One week until the Crawlin’ Crab Shell Yeah Challenge (5k and half marathon) and our training is pretty much complete!  Just a couple short runs left on the schedule this week and then Sam and I are going to be headed to Hampton for the weekend.  It feels like just yesterday that Sam and I decided that this would be the first race of the Fall season.  I can’t believe how fast the past 12 weeks or so has gone by!

THURSDAY

My training plan called for 4 miles on Thursday. Sam and I had conflicting schedules so I convinced Steven to change into his running gear so that he and I could run together while Gabby was at swim practice.  Only problem was that 10 minutes before we were going to leave, I received a text saying the pool has been closed due to contamination and practice was cancelled.  Since somebody needed to stay home with Gabby, I decided to head out for a solo run while Steven hit the treadmill for a couple of miles.  I didn’t think I would have a great run since I had to do it solo, but I ended up having a great run.  I kept a good pace, and more importantly, I felt good.

After I finished, I got cleaned up and we headed to Jason and Melissa’s for the Redskins game.  Unfortunately, they didn’t play well, but I did eat a lot of good food (yeah, my plan to eat better is still not going well).

FRIDAY

Friday was my rest day.  It was our CWS day (no work) and the kids had the day off (fair day) so Steven and I took Makayla, Gabby, and Skylar to the fair for the day.

I did manage to get a lot of walking in.  After the fair, we dropped Makayla off at a birthday party and then picked up our bibs for Saturday’s Burst of Color 5k.

SATURDAY

On Saturday morning, the girls (Makayla, Gabby, Skylar, Sam, Natalee, and myself) all headed to NRC Solomons for the Burst of Color 5k.  This is a fun run/walk and is not officially timed.  We met my mom, my sister, and my sisters boyfriend, Jason before the start.  Unfortunately, my sister couldn’t participate because of a foot injury, but she was still there to support everyone.  The race started at 10:00.  Sam and I ran together.  There were color stations set up along the entire course (5 or 6, I believe) and each time you would go through one, they would throw the colored cornstarch on you.  Sam and I decided to walk through the yellow station and  we I got pelted with yellow cornstarch.  Somehow they managed to get it all over the front and back of the lenses of the sunglasses they gave us to protect our eyes (after looking at pictures, Gabby kept asking why the glasses made our noses look so big – lol).  I came out of the yellow station completely blind and ran straight into Sam.  I tried to clean off my glasses so I could see, but Sam insisted on taking a photo first 😉

I’m not sure how she made it out so clean!  We finished the 5k at a pretty good pace, considering we walked through the 2 water stops and through a couple of the color stations.

I saw that Jason had already finished and was waiting with Becky at the finish.  Next, we watched Makayla, Natalee, and Natalee’s friend finish.

A little bit later, we saw Gabby and Skylar sprinting to the finish.

Gabby, Skylar, and Jason headed back out on the course so that they could finish with Maw Maw.

We took some more pictures and then headed over to the pavilion for the “color finale” where a TON of colored powder was thrown into the air.  Hmmm.  It sounded a lot more fun than it actually was 😉  I bet it looked really cool though.

It was a fun race and my 10th completed for the year.  Only 5 more to go to reach my goal of 15 in 15 🙂  After stopping for a bite to eat (in all our colorful clothes) and then going home and cleaning up, I took the rest of the day easy.  I did run out Saturday evening with Sam to check out the running clothes on clearance at K-mart (going out of business) and was pleasantly surprised.  I got a few tanks/shirts for around $6 each and even scored some new running capris and pants!

SUNDAY

OUR LAST LONG RUN BEFORE OUR HALF MARATHON WAS TODAY!  We had 12 miles on the schedule and we crushed it.  Okay, so “crushed” is a strong word.  We did keep a pretty good pace (with the exception of our 2 breaks), but it felt really hard today.  We fought VERY STRONG wind for over a half a mile and it really took a lot out of us.  I never thought I’d say this, but I’d prefer to run hills than run into strong winds.  We are just hoping for good weather next weekend.  I’ve heard the course is flat, but windy.  And I’m a little scared.  Notice 2 things in the pictures below.  1 – The new shirt/capris I’m wearing, which was less than $20 total for both.  2 – Notice the choppy water and the movement of our hair.  In case you didn’t believe me that it was windy 🙂  Oh, and I guess there is a 3rd thing.  3 – Why do I tend to squat down a little in our selfies?  I’m already plenty short; I really don’t need to make myself look even shorter.

We were very happy to have this run complete!  One step closer to our half marathon (and 5k) next weekend!

After cleaning up, I took the girls to meet their Aunt and cousin at Wine Juice & Design for the afternoon.  Aunt Cathy is always a very thoughtful gift giver and had signed us up for a class for the girls bdays.  Their bdays were in July/Aug, but she knows how much the Bonds family loves Halloween, so she signed us up for a Halloween themed class.  Luckily, they also had a spot open for Skylar so she was able to join us.

We had a great time!!  Thanks, Aunt Cathy & Co 🙂

After lunch and dropping Skylar off, I came home and finished laundry and then watched Sweet Home Alabama with the girls.  A great ending to a great weekend!

QOTD: Have you ever or would you ever run or walk a “fun run”?  Zombie/Color/Etc?  Would you run it even if it wasn’t timed?