The Color Run

Prepare for a long and photo filled post. You've been warned.

Back story: Back in November during the Smith Fam reunion, a bunch of people did a Gobble Jog. The night before, Shirley wasn't thinking she was going to be able to do it because she hurt something. I said, "Well, I'll do it for you." Scott looked at me like, "who are you????" And I explained that I've always wanted to do a 5k because everyone else does them. But you know once you say that sort of thing out loud you've committed yourself. Needless to say, I did not run that next day. BUT Scott held me to it. I figured, you know, this would be the time to do it. I'm only going to get older and chances are I'll be too pregnant next year to run. So, in January, I bought my place for the Color Run. I had 12 weeks to train.

I did all this research online for "couch-to-5k" training schedules. I bought a couple of songs I thought would be good to run to. Scott and I figured out the time that I would go run- right after I put Levi down for the night. By the time I got back it'd be time for prayers with Addilyn and I could sing her.

Then I started to run. I quickly learned that I was not going to follow these training schedules. They all start with "run 1 minute, walk 1 minute" and grow from there. Well, thankfully, I was not as in bad as shape as I thought I was. I was at least more than at couch level starting out! After studying some more and talking to some real runners, I realized that my training is for running for a length of time, not distance. In other words- I was training to run 30 minutes without stopping. So every time I went running I had my phone with me and I had an app on that tracked my distance/time. Before I ran I would think of what route I was going to take and give myself a goal for how many minutes I would walk total. I would only let myself walk for 1 minute at a time when I needed to (I even timed it on my phone so I wouldn't cheat). Eventually I got to the point where I was averaging 2 miles a night and I was working on how fast I was running. About once a week I would try and run 3 miles. (I would just run in the neighborhoods behind where we live)

About 2 weeks before the race my left knee was starting to bug me, so I laid off a little bit on my distance. Once after the race was over and I was cooled down, there was no walking for me! My knee was killing me! And it still is. But that was the only bummer part of my race. So now, RACE DAY!

Addi was jealous of my fake tatoos, so I gave her a sticker to put on her cheek.

Good morning! It's too early! Scott had Addi and Levi in the bike stroller. They were the best cheerleaders! The race started at 9am at the fairgrounds.

the starting line

There I go! Scott didn't realize I would be out so fast from the start he almost missed me! I had told him that one of the benefits of being a "single" runner is that I can squirm towards the front of the line. I was only about 20 people deep back from the line.

Again, Scott almost missed me! I was waving my arms and going crazy to get his attention that I was coming. I couldn't help but give Addilyn a smooch. She was thrilled. This is right after the second color station-blue (yellow was first).

the last color station, purple (pink was before)

This was how I ran through them. I put my shirt over my mouth and nose and raised my other hand up. I would dance through them and twirl so I could get all of the color. It was nuts! The pink station got me right in the face. Thankfully I was wearing Scott's nerdy eye goggles from work ;)

Scott was there for the last 100 feet of the race with the stroller. We ran through together

I look slightly crazy...

so out of breath for this picture!

my cheerleaders!

They had an after party where you throw color at each other. It was so much fun! I was in it for 2 throws and I got Scott over there to get in on it. He got lots of color for only going in once! These are the rest of the lovely pictures:

post throw

oh ya, and this couple planned to get married after the run

the color finds you, everywhere. Oh, and notice the bride behind me?!

the whole fam! too bad you only see a sliver of Levi's head!

According to the time stamps of the photos of me crossing the finish line, I ran it somewhere between 27 and 28 minutes!!!! WHATTTT. (this race was not officially timed) That puts me at about 8.60 minute miles. That is ridiculous!!! I was hoping to just make it to at the fastest 30 minutes. That was my goal. And to run the entire thing without stopping. (ok, minus giving Addi a kiss..) and I did! I ran it all! Also according to the pictures, I finished in at least the top 100. There were 8 thousand people there! Of course there was probably people faster than me that just started way behind me. But it's still cool to think that! There was one part where there was short steep hill and I was coming up to it. A boy about 7 years old was just ahead of me. I got to him and I asked if he was going to run the hill. He said hills are really hard but he agreed to do it if I would. Basically it made me run it without stopping.

In the end, it was so awesome! I'm really glad I did it. Scott said he was so proud of me :) ahhh.... I plan to do at least one more race- a timed one. Yikes! Maybe I jinxed myself here...But until my knee gets better I have to slowly get back into it. And I've got to find a race... Also, we plan on doing this one next year, together.

And another thing...

Blog unload! I needed to purge my phone.  Isn't this guy SO good looking? He turned 10 months old on the 13th. This is getting crazy. Because you know what else that means? It means Addilyn will be three in two months too!!! I just can't believe he'll hit that 1 year mark sooo soon. I just had him. I swear. And yes, those blue eyes are real. He gets compliments on them all the time.

Corned beef and cabbage in the DO.

We've had a few good days in between our freak snow storms. So we go to the park. Also because we are getting cabin fever and can't handle being in our house anymore! Addi's been able to play in the backyard again. Which is heavenly. Levi can be by himself for a little bit and not be attacked!

#photosbyaddi

We had a family double date with the Pettit's in our ward. We went to a park in Kernersville (the town between us and Greensboro) and had dinner and went looking for a geocache. They had so much fun together. Josh and Addilyn are in the same nursery together at church and they adore one another. I'll ask Addi what she did in nursery and she'll tell me she played cars with Josh. Cute.

Fit test!

 (Above) Addilyn was requested for one of the last times to do a seatbelt fit test. They can't use her once she is 3 years old. They'll have to wait another year to use a Smith for when Levi turns 2 :)

Inside the silo

A few weeks ago we went to the temple. And on our way we did a few caches...of course. This one, I don't know what I was thinking. I'm so scared of heights and Scott said, "Climb in there and it's in it" So blindly I went up. I was like heavily breathing and trying not to panic! The cache was at the VERY top and on the inside of the silo. bleh. I grabbed it and realized, I have no pen. So I had to go back down and ran to the car. I signed the log and gave it to Scott to take it back up. 

on top the silo

Scott's head at the top. He has one of me on his phone.

Scott went into the temple first while I had the kiddos. We went to a park and played and did two caches. 

Levi's first time really touching grass.

 The coolest cache I've found. Thankfully it was belly up because I would not have seen it!

When we were done at the temple, we went out to dinner. Then in the car Addilyn got sick, twice. Both times into a plastic bag. Poor thing. She stayed home from church with Scott the next day. Then Levi threw up the next day too. Whatever the bug was, it was only for a short while thank goodness!

Greensboro SciQuarium

We woke up on Saturday after the power outage with still left over snow. What were we going to do? Well, I hope the museum is open! We packed up and left for Greensboro. It's only about 25 minutes from us to this museum. They said they opened at 9, and we got there closer to 10 only for them to say that they were opening at 11 because they were still missing a few things due to the power outage. Oh, and the zoo part was closed that day too. LAME. Especially because I heard they had a petting part of the zoo which I knew Addilyn would die for. Anyway, we walked down to the lake nearby and played in the snow/playground. In the picture below, Scott slid and got stuck. I wish it was video because it was hysterical.

Now, I have to preface this. It was a neat little museum. However, since we have already been to the massive ones in Raleigh and those are free, we were a bit disappointed at how small and $$ it was. And for the fact that it wasn't entirely open. Nevertheless we still had a good time.

The had a featured exhibit which was the dinosaurs and this T-Rex. They had lots of fossils and rocks (snooze). Then they had a body section and they had some interesting things, but several of the gadgets didn't even work. Bummer.

rarrr

Heading into the aquarium. They had a few cool exhibits. The tank was pretty cool. They also had a pool that you could pet the rays if you could reach them. Addilyn finally got psyched up to pet one but they were way to deep and she would have been head in to get them. But I touched them and they felt pretty cool.

The best by far was the penguins. There was one penguin that played in the water the entire time and was interacting with us. It was so cool! Addi loved it! (there's a short video below)

Then we went to one of their learning rooms where they did a fun class for the kids. This guy talked about meerkats. Some of the special effects were really cool. They had footage of real meerkats and they put fake mouths on them to make them look like they were singing. That was the only really bad effect they had because it was obscenely fake looking! He did these multiple choice questions throughout and had volunteers come down to be the options. Addilyn volunteered! She was awesome! See her with the pink boots? ;)

The last thing we did was the kids section. Levi loved getting out and moving around finally. He had been restrained in the stroller or in our arms the whole time. He was itching to get out.

This was so cute. Levi mad a friend! The boy was so sweet to Levi. He was giving him cars to play with and was playing with him. Oh, so sweet. Levi loved it too!