Hey there friends,
Sorry I've been M.I.A. from the running blog - this explains why I had many one page diaries as a kid...apparently I do not excel at consistent journaling. That's a goal for another day. Lots of runs between here and the last post. So here you go.
April - I had signed up for 2 races, but had to go out of town and miss them. Well to be honest, I had a random soccer injury - pulled calf muscle pretty badly and probably would have tried to run through it. However, I lost my Aunt Vicki to cancer and went out to support everyone through the services. I miss her all the time and wish she was still here. But that time allowed me to heal much better, so I think she's cheering for me pretty loud up there.
Race 4
May 4 - Hero Rush somewhere in MD
So much fun at this race with my friend GJ. It was a firefighter themed obstacle course with less mud and more random fire"ish" situations. Tried to get my old coworkers from IAFC to join in. Race was so much fun and we looked adorable with our suspenders and flaming socks. :)
Race 5
June 1 - Color Run in Portland, Oregon
Since I was planning to be in Oregon for work and my friend Karissa said she'd fly up from California for the weekend, I figured why not? Well as it turned my main contact at the hotel and a few of her friends were also planning to do the race. So fun! They said we could ride with them - awesome! Then invited us to join them that evening for a pubcycle night out - so awesome! Not great that both Karissa and I were fighting off colds - but we totally ran with the fun. The color run was my first experience being a tie-dyed person and was pretty fun - though I realized you should not open your mouth around that color - it does not taste great.
Race 6
June 8 - Run or Dye at RFK
This race was fairly similar to the previous race, but with my friend GJ again from the Hero Rush. Great way to catch up with each other and get a little exercise in too. And this time we were wearing tutus.
Race 7
July 20 - Louzilu Women's Mud Run somewhere in Loudon County
I joined this team through a friend's sister. All these fabulous ladies are 31 Gifts distributors and graciously let me join in with them. We were the Dirt Diggers and I just had to show up and one of the ladies gave me an awesome painted tank to wear for the race. This was not as muddy as the runs I've done previously as it was on some sort of track (motocross, maybe). However, it was lots of fun and certainly a challenge.
Race 8
August 10 - ROC Race at RFK
So ROC stands for Ridiculous Obstacle Course - this race was awesome. I started Team No Regrets...Just Awesome and convinced my friend Kjirsten, then together we convinced Amy. From there Colleen joined in and everyone Kjirsten is related to came on board. This was so much fun - the race included an adult sized moon bounce to get up, on and over. A good amount of slip and slide, which was necessary on this normal August day. But truly the most fun was the giant inflatable slide into water at the end. That should be at the end of every race. And how could I forget the rainbow tutus we all rocked - ladies and gentleman alike. And then a few beers to celebrate the race made this one the best all around experience.
Race 9
September 6 - Electric Race at National Harbor
I signed on to this one late based on a friend's appeal that we come out in celebration of a friend's victory over breast cancer treatment. This race was at night and included lots of glow bracelet and other glowing stuff. I came with lightup hair extensions, glow in the dark nail polish, body paint, etc. And the race provided a bunch more stuff. This was another tutu race, which I rewore the lightly tie-dyed tutu from the Run or Dye. While the rest of my team is great paced walkers, I was amped up from some significant happenings at work and seemed jet powered. At the one mile mark, I had to take off and start running. I felt very Forrest Gump. This race was seriously cool along the water with lots of fun glowing pitstops for photos. I realized I love running at night, on a course with lots of people around.
Race 10
September 7 - Kick Start the NFL 5K at FedExField
GJ suggested this one and it was pretty fun, though we realized that FedExField's parking lots are really very hilly. This race ended with a few photos at the field and a very nice finisher medal - that was pretty cool. Not sure how I didn't realize that I'd signed up for 2 races in 12 hours earlier, but this was actually pretty good. I wasn't too sore after the night's race and felt like I was already warmed up for the morning. So there could be a possibility on me doing one of those relays at some point...not there yet, but one day.
Still working on the rest of the year's races:
October - thinking of finding one for this weekend
November - Arlington TurkeyTrot - this one is great - I definitely recommend it.
December - looking for a fun one to end the year.
