Race the Lakes 10k Food

On Saturday, May 24, I ran in the Race the Lakes 10k in Lakeland, FL. It was fun (although paying to run, even if part of the money goes to a good cause, seems so silly to me). The race started in front of Lake Mirror, proceeded through downtown, around Lake Morton, through some neighborhoods filled with lots of old historic mansions, around Lake Hollingsworth, and then returned to the start at Lake Mirror. After the run, it was time for the post-race food.

They had water bottles printed up specifically for the race. I wonder how much of the $20 registration fee went to printing custom waters? Behind the bottle is a view of Lake Mirror and Downtown Lakeland. The stone arches on the far side of the lake is main entrance to Lakeland's underground tunnels that run under downtown. I'd love to see inside these long closed tunnels...

I normally stick to water, but I picked up a bottle of orange Gatorade. I felt like I needed to brush my teeth after...

They had boxes of bananas, Fuji apples, and Gala apples.

Fuji apples are one of my favorites, and I'm normally fine with bananas. For some reason though, bananas always taste horrible after I run.

Bagels!

Cookies aren't exactly the healthy post-race food that I would expect, but these oatmeal raisin and lemon coconut cookies were pretty good.

Overall, Race the Lakes had better post-race food than some of the other races I've run in...

Free Orange Julius Smoothie

Friday, June 19 was free smoothie day at Orange Julius if you came in with the proper coupon printed from their website. Always on the lookout for free food, I of course utilized this offer. I went to the Orange Julius in Sanford's Seminole Towne Center Mall and was offered the choice of three light smoothies with 250 calories or less with the coupon. I chose the Berry-Pom Twilight smoothie.

Although it was free, I thought the smoothie was horrible. It tasted like a mix of apple and grape juice that was somehow thickened. Neither of these juices are my favorites so that didn't help the taste. Orange Julius also put all sorts of artificial sweeteners in the smoothie like Splenda. I am not afraid of sugar, so I try to avoid artificial sweeteners, and Splenda especially scares me. Google 'Splenda side effects' and look at all of the results that comes up. I couldn't find any scientific studies on the effects of Splenda, so I am a bit skeptical of all of the claims that come up, but it also seems like a whole lot of people are experiencing negative side effects that they are attributing to Splenda. When I make smoothies at home, I only put juice and fruit in them and the smoothies come out plenty sweet. I don't understand why restaurants always add extra sweetener to make their smoothies extra sweet. I drank about half of the smoothie and threw it away.

Weekend Trip: The Official Snack of Jetblue at 35000 Feet

After my early breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, I arrived at the Orlando International Airport, went through security, rode the people mover, and boarded my flight with no problems.

After about an hour of flying, somewhere over North Carolina or Virginia, snacks were served while at a height of 35,522 feet and a speed of 583 mph.

I asked for orange juice as my beverage. I received a can of Welch's Orange Fusion drink which was a mix of orange, apple, and pineapple juice. It wasn't the orange juice that I was expecting, but it's no big deal. For the food item, I decided to go with the Official Snack of JetBlue and got Terra Blues Potato Chips. The chips were actually made from blue potatoes and tasted halfway between a normal potato chip and a sweet potato chips.


I had my snack and I had my window seat, so I was happy.

Soon enough the plane landed in JFK, and after getting yelled at by another passenger sitting in the row who was accusing us of sticking gum on her seat while she used the restroom, I was ready for lunch.