Finally, Sensibly Priced Race Photos!

Race photos. We all love them, we all hate them. 99% of the time they are horrific (at least for me). I usually look like I'm about to throw up and/or pass out. But if you're lucky, sometimes a miracle will happen and that race photographer will have caught you looking halfway decent.

This has happened to me a few times - and by a few, I mean that there are exactly 3 photos of me taken during a race in which I look pretty good. When it happens, I am thrilled and my first reaction is to want to buy the photos.

But then when I begin to click through the purchasing of process, my enthusiasm fades quickly. Usually the cheapest photo option is a $17 4x6 print... which you add $4 shipping to. $21 for a 4x6 print.

Seriously?

I have never been able to get over the mental block of paying $21 for a 4x6 race photo. So I have never purchased one...

...until Color Me Rad.

I may have been less than pleased with Color Me Rad's organizers when I discovered that they had no recycling facilities available at the race, but they scored some serious bonus points with me when I logged in to look at my race pictures and discovered that not only were they dirt cheap:

3km Color Bomb - 1.99
5km Color Bomb - 1.99
Start/Finish Area - 1.99
One Person Studio - 1.99
Two Person Studio - 2.99
Three Person Studio - 3.99
Four or More Studio - 4.99

But they were DIGITAL copies that the company then gives you free reign with to do as you please. From their website:

"Select your digital pictures below and they will be available for download within 48 hours. You're welcome to print them, photoshop them, email them to grandma, or frame a 12x18 for your mantel. Digitals give you the most freedom with your pictures (plus there is no shipping or handling)."

Flo-Foto, you people are amazing.

I was so impressed and pleased that I ordered up both of the individual photos of myself and one of Marcey & I (she ordered a second of the two of us).

Right after the purple area...

At this point I discovered that I had ended up with purple powder down my entire front.
I'm not flashing the photographer.
I swear.

The finish line.

Our post race "studio" portrait.

Maybe some of the other big race photography companies [cough BRIGHTROOM cough] should take notes from Flo-Foto. I have never spent a dime with Brightroom because not only am I loathe to pay $17 for a printed 4x6, I also don't really even want a hard copy. I will take the hard copy, scan it, and then post it on my Facebook, blog, etc. and then the hard copy will get put in some pile of paper in my office until I come across it a few months later when I go on a cleaning binge. And I don't want to pay $4 to ship a photo that weighs basically nothing.

If Brightroom structured things more like Flo-Foto, I can guarantee they would've made at least $20 off of me by now, if not more. I might even buy the bad photos if they were only $1.99 (hey, I can laugh at myself).

Brightroom does the Richmond Marathon, so if it so happens that they get a halfway decent photo of me during that race, I will likely end up buying it even if it does cost me $20-$30. But I will not be happy about it.

Do you guys buy race photos?

Would you be more likely to buy them if they were as cheap as Color Me Rad's?

Richmond Marathon Training - Week 3

This was my first drop back week. Here's how it looked:

4 runs for a total of 17 miles.

Easy peasy.

At my physical therapy appointment last Tuesday, Steve scolded me and then gave me some directions when it came to my marathon training plan. I ended up listening to him on 2 out of 3 directives, which for me is pretty much miraculous.

Directive One: Suck it up and run outside. This was accomplished on Wednesday. The other days of the week, the heat index was about 100. Sorry Steve, but I don't run in 100+ heat.

Directive Two: Do not run two days in a row. Check (though this was purely coincidental).

Directive Three: Run only three times per week (speedwork, mid distance, long) with cross training filling in for the 3 mile recovery run the day after the long run, so often prescribed by marathon training plans. Yeah... this one didn't work out so well. Partly because I hate cross training, partly because my ankle didn't hurt so I just ran, partly because I had a late day at work on Thursday, partly because I decided to go see The Dark Knight Rises with Husband instead of going to the gym on Saturday.

Two of three ain't bad.

This week calls for 23 miles with an 11 miler this weekend. It's totally weird to say, but I'm looking forward to it.

Who am I???

Eat: Southern Unfried Chicken

When I get overwhelmed by my torrid love affair with pasta, my respite is often comfort food from my childhood. My Grandma was the kind of 50's housewife that made meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans and had everything sitting on the table ready to eat when my Grandpa and her kids (my dad and aunt) got home from work and school.

My Grandma died when I was in the 8th grade, but luckily both my Dad and Mom took the time to learn some of her recipes before she passed.

I'm no sure why I'm writing this preface, because the recipe I'm about to share is not my Grandma's at all. I guess I'm writing about her because when I think about home and comfort I think about a grandmother's cooking. Though I will always adore Grandma's slippery pot pie, hogmaw, and macaroni and cheese recipes, my favorite comfort foods of all time are my Dad's oven-fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

When I moved away from home, I tried in vain to reproduce Dad's chicken and mashed potatoes. While I will never master the potatoes, I've been able to get very close on the fried chicken. Unfortunately... this fried chicken, while delicious, is an artery clogging calorie bomb.

Husband and I are trying to eat healthier these days, and my usual fried chicken recipe has been a casualty. I still find myself longing for it sometimes, so when I came across a recipe for Southern Unfried Chicken in the October 2011 issue of Runner's World, I ripped it out and tucked it away.

Finally, earlier this month Husband and I were going through recipes trying to find something new to eat. He pulled out this one and after long last, it made the weekly dinner menu. It passed the taste test with flying colors, though I will warn that it is very time consuming (at least 1 hour of marinating, 1/2 hour in the fridge after breading, and 45-50 minutes of baking), so it's best for a lazy weekend day when you have time to waste.

I save calories on the chicken... so I can still eat a pile of mashed potatoes along with it.

Find the full recipe after the jump...