on the fourth day of Christmas, my running buddy gave to me...

...a hula hoop? That's right, and not just any hula hoop...a travel hula hoop by Oakland-based Whoopkat.

Kat even made a purple and gray one for me (TNT colors, in case you need reminding)!  I was going to include this in my first raffle, but then I thought, wait a second, runners need to do cross-training, and hooping is great for those core muscles, so why not include it in this more runner-friendly raffle?  I cleared it with the coaches, too, so as long as you're not attempting to break any world records or anything, you can safely incorporate a little hooping into your cross training schedule should you be the lucky winner of today's raffle item up for grabs.

And in case you're wondering how the travel hoop works (I know I was), I made a little instructional video for you:



Nope, no hooping here. This took several takes (did I mention I'm solo-parenting my three year old this weekend?), and an earlier version did include about four attempts to get the hoop going. By the time I got it going I'd slowly turned my back - and backside - to the camera. That version will be deleted, thank you very much.

Anywho, if you'd like to "whoop it up" just make a donation in any amount of $5 and up between now and December 17th (you can check out the other items up for grabs here). Stay tuned tomorrow for day 5!