Hail and color everywhere!

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You never know what sort of weather to expect in upstate New York.

Friday was a spring day, with a high of 74 as the sun was shining. But by Saturday morning, we felt the chill as temps dropped to the upper 30s and hail pelted us between falling flakes.

We knew what we were getting into living in Rochester, so we headed to the Color Vibe 5K race bright and early, prepared not to let the wintry weather chill our day.

Our group, like many, donned the official race shirt for the mid-morning run. It was white and well, when else were we going to wear it? We lined up about 30 minutes before race time, huddling for warmth. Many in the corral grew bored, ripped open their color packets and started a color war.

I was technicolor before we even started moving.  What fun!

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Carnage of some impatient runners

Soon enough, the race was underway. Our group of seven split in half and I ran along with Charlotte, Lindsay and Deb. Less than a half-mile into the run, hail started pelting us as we ran. The whole crowd groaned.

But alas, a color station was ahead. Once we were coated in green, everything seemed more springlike!

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Volunteers throw green corn starch powder on passing runners

Our race was on the local community college campus. Parking lots were aplenty, so we spent much of the run winding through lots and campus roads as we chatted. We were also pleased to see so many people out, despite the weather. We saw many kids running, some racers in costume (Batman and Superman passed us by) and several color infused strollers.

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Lindsay, Deb and Charlotte

Since no mile markers were posted and most of my group skipped wearing watches for the untimed 3.1-mile race, Deb kept track of our mileage. She also shared that info with other runners who were itching to know how much further to the finish.

As we ran, high winds carried the color powder high into the air. It was quite the sight.

Then the snow returned, followed by the hail. (Ouch)

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Snow. sigh.

After we were doused in yellow and blue, we rounded the last turn to the finish.

Because many people stopped at the finish to toss their remaining color powder packets, we had to stop and walk about 50 or so yards into the finish line. That was a bit disappointing, as my favorite part of any race is a feeling of accomplishment as you finish.

But that said, we pummeled each other with color powder at the finish!

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Here, the girls douse me in color!

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From left: Sara, Charlotte, Deb, me, Lindsay, Amanda and Thea

Amanda, one brilliant runner in our group, offered up an idea to protect her iPhone from the color powder. She put her phone inside a plastic ziploc bag. Genius! Unlike my phone, which was a technicolor horror and lost 2 months off it’s life, hers was well protected through the madness.

We also loved that Color Vibe partners with a local charity for the event. In Rochester, it raised awareness for the YMCA of Greater Rochester.

Entry into the Color Vibe included a white T-shirt, one color packet, sunglasses and of course our races bibs. We were also given Boston bracelets, a thoughtful gesture by race organizers as we ran several days after Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings.

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Have you ever taken part in an non-traditional race? Do you like untimed events? Please share your experiences  in the comments.

ROY G. BIV – Colorful Runs!

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Have you heard of Holi?

Holi is a Hindu religious festival, one in which brightly powdered colors that are thrown amongst participants in addition to bonfires, chants, and the celebration of spring.

Photo attributed to Jorge Royan: http://www.royan.com.ar/Royan/Home.html

Photo attributed to Jorge Royan: http://www.royan.com.ar/Royan/Home.html

Not long after I’d first learned about Holi, I saw a brightly colored ad for The Color Run, which began in January 2012. Touted as the Happiest 5k on the Planet, it was first inspired by Disney’s World of Color, paint parties, mud runs, and festivals throughout the world. The Color Run is known in the industry as a “paint race” and promotes healthiness, happiness, celebrating individuality and giving back.

And not too long after that, I heard about other color runs! Color Vibe, Color Me Rad, Run or Dye – the color powder is a’plenty and the party-like atmosphere is a good one.

"Color runs are awesome because you sweat rainbows." - Cam

“Color runs are awesome because you sweat rainbows.” – Cam

A couple of the Chicks have done their fair share of color throwing thus far; Jess, Cam and myself (Mer) took part in The Color Run 2012 San Francisco.

"Color runs are super awesome because everyone's there to have fun and get colored and give high fives." - Jess

“Color runs are super awesome because everyone’s there to have fun and get colored and give high fives.” – Jess

I volunteered at The Color Run 2012 New Jersey and soon I’ll be running at Run or Dye Philadelphia.

Bec‘s done both Color Me Rad 2012 Boston and The Color Run 2012 Boston and has another Color Me Rad coming up this summer.

" Color Me Rad is the perfect name for it. It was totally chill (as chill as an 88 degree July day can be), and I love that it was about playing and color and FUN. No timing, no pressure, just getting down for some good, clean (errrr) fun." - Bec

“It was totally chill (as chill as an 88 degree July day can be), and I love that it was about playing and color and FUN. No timing, no pressure, just getting down for some good, clean (errrr) fun.” – Bec

However, Victoria has yet to experience a color explosion and so we thought she’d be the perfect, unbiased, candidate for our comparison post!

Ring the bell and meet our two contenders in the COLOR THROW-DOWN!

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VERSUS

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Color Vibe was founded in March of 2012, first under the name Graffiti Me Color Series before later changing to Color Vibe. Both races encourage the wearing of white (even after Labor day – GASP!), do not have timing chips, and encourage their participants to have THE BEST EXPERIENCE EVER.

Victoria, we hope you’re ready to party!

Color Vibe and The Color Run have both graciously provided entry for Vic’s experiences and she’ll be coming back here to share everything with the Scoot a Doot readers. Not to fret, this is a friendly competition where the boxing gloves are more like fist bumps and everyone is looking to have a good time.

First up is the Rochester Color Vibe which takes place today, April 20th.  Vic is looking forward to it and will report back next week!

Will you be there or at another colorful event this spring/summer? Have you been to a Holi celebration? Let’s hear about it!

While Color Vibe and The Color Run have compensated Vic for the races, this post and all others regarding it are not sponsored. All thoughts/opinions expressed are our own.

Runners giving back: Medals4Mettle

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The running community is a strong and rowdy bunch. There’s a certain level of insanity the comes along with runners, people who choose to spend much of their free time running long distances for the love of the sport and achieving the impossible (with a side of bragging rights and medals sometimes thrown in for good measure).

After an event like the one at the Boston Marathon, there’s a certain sense of helplessness that hits us. We are doers, movers and shakers, so to do nothing is not an option.

Since Monday’s tragedy, we’ve participated in reflection runs; we’ve worn the Boston Marathon colors of blue and gold; we’ve donned race shirts from any and all events; we’ve prayed for the victims, first responders, runners and the city of Boston.

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And we’re still left asking, What else is there? What more can we do to show support, solidity and love?

Well, friends, might I offer up Medals4Mettle?

met·tle  /ˈmetl/ Noun
A person’s ability to cope well with difficulties or to face a demanding situation in a spirited and resilient way.

In May 2005, Dr. Steven Isenberg gave his own Chicago Marathon medal to his patient, Les Taylor, who was battling prostate cancer. Before his death, Taylor told Dr. Isenberg just how much the medal meant to him.

From that seed Medals4Mettle blossomed. I first heard about Medals4Mettle, or M4M, last year when I began running races.

Currently M4M is collecting Boston Marathon medals from any year to give to Monday’s victims and first responders.

medals4mettle

For those who haven’t run the Boston Marathon, M4M will gratefully accept all donations of hard-earned half marathon, full marathon or triathlon medals to those battling life-threatening illnesses and severe disabilities.

“Think about when you are out on a course, and you have dozens to hundreds of people you don’t know who are cheering you on, and want to see you succeed and get to the finish line,” said Andrea Herrmann of M4M.  “This is our chance to return this encouragement to others, and to celebrate their strength in dealing with their health struggles, cheering them to their personal finish lines.”

m4m

Directors and chapter coordinators are all volunteers at M4M. I reached out to my local chapter coordinator, Reed Costello, who said that his responsibilities include local awareness and collecting/passing medals along to the area coordinator who then distributes them to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The children love receiving the medals and the runDisney medals are among the favorites; many wear the donated medals to chemo treatment or hang them from their IV pole.

A selfless way to lift someone’s spirits and give back, Medals4Mettle is a non-profit organization that assists runners and athletes in doing just that.

Have you ever given your race medal to someone else? We’d love to hear about it in the comments!

Reflection run

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Some fought back tears. Others hugged. Everyone hit the pavement.

Several dozen runners gathered in suburban Rochester Tuesday evening and together ran in memory of the bombings that interrupted the Boston Marathon Monday afternoon, killing three and injuring more than 170 others.

“We are runners, we are strong,” said Ellen Brenner co-owner of Fleet Feet Sports in Brighton.

Before we hit the road, Brenner thanked the group for their love and support of  Rochester’s running community — and each other. One local Boston Marathoner, Malcolm Bugler of Henrietta, also spoke of Monday’s events.

“It’s only just sinking in now, the enormity of the thing that happened,” he said. “Running is a celebration of what you can achieve…to have that challenged is just unthinkable.”

Typically, we run hills on Tuesday evenings. Instead, we ran an altered “happy hour” loop of 4.09 miles, which was the time on the race clock when the first explosion went off.

We ran through a drizzle, many wearing Boston’s blue and yellow or race shirts or jackets. We were together. We were one. We were strong. We are runners.

Click here for a video of the memorial run by my colleague Kris Murante.

Our hearts are with you, Boston

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It’s hard to find words for what happened at the finish line of the Boston Marathon yesterday. When unspeakable, senseless acts like this happen, most of us can think of only one word: why?

The truth is, even if and when the person or people responsible for this are apprehended, even after a motive is revealed and justice is served, there will be no good answer to that question. How do you even begin to process the reason behind the destruction brought down on what was supposed to be a joyful event, where people were injured and killed simply because they were there to run or to cheer on their loved one as they crossed the finish line?

There will never be an answer for that kind of blind hatred.

But what we’ve seen time and time again is that goodness will always blot out the bad. In all of the horrific footage, the awful news stories that seemed to flow out endlessly through various social media platforms, there were these stories: people running to help the injured, to hold hands and offer reassurance; a Google spreadsheet that popped up online, filled with names and numbers and addresses, temporary homes for those displaced by what happened; a couple that had run the marathon, only to get married hours later.

These are the moments that invariably always rise to the surface, because good will always counteract the bad. Love will always trump hate. It is so much bigger.

We love you, Boston, and our hearts are with you.

Race rewind – runDisney’s Castaway Cay 5k

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Free… for the mere price of a cruise!

Last summer my family and I took a week cruise on the Disney Magic. I’d heard about the Castaway Cay 5k for months prior and on Tuesday, June 26th 2012, I got to experience it firsthand.

Disney owns its very own Bahamian island, Castaway Cay and it’s absolutely beautiful. However, that day, Tropical Storm Debby was brewing and decided to take aim.  I, along with the other runners (I’d guess there were about 35 of us), got hit about ten minutes into our run.

The group of us met in one of the bars at 8:30ish and got our bib numbers.  You could tell that everyone was sizing each other up until we all realized that we were just doing this for kicks.  (Or at least I was… I don’t really know what the other people were doing it for.  The plastic medal?  The glory?)

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The sun was still shining at this point but if you look off in the distance, you can see the clouds rolling in.

My plan for this 5k was to take it nice and easy and take pictures along the route.  That lasted for those first ten minutes.  We took a tram out to the start of the 5k; Everyone was in good spirits and chatty the entire ride.

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Soon after I took this picture, the skies above looked ominous.  Dark clouds came barreling toward us and started pelting us with hail.  That was about the time I decided to stash my phone in my SPIbelt and press on.  The route isn’t all that exciting anyway; past the watch tower, out and back near the airstrip, the watch tower loop AGAIN, and then the finish.

I fried the backlight in my nano.  Boo!  Wound up finishing in about 35 minutes (that’s with stops along the way).  Made friends with the kid running near me, we played cat and mouse the entire run.  And at the end I joined a woman that was ahead of me and we finished up together.  She was training for that year’s Tower of Terror 10 miler.

I have to admit, I felt pretty bad ass running in HAIL.  I mean, yes, I ruined my nano and I was soaked to the bone… but hey, now I can say that I’ve experienced that, right?  Who’s drinking from the half full glass?  That would be me!

castawaycay5k3

You might not be able to tell from the picture but I was soaked, head to toe!

A few nights later I came back to my stateroom to find a “magical moment” certificate (with my name spelled incorrectly – Womp! My parents had to go the different route with it and I’m “paying” for it ever since).

castaway5k4

Have you ever ran in the Bahamas or any other island? In hail or a Tropical Storm? Have you broken an electronic device during a run? (I’m still bummed about that, nearly a year later.)

Back in the Saddle Again-ish

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Here’s how I imagined it: I’d lace up my sneaks, head outside, warm up with a brisk walk and then get to jogging. Maybe I’d do a twelve-minute mile, work up to my pre-pregnancy 10:30 average, and come back home feeling accomplished and limber.

Look at me, world, I’m a runner again!

Er, yeah.

Here’s how my first post-baby attempt at running went: I laced up my sneaks, headed outside, walked for five minutes (look at me, world, I’m a runner again!), attempted to run for sixty seconds and had to stop because I was pretty sure if I didn’t that I was going to fall over.

Let me repeat – I attempted to run for SIXTY SECONDS.

I limped back to my building, dragged myself up to the apartment – in the elevator, of course – and tried not to throw my iPod at Mister Jess’s face when he said, “You’re back already?”

World, I am not a runner. I am not even much of a walker right now. I’m not sure which hurts worse, the stitch in my side or my pride, but they are both rather pained at the moment.

Me and running during happier times.

Me and running during happier times.

Have I underestimated the havoc pregnancy wreaks on the body? Sure, it’s been a good nine months since I’ve even thought about running, but shouldn’t it be like riding a bike? Shouldn’t the memory of running kick in? “Hey, I remember this! Let’s go, Jess, weeeeeeeee.”

Guess not, because my body remembers nothing about running: not how to do it, nor that at one point we kind of liked it. And though I have a good excuse for being out of shape, part of me can’t help but be a little POed at my body for failing me this way. I don’t think I’m expecting too much from it to run for sixty seconds without crying “Uncle.”

That’s the drill sergeant part of me, though (which has gotten bigger since I became a mom. Coincidence?). The kinder, more understanding me realizes that it will take time to get back to where I was before. And maybe I never will get back to where I was before.

That’s one of the lessons of parenthood: everything changes. It’s impossible to get back to the life you had before your little bundle of everything entered the world. So you adjust, and along the way you occasionally mourn The Way Things Were, because now sleeping in means 7AM instead of 10, and weeknights are for feeding and bottle-washing and wrangling your kiddo to sleep instead of sprawling out on the couch and watching “The Voice.”

With all of that in mind, I’m going to approach my return to running in the same way. I’m going to adjust. I’m going to give myself some slack, remember that my body did some pretty crazy things not too long ago and this is its way of saying, “Hey, lady, I need some time.”

And if my husband ever says, “You’re back already?” after a run again, I really am going to throw my iPod at his head.

Have you ever had to start training all over again? Give me some tips (and encouragement, please!) in the comments. 

Ruts and Nuts – What to do when a food rut drives you nuts!

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Foodpost1

I’m the type of person that orders the exact same food at a restaurant.  I find something, I stick with it, and if the menu changes before I’m ready to break up with that food, well… let’s just say that there’s some pouting that occurs.

In the same breath, I’m the person that will eat something for six months repeatedly for breakfast (oatmeal!) and one day decide that I need a break. A hiatus can last a month or a year, depending on my mood. And hey, if it were up to me, CHEESE would be considered a daily meal.  I’d eat it regularly, or at least until I got bored. (But I don’t think that’s possible.)

I'll take the cheese buffet, please.

I’ll take the cheese buffet, please.

Yes, I’m quite the emotional eater. You can preach to me all that you want that “food to fuel” and rationally, I know that. But I also know that I want what I want, when I want it and that makes meal planning a bit of a challenge.

However, financially, I realize that meal planning is much more – oh, what’s the word? – smart.  So rather than leading solely with my gastronomical whims, I try to incorporate those while eating fairly healthy, and following my grocery store’s sales and ads for the week.

foodpost2

Not exactly easy but I’ve gotten a lot better at it than I was a couple of years back.  Trust me.

And yet, occasionally, I fall into a food rut.  It’s not that I don’t have plenty of recipes, because I do. It’s challenging at the moment because we’ve got Track & Field practice (for Pooks) three times each week. And if we’re not there, we attend a variety of other meetings (PTO, scouts, etc).  When we aren’t at one of those places, my husband has to work late.

You get the point. Maybe it’s not so much a “rut” but more just not being in the same place at the same time. But it leads to take-out and late meals. Neither option feels particularly healthy to me.

When I attended the Tinkerbell Half Meetup in January, I was fortunate enough to meet Tara Gidus and bend her ear while running.

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Thankfully, she was very open to the idea of keeping in contact (props to runDisney for choosing such an approachable dietician!) When I reached out to her, she offered some great tips to share with you:

  • Plan ahead! Look at your calendar. If you have meetings after work or your kid’s baseball practice to attend, but don’t want to sacrifice good nutrition and eating at home, we have to make planning a priority. Build your weeknight menu before you go to the grocery store.
  • Look at your track record. If you know you won’t have more than 10 minutes to get food on the table before you give in to takeout, do what you can to ensure success. Prep veggies on the weekend, incorporate slow cooker meals, make ahead meals like casseroles and chili or veggie soup, and always have quick and easy menu items on hand for last minute prep.
  • Keep quick meal ideas and ingredients in the house. I always have certain things on hand: spaghetti and marinara sauce, grilled cheese and tomato soup, egg sandwiches or omelettes, rotisserie chicken, minute rice for burrito bowls, frozen vegetables and entrees like Kashi pizzas, Bertolli family dinners, and Amy’s meals. Look at the nutrition facts on packaging to make sure each product is not too high in saturated fat or sodium, but typically these meals will be healthier and less expensive than eating out.

Love these ideas and have already started incorporating them into our active evenings.

Not every evening is going to be a five star dinner but with a bit of preparation and planning, I’m trying my darnedest to make the best of our crazy evenings and enjoy the not-so-crazy ones.

Now if you’ll please excuse me, I’m off to prep tonight’s chicken pot pie!

What do you do for food when the going gets tough (or busy)? Which meal do you find to be the most challenging?

Special thanks to Tara Gidus!

Recipe Box: Mexican Quinoa

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I have a confession. Since Easter, I’ve consumed boxes (Yes, you read that right. Boxes.) of Girl Scout cookies and a good portion of the Easter candy in our house. And maybe some left over from Valentine’s Day too.

Why, you ask? Well, part of it is because I gave up cookies and candy for Lent, and I suppose I went a little overboard making up for lost time. The other reason is that I’m pretty stressed out at the moment, and when that happens, I want some sugar. Or a lot of sugar, apparently. Ahem.

I like sweets. I love to bake. One of the reasons I began running was so I could continue to eat dessert (and drink wine) without having to buy bigger clothes. Moderation is definitely key though, so it was time to toss out the candy and make some smart food choices again.

I ate my last Thin Mint on Sunday, and resolved to get back to healthy eating this week. I stocked our kitchen with good-for-me snacks, such as Greek yogurt (I prefer plain with my own fruit added), almonds, berries (picked by me and the girls), carrots (easy to grab-and-go) and other fresh produce. I also filled our dinner menu with simple meals of lean protein, whole grains and veggies.

One of those is a quinoa salad that’s a cinch to prepare, super filling and has quickly become one of my favorite healthy meals. I LOVE Mexican food, so this is the perfect quinoa dish for me.

Mexican Quinoa
Makes about 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

2 tsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped
1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed well and drained
1 1/4 cups vegetable broth
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, with juices
1 cup frozen corn (or kernels cut from 2 cobs of corn)
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 quarter of a lime, juiced

To finish:
Shredded cheese, sour cream (or Greek yogurt), salsa and/or avocado.

DIRECTIONS

Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and jalapeños to the pan and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the the quinoa, veggie broth, beans, diced tomatoes, corn, and salt to the pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cover. Simmer for about 25 minutes, or until the liquid is fully absorbed. Remove from the heat. Stir in the cilantro and lime juice. Serve as desired with cheese, salsa, avocado, and/or sour cream.

Source: Annie’s Eats

Do you have a go-to healthy meal or snack? Please share it with me in the comments! More importantly, what is your favorite Girl Scout cookie? (Mine are Caramel deLites, AKA Samoas, AKA the greatest cookie ever.)

DO AC: 2013 April Fool’s half marathon

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DOAC

Last year I ran the inaugural Atlantic City April Fool’s half marathon to ring in my 35th year. This year’s race wasn’t on my birthday (since April 1st was on a Monday) but when my friends started floating the idea of running, I jumped on board. After all, I almost view this race as “mine” since it’s an homage to my birthday and one that I’ll return to year after year.

Packet pick-up was quick and easy and laid-back.  In fact, this entire race is very laid-back with the added bonus of being extremely well-organized, two things that you don’t often see paired together when it comes to racing. There is no expo; the packet pick-up took place in the host resort, which was Revel this year.

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Dorothy and Jody warming up by the fire pit at Revel.

Revel is AC’s brand new resort and casino and is absolutely gorgeous, albeit a bit confusing to navigate. Thankfully they have staff everywhere to point you in the right direction so you don’t wander aimlessly for too long.

However, AC is still AC and most people there are in “party” mode, not “sleeping and running a race” mode. Which means the clientele of the resort included a drunk dude wandering the halls at 4am, knocking on doors and shouting for “Blair” on Friday night (hope you found her eventually, man) and the party people who decided to stay in and celebrate someone’s 30th birthday with shots and singing at the top at their lungs rather than paying $12 for drinks… until 3:30 in the morning.

Next year? I’m sleeping at home and driving the hour. Hold me to this, please. Early wake up is better than no waking up because I never actually slept.

Going into a half marathon on a small amount of sleep isn’t the best way to do things but alas, that’s how it played out. My suggestion to an AC hotel hosting runners for an event would be to put them all in the same area.

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We fueled with wheat bagel flats and almond butter/peanut butter, dressed, and joined the other runners (and partiers who apparently never went to sleep the night before) in the front vestibule.

Approximately 2,000 runners participated in the half marathon, with the 7k/11k races being held on Saturday morning. This was a change from the 2012 races, as all races were all held on the same day. Not going to lie, we were a bit bummed about the change but the race directors were very good at compensating the runners who were affected by the change. Jody ran the 7k on Saturday morning, while Moe, Dorothy and myself were ready to take on 13.1 miles.

We headed outside into the chilly morning air around 7:45, with the race beginning at 8am. At the start we were able to find our friends Rob, Brandi, and Sean – all of whom were running as well!

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Starting promptly, we were off, down the boards. After a quarter mile, I realized that in the pre-race excitement I’d forgotten to start my Garmin so I’d be flying solo on that level – I was upset for about a hot second but realized that I’d just have to let it go. Sidenote: I got a Garmin and Road ID tan on my arms during this race.  Time to break out the sunscreen!

It began to warm as we made our way down the boards and the smell of the ocean air was invigorating.  Moe and I fell into a nice comfortable pace, hanging out side by side and occasionally knocking into each other while dancing to our own iPods.

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Who has two thumbs and a flying ponytail? Moe!

Around mile 4 my feet started giving me issues with my toes curling a bit, which didn’t feel so fantastic so I walked a couple of seconds.  That didn’t help so I started running again.  This is also about the time that we saw the winner of the race headed back to the finish. Always impressive!

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And then, there are people like this.  These dudes ran like this for the entire race and ran the race in two hours.  More power to you, horse and horse rider! (Horse dude kept his head on the entire time.  Crazy!)

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See that little turn there – right before mile 5?  That’s when we took the streets.  And that’s when I knew I’d be hurting a bit.  WHERE IS MY BOARDWALK?  Couldn’t we have made it longer? However, I knew Lucy was ahead and I was very much looking forward to seeing the elephant.

“The elephant???” You might ask.  Oh yes, the elephant.

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What, this isn’t normally what you see when you race? (Check out other random things seen on runs at OliveToRun’s How Bizarre Photos!)

Eventually we hit the 7 mile mark which meant it was time to turn around and hit the reverse button! I swung around the flag (not literally) and off we went, back where we came from. The street seemed to expand and getting back to the boards took way longer than I anticipated. Finally Moe pulled to the side where she could look ahead and see the cones turn – we were nearly back on the boardwalk. Huzzah!

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Since I didn’t have my Garmin, I lost mile 9.  For all of mile 9, I thought I was in mile 10… Until I saw the flag marker that said 10 and nearly cried because I so desperately wanted it to say 11.  Alas, it did not.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

And right around then was when I felt the blister forming and I was just ready to be done.  3.1 miles to go – a 5k! Then I looked up and saw this…

acbeach

And remembered how blessed I was to be in that moment.

The water stations were phenomenal and it definitely makes up for the lack of crowd support because they are like a cheer station unto themselves. The volunteers are incredible with this race, always with a smile and making you laughing by fighting over whose water or Gatorade you’d take.

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There are also a couple of bands and DJs along the route as well,  so when I saw those I’d take my yurbuds out to jam with them for a couple of seconds.

The last two miles I was speed walking more than running and a one point Moe turned around to see where I was.  I waved her on and told her, “keep moving THAT way” and off she went. I could see her pink hat bopping along ahead and that gave me the motivation I needed to stay strong and keep moving toward the finish line.

I passed where the finish line was the previous year and was sad that it wasn’t actually there again this year because that would mean I’d be done.  At that point, there was a little over a mile left. The boardwalk started having more people milling around, which is difficult because at that point instead of bobbing and weaving around other runners, you’re moving around people who don’t have a clue that a race is going on. I just kept moving forward, alternating between a run/walk and pushing as much as possible.

And just like that, I saw the finish line in the distance. I heard cheers of people as I drew closer and I pushed myself to sprint those last few minutes, thanks to some very sweet ladies from Black Girls Run giving me some special cheers.

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I asked someone if I could borrow her sign so Dorothy and I could get a picture with it. Don’t believe it though – we’re definitely more like 3/4th crazy.

I crossed the finish line with a smile on my face, having attained a personal record! I’m not a fast runner and I may never BE a fast runner, but I bested myself on Sunday… and that felt damn good (even if my feet didn’t and don’t)!

I’m already looking to sign up for next year’s April Fool’s half.

Is there a race that you return to time and time again? What is it that keeps you coming back?