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Greetings! It’s been an exciting day and I’ve got a fun new game to share with you all!

Now, seeing how we’re well into February, you have surely had your eyeful of hearts: pink, red and all in between. But trust me, after you read this you’ll want to add one more - or three! - to the mix.

Doing your best to ignore the posh (YMCA locker room) surroundings, bring your attention to the cute hot pink top I am wearing.

This is my new GirlsGoneSporty “Share With Heart” tank. Besides being super soft and comfy and cute, it is essentially my entry ticket to the Share With Heart game: a fun way to work out with friends, share the heart/ love/ health and win cool prizes, including cash.

How does it work? Two simple steps:

1. Sign up. To do that, you can purchase one of these babies (they come in gray, too) for $25, go for an equally cute long-sleeve shirt or simply donate $10 through a link provided below. Of purchases, 25% go into a cash prize pool and 75% — to the GGS Grant Fund, which helps sporty girls in financial need achieve an athletic goal (like sign up for a race). Of the donations, 25% goes into the fund and 75% — into the pool.

2. Get active with a friend. Snap photos and post on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with the tag #SHARINGHEART.

Weekly winners will get cool prizes; monthly winners will get even cooler prizes — and at the end of it all one lucky lady will win the cash prize! In the end, of course, we all win. Because:

• a) how cool is that tank top?, and
• b) any time you get to exercise is a win for your body and health!

Anyone can participate, so be sure to check out the details and sign up!

Random guy in awkward pose at my swimming pool says Do It!

In other news, today I learned that:

Wheeeee! I feel so honored to be part of this amazing community and can’t wait to virtually (and in real life!) meet many, many new friends!

Speaking of friends, fun and good deals: if you haven’t registered yet for the 408K Race to the Row, you can save $4.08 off the $45 registration fee with the code below. ($4.08, get it?) Mind you, price goes up to $48 on February 24, so do it now.

And last (but not least), remember that Spirit of the Marathon movie I told y’all to watch if you’re looking for some running inspiration? Guess what, number 2 is coming. (Don’t tell me you still chuckle when you hear “number two”?) It will be about the Rome marathon this time, which I would very much love to run one day! In the meantime, enjoy the trailer:

Today’s workout:

The chiro better clear me to run this weekend, or I’ll have to rename this blog AleksSwims.com. And let’s face it, that just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

That’s it: officially, and medically confirmed, I have a tight butt.

Too tight, in fact. I went to the chiropractor again today with increasingly worse lower-back pain and after he pretty much jammed his elbow into my right butt cheek and pressed with his entire body weight — F$%^^&%%^% ouch! — he said:

[not in those exact words, but close]

Your butt muscle is too tight and your lower back is inflamed. No running until I see you again on Saturday.

And I said:

Except there was no mud on my hands and I wasn’t wearing a pink bow. [Those Dirty Girl run pics are going to come in handy for future meme-style image generation, aren’t they?]

So we come to the X word: Read more

Hey hey hey! Today is a good day, because I know I’ll make at least one person happy: the winner of the free Race to the Row entry giveaway!

And I promise I’ll get to that, just as soon as I reminisce about my long-lost youth a little.

Seriously, please tell me I’m not the only one grooving out to Destiny’s Child all day today? That Super Bowl performance took me back to… wait… I was going to say college, but no. I had actually graduated by the time Survivor came out. So old, I am… (Which you knew as soon as I said “grooving out,” didn’t you?)

Anyhow. The winner of a FREE 408K Race to the Row entry was chosen with the help of an online random number generator, once I had entered all names from the comments on the original blog post and Twitter in a spreadsheet (good thing there weren’t thousands of entries, yeah?)

And the winner is, drumroll… Pia Candelaria! Here’s how Pia answered my question about favorite race distance:

Why, yes, the Color Run was one of my favorite run events too! It did feel like a celebration and I completely agree: that’s how all races should feel!

Take note, race directors: we love us some big parties at the finish line, we really do!

Pia, send me an email please (check out my “Contact Me” page for the deets) and I will send you a coupon code that should allow you to register for the 408K Race to the Row for free. Congrats!

Today’s run workout:
I was supposed to run an easy four or five miles today, but my lower back has been really out of whack [what is UP with me and rhyming today?], so I did this instead:
FYI, this happens when you swim 100 laps in a 25-yard pool. I hardly felt them, which goes to show how much my body needed a break from all this running. Cross training FTW, baby! (Also, I love that it’s February, and I can swim in an outdoor pool!)

Yesterday:This is possibly the reason for my wacky back today (along with my old age, of course). I’m icing and using our live-in massage therapist a whole lot, but those compressed vertebrae (or some thing or other) are persistently painful. It gets better after I warm up around miles four to five, but the last two of that 17-miler were agony.

On the flip side, with 17 miles in, I ate about 17,000 calories worth of spinach dip at a Super Bowl party yesterday and didn’t feel guilty in the least. Mmmm, mayo and sour cream: so bad for you, but so good!

Moral of the story: listen to your body. If your body tells you I’m in too much pain to run 5 miles, take it to the swimming pool. If it tells you more spinach dip, please, feed it spinach dip.

Your turn: what was your favorite part of the Super Bowl? Your favorite Super Bowl food?