Running....

Today I ran in a 5k. It's a beautiful day here in Seattle, and I'm starting to add a little bit of running into my training again, so it was perfect! Given my current hip issues, which by the way are resolving nicely since I am not doing any serious mileage, and continuing my Learning to Run performance three times a week, I ran/walked this 5k. A 5k is just over 3 miles.

I asked a stranger to take my photo at the start. Apparently, she thought her finger needed to be in the shot as well. Two photos. Two fingers. Finger photo-bomb!

I started out clean

Perhaps I should explain why it's worth pointing out that I started out clean. At approximately every kilometer there are color stations, in which volunteers throw colored dust at you. I was running by myself, so I decided to get there early, line up in the first wave and plod my way through, finishing whenever I finished. It was not a race. It was a true fun run. But having not done anything like this before, I didn't quite know what to expect when it came to this whole colored dust thing.
























At the start line, the race coordinator yelled at us that the first color station was right up ahead. At the start, I couldn't see the color station, but as we rounded a little bend, the people in front of me were just getting to the color station. I could see no people. All I could see....was a large puff of yellow dust. It was at this point that I decided that holding my breath through the color stations would be a good idea. They don't 'dust' you with color, they pelt you with fist fulls of color. I somehow missed getting significant color on me in that first station. Not sure why, but I was only lightly splattered. Others around me were not so lucky. As I plodded my way to the next station wondering to myself what color might it be, people commented that I was relatively uncolored. I said it was because I was so fast. Not.

Next up, magenta. Some of the "color-teers" as they were called at this station noted my lack of color and tried to make up for it. Again though, pretty uncolored. Mean while, others had full on color everywhere. Perhaps they recognized that I was in 'training' and didn't want to mess with a real 'athlete'. Perhaps I was really that fast. Perhaps they radio'd ahead to the green and blue stations and gave them the message that lily white girl, wearing number 3538, needed to be colored, and good. I did not make it through the last two stations uncolored.



I am home now. After taking a shower, I know that I still have color on me. It took three q-tips to get the magenta and blue out of my ears.


What a great way to have a 5k! It was a blast. I was done in just under 30 minutes. No, I didn't wear the serious athlete Garmin, so I don't know my exact time, nor my pace per mile, my route or my heart rate. But for this, I think I know what I needed to know. I had fun!