Relay Style; Don't Care Bears; + TWD Season Premiere

Lots to cover today.  Lots of stuff coming up too, so that's why I combined this all into one blog post.

Back On My Feet Marathon Relay

On 10/3 I did the Back On My Feet Marathon Relay with some ladies from work, calling ourselves the Pace Cadets.  We had a couple of runners, a couple of run/walkers, and a couple of walkers on our team.  We also had a lot of heart and determination.  I led off with the first 3 laps (6.6 miles).  It was cold and windy, but still dry when I ran.  I did my laps in 1:17 and was very happy with my time.  The course is along the White River Parkway, so it's very pretty with a beautiful view of the city.  That wind though.  Brr!  As with any other lap races I've run, the faster runners who were passing me were always so encouraging.  I love that about runners!

Pics by Cherie Holt & Jan Townsend

After I finished my laps, my teammates took their turns.  And the rain started, and the wind continued.  It was cold and wet and miserable, but we did not stop.  We'd brought all kinds of snacks, but none of us really felt like eating.  We just huddled under our blankets and umbrellas, whooping & cheering each other on, and some of the other teams too.  Little by little the spectator area cleared off, and the volunteers left as well, till there was no one left but the two people running the timing equipment and us Pace Cadets.

We finished after the official cutoff time of 6:00, but since they stayed and kept the timing clock running we know we finished in 6:33:36.  But we finished, in that awful miserable weather, with some walkers who'd never done any kind of race before.  If you look at the official results, there are seven DNFs on there.  Seven people/teams who started but gave up.  I am super-proud of my teammates for never quitting!

Great Pumpkin Run 2015

Absolut Bear, Stripper Bear, Whatever Bear, Beery Bear

Second year in a row running The Great Pumpkin Run with some of my friends from the Indy Women's training group, and some friends from LF Boot Camp as well.  We had a blast!  This is such a fun event: a trail 5K through Apple Works pumpkin fields, corn maze, and apple orchards.  I finished in 35:01, and I'm really happy with that time.  It's not a technical trail and it is very flat, but the ground through the fields and orchards is very uneven.

We dressed up as the Don't Care Bears, and our costumes were a hit.  Look for the Don't Care Bears + 1 to make an appearance at the Brew HaHa 5K on Halloween as well.

Glitter Skirt Ambassador

Love the skirt I'm wearing?  I do too!  So I'm excited to be an ambassador for Glitter Skirts!  Use coupon code HAZEL to get 20% off your own Glitter Skirt.  And since we know you'll want more than one, that code never expires and you can use it as many times as you like.  Feel free to share with friends, too.

TWD Season Premiere: Walk This Way

Spoiler-free I promise, so feel free to keep reading even if you haven't watched yet.  I have been a fan of zombie fiction, and post-apocalyptic fiction in general, since high school.  While it was not Kevin's favorite genre, he did enjoy some of it as well, so I convinced him to watch The Walking Dead with me from the very first season, and we were both really big fans.  Twice a year we would look forward to season premieres, and would always watch together, dissect the show afterwards, and then play the trivia games together online the following day.

Leading up to yesterday's season 6 premiere, I didn't feel quite the same excitement that I used to feel sharing it with Kevin, but I still was surprised - ambushed in fact - by how hard it really hit me yesterday.  I cried almost non-stop from the time I got home from church yesterday until about 20 minutes before the show started.  The only time I wasn't crying was when I cried myself to sleep.  I didn't know if I could watch it, didn't know if I should watch it.  I had the DVR set just in case, thinking if I couldn't watch it Sunday, maybe I'd feel better in a few days.

I finally decided I would try, but if it was too much I'd just turn it off and read a book instead.  Great episode, really.  I'm glad I watched.  Go watch it if you haven't yet.  Of course, I kept thinking it would really irritate Kevin since they were jumping back and forth in time telling the story.  He really doesn't like it when they do that; prefers the story be told in a linear fashion.  I guess that's the engineer in him.  I would argue that life isn't experienced linearly.  While we live our own life going through time in a straight line, we share our stories of our friends and family when we get a chance to talk and listen to each other, so we don't always know what's happened to them at the time it happens.

The only times I really lost it during the show were 1) when a commercial came on for the new season of Gold Rush, one of Kevin's favorite shows; and 2) when they announced on Talking Dead that the second half of season 6 would premiere on Valentine's Day next year.  Really?

Coming Up

I have LOADS of stuff on my schedule: check out our What's Next page to see everything.  This weekend I'm running the Hendricks County Fall Colors 10K at McCloud Nature Park.  The 10K is my favorite distance, and this is a trail run through the woods, so I'm really looking forward to it.  I've never been to this park, so I have no idea what to expect, but if you know me you know I love surprises.  Weather forecast right now says it will be in the mid 30s Saturday morning, but sunny, so it should be a nice run.