Color Me Rad

My third 5k!!! 

I’d seen advertisements and pictures from people who had run the Color Me Rad race before and I thought it looked awesome!

When I signed up with my mom and my cousins, we did it under the team name M&M (Macks&Markus’), awesome right??

I was especially excited for this race because I knew I would be able to run the whole entire thing! My first two 5ks were a blast, but I did a lot of walking and I couldn’t wait to watch all of my hard work pay off!

Race day finally came and I was prepared with hot pink running capris, purple sunglasses and, of course, a white t-shirt! 

 

We parked downtown and started walking the one mile between the car and the starting line. We talked excitedly and decided we would all run together since it wasn’t time.

We were almost to the starting area….20, 30 feet maybe!

Then it happened…..

One minute I was up.

The next minutes I was down.

And I went down hard.

As a sprained ankle expert, I knew this wasn’t just a “walk it off” kind of injury. Not to mention my skinned knee and the scratches all over my arm from falling into a thorn bush.

My fantastic cousin had ibuprofen in her bag so I took some and decided to “man up”.

I limped the rest of the way to the starting area and found the first aid booth, hoping they’d have an ace bandage.

No such luck! I did get a nice big band-aid though for my bleeding knee!!

We were part of the 8:20 wave so we had a while before we started running. We took some pictures….

 And then made our way to the starting line.

It was then that I was very VERY unsure about running the race. My ankle AND my knee were throbbing. No… more like aching!

I could feel that it was pretty bad. Every step hurt and it took a lot of self control not to break into tears! 

But the music was blasting, colors were flying, adrenaline was pumping and everyone around me looked like they were having such a good time! Not to mention I had already paid for the race and my t-shirt was still white! So I resolved then and there to finish the race!

 

They counted us down and as soon as my toes touched the starting line, I started to run! For a brief moment I thought I could do it….. I thought I could run the whole race with my twisted ankle and skinned knee!

But after a few blocks I knew that would not be possible… and I had to walk.

We hadn’t even reached the first color station and I was in agony. And not only that, I was walking….. My goal had been to run the entire race and I couldn’t do it, even I wanted to!! Again, I was holding back my tears!

Luckily I have the world’s most fantastic mom! Instead of taking off and finishing the race in no time, she walked with me… The.Whole.Way! I was so grateful for her!!

We were pelted with green, orange, purple and yellow and the longer I went, the better I felt. As the end got closer I decided I wanted to come across the finish line running! It wasn’t very far, but I did it!

I had made it through the whole race!! Sprained ankle, bum knee, burning scratches and all!!