Trust Me, Just Do This Race!

Seriously, if The C0lor Run comes to your area or close to it, GO! It's not about racing. It's not even timed. It's about getting covered in color with your friends!

We arrived early to beat traffic and sat and chatted in the car. We knew there would be a lot of racers and we were meeting about fifteen people. It's pretty hard finding people in a sea of white!

Like I said, this race isn't timed, so there really isn't much of a start. We were in the first wave which was awesome later in the race to be able to look back on the course and see all the people. Up first, yellow!

Our goal, get coated as much as possible! We twirled our way past the people throwing the color. Not going to lie, it was awesome. Up next, pink!

It was a bit chilly, but it was a sunny day and everyone was just smiling and laughing! Up next, purple!

I thought there was supposed to be five colors, but I swear there were only four. No matter, that's one more to enjoy next year. Up next, green!

Then it was to the finish line. Where we waited for the finale. Each racer was provided with a free packet of color for the end. About every 15 minutes, people threw the color up in the air. It was amazing.

Our shoes really took a beating, but I'm going to put mine in my obstacle pile to be used for that.

Oh, and while my car didn't have on a white shirt, it did participate! Yeah, that really is my car covered in the paint. Once I was done, people's reactions were priceless. There were many team photos taken while we were packing up.

Change of Plans

**In the huh, I never hit Publish category, I bring you this post...**

I'm sure many can relate to this: sometimes when I've planned a workout, I just don't feel like doing it. I know, shocker right?

I have what are best described as my "must" workouts and my "if I feel like it" workouts. My M-F ones are my "must" workouts. I just suck it up and go when I have the "don't wannas". My "if I feel like it" are the weekends. Races get done (cause they are fun...well, and I've paid for them!) and on the weekends that I don't have races I generally get in a long run. But sometimes on non-race weekends my run may be what I planned, a bit shorter, a lot shorter, rarely longer, or *gasp* not at all.

I run because it has evolved into something that I enjoy (and yes, it took time to get to this point!). I get dressed and head out and plod along thinking about "stuff". Sure, sometimes along the way I have the mental whines that pop up during a run like how much farther, I've been doing this how long, this hurts / that hurts, etc. But for the most part I am thinking about things that are going on, totally random stuff, or at times not much of anything.

Compared to serious runners, I don't consider myself one at all. My goals for races are: (1) have fun (2) finish (3) have a decent time / pace and (4) no recovery downtime (so that I don't miss any of those "must" workouts!). So what I'm doing works for me to meet those goals and maintain my base. If I decide that I want to PR a 5K or a half, then I will need to alter what I'm doing and do some training. But with training for me comes stress. The running becomes prescribed and must be done. That doesn't sound fun to me right now and I have plenty of stress at the moment without adding to it from choices that are within my control.

Anyway, last Saturday I bailed on the 15K to do the 5K because it was just too cold for me. I said that I'd do 9 miles Sunday, but I wasn't feeling it. I needed a mental break and some movement from sitting at a desk all day though, so I decided I'd go out and go with the flow. My 9 ended up at 5 miles.

I guess the point of this post is that my quarterly wellness goals which are a bunch of stats may make it seem like I workout a lot, I think there's a lot of balance in the details. I workout because of how much it helps me manage my stress, make better food choices, and how it makes me look and feel (healthy and strong) which all goes into helping me maintain my overall health and wellness.

Thank you for taking the time to read these posts---especially as my blog is far from band related at this point. (I really do still have a band!) Hopefully a nugget here and there is something to think about or at a minimum provides some insight at what things are like for me at about 6.5 years out.

Running for Chocolate

My alarm went off and I see the clock says 430am. At first I don't remember, and I'm trying to figure out why I set my alarm so early. Then it hits me. It's a race day.

Don't get me wrong. Originally my buddy and I were hell ya! Swag is a running jacket and there's a CHOCOLATE after party. Until I saw the weather. Winter seriously came to Texas overnight. With wind chill, 17 out. Between that and the pain of getting there (get up at 430 for a 730 race) my excitement had greatly diminished. And ya, I'm whining. I just wanted Scotty to beam me there.

I started off with my breakfast of champions. Strong coffee followed by a chunk of banana bread. A couple long races ago I figured out that a homemade muffin or banana bread fueled me really well. Ever since then, it's my go to meal.

Then out the door with more coffee, 12 pounds of gear options (unfortunately not too much of an exaggeration), and we're off. We have come up with three alternate routes after taking the same route multiple times with the same result to this popular large race location in Dallas. Sitting in stopped traffic each and every time. We decided we'd rather be early sitting in the parking lot this time and our fingers were crossed we wouldn't get lost.

We essentially drove from the door to the best race parking lot with reasonable traffic. Things are starting off well and we are hanging out in the car. We see that the race has officially announced that because of the weather we could switch to the 5K with no penalty.

We had survived the cold and rain from another race and were thinking that we'd still do the 15K. Until we got out of the car that is. It felt way colder than 17 and the wind was horrible. We're still debating, but we are feeling our toes and hands getting cold. So the pro/con debate started. The intent of the run for us was to get our long run in, but we could do that tomorrow when it warms up. Then the final straw for me----no medal at the finish. I'm out, onto the 5K.

The race was very well organized. The start went smoothly and the course was good and well marked. When we finished, they had made the after party a one entry / one exit affair which made it move very smoothly. I had some hot chocolate to warm up, said hi to a few people we knew, hit the road to get breakfast at a toasty warm restaurant, and then home for a hot shower.

Since the race was 1/3 of what I had planned to run, I had a great-fast race. My toes did warm up about 1.5 miles in, but I was honestly glad that I didn't do the longer one. I don't regret my decision at all and will do a 9 mile tomorrow.

Super Bowl Recap

I had to work through the weekend, which ended up being OK because my husband was out of town anyway. You'd think it'd be easy to escape the Super Bowl snacks, right? Well I didn't know I was going to have to work or that my husband wasn't going to be here and bought a bag of caramel and cheddar corn mix for us to eat....which is honestly pretty much crack!

There I was working and watching the game and snacking on the crack. I had put five servings into a bowl and proceeded to snarf on it from noon until the game was over. Sure, there's a bunch of "could-a's" that I could insert here, but nope this is maintenance for me. I strive for overall balance - which means crap and healthy. Yesterday was more of a crap day (but, it's also all natural crap!), but there was also a bit of healthy stuff.

I thought the halftime show was OK, but dated with the super old songs. I don't like Madonna's new song either. It strikes me as something more suited to a much younger pop singer and I hated her with the pom poms. 53 and pom poms? I just thought it was cheesy. Maybe I'm just over Madonna?

My favorite commercial goes to M*&*M's because I remember it and also because at the time it made me smile. I needed a smile again today and it worked like a charm. Go check it out: here's a link.

Orange Smiles

I pack lunch for my husband so he gets a nutritious and healthy breakfast, lunch, and snacks. I've been on an orange kick lately because the ones around here have been so good. I'm a peeler, but he prefers his cut up into "orange smiles".

Have you ever thought of all the people that have handle an orange? It really doesn't matter if it's organic or not, there have been a lot of hands on it. My thought: Eewwwwwww!

I doubt that my husband is sitting in the office rocking the orange smile the way it is supposed to be done, but just in case I wash the orange before I cut it up.

I was supposed to go for a run with a buddy this morning, but she bailed. I decided to get some work done and then was planning on heading out for a break. Well, then it was lunch time and I was starving. Then I had this very important service announcement that I had to share about orange smiles (you're welcome). Then there might have been an chocolate chip oatmeal cookie that had to be eaten, which now needs to digest. Don't want to be getting a cramp!

Procrastinate much? It's quite possible that I'm just not going to make it out for that run today and you know what? That's OK...cause I think I really need to go get a pedicure now!