The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”
This was an AMAZINGLY good time!!!! I ran this one with the Muddy Dragons at Dodger’s Stadium in Los Angeles.
The Color Run is a 5k course where you are doused with “Color” at three stations. Then there is a massive “Color Pit” at the end where everyone goes nuts throwing color at each other. This "color" is a mixture of corn starch and food coloring and it is literally shot at you from Color Guns or what looked like GIANT ketchup squeeze bottles.
Obviously, this is an untimed Fun Run. Also, it is only 3.1 miles, so there was no real need for me to train for it. But I was still excited. Running with The Muddy Dragons is always a blast and they treat me like one of their own, so any time an invitation comes my way, I always pounce on it!!!
Unlike the Dirty Girl Mud Run we did last November, men and children were invited to participate in this run, so we had a really large group.
We met at my friend Shea’s house at about 10:30a for a 2 o’clock gun time, so we had plenty of time to hang out and tie & adjust our togas. Yes, the team wanted to run in white togas.
Now, I am all for being a team player but I was already running in a white cotton T-shirt, which was the first suggested team costume. Of course no serious runner runs in cotton, but this wasn’t a race, this was just a fun run for a good cause, so I went with the T-shirt. But I just couldn’t do the toga.
Aside from the disturbing visions of large groups of white people draped in white sheets, one simply cannot run effectively in a toga!!! But in the spirit of “Team Unity”, I fashioned a blue and gold sash for myself and ran with that.
After we got ourselves situated and fed a little bit, we started to head over to the Start to get corralled. Like I said, we were in a large group that included children. Just as we were being set to go, I heard Shea giving her kids some safely instructions: Stay with the group and meet at the Big green food truck if anyone gets lost.
I heard her 10-year-old son, Derrick say something like “I’ll stay with Sabrina because she’s a runner.” Awesome!!!
Derrick is a black belt, as are most of the Muddy Dragons. He will be testing for his second degree Black Belt this Spring and he is quite the little athlete. So I was thinking I may actually get in a pretty decent workout after all. Sweet!
So the countdown starts and Derrick takes off like a shot!!!! And I’m thinking “OK…. He wants to play!” Well, I’m game and I’m not too proud to take down a 10-year old. So I take off after him and he is SMOKIN’ fast!!! He starts out at an 9:15 pace and it’s slightly hilly.
At this point, I am praising God for Coach Dion and Race Pace!! Without them, these hills at this pace would have slain me right at the beginning! But I kept after him and I was thinking, “This little dude is no joke! Let’s do this!” and I stay at his left shoulder.
At about the half mile mark, we hit the first color station and it’s BLUE! We get doused with blue powder and I have to admit, it’s a little scary. It’s a huge cloud of dust, like walking in clouds and it is everywhere!!! I can't see 2 feet ahead of me, but I can still see Derrick, so I'm set.
Now, it seems like he is more interested in getting to some fresh air, which is ok with me, so we spot some daylight and run at in a full on sprint!
Ok! That wasn’t so bad, I’m still at his shoulder and at this point, he knows I’m with him and keeps up this punishing pace. Sweet! I’m still feeling good so as long as he wants to keep it up, I’m all for it. Let’s blaze little man!!!
At the mile mark, we hit the orange color station and it’s like the surface of the sun in there. Visibility is zero and everyone looks like Oompa Loompas. Derrick’s pace had slowed down a little bit so I slowed mine too. It’s not the first time a young person started off faster than he could keep up and just didn’t respect the distance.
He shouldn’t feel bad. Three miles is a long way for a little guy and he kept up a blistering pace for about a mile and a half. The water station was coming up and I thought I’d tell him what a good job he was doing.
So I grabbed a cup, thanked the volunteer and went to give one to Derrick and said, “Wait!!! Who the hell are you?!”
I’d been chasing the wrong kid!!!!!!
This kid wasn’t even in our group! After I looked at him more closely, this kid had to be 15 or 16 years old! I had no idea who he was and spent the last mile and a half chasing a strange kid through a parking lot!!! In any other situation I’d get arrested!!!
But in this situation, we just laughed it off.
His pace was slowing down and I still had some more gas in the tank so I just took off.
I was the first in the group to finish but I felt so stupid I couldn’t even enjoy it. Ah, well. It was my fastest 5k ever.
This is me after I crossed the Finish Line and found some of the group.
This is me with Master Julianne Ramadan. That is the most awesome last name ever!!! And I have a full on girl crush on her! She's awesome!!!
Me & Shea!! I love Shea. The Muddy Dragons are such a great group. Good friends are so hard find and she generously shared her tribe with me. I can't tell you how much I love and appreciate her. She's is one of the greatest. <3
So you didn't "train' for this race, and you lost time in the "color zones" and following the wrong kid... and then you say is passing like oh that was my fastest 5km ever!!! Then you don't give us your time...
ReplyDeleteMaybe you are starting to understand that a little training pays off, so keep up the running and throwing in the odd bit of training, Then ly back on the bed and think about how fast you can go...