My Latest Fun Run... No, Really, It Was Fun!

If this doesn't look like fun...
then we probably wouldn't get along.

So when, where and by whom did organized races start to be called “Fun Runs”?  Don’t get me wrong:  I have found running to be fun at times… most often when I’m done doing it. 

The thing for me is, although I claim to be tooooodallly laid-back, dude, there’s certain aspects to me that ain’t so chill.  I have never been able to run a race “just for fun.”  Nope.  No matter how casual I tell myself that I’m going to be about it, it always turns out to be a competition.  No unsuspecting race participant is exempt from unwittingly becoming my arch rival.  Unless you’re waaaaaay ahead, leading the pack.  I know to stay within my league.

I usually target someone who has been just slightly ahead of me for a while and is wearing something they have no business wearing even if it is a stinkin’ “fun run.” 

Long stripey, fluorescent socks?  You think that’s cute, huh?  Well, I eat cute for breakfast.

Fluffy Tutu?  I will be making your ending a little less happy, princess!

Three piece suit and a briefcase (For reals, yo. Vegas Tough Mudder 2012)?  No way in Hades you’re finishing ahead of me.

So when I put out a 40-mile running challenge to help me and K celebrate turning 40 this year, I didn’t expect it to magically turn running during the blazing, hot southwestern summer into loads of fun.  And it really didn’t.  Until my final four miles. 

You see, several participants reached their 40-mile goal well ahead of me and I had promised to send the challenge finishers a super cool “Overcome Lazy” temporary tattoo.  Well, a few of those finishers happened to live within running distance of my house…. So, of course, I had to Overcome Lazy by literally running their tattoos to them instead of apathetically mailing them out.  I established a 4-mile route that would take me to each of their houses, which was just the amount of mileage I needed to finish up the challenge myself.  Upon my arrival, they were tattooed and then joined in on the rest of the run.

I finally earned my tattoo and got to join the ranks
of some of my favorite "fitspirations."

I know, right?  These are amazing, awesome, inspiring women! And it gets even better:  One of my friends participating was even 8-ish months pregnant.  She’s been walking instead of running for the 40 mile challenge and wanted to join us to add more mileage with us that day.  (Heck yeah, I gave her a tattoo early because she WILL hit 40 miles soon and she’s one of the best examples of Overcoming Lazy that I know of). 

And better still:  It was K’s intention to run with us but after the first pick-up, he decided he’d be more helpful if he took the little kiddos to the park until we were done.  Since he didn’t need the entire 4 miles to finish, he sacrificed his workout (and his sanity) in order to deal with six little rug rats allowing us ladies to jauntily finish our neighborhood fun run that truly was FUN!

I was relaxed, totally able to enjoy myself, laughing plentifully…

But - just for the record - I touched the house first.

The family that sweats together...
stinks together, I suppose.

Runnin' With The Devil

In Las Vegas I am a minority.  I can handle it.  I’m used to it.  I grew up as a minority in many ways:  I’m female, I’m Mormon, I’m 7” taller than average, my eyes are green for heaven’s sake!  Yeah, it’s been rough at times.  But none of those compare to how hard it is to be in the minority in Las Vegas during the summer.  You see, we are among the fools who do not have a pool in our backyard. 

It didn’t take us long after we moved here to figure out that, in summertime, you either stay indoors or stay wet.  Also, we discovered it's not easy to run outside for exercise during said season.  My mileage tapers off significantly as the temperature rises and other activities take the place of my running until autumn blesses us with cooler temps… y’know, around Thanksgiving.

So, as usual, I haven’t been running much this summer... and what do I go and do???  I create a facebook Fun Run Challenge for my friends and family to see who can log 40 running or walking miles between July 7 (my 40^th birthday) and September 3 (K’s 40^th birthday). 

Yeah, and I’m hating myself for it!  At this point, pretty much everyone is ahead of me.  Today we had our first finisher (Yay, Janet!) and I’m finding I’m being a very poor example of being 40 and fabulous.

Two of my biggest hurdles are: 1) I cannot arise before dawn to run in the cooler mornings and, 2) I just can’t bring myself to do any significant mileage on the treadmill.  Nuh-uh.  Nope.  Would rather jab a stick in my eye.

Well, just the other day I realized that I needed to get moving on this challenge.  I needed to find some way, somehow to accelerate my running mile accumulation.  And so I created… the Poor Man’s Backyard Triathlon.  Conveniently, the street within my neighborhood is a half mile loop.  Fortunately, my daughters love riding their bikes.  By good luck, we ran across just the right kiddie pool for our needs this year.

Suddenly, I realized I had the makings of a refreshing way to run during a Las Vegas summer!  The girls and I started by splashing a little cold pool water on us before our first lap.  We were too wimpy to take the plunge until we came back.  We then headed out for our first neighborhood circuit.  The girls were on their bikes and I kept up with them on foot.  By the time we got back… there was nothing wimpy about our pool plunge:  we couldn’t get in fast enough!  We giddily splashed and refreshed and geared up for our next round.  It felt great to be cooled-off as we headed around again and it didn’t take us long to drip dry. 

Yeah, we think we're tough... Let's do this!

I had in mind to do four circuits because that would be 2 miles of running.  The girls did great and were loving it the first three times, but I had to do a little convincing to make the final lap happen.  It was getting harder to get out of the pool each time; they just wanted to stay in and play! 

But we did it!  And it was a blast!

So, obviously it was not quite equivalent to the Ironman Triathlon.  Rather, it was more an Aluminum Girl Tri-ish-lon.  But we figured out a new way to make it fun to run in the sun!