Blonde Bostonian

1. This week has been bananas! Thanks all for all the support from Monday’s post. I think it’s important for bloggers to be honest with their readers. Some bloggers make their living by writing their blogs, and others just do it because they love it. I am in the latter category. Life can’t stop for the blog and it’s not worth overloading myself.

2. This weekend I’m running the Boston Run to Remember 5 miler with my best running friend Stephanie. It’s the first major race being held in Boston since Marathon Monday and security is at an all time high. They’re going to be security screening every single runner and blocking off the start/finish line from spectators. It’s crazy, but I think this is going to be the new normal at big races. A couple weeks ago my coworkers and I stopped by our favorite Watertown bar Donohue’s for some after-work drinks. My office is right in the area where the shootout happened. It’s such a quiet neighborhood, it’s still crazy to think that everything went down right there. Donohue’s was selling some Watertown Strong t-shirts for $20 so I bought one. It’s a dry tech shirt so it’s PERFECT for this weekend’s race. I am looking forward to seeing what the race will do to honor the victims of the bombing.

3. Speaking of the Boston Marathon bombings, this weekend is One Run Boston – a 1 mile organized run along the last 1 mile of the Boston Marathon. It gives runners who never got to finish the race a chance to cross the finish line together. It’s at 10:00am on Saturday and One Run Boston is encouraging people to watch and cheer on all the runners. I plan on heading down before going to pick up my bib for Sunday’s race. It’s also a great way to support the Boylston Street-area businesses that were affected by the weeks of forced shut down. If you’re free Saturday, I suggest you check it out!

4. I’m am now a contributing writer for We Love Beantown, a local blog all about Boston and happenings, etc. I was asked to write for them by one of their writers, a girl I knew wayyyyy back in the early years of college. She reconnected with me and the rest is history. I’m looking forward to writing some fun Boston-area fitness-related posts for the site. Doesn’t hurt that everyone I met who writes/works on the site are really cool and down to earth. Check out my first post about why I love Boston!

5. Giveaway time! Since it’s Friday, I thought I’d be a little generous. I was recently sent some samples of Stubb’s BBQ sauce and meat rubs. Something that got me really excited about reviewing Stubb’s was that their sauce is 100% gluten free, has no high fructose corn syrup, and devoid of any artificial ingredients. Bottled sauces and marinades can be somewhat scary if you actually read the ingredient list. Stubb’s has a great slideshow on the nutritional pitfalls of the condiment isle. Stubb’s is also a famous BBQ restaurant in Austin, TX so you know the sauce is legit. I think this may have been my friend Lauren’s favorite BBQ place in Austin when she visited last year.

I was sent two kinds of BBQ sauce – original BBQ and Sweet Heat and four different rubs – chicken, steak, pork, and BBQ. So far, I’ve tried the BBQ rub on burgers and the chicken rub on chicken breasts. I am a huge BBQ fan, but my burgers especially usually lack that extra oomph that really makes them delicious. Both rubs I swear made the meat more juicy and just overall tasty. The chicken rub also gave my grilled chicken a really pretty BBQ crust.

Of the two sauces, both mine and Bernie’s favorites (you can’t taste test BBQ without having the BBQ-loving boyfriend get in on the action) was the Sweet Heat. I like vinegar-based sauces, which the original tastes like, but I like sweeter BBQ sauce more. Just personal preference. But both were super delicious with the chicken. Next time I want to grill some chicken and slather it in the sauce while it’s cooking like the bottle suggests.

GIVEAWAY TIME

I’m giving away 3 coupons for FREE Stubb’s BBQ sauces. To enter, leave a comment on this blog post telling me your favorite way to enjoy BBQ. Do you like it with a cold beer? Do you prefer BBQ’ed veggies cause you’re a vegetarian? Love pork over chicken? Tell me about it!

Optional ways to enter:

• Follow me on Twitter @BlondeBostonian and leave a comment saying you did/do
• Tweet about the giveaway: “{Giveaway day!} @BlondeBostonian is giving away FREE @stubbsbbqsauce to THREE winners! #IloveBBQ http://wp.me/p2mXMb-14x” and leave a comment saying you did.
• Follow @stubbsbbqsauce on Twitter and leave a comment saying you did.

I’ll pick the winners next Wednesday May 29th. Good luck and happy Friday!

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