMNR which is a weekly run group that starts at around 6:15pm at the SJJ storefront. This past Monday, I decided to go for it and ended up having an amazing time!

I met up with my buddy, Sarah, who also happens to be Oiselle‘s Marketing Director and a speed demon. This girl’s fast. The TMNR theme this time was Halloween so Sarah was decked out in the Oiselle Runaway Bride Dress. I have dibs to wear this at the Eugene Half Marathon next April, exactly four weeks before my own wedding. 😉

After the 3.5 mile in the Green Lake/Tangletown neighborhoods, we just had to have some froyo as a post-run treat at Zoe Yogurt. Their pumpkin froyo was amazing.

Always fun to meet new friends!

Flywheel Sports’ Fly By Night
On Tuesday evening, I had an amazing time at Fly By Night at Flywheel Seattle, a duel ride for Halloween with Aina and Kristin. Of course, I had a fly time and an intense cycling workout with my usual Fly girls, Lauren and Stacie. Also got to meet Lena for the very first time. By the end of the class, I was sweating profusely and ready for some food!

After Flywheel, we headed over to Veggie Grill, our post-workout food of choice. I had the VG Rollups and a side of their cauliflower-potato mash and highly recommend. Yum.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies
After Flywheel class and Veggie Grill, I had a major urge to bake pumpkin cookies for Halloween despite it being 10pm. I’m a night owl.

Using this recipe from Allrecipes, Iced Pumpkin Cookies, I made six dozen deliciously soft and flavorful pumpkin cookies.

I found that drizzling the icing was a total fail so, instead, I dipped each baked cookie into the icing and this perfectly iced them.

Splitting the cookies between myself and Joe, our coworkers were extremely happy. I absolutely love baking for others just so they can enjoy the treats. 🙂

Running for Oiselle Team
On Halloween afternoon, Wednesday, I got the best treat ever. Kristin, the manager of Oiselle Running Team sent me a wonderful email announcing that I was accepted as their new runner and ambassador for the brand. I was beyond ecstatic!! It is such an amazing honor. Thank you, ladies!!

In addition to having an extreme love and passion for the brand and their running apparel, I am so excited to join this amazing group of inspiring women who share the same passions as me. So excited and I’m looking forward to connecting and meeting all you lovely ladies in person.

Can’t wait to receive my racing kit and represent Oiselle at all of my upcoming races. The next major one will be in December in Vegas for the half where several Oiselle Birds will be racing with me, including my besties Becky and her twinsie Christy, Patty, Cathleen, etc. So fun! Vegas won’t know what hit ’em.

Friday Morning 6-Miler
Friday morning, fellow Oiselle team runner Megan met me in my neighborhood to run Lake Union. As I’ve said before, I am definitely not a morning person. Getting me out of bed when it’s still dark out can be quite difficult, but I was very happy to be out there as soon as I felt the fresh air.

I got up at 6:30am and walked a couple blocks down the street where Megan was meeting me bright and early at 7am. As soon as we met up, we began running down Eastlake Ave, up over the bridge, and into the Burke-Gilman Trail counter-clockwise around Lake Union.

Having a running buddy was so much fun. I’m typically used to being a lone runner or runner with my man. Aside from that, my group run experience has been limited. This run with Megan, also with TMNR group run on Monday with Sarah, really got me out of my comfort zone and I enjoyed it.

We ran around the lake and before we knew it, we were done! 6.2 miles done right before 8am. The sights we saw were beautiful. I took a couple of pictures of the scenery and sunrise.

Saturday Runner Blogger Meetup
On Saturday morning, I had the pleasure of meeting up with more fun local Seattle runner blogger ladies for a run at Green Lake. Can you tell that the theme this past week was all about meeting fun new friends?

At 8:30am, I met up with Lauren, Rebecca, Nicole, and Becky in front of the Green Lake Starbucks for an extra lap around (~2.85 miles) before the official meetup.

All this newfound group run experience has been awesome. I got to catch up with, and get to know, these girls during the run. It made the time pass by quickly, though I have to say that the few weeks since Portland Marathon has been absolutely brutal to my running endurance. This time with lesser running, coupled with constant talking during the run, definitely had me catching my breath several times. Wooooeeee.

At around 9:15am, we met up with more ladies at the designated meeting spot. Along came Megan (whom I ran with on Friday and Oiselle teammate), Andrea (another fellow Oiselle Team runner), Lindsay (organizer of this meetup), Meghan, Julie, Zoe, and Alma.

We ran another inner loop of Green Lake and then when to Forza for coffee and conversation. So much fun and definitely looking forward to the next one.

Hi, Andrea! Was nice to meet another bird! I, of course, was wearing my Oiselle Trials Hoodie. It’s so snugly soft. I highly recommend it.

The last women standing at the coffee shop: Nicole, Becky, Rebecca, and Meghan.

Remainder of My Saturday: Errands, Sparkly & Ducks
After the running meetup, I headed home to my fiancé and pup. Once we both got freshened up, we headed out in search of food and more.

Down the street at Louisa’s Cafe & Bakery we both had the most delicious ham and cheese croissant. I’m a big fan of croissants. This one did not disappoint.

Afterwards, at Costco, we ran into Santa Clause. This was a legit sighting. I mean, even Santa has to grocery shop.

This was quite possibly the best $1.50 I have spent — Straciatella gelato in a waffle cone at the Costco food court. Who else wants to come with me for more? Please excuse me wearing the Oiselle hoodie again. I swear I wasn’t that sweaty at the earlier meetup. It’s just that comfy.

Once we were done with the errands, we went back to the E.E. Robbins, a local jeweler, to pick up the my engagement ring with brand-new permanent setting. I am in love — with both my man and the ring. 🙂 Isn’t it gorgeous?! Love.

The remainder of the evening was spent hanging out watching the Ducks play USC. I couldn’t believe how high scoring the game was, but in the end my team won. Go Ducks!

Oiselle Team Run
I was looking forward to Sunday morning as a group of Oiselle teammates was planning to meet up for a quick 3-4 mile run at Green Lake, solidarity run to support Every Mother Counts and our teammates who were to have run the NYC Marathon before it got cancelled.

We met up at Oiselle HQ and here’s a picture that Kristin, our team manager, took of us:

From left to right above: Nolana’s sis, Morina (sp??), Cathleen, Nolana (who needs a blog :)), Natty, me, Jacquelyn, and Julie.

Running with my new teammates was so much fun! We ran for a total of 4 miles through Green Lake, Woodland Park, etc. Most of the terrain was very muddy, leafy, and hilly, but I had a blast… despite some fatigue from running 12 miles the past two days and lost endurance. Love this team. Thanks, girls!

We also got to cheer you Shannon, a Oiselle teammate from Oregon who was up here racing.

It’s been such a fun week full of great surprises, new friends, fun running groups, and more. Tonight, I’m meeting up with my bestie Laura for dinner at Joule and look forward to sharing my experience.

Have a great rest of your Sunday!!