First off, Thank you Honey Stinger for allowing me to represent your brand. I’m beyond stoked for this opportunity and already planning out the rest of my year. I look forward to sharing my experiences with your products with everyone I meet. That is the short and sweet of things. [Insert celebratory shouting and fireworks here]

Now the long drawn out part I’m sure most of you will skip over. Have you ever filled out an application to be a brand ambassador for one of your favorite running-related products? I have and I’ve gotten those awful “We’re Sorry” email replies telling me that I’m just not ambassador material.  I’ve got to be honest that’s not a great warm and fuzzy feeling. After getting a few of these emails I decided to just focus on my running and let my social media posting style do the talking.

I saw Honey Stinger had open enrollment and I thought, “why not?” I’ve used their products with success in the past and have never had a bad experience- I figured I’d give it a shot and see where it would go.

Well, after a month with no reply, I chocked it up to another experience and moved on. Still using their products and throwing them a shout-out now and again I continued to just focus on me. Another month went by and I saw a few IG users posting that they had been selected- still no word for me, and I just assumed “better luck next time“.  I put any ambassador program out of my head and just focused on the task at hand; Preparing for the Hot Chocolate 15k, The Hard Cider Run, and upcoming Ragnar Relay.

Last week at our local health food grocer, I saw they had a sale on Honey Stinger products and loaded up!  I had been so consumed with training that I forgot all about the ambassador program.  And then I started to think about Honey Stinger more, started to share and tag them more on IG and Twitter.  I went back to their website and looked through everything again – they use organic products, wholesome ingredients… and originated right in my backyard of Lancaster, PA!

Fast forward to today: BAM there it was, that awesome email that brightened my day! So major thanks to Honey Stinger, here’s to a great race season ahead and thank you for giving me a chance to represent your amazing brand!