The Color Run Albuquerque 2012

 

Last weekend, I traveled to Albuquerque to do  The Color Run, it's about a 4 hour drive for me, I met my cousin Tracy there, she came from Lubbock, TX and she had about a 5 hour drive.  This is me before the run, all nice and clean.  You start out with a white shirt and as you run, there are color stations where volunteers color you with a substance, kind of like cornstarch with food coloring.

 

It's a 5K race, we got there around 7:30 Saturday morning, the race started at 8am.  I heard that there was 7,000 people there.  They let us go in waves of 500-1000 people.  We were in the 2nd or 3rd wave of people to go.  It took me 38:23 to finish.  When I was getting back to the finish, there were still people starting.  I thought to myself, there was no way I'd want to be in those last groups and see so many people finishing when I hadn't even started yet.  I didn't run the whole thing, I think around mile 2 I started doing walk/run/walk/run intervals.  Tracy ran the whole thing and she only finished about 5 minutes or less before I did.  I told her to go on ahead, I didn't want to make her wait for me.  

 

Here we both after the whole race and festival were over, we're pretty colored up!  So much fun.

 

After the runners start finishing, back at the finish line there is a color throw about every 15 minutes.  All of the runners gather in front of the stage and throw their color packets up in the air, this is Tracy at the end of the color throw, when the dust is still settling.  I like this picture.

 

 

Tracy took this photo, it's right in the  midst of the color throw.  Pretty neat.

Here I am in the color throw, Tracy took this one too, and she had a glop of color on the lens of her camera, so I'm a little blacked out, still a pretty cool shot. 

I had a great weekend, missed my kid and husband for sure, but it was nice to be away from them.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

This run was so fun and all the money raised went towards Ronald McDonald House, I think the Color Run donates to chairities in the cities they hold the runs in.  I saw lots of different people participating, families, teenageres, older folks, novice runners like me, and the more serious runners too.  People were dressed up, lots of long crazy socks, lots of tutu's also.  I'm looking forward to signing up for another one the next time they come to Phoenix.  I think they did one in January in Phoenix, so maybe January 2013 there will be another one and I think I'd either try to get some friends from here to go, or take my kids. 

Way too long

The last time I posted was April 27, it's now August 22.  Wow, the only excuse I have is that I was busy.  Spring gets busy because the kids start Little League and they are ending the school year.  There are always lots of activites going on and I get busy with my PTO stuff.  I also started babysitting around the last time I posted, so that added to the business!  Summer flew by, the kids were out for 10 weeks and we had something going on all the time.  I think from May until now there have only been about 2 weekends when we didn't have plans or something going on.  And even now we have big weekend activities for the next 4, and 4 more after that where at this point all we have schedualed so far are Soccer games.  Before I know it, we'll be rolling into the Holiday season and we all know how that is a crazy busy time.  It just seems as if life is moving way too fast these days.  I need to try to find a way to slow it down.

Most of the summer was hit and miss with the excercising.  I rode bikes with the kids, I swam, I ran about 5 times.  It was hot, stuff was going on, my kids were home, I was babysitting, we went camping, we took a trip to Elko where my parents live, we had family visiting, there were town celebrations, the list goes on and on. 

School has started back up again, we are getting back into a routine.  I am happy to say that I have gotten back to an excercising routine again too.  I hope I can keep it up.  Last week I worked out 6 out of 7 days, and this week I'm on track to do 5 out of 7.  Not too shabby.  I gained some weight back over the summer and I'm ready to take it back off again, and hopefully keep it off this time and lose a bit more.  I haven't gotten back on the scale yet, I'm kind of nervous to see how much I gained back, I think I'll get on the scale Monday morning and use that at my starting point this time around.

Here's my new excercise scheduale

Monday - 1 hour free aerobic class at my church in the morning 8-9am
Tuesday - I usually run and ride bike in the morning after I take my kids to school, then 7-8pm Stasia and I go to Zumba.
Wednesday - 8-9am aerobic class at my church (I could go to Zumba 815-915pm but it's kind of late and I don't go to this class very often if I miss a Tues or Thurs I'd go but, by that time of night the kids are in bed and I'm ready to have some time with Brian)
Thursday - try to fit a run in sometime during the day and Zumba with Stasia 7-8pm
Friday - Aerobics 8-9am
Saturday - off day or bike ride with the kids
Sunday - a run with Brian in the morning

Also, M-F I walk 1 mile roundtrip to go get Graham from school, he's in Kindergarten this year and goes 1/2 days, he rides his bike in the morning with his sister, but he gets out right before lunch and I think he's too little to ride bike home by himself, so I either ride my bike or walk down there to get him.  It just kind of depends on which kids are here those days.  I have one girl I watch who can ride bike with me to go get him, but there are 2 other kids who don't have bikes here so when they are here I usually walk, pushing one in a stroller.  Ther've been a few days when I rode the 1 mile roundtrip 3 times, in the morning to drop them off, midday to get Graham, and in the afternoon to pick up the girls too.  If I don't have extra kids I like to go with them.  They like me to ride them to school and pick them up and it's a good way to fit in a little extra excercise.

The weather is cooling down some, still hot, it can get into the 90's, but the mornings aren't bad.  I'm enjoying riding my bike around town.  Last week there was one day when I rode bike to school with the kids, did crossing guard, rode over to the High School and did my run, then rode over to Ace Hardware to get stuff to can pickles, rode over to the eye Dr to pick up my contacts, came home, had a shower and then rode down to school to pick up Graham.  I think all together that day I rode 5 miles and ran 3 miles.   This past Monday, Brian was off work, so we did a lot of bike riding, we took kids to school on our bikes, I went to aerobics, then he rode with me to get Graham, we all rode over to the grocery store and then back home, then later in the day we rode down to get the girls. 

This weekend, I am going to Albuquerque to do the Color Run with  my cousin.  I am so excited!  I am leaving Friday around 11 and coming home sometime Sunday.  Just me, leaving the kids and Brian home.  My mother in law is coming to pick up the kids Friday afternoon when they get out of school, she's keeping them Friday night and Brian will pick them up Saturday evening after work.  Then he'll have them Saturday night and Sunday.  The kids are really looking forward to a sleepover at Grandma's and a night with just daddy.  I am looking forward to some me time and to seeing my cousin!  She tells me that we haven't seen eachother in 15 years, geez that sounds like a long time, but I think she might be right. 

Hopefully I can blog more often, Monday or Tuesday I'll try to post my weight (EEK!) and pictures from the Color Run.