Color Me Rad(dest)

Last weekend I met up with a long-time friend for the Color Me Rad race in Pittsburgh.  For the record, packet pick up was at a hotel 5 minutes from my house, and there's hard to find a negative in that set up.  Free parking, no wait time, and super friendly people.  The shirts are cotton but a female fit and impressively cute.  

I was running, and the hubs tagged along to document the mess.  The morning started early and was kicked off with 2.5 hours of traffic including closed ramps, closed roads, and the hubs requesting that I please do not yell out the window to tell the state trooper just how stupid he was.  We finally made it there 45 minutes after my wave time... that's 15 minutes after the last wave was supposed to start.  It was a whole super annoying ordeal just getting to the location, which unfortunately was at a remote fairground instead of the actual city, after it had originally been planned for downtown.

The good news?  The people at Color Me Rad are pretty much, apparently, just flat out awesome.  They kept sending out wave after wave of runners long past when it was supposed to have ended.  And the finish line party was still rocking even when we left.  The Color Me Rad group later said the city of Pittsburgh had rescinded the permit they had originally granted, so not entirely their fault that logistics were rough.  They also seemed to be super generous with anyone that complained or ended up missing out.

The bottom line of this "race"?  It's pretty much the most fun you'll ever have in 5 kilometers.  We walked the course for various reasons and found most people were walking or leisurely jogging at best.  There were people complaining about it being too hard to run and whining about PRs.  They should have realized they were in the wrong place.  This "race" is all about the fun.  There were also all age groups, kiddos in strollers, etc.  There is also no timing, but there were cute little mini bottled waters around halfway.

The group at the finish line.  Why do I look so much radder messier than everyone else?

Who wants a high five?  Hug?

Suz and I

Socks and shoes are no match for blue corn starch.  This also happened to  be the hardest spot to get clean!

Having a blast at the finish line!

Custom color shoes come as a free bonus... those were once the same color.  When I went shopping for new running shoes this week (and brought my old pair with me like any good little runner should do), the friendly workers were briefly confused.  They were sure they'd never seen a pair of Wave Riders in that color before.

Thank you, again

I talked here about my antisocial gym habits and complained about people that try to strike up gym conversations even when I have my earbuds in.  In light of that, I think it's only fair to share the much different experience that I had on Tuesday afternoon.  Giving some credit where it's due.

I officially started my half-marathon training on Monday; day two called for 3 miles.  Since there's no way I can spend such little time at the gym once I'm there, I followed my run with a 45 minute upper body and core strength session.

After I finished up my sweat session, I was sitting up front changing out my shoes, and I had already taken my buds out.  A guy walking by gave an approving nod and simply said "You were killing it!"  A second guy nearby threw in a, "Yeah, most women won't even touch real weights.  That's awesome to see."

And that was it.  I walked out of the gym with my head held a little higher.  I told both of them thank you, but I felt like I should go tell them again.  Thank you for respecting women in the gym, for what they can do and not what they look like.  For saying only things that should be said.  For knowing when to make conversation, when to give a compliment, and when to keep your mouth shut.  Gentlemen, take note.