Sunday, August 31, 2014

Color Run 2013

  I loved running as a kid and into junior high.  I liked when we had to do the mile test during PE.  I always wished I could run a marathon of some sort.  Somewhere along the line, I stopped. I had other priorities to deal with.  Then while taking a scrapbooking class from Stacy Julian, I heard of a non-competitive run called, "The Color Run."  From the time I watched the little video on the website, I knew I wanted to do this!
I even made a Smash Book page about it.



But the problem was, I hadn't ran in YEARS.  I was not 5K ready.  I was not 1 minute of running ready.  I did some research and found the Couch to 5K app for my phone. It's an awesome app for beginners that takes you from walk/running to running, I believe in about 8 weeks.  I followed the program pretty slowly, as time would allow. During that time, I learned that my "running shoes" were in fact not the greatest. I invested in some real Nike running shoes and I was off!  It took several months to complete the program, but I did it.  The first time I ran 2 miles, with B in the jogging stroller, non-stop, I felt invincible!!!

I had to document this milestone!

The days leading up to the race, I was out running around the lake near where we live.  I felt a pop in my knee and pain instantly.  I was crushed!  I stayed off of it and treated it as well as I possibly could.  The day of the race, I taped my self up with K-tape a friend had.  It wasn't pretty, but it helped somewhat.



I was super excited, nervous and in some pain.  But, with all that excitement of finally being at a start line, I somehow managed to do it.  The WHOLE thing!  I didn't even notice the pain when I finished the race. I was so high on accomplishment and adrenaline!  (Yes, it was ridiculously painful later and for a couple weeks after, but I babied it!)



It was such a HUGE deal to me- here I was a mom of 3 boys, able to take this on and complete it.  My third pregnancy was extremely hard with morning sickness for the first 6 months and anemia.  I couldn't even walk to the end of my street!  To be able to run this meant the world to me.  To this day it is one of my proudest accomplishments.

I have since ran another Color Run (my husband's first 5k!) and two other 5Ks.  I love it as a stress reliever and just a great way to be outdoors.  My next goal is to complete a 10k and the completion is part of my 40 Before 40.


To mark my first 5K, I created this quick album using Stacy Julian's "Finish Line Scrapbooking" method (This class is now offered FREE!:  http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/classes/details/finish-line-scrapbooking).
I had bought a plain white 6x6 album years ago at Big Lots.  I used different mists on the cover to recreate the colorful mess we became during the race.  I am very happy with the results and know this album will serve as inspiration for my running years ahead.  Enjoy!



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful. You are truly an inspiration to me! Love you Mama Birdy!

Cindy deRosier said...

Awesome! LOVE the album and am so glad that you achieved your goal to do the 5K. You've totally got that 10K!

Jean Bullock said...

What a fun little album. Loved the video about it. Your multicolored look is fabulous.