Running for Boston

Part of having a large family means there are loved ones everywhere. That's usually good. I mean, I can travel almost anywhere in this large country and have a place to stay! Yet, when there is a tragedy--whether natural or a massacre--it seems there are people we need to account for.

My cousin, Jesse, is a great athlete and amazing runner. He's a big guy, and he often wins races for his bracket. He blogs about his races at Pedals & Paddles Worldwide. He always seems to be somewhere amazing for a foot race or cycling event.

He's also from Boston.

Hearing about a tragedy at home is hard. It's hard for all of us. It's down right scary when it happens, and you have to worry about people you love. I'm from Colorado, and we've had more than our share of shootings and violent massacres. It's just not fair to have to call up friends and loved ones to see if they're OK. It also doesn't seem fair to account for your loved ones, only to remember that others weren't so lucky...

In my family, all we needed to hear was about a bomb at the Boston Marathon to think of Jesse. Was he running in that race? If he was, were my aunt, her partner, or my other cousin there cheering him on?

Through the family grapevine, we quickly found out he was OK. We later found out that, yes, he'd been at the race, cheering friends on near the 20 mile marker. I felt relief, and then struggled with that same feeling of guilt that I'm too familiar with now: that wretched feeling that not everyone got good news yesterday.

So, today, I wanted to write and send my love out to everyone affected by this massacre. To everyone who got hurt, to the survivors, to the injured, to the families and friends, to the first responders, and just to everyone who felt pain and fear after reading about it on the news, I'm sending love your way.

Jesse is running in The Pittsburgh Marathon in a few weeks. His goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon to run next year. In my opinion, there's no better way to fight back against the vicious attack the city of Boston went through yesterday. Good on you, Jesse. Kick ass in Pittsburgh!

Link to Jesse's blog entry on The Boston Marathon

Me, I used to run. My running decreased a lot after Oliver was born, and it stopped all together after getting pregnant with Jo. We've been dealing with snow yesterday and today, and it's going to continue into tomorrow. This weekend, I plan on lacing up my shoes and going for jog. One mile, that's my goal. It's not a marathon, but it's a little bit in honor of all the runners yesterday--many of whom went so far and never got to finish.

Edit: A Facebook group has been set up called "Run for Boston 4/17." They're asking people to go for a run tomorrow. If people can, they also ask for everyone to take a picture of themselves wearing blue & yellow and carrying a sign that says, "Run for Boston." It's supposed to snow and be a high of 37 here, but I think I'll try to get a little jog in for the people and city of Boston.

Color Run

We almost missed out on The Color Run!  My mom, Andrew, and I had been planning on running the 5k race together for a couple months now.  We decided we would register at the event instead of doing same-day registration in case the weather was bad, or in case Andrew and I weren't getting enough sleep from the kids waking up at night.  Yesterday morning, I went online to find out when same-day registration opened, only to discover it had sold out!

Thanks to the help of friends and Craigs List, I tracked down three packets.  Andrew drove all over the Denver-Metro area after work yesterday to pick them up.  With Friday night traffic on Memorial weekend, I have a feeling the drives were no picnic.  I crossed my fingers that all our effort was worth it.  The race bags looked promising--we each got a pack of colored powder to throw at the finish line in addition to our race shirts, sweat bands, numbers, and a temporary tattoo!  We couldn't be picky about shirt sizes, of course.  I ended up with an XL, but I ran it through a hot wash cycle and hot dryer cycle to try to shrink it as much as possible.  It was still big, so I decided to just own the look.  I crimped my hair by braiding it the night before.  The morning of, I stuck my hair in a high pony, donned my sweat band, pulled on some leggings and my new neon pink running shoes.  It looked like I stepped straight out of the early 90s.

Oliver wore my temporary tattoo for me:

We met up with my parents at City Park.  My dad took a "before" photo of us, looking so nice in our clean, crisp running clothes:

Oliver's inspecting our dye packets.  He asked me if he could eat them.

This little guy has no idea what he's getting into.  He's also probably wondering why his dad is dressed like Richard Simmons.

Our dye packs were meant for the finish line, but there were lots of people who couldn't resist the temptation of exploding them at the starting line.

I got hit with a stray shot of purple.  It was my first touch of color:

At every kilometer, they set up a color station, where volunteers doused all the runners with a color.  The first kilometer was orange:

The second color station was blue.  Andrew got covered:

The third kilometer station was yellow, and the fourth kilometer station was green.  At the finish, they counted down every fifteen minutes for finishers to explode their packets.  I broke open our orange one to show Oliver how it worked.  At first, he was hesitant, but then he had fun grabbing handfuls and sprinkling it all over the grass and himself:

Oliver's Big Race

Oliver had his first race today--a ten foot infant crawl at the Denver Children's Museum! As you can see from the photos, he carb-loaded and stretched in preparation for his event. In the end, however, the preparations meant nothing, as he didn't even make it past the starting line. He hates grass, and the sight of all the other people overwhelmed him. He sat and cried while most of the other babies scooted along. Ha!

This event (called Hop, Skip, and a Jump Start) is held annually at the Denver Children's Museum.  In addition to the infant crawl, there's also a 5k (which my mom and I both ran in) as well as a toddler trot and a short kid's race.