Life Lately: Rainier Fruit, Opt Outside, and California Bound

Life Lately: Rainier Fruit

November seemed to pass by quickly, especially the last few weeks! Many exciting things have been occuring lately, including a new partnership with Rainier Fruit, #OptOutside day, and of course CIM and Yosemite quickly approaching!

Rainier Fruit Tour

As I have mentioned before, I am partnering with Rainier Fruit over the next year. I’ll serve as an ambassador for this amazing company, who is one of the sponsors of the Boston Marathon. They invited Ryan and I out for a tour of their orchards in Ellensburg and facilities in Selah, Washington.

Life Lately: Rainier Fruit

The people at Rainier Fruit were kind, generous, humble, and genuinely invested in the work they do. They are one of the largest organic fruit growers in the nation. Rainier grows organic and conventional apples, pears, blueberries, and cherries.

Our first stop on the tour was at the orchards in Ellensburg. Ryan and I haven’t spent much time on the other side of the Cascades and we were surprised at how cold it was over there! Ellensburg and Selah have a more desert like climate compared to damp and mild Seattle. A thick fog shrouded the orchards for most of our visit. How organic apples are grown is a fascinating process!

Life Lately: Rainier Fruit

From there, we visited the facilities and saw how the apples are sorted, packaged, and distributed for sale. By the end of the tour, I was so hungry for an apple!

We spent the remainder of the day getting to know some of the amazing people who work at Rainier. The care these people and the company as a whole has for their individual workers and the community was outstanding and made me feel so honored to partner with them. One of my favorite parts of the visit was seeing the collection of toys for their annual Toys for Tots donation. This was only half of it!

Life Lately: Rainier Fruit

And the end of the day, they sent Ryan and I home with a huge box full of organic Honeycrisp apples. These were apples incredible!

Life Lately: Rainier Fruit

Right now, Rainier Fruit is hosting a Healthy Holiday Eating Challenge. The grand prize is a Nutri Ninja, FitBit, and of course some delicious fresh apples! You can enter here and participate by sharing a photo of a healthy meal or snack that features apples or pears and tagging Rainier Fruit and hash-tagging #BeWholesome and #EatWholesome.

Rainier Healthy Holiday Challenge

[Tweet “Join @thisrunrecipes and @RainierFruit in the Healthy Holiday Challenge! #bewholesome #eatwholesome”]

Opt Outside

Last year, REI hosted the first Opt Outside day as an alternative to the consumerism of Black Friday. Ryan and I participated then, and this year we brought along Ollie and Charlie for an easy hike. The trail was muddy and slippery once we reached the first lake, so we took our time and just enjoyed being outside.

Life Lately: Opt Outside

As I mentioned on Monday, Ollie has his first encounter with snow. His favorite part wasn’t the snow, however – it was the rushing water. I think he would have stared at the stream between the two lakes all day if we let him.

Life Lately: Opt Outside

Both dogs were in a bit of a mood during the hike (Ollie wanted to run downhill and Charlie was displeased with the mud), but overall we had fun! The lakes were so beautiful with the first layers of snow and the green still peeking through from the evergreens.

Life Lately: Opt Outside

California Bound

I’ve never been to California before, so the location had a huge influence in choosing to race CIM. CIM runs through Sacramento, which is just a few hours drive from Yosemite. The opportunity to visit Yosemite combined with running what’s known as the fastest and best-organized race on the West Coast made this a no-brainer after I DNS’ed from the Jack and Jill Downhill Marathon in July.

I’m currently on that pre-marathon roller coaster, where one moment I’m SO excited to race and the next moment I’m anxious about running 26.2 miles on Sunday. I’ll have a relaxed feeling about the race, and then I’ll obsess over my packing list, the course map, and small details like where exactly to eat after the marathon.

But ultimately, I’m excited and grateful. I have the ability to run and travel to races. No matter how race day goes, I’ll be proud of this training cycle and the race. Plus, Ryan and I get to enjoy a mini-vacation to Yosemite as well and soak up 4 days worth of all the California sunshine we can (which is a big deal, when you live in Seattle).

It will be snowy in Yosemite, but the valley is still hike-able during this time of year since it’s at a lower elevation. We don’t plan on doing any intense hikes (although we both want to hike Half Dome!), since I’ll have tired post-marathon legs and we only have one full day in Yosemite. If all else fails, we’ll go snowshoeing and drive around, admiring the views.

What’s going on in your life lately?
What’s your favorite treat after a goal race?

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14 Responses

  1. I typically go for whatever is convenient after a race! After the past few marathons I ended up eating at the hotel restaurant because I didnt want to walk anywhere. It worked out because they had pretty good food!
    So excited for you!

  2. SO MANY TOYS! That is so cool! I love amazing companies like Ranier and REI (and Patagonia donated proceeds from their BF sale). It makes you believe that at least not everything is about greed. But then again, they are also doing it for the publicity (the BF things). BUT STILL I choose to believe! HAVE FUN IN CALLLLIIII

  3. What a great company to partner with!! Honeycrisp apples are absolutely the best 🙂
    My go to treat after a long race is always In n’ Out! Those burgers sure hit the spot! Then later, I reward myself with a good glass of wine!
    Wishing you all the best for a fantastic race on Sunday! I can’t wait to see how it goes! And, yes, enjoy the California sunshine! It has been really great weather here this last week 🙂

    1. Thank you! They are such a great company! I am so tempted to try In n’Out while in CA because why not! Thank you so much for the well wishes on the race, I’m glad to hear how great the weather has been!

  4. i bet those apples were delicious! love toys for tots, we buy for them every year, I have to get on it for this year! I thought of you in the backpack scene on Gilmore girls. She couldn’t pack her backpack or carry it and that would totally be me if I ever attempted it!

  5. SO EXCITED FOR YOU! No more veggies until Sunday! Don’t forget to pack the Immodium so you don’t have poo issues! Enjoy California! Did you know I used to live there when I was a kid? I think that maybe I told you. I had a pet turtle named Murtle.

    1. Thank you so much! I think I remember you mentioning that once, but where in CA did you live? And I’m actually eating veggies through Saturday – to avoid (ahem) the opposite type of issues I had last time. Stomaches are so weird!

  6. Those apples look amazing!! I love picking fruit straight from the orchard when possible. That’s really cool you could get a tour and meet the Rainier folks!

    I know that pre-marathon roller coaster of emotions well. Hang in there! And be confident in all your hard work!

  7. Good luck tomorrow! Are you going to go to Tahoe while you’re down there? You will be so close…but I guess a National Park takes precedence 😉

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