Color Me Not

"BeBeBeBeeeep. BeBeBeBeeeep."

5:15 am.

Time to eat breakfast. It's the morning of my much anticipated Color Vibe 5k. I eat breakfast early and go back to sleep before a run because I tend to get really bad side cramps and nausea if I eat too close to running. The race starts at 9 am, so now is a good time to eat a healthy, fuel injected breakfast. I ate a banana and some strawberry oatmeal. I had 2 slices of turkey lunch meat for some protein and 1.5 glasses of water before going back to sleep before real wake up time.

7:00 am. Both Matthew and my alarms go off at the same time. It's time! Time for race day!

We get ready and are out the door a little later than intended...but still on track to get to the race at 8:30 am. My friend has my running packet at the race, so I will meet up with her and hang out until it all begins.

We have an uneventful drive up and exit the freeway at 8:26 am. 2 minutes from Bellevue College where it will be held.

Brake lights.

We come to a complete stop on the off ramp. We literally are inching along with no end in site. We take a right and hope to get around some of the traffic. This helps, but all of the streets leading to the college are completely jammed. As we get closer and closer to start time, I get more panicked. I call my friend and ask her to leave my packet at a booth to pick up so she can start the race. We are so close, yet so far. It's 8:56 am...and worst of all....

I have to pee. SOOO bad. I am in tears. Finally, I leave all of my things with Matthew and hop out of the car while he waits in line to enter the parking lot. I walk with a large crowd across the entire campus to the starting line. I pick up my packet and put my race shirt over the other 2 shirts I had on (since I intended to take one off and give to Matthew, but couldn't with our change of plans.) I use the port-a-potty and then wait by myself for the race to start.

All by myself in a crowd of 3,000.

I left my phone with Matthew so I have no one to call and can't find anyone in the packed crowd. I am okay waiting by myself for a few moments. Unfortunately, they postponed the start time due to the horrible traffic. So I waited until 9:30 am when they released the first wave. Then five minutes would pass and another wave would go. I was wave six, so I did not start until about 10 am. (Side note, I have an important family event to go to at 11 am, which I thought would be no big deal with a start time of 9 am. But 10 am? Uh-Oh...)

Here we go! They throw some color on at the beginning and I am excited for the first kilometer when yellow will be thrown on me. I wave bye to Matthew as I pass. I am running uphill but keep a steady pace. I keep going, on to a long downhill. I should be near the first kilometer by now, right? Around a corner and through a path. People are skipping the hills and walking in front of me. I slowly jog on the grass since my goal is to not walk at all. Down another loop and a couple of hills, through the parking lot and I am so mad that I haven't reached the first kilometer. I am tired and ready to quit when someone yells, "how far are we?" to which a race official says "you're two thirds of the way there! Good job!"

"Excuse me?" I think to myself. "Where are the color stations where they throw color each kilometer so you know how far you have gone? I am almost done? This is NOT what I signed up for!" All this is going through my head as I slow to a pathetic jog behind two kids texting while walking on the narrow path.

I keep running and think to myself, "I am soo mad right now. No one is taking this seriously. And I want color thrown on me! I hate running. I am never running a race ever again."

I hear the crowd and I speed up. I pass Matthew and sprint down to the grass. Some color gets thrown on me and I run into a crowd.

"Am I done? Where's the finish line?" I look up and see I have passed a flag that says "finish" although there was no ceremony or even line in the grass to confirm my observation. I go to get my finishing snack....which there are none. I grab a water bottle and head up to Matthew. I said, "let's go."

He said I made good time (for me) and was probably around 32-33 minutes, but it wasn't officially timed so I will never know.

I rewarded myself with some chocolate milk I brought...which was sooo good. I told Matthew, "That milk made the race worthwhile."

We then raced off to my event that started at 11 am and got there at 11:30 am, which ended up being perfectly fine. Phew!

So needless to say, I was disappointed. And maybe I was spoiled since my first race was Seattle's Seafair race...which is the epitome of well run races.

In regards to this race, I accomplished my goal: I ran and did not walk any of the race.

After the endorphins kicked in and I had some chocolate milk in me, things started to look better and I became inspired....

Inspired to attempt a 10k.

So I got a little color thrown on me, a good workout, and some inspiration.

Not bad after all, eh?

So I will take a week off from running and refocus, and then...

10k, here I come!