The day I ran through a rainbow

Waaaay back in February almost a lifetime ago, Nick bought us tickets to participate in The Color Run.  It was my valentines present and I was beyond thrilled.  Two things though about signing up for something that is six months away....

1. You have no idea what you're gonna be doing in six months...like being extremely busy and stressed out and that kinda stuff.   
2.  I always wanted to do one of these just for the fun of it. Certainly not because it was a 5k.  But six months later and that changed too.

Back to the busy part.  This was the worst weekend ever to cram in a color run.  I was beyond stressed with wedding deadlines.  Lauren's first shower was the next day and tons of other stuff I won't bore you with.  Where the race was held was 2 hours from where we live which meant we would have to get up at 4 am to get there in time or get a  hotel which was not in the budget.  Thankfully, we have dear dear friends...the kind of friends you can call and invite yourself to come crash at their house even though they were in the middle of packing up to move to a different house.  I'm talking about my son-in-law's parents who are way more than that title.  They were our good friends first and then our kids just happened to fall in love and get married and give us amazing grand kids.  Bless their hearts....up until the moment I got into the car, I was still undecided if we go.  Needless to say, I 'm SO glad we went. So glad to see them and catch up and so glad to do the run.

Robin took this at 6am as she sent us off.  Thank goodness she is a morning person.

Now the other thing I didn't know would be so drastically different six months later was my health.  I had signed up for it back when I couldn't walk to our mailbox without huffing and puffing and getting out of breath so I could have cared less that it was a 5k.  Back then it was strictly just for the color and I was counting on the fact that we didn't have to run it...it was all about the fun of it.

But then I got serious about getting fit.  Me and the girls embarked on our "losing to gain" journey and I started C25K. At the time of the race, I had almost "graduated" from the program and was now wanting to run it!  Craziness I tell you.

So here we are in the parking lot.  I'm nervous and excited but mostly proud.

Proud of myself and proud of my man.

He is so supportive of my shenanigans.... and I have gotten us in some doozies over the years.

The night before, I asked for tips on instagram from those who had done a color run before and the biggest thing I was told was to cover up my hair.  Even though I've recently gone back to more of my natural color, its still so porous from all the years of bleaching.  I consulted "the girls" (my group of blogging besties who have become just besties...none of us make a move without texting the group for advice/approval/prayer.)  They said to cover the hair up.  So I did.   

 When our daughters saw the tattoos on our faces, they snickered and told us we would probably still be wearing them the next day for church cuz they don't come off easy. 

I was looking forward to the possibility of Nick preaching the next day in this condition. 

But they washed off with no problem.  Which was probably good since Lauren had her first wedding shower that day too. 

 There was a ton of people there. I was feeling a little claustrophobic about this time.

And then it started!  Woo hoo!!

First stop...to take a picture with a unicorn of course.

 Then on to all the colors!!

First up....PINK

 Then came BLUE

 Then  my fave......YELLOW!!

 And then ORANGE!

 The finish line!!!

Now for the record....I didn't run the entire thing. Come to find out, running on the treadmill, in the a/c, while drinking water and watching Netflix is a little different than running outside in the heat, with not much water and hills to climb.  Huh...what do ya now? Go figure. 

BUT.....I'm already thinking about my next 5k.  It's gonna happen.  And I'm gonna run the entire thing.

 Now the race was only half the fun....the after party is where the craziness takes place!

I stayed on the edge of the crowd the first time we all threw up our packets of color so Nick could get a few pics.....

 But this is what is was like smack dab in the center of the crowd...

Don't breathe in....I repeat.  Don't breathe in.

I caught a few of Nick...

We had to protect the beard of course.  That beautiful little white patch of his was vulnerable.

The two hour drive back home was interesting.  We followed all the tips and put garbage bags on our seats. In case you're wondering, all the color pretty much came out of the t-shirts.  Nick's came out spotless...the only stains on mine was  under my arms from running through the color with my arms raised up.   The orange kinda left it looking like pit stains.  Kinda sad about that.

Gosh I love this man and they way he supports and encourages me.

I had always envisioned doing one of these things with my three daughters as a girl thing, but I'm so glad I got to experience this with him.  It was a perfect day.

This was taken later that day after my shower....you can  see all the stuff washed away.

Almost like it didn't even happen. 

 But it did happen.

  Nick treated me to a t-shirt to commemorate the day...my first 5k.

It tuly is the happiest 5k on the planet.

Now.  Go google it.  Find out when one is coming your way.  Sign up for it.

Then go run through your first rainbow.