The Color Run

Last January while browsing on Pinterest I discovered The Color Run. It looked amazing!!!! I told my husband that I wanted to run it. Last January I couldn't even run 5 minutes so I looked up a good Couch-to-5k program. I started the beginning of February. The Color Run got rescheduled three times and I was worried it wasn't going to actually come. Finally the big day was here!! I trained for many months and was dressed in white and ready to get colorful! I ran with a member of my new running group and I knew my husband, kids and Mother-in-law would be waiting at the finish line for me. This wasn't my first 5k but it was the reason I started running so I feel like it was a very important race. They have a different color every kilometer or so. The first one we reached was pink. my running buddy and myself didn't get very colorful :( so we made a goal of getting more saturated at the rest of the color stations. The next station was yellow, we all looked like bananas! It was awesome. Then came orange! I must have paid extra attention to orange considering my hands were stained orange. The last color station was blue! For some reason most of the runners thought that the race was over way before you actually reached the finish line. I had to dodge people standing around taking photos. We made it to the end and I was all smiles! I did it!! I ran the Color Run without stopping. I poured blue powder (each racer was given a packet of color) on my kids after the race. We still have blue in our hair after a few washes. It was the happiest 5k I have ever done and so excited that I was able to be apart of it. I felt so good after the race was over that I decided that I have to run a 10k soon. I need to get back to my training and continue improving!  A year ago I couldn't run, now I am running a 5k with my running group! Life is pretty awesome!

No exciting title

On Sunday I went on a run with my four year old daughter. She loves to go on runs. I love pretending like I know what I am talking about and teaching her the proper way to breath and also how to pace herself so she doesn't get burnt out from going too fast. She did 2 MILES!!! I am so proud of her. I hope that we are teaching her how to enjoy exercise and that she will continue to love running. Growing up I  didn't exercise with the family regularly so I really want to ingrain activity in my kids.

Today I did a scheduled run from my 5k-to-10k app. I was suppose to run 40 minutes. To be completely honest I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do it. I didn't want to go on a run today and almost just did a 20 minute because it is easier. Well I ended up doing the full 40 minutes and feeling great. Truth is, I struggle with motivation and I will be doing great but then I get stuck at only doing 2 miles or 3 miles for a few weeks. I have trouble sometimes motivating myself to go past my comfort zone. That is one reason training apps really work for me. I don't have to motivate myself to run 4 miles, I just turn on my app and stop when it tells me.

Saturday is my first meeting with my new running group!!!! We will have a meeting then a short group run afterwards. I call a short run 2 miles but I wonder what they consider to be a short run. One of the girls just ran a marathon and the another 10k and there is another training for a half marathon. Let's hope this "short" run is actually some what short!!

Back to training and new running group!

Now that race week is behind me, I can focus on getting back to my 10k training. My goal is to run 6.2 miles by Thanksgiving. Some people would just push through and run 6 miles tomorrow. Well I am not those people! I like to slowly increase my mileage and as a mother of two sometimes I can't always get out 3 times a week for a run. I am trying to set a realistic goal that I can actually achieve rather than setting myself up for failure.

I recently discovered Moms RUN This Town. It sounds awesome!!! Upon checking out this local chapter I found out some women are training for their first 5k and some just did their first marathon. I am hoping that with such a wide variety of experience that I will be able to fit in some where. The group seems very supportive and I can't wait for my first meeting (assuming I don't have to work during it).