July 16, 2012

• Color Me Rad 2012: After The Race!!

  I did it!! The race was scheduled to begin at 9:00am and we got there at 7:20am! I had plenty of time to walk around and scope things out. I got lots of last minute support from friends and family, and it was exactly what I needed!! When we had picked up my packet a couple days before, I felt really self conscious and out of place. Packet pick-up was in a really nice area of town and everyone was extremely fit and wearing trendy neon work out clothes. I think I was the only one in “normal” clothes. I felt awkward. BUT when I arrived at the race on Saturday, there was such a wide array of people that I didn’t feel out of place at all. My nerves were still crazy though!! When it came time to line up at the starting line, some people were already throwing color packs in the air. Some landed on me, which was cool. What was NOT cool was being packed in like sardines and having random people pulling at my shirt and wiping their hands across me so they could “steal” some of my color. I was being grabbed at from all directions and I felt like punching everyone in my immediate circle. On top of that, my music was skipping over the 3G. Sweat started trickling down my back and I was starting to feel like this might suck, a lot.

  

  Once my wave of runners finally got going I breathed a huge sigh of relief that no one was touching me. Then my music started streaming loud and clear. Everyone was cheering from excitement, and I got the doofiest smile on my face. I couldn’t hide it at all. I was having a freaking blast! I kept looking around and realizing that every level of fitness was represented here. Then a few minutes later, after those representing the higher level of fitness had left us in their colorful dust, I couldn’t help but smile at “my people”. 

  Somehow when preparing for this race, I had been worried that I would be so slow and embarrass myself in front of the fast runners. Um, hello. The fast runners are long gone and aren’t looking back.  All that was left was a crowd of people in my fitness range. And even more surprising was the amount of people I left in MY colorful dust. Yeah!  I got a text from Joe that said “I’m at purple. Green is first” so the first half of the race I just kept trying to look ahead and see if I could see the purple cloud yet. When I finally neared the purple color station, I tried to text him while I was running. But I ended up accidentally sending “Purple soon!” to his aunt instead, because she was the last person to send me encouragement right before the race. I ran through the station and heard Joe yelling “Hello Lady!!” which was awesome. I was bummed that I didn’t get ONE speck of purple on me (my favorite color, if you’re new here). Joe helped me out later by dumping an entire purple packet in my face.  

  I started to get chills the last half mile. I didn’t know it at the time, but later Joe told me it was 101 degrees while I was out there. I’m so glad i didn’t know. I could feel the heat, and I definitely took fast walking breaks. When I saw the finish line and could hear people cheering, I picked up my pace and ran straight for it. Then I came to a dead stop because the crowd of people crossing the finish line was so large. The sudden stop, mixed with the heat, mixed with the cloud of pink powder was breathing in (it was so thick, i couldn’t see) made my vision go black for a split second. I got a head rush and felt my knees start to buckle so I said out loud to myself “No, no, no. Not right here.” Thankfully, i didn’t pass out, and once I found some shade and water I was fine.

  Then Joe found his way back to me and we took more pictures!  

  

  He didn’t even run (NEXT TIME HE WILL!) but he still got color bombed a little bit.

  

  

  

  

  It was a blast and I am SO doing it again! #bekah and Andrew did this in VA Beach. We’re already trying to figure out when the 4 of us can do it together—maybe even in tutus and funky knee socks? hahaha

  

  Here’s 3 minutes and 14 seconds of radness:

  

  • 8:30 pm
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