Color Me Rad

Well, we did the Color Me Rad 5K yesterday in Orlando. (Except it wasn't really a 5K - more about that later.) Brian and I both participated in the race, but for the first time we did not stay together. (Because of his back, the trainer told him to walk. My assignment was to run the whole thing.) Our day started at about 6:15am, we got up and got dressed, coffee, water, race bibs, breakfast, all the normal stuff. We left the house around 7:00.

The race was at the Central Florida Fairgrounds.  We parked and there were public restrooms that weren't porta-potties!  Yay!  We hung out in the car for a little while and made our way to the starting area around 8:30. There, we took a bunch of pictures, did a little warming up and dancing to the music, ran into my friend Cassie (cool!), and got excited about running.  The race was supposed to start at 9:00.  Our corral was 9:15.

Before I get into details, I will say that the packet pickup on Friday was by far the smoothest and most organized packet pickup I've ever seen.  (Not that I've seen very many, but still.)

So...the race did not start on time.  Now, if you know me at all you know that I am NEVER EVER on time struggle with being on time.  It's a horrible flaw, and I worry myself sick about it work on it every single day.  But, there were tons of people and it was hot and we had been there for a long time - we were ready to start!  Long story short, it was after 9:30 by the time we started.  Ugh.  And there was this super skinny 20-year-old right next to us who talked LOUDLY for the whole time about her boyfriend, and some girl he wasn't allowed to talk to, or something.  Driving us crazy!

I was not prepared for the fact that this race was not on pavement. Nowhere did it say this race was not paved. I've never run on anything but pavement or treadmill!  I could see that the first section was on grass. Off we went - and it was a hard run! Eventually, my running app told me it had been a mile and we were still on grass! I've never wished so hard for pavement! And then we rounded a corner and there it was - road! Yay!

For about 20 feet.  Literally.  And then it was sand!  And gravel!  And more grass!  I was so surprised! Around halfway I walked for about 15 steps while I chugged water.  Then I ran the rest of the way.  I was happy to hear the app tell me 2 miles.  And I saw the skinny 20-year-old.  She ran past me and then started walking.  (I did finish ahead of her, yay! LOL) After that, I went through the yellow color section alone - and it was colored water.  It was cold and it felt so great!  However, they doused me head to toe since there was no one else next to me!  :) Right after that, I saw the finish line.  I was shocked!  I went through, stopped, and looked at my app - it had been about 2.4 miles!  So it wasn't even a true 5K!  I was very disappointed!

I called Brian, and then walked back and finished the race again with him.  We had a fun time, but overall, I was not impressed with this race.  The Color Run was much more organized.  We did get pretty colorful though!

I took time during this race to pray for my family, specifically Braden and Kari. I think it was the first time I've prayed during a race, except for the obvious "help me get through this!" prayers. I liked it - I'll be doing that more often. I'm happy to say that Kari's pain is finally improving and Braden went home from the hospital today!  God is good - and we are so thankful for His healing hands!

(Note to self: it's hard to pray while listening to Rock Lobster! Let's add a few more inspirational songs to the playlist!)

Next race: the Spring Sprint next Saturday!  Some of you have asked me, "Why OCD?"  I'll try to remember to tell you that sometime this week.  :)