Fitness Friday: 2018 Brooklyn Half Marathon

I was on vacation in New York City last month, and, true to my nature, I found a race to run out in Brooklyn – the Brooklyn Marathon & Half Marathon! This race used to take place solely around Prospect Park (a location I’d actually run before while visiting my friend D several years back), but as of this year they’ve expanded the race outside the park down Ocean Parkway which runs straight south. Their goal is to expand the race and make it run through various Brooklyn neighbourhoods, but they need the race to grow in size before they can move forward with their plans. I, for one, was really happy not to be doing loops around Prospect Park as repeating a course 10 times over can be quite monotonous!

Anyway, backing up a little bit. I had trained adequately for this race and I felt pretty good. I think I had potentially over-hydrated the night before though because I was literally up every 45-60 minutes to pee during the night. No joke. I went to bed at midnight and peed at LEAST every hour until 5 am when I got up to eat breakfast (plain oatmeal with milk) two hours before the race start time. Oddly, I felt quite good despite extremely disrupted sleep (I generally do well with sleep interruptions, but 5-6 times in a five hour period is a LOT). Anyway, after eating, I snoozed for about another hour until I got up, got dressed and ordered myself an Uber out to the start zone. I was fairly scared I wasn’t going to make it to the start zone in time since I was staying with my friend in Manhattan and the Uber seemed to be running late, but thankfully we made it in time.

Running along Ocean Parkway
Running along Ocean Parkway

I started off this race like a bat out of hell. I was moving so, SO fast for about 10 kilometers or so and I couldn’t figure out WHY. Everything just felt good, you know? The race itself starts off with a short loop around part of Prospect Park and then goes straight, STRAIGHT down Ocean Parkway for what feels like ages. It wasn’t until we got to the switchback at the end of Ocean Parkway that I realized why I was moving so fast… up till that point, the whole race had been on a gradual decline so I was partially being propelled forwards by gravity. Oh noooooo! When I clued into this, I then realized the next problem: the rest of the race was about to be uphill. Not SEVERELY uphill, but enough to be quite draining over time.

Running through Prospect Park is fantastic – when we hit it again after our looooong loop down Ocean Parkway it was like a breath of fresh air and I felt *alive* again. That change in scenery was massive for me – I needed that stimulus because the 10-12k we spent running down Ocean Parkway was extremely boring. Not only that, but to get off the parkway you have to run UP the on ramp and it was fairly steep. I realize they’re trying to expand the race outside of the park and I LOVE that they’re doing that, but this massive length of the same road twice over (because of the switchback) was intensely monotonous. So when we got back up to the park, I felt renewed and refresh – the greenery literally brought me back to life.

At the finish line - my feet were absolutely burning here. Ow!
At the finish line – my feet were absolutely burning here. Ow!

That was… until we hit the uphill portion in Prospect Park that spans more than a kilometer. The uphills in this race are no joke and they’re extremely draining. While the half marathoners only had to do those uphills once, the people running the full marathon will have to repeat that Prospect Park uphill five times over. I felt really, really awful for them because it’s such a long uphill segment that it’s actually fairly painful (my feet were burning by the end of it).

Anyway, despite the course not being my favourite, there are a lot of things I loved about this race. Let’s dive into that!

  • There’s way more bathrooms than I’ve ever seen at a start zone. Literally dozens of port-a-potties set up. This is so necessary for a run and yet you almost never see enough.
  • The volunteers were freaking READY for you. There was tons of water and Gatorade at each station and they always had their hands out with cups.
  • There was a man keenly checking race bibs to make sure that the marathoners switched up the track sooner than half marathoners. Kudos to him because when you’re running your mind is pretty dead to the world and I’m sure people would’ve missed their turn off had he not been there grabbing people and telling them where to turn.
  • There was a surprising number of people cheering on the racers despite this having a 7 am start time!
  • The expo to pick up your race kit was quick and efficient. I was able to buy cheap gels there for the run which saved me some time. (There weren’t any on this course, and they told me it’s just because they weren’t big enough yet and didn’t reach out to any of the big brands.)
  • The medal is ENORMOUS and gorgeous.
  • Likewise, the t-shirt is gorgeous too! Great quality!
  • Race pictures are free! I got all of the shots above from their web site and that’s a huge touch that I always appreciate.
  • They gave us the silver foil blankets at the end AND toques! I was so cold after I finished the race (long cardio exertion drains my body of warmth) and I was so thankful to be able to put a hat on with my foil blankie.
  • There was tons of food at the end of the race. I got a New York bagel (I could’ve cried with relief) and slathered it with cream cheese, stuffed a banana in my face, and had water and gatorade. There was more than that available, but that was plenty for me once I’d finished!

While the course wasn’t my most favourite I’ve ever run, it must be said that the organization of the race was topnotch. I love that they’re expanding outside the park now, and I can’t wait to see where the race takes them next year.

Oh yeah! And my finish time? Not that great, it’s a long shot from my 2:01 earlier this year, but it’s still much better than the 2:08 and 2:09s I’ve been doing in the last few years! Regardless of my speed, I was happy to take part in the race. 🙂

Race Results

  • Finish Time: 2:07:22
  • Pace: 6:02 per kilometer
  • Overall placement: 1973/3808
  • Age group placement (Female 35-39 years): 81/251

Mary Kay – The “It’ Lipsticks (Review & Swatches)

Mary Kay The "It" Lipsticks

New out by Mary Kay are four lipsticks in colours that I am very, VERY excited to see by the brand – something bold, something unique, and something to spice up their brand name!

Mary Kay The "It" Lipsticks
Mary Kay The “It” Lipsticks

Say hello to  their new “It” Lipstick which comes in four vibrant shades in a matte formula. Each shade retails for $20 CAD, and has a lightly sweet, soft vanilla scent. They’re out right now for a limited time only.

Mary Kay The "It" Lipsticks
Mary Kay The “It” Lipsticks

What makes me so excited to see these shades from this brand in particular is that Mary Kay has always been a “safe” brand. They stick to the neutral/normal shades, and don’t really go outside of that range very often. So when these shades showed up as a new launch, I was PUMPED! I want to see more excitement like this from a brand that has (for far too long I must say) been known as a grandma brand.

Mary Kay The "It" Lipsticks - swatched
Mary Kay The “It” Lipsticks – swatched

Pigmentation is completely opaque on the orange and the red, and somewhat patchy (but strong) on the two purples. This is fairly consistently a problem with purples in any brand, so I wasn’t that surprised to see it here as well.

Wearing Grazie, Violet
Wearing Grazie, Violet

Grazie, Violet is the shade that surprised me the most in this launch – it’s so unlike Mary Kay to put out a shade like this, and that just made me smile to see it. It’s a beautiful luminous purple, but it does go a bit patchy on the lips.

Wearing Orange Mio
Wearing Orange Mio

Holy smokes! Orange Mio is a loud orange with intense pigmentation. Love this one!

Wearing Red Roma
Wearing Red Roma

I absolutely thought Red Roma was going to be a boring, old red, but there is definitely something unique about it that I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s almost verging on neon somehow? Neon red tends to have some pink in it, so I can see a hint of that here. Stunning!

Wearing Puro Mirtillo
Wearing Puro Mirtillo

Despite the bullet looking dang near black, Puro Mirtillo is actually a deep purple. The colour is absolutely beautiful, but this one had the biggest problems in terms of patchiness.

Final Thoughts

Each shade applies smoothly and solidly, but I had varying degrees of success with each shade. Overall, I have to say that these lipsticks perform much better without lip primer. I found this surprising as lip primer is a lifesaver for me in terms of keeping my lipstick from bleeding out at the edges and for longevity. I found that lip primer ended up making this lipstick clump up, which is something I had never experienced before. Surprisingly without lip primer these lipsticks did NOT bleed outside of my lip line – I was so impressed!

That being said, I found that the purples and orange gathered a little bit at the edge between where my exterior lip ends and the interior of my mouth begins. The red shade didn’t do this though. As for colour pigmentation, much like that swatches, the orange and red were opaque, and the purples had some patchiness (use a lip pencil underneath your lipstick to prevent that issue from standing out). For me, the red, and then the orange were the clear winners, but I really love the deeper purple shade as it looks really, really good on!

So while there are a few discrepancies between the shades and how they wore on me, I have to say I am so impressed to see Mary Kay releasing these kinds of shades. Kudos to you guys – keep it up!

 The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration.

Holiday 2018: Too Faced Sugar Cookie & Tickled Peach Mini Palettes (Review & Swatches)

Too Faced mini eyeshadow palettes

Too Faced launched a lot of holiday items this year, and two of the most surprising and unique ones were these mini palettes – Sugar Cookie and Tickled Peach!

Too Faced mini eyeshadow palettes in Sugar Cookie and Tickled Peach
Too Faced mini eyeshadow palettes in Sugar Cookie and Tickled Peach

What surprised me about these launches is that they’re not particularly holiday inspired (not a problem for me really, I like the departure from the traditional Christmas-y stuff), and yet they’re great for stocking stuffers or smaller presents for people. Each palette has 8 shadows which is fairly impressive given that the entire palette fits in the palm of my hand!

Too Faced Sugar Cookie palette
Too Faced Sugar Cookie palette

The Sugar Cookie seems to be an Ulta and TooFaced.com exclusive item as I haven’t spotted it at Sephora yet. It retails for $26 USD and contains 8 shadows – 2 of which have 0.95 grams of product, and the other 6 have 0.8 grams.

Too Faced Sugar Cookie palette
Too Faced Sugar Cookie palette

The Sugar Cookie palette is on the more neutral side of things with a touch of pink. And the best part? It actually smells like sugar cookies! Kind of a sweet, sugary slightly vanilla flavour.

Too Faced Sugar Cookie palette - swatches
Too Faced Sugar Cookie palette – swatches

The swatches are quite pigmented, and I did find they blended out nicely on the eye.  Nom Nom is more of a particle shimmer than a smooth shimmer, but I liked it nonetheless.

Wearing Sugar Cookie
Wearing Sugar Cookie
  • Cookie Pusher through the crease.
  • Fresh from the Oven on the lid.
  • Tough Cookie on the outer corner/crease.
  • Butter & Love on the brow bone.
  • Nom Nom on the inner corner.
Wearing Sugar Cookie
Wearing Sugar Cookie

I was happy that I was able to diffuse Tough Coookie to make it look more purple than the almost black it appears in the pan. Gives me a little bit more colour variety to work with, you know?

Too Faced Tickled Peach palette
Too Faced Tickled Peach palette

While Sugar Cookie was fun, it was really Tickled Peach that I was the most excited to use! Too Faced has definitely gone down the road of adding products to their Peaches & Cream range, but for me it’s the original Sweet Peach that really gets me excited.

Too Faced Tickled Peach palette
Too Faced Tickled Peach palette

And this mini palette smells just like the original Sweet Peach! I was so excited! I love that sharp peach candy scent, and I was so happy they decided to release this one since it’s basically an extension of the larger palette.

Too Faced Tickled Peach palette - swatches
Too Faced Tickled Peach palette – swatches

That being said, you definitely don’t need the larger palette in order to work with the mini because you do have a full set of shadows in here to cover every area on your eye: brow bone highlight, transition, lid and outer corner colours are all covered here.

Wearing Tickled Peach
Wearing Tickled Peach
  • Peach Spice through the crease.
  • Tickled on the lid.
  • Parisian Peach on the inner corner.
  • Plum Fun and Love Pit on the outer corner.
  • Peach Bum on the brow bone.
Wearing Tickled Peach
Wearing Tickled Peach

I was wearing the look above in my October haul video and got a ton of compliments on it – seems I’m not the only one in love with the colour combination!

Final Thoughts

I’m pretty impressed with both two mini palettes that Too Faced has launched for the holidays, but it’s definitely Tickled Peach that has stolen my heart. I wish they’d continue to put out more and more products in the original Sweet Peach scent since it’s far and above my favourite.

What really stuck out about these palettes is that they’re incredibly compact, and yet they’re only one shadow short of their regular 9-pan palette structure (a la Peanut Butter & Jelly, Totally Cute, etc.). I like that the packaging doesn’t feel cheap either – with a palette this small you want it to feel sturdy, and since these replicate their larger Chocolate Bar packaging with the metallic tin and magnetic closure these do feel like they’re quite solid. There’s also a good mix of metallic and shimmers.

I’d love to see Too Faced put more of these types of mini palettes out with different themes. I love their big palettes, but it’s nice to see something a bit more compact.

The Too Faced Tickled Peach palette can be purchased at sephora.ca for $32 CAD or on sephora.com for $26 USD. The Sugar Cookie palette can be purchased at ulta.com for $26 USD.

The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.