The night before my one, very pregnant friend said she was not going to be able to do it. And morning of our other friend was also unable. But the rest of us went on. And even managed to get my brother Devin to say he'd go. So after eating some pancakes and fruit for breakfast we headed off in my garbage-bag covered car, picked up Devin, and drove a good ways to get to the event. But this year we didn't sit in traffic until right near the parking lot. After we parked and were getting readied our brother Rory came over - as he and his friends had parked just several cars away.
Around 1pm we went into the corral and stood near the front. After several announcements that the start was just "moments away" they had us jump up and down and did a 10 second count down and then we were off and followed a pace car. Not sure why the car was needed, other than to make sure no one exceeded 8mph - which is what the announcer said the car would be driving at.
The course was at a large concert venue, and thus we were only "running a small portion of 2 miles" on the jaggedy-rocked surface. 2 miles of 3.1 miles is actually pretty substantial. The ground was precarious and required watching each and every step, lest you wanted to roll an ankle -- which our one friend did. And we proceeded on without her though she kept going despite the injury. After a purple color station I was still pretty white as no one had directly pelted me with the colored corn starch. At the green station it was liquid dye and I was shot up pretty good on my right side. A short bit later I stopped into a port-a-john for a pee break -- one advantage in being in a concert venue parking lot.
I carried a water bottle with me and made sure to drink it often as the sun was beaming and it was 80+ degrees. Bridgette told me I looked a little flush and I made sure to kept hydrating. At the water station I took a mini water and refilled my bottle. After the orange station, where again no one thru anything directly on me, Bridgette walked with me as I needed a break. Devin and our friend Cara went on together, running like champions. We reached the edge of the parking lot and got to get off the lava rocks and actually run inside the concert venue. We traversed asphalt paths up a hillside, crested the hill, then back down and around and back up again. On all uphills we walked and I hydrated. It was pretty toasty feeling in the sun.
In the final stretch we popped back out into the parking lot area, but on the other side of the venue. Fortunately we remained on pavement. We ran thru a liquid yellow color station, and since we had separated from the large pack, were quite open to being readily sprayed by all people, especially an over-eager 7-ish year old who got me pretty good at waist height. (Which was better than how Cara said she fared as he had sprayed her straight in the face.) My left side was well covered with yellow. We went thru an area that had a few spectators and that made me think of a joke: When potatoes watch a concert what are they called? Spectators! (Spec-taters). Right after that we were handed a color bomb packet and made our way up the final stretch into the finish line area that was just a large cloud of purple. I held my shirt over my face and ran thru, luckily not directly pelted there either.
We grabbed some water, a Clif bar, and found Cara and Devin then waited for Tiffany. She finished a short time later - happy to have completed her first 5K ever. We stood for about 10 minutes then headed back to our car. We got our "after pic" to compliment our "before pic" then headed home, happy to have participated and gotten colored rad.
Total Workout: 5K! 3.1 miles, plus the walk to the start and back which was 0.4 miles total.
This was baby girl's first completed race, and I think she liked running for the most part. After relaxed later in the afternoon I developed a bit of a headache though; the kind I get from sunshine and exercise. So I worried I had pushed myself too hard. But I made up for it the rest of the day by just drinking H2O and reading David Sedaris outside on my back porch.
Accentuating the baby bump, as per Bridgette's preference
New Miles: 5K (3.1) + 0.4 = 3.5
Total Miles: 1493.75
Miles Remaining: 6.25
Weight: 135.6
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