What Each New Day Shall Bring

Ah, the life of a person in the midst of marathon training. Just party, party, party all the time.

Party!! Woo!!! Woo.....woooooo....

Okay fine. No. I am completely sober and go to bed early. After eating a sensible dinner. Damn, you caught me.

Saturday morning my alarm went off at 4:30am. Yup.  4:30 in the morning. 

Why, just why, would anyone in their right mind do that voluntarily? On their own accord? Well, actually, it makes it quite easy when you have this situation on your hands: 

Yup. At 5:19am.

Although the heatwave has finally broken (finally!), Saturday was still on near-dangerous territory. New York Road Runner's races were made into fun runs, and I know that my Team For Kids group actually cancelled their weekly run due to the heat. It was a slow, safe, hydrated run at dawn...or not at all.

With money and a MetroCard in hand in case I needed to bail, and plenty of Gatorade on my belt, I took a taxi to 14th and 1st and met my running buddy Jazmin to start a 12-mile run as the sun started to rise.

A view like that, on the East River of New York City at sunrise, almost makes the crazy wake-up call hour worth it.

Almost.

MMhmmm.

The run took us on a lovely route down the East side, around the tip of the island, and then up the West Side Highway to finish things up. Always running along the water did allow for a bit of a nice breeze, but the heat and humidity at dawn had me at my breaking point for basically the entire time. 

The pace was tortoise-esque and the sweat was truly epic. But Jazmin -- as always -- was a lovely running partner and our conversation made the time pass by pretty quickly. I was home, stretched, showered, and back in bed by 8:45am for a little nap so that I could start my day by late morning.

The things we runners do...

...But usually not two days in a row. 

On this Sunday morning the alarm went off at 5:15 am for another early-to-rise day.

Today Betsy and I had an appointment to do the Color Me Rad 5K color run! We signed up several months ago, so I had been looking forward to a fun, unique running experience with her. Even though it was super duper early. Again.

The heat had broken, bagels had been eaten, and the ride to NJ (ugh) was not nearly as bad as anticipated. We were ready to rock n' roll.

The premise is simple. You run (or jog...or walk...or whatever you want to do) and you get colorful. That's it. It's not timed, it's not really for racing. It's completely for fun. And you know what? I need more pure fun in my running life, gosh dangit! 

With our white clothes and souls pure, the starting music began at 8:00am. So, I'm not sure what I was expecting exactly...but the course definitely underwhelmed a bit.

Yup. It was a parking lot.

We watched the route weave in and out of traffic cones, and, it really made 5K seem quite long! Wow! we were jog / speed-walking (okay, fine, we were sauntering, ok? Sauntering.) But I caught myself at many points thinking to myself, I really run this far? The parking lot was BIG!

LOOK AT THIS EXPANSE! AND LOOK AT ME!

As you're walking, you know, around the parking lot, there are stations where volunteers hose you with color or throw basically food-colored cornstarch on you. It's fun if you keep an open mind and a disposable wardrobe.

All the color!!!!!!

The first station was pink. And my face was at arm level with the volunteer Pink-Thrower.

The result:

Hello gorgeous!

It was in my nose, my ears, my mouth....it's still on me right now more than 14 hours later. And there was literally no reason for it. But you know what? It was really freaking fun.

All-in-all, a really great slash random morning with B. And we got a bit of exercise in there too!

We're sexy and we know it.

Yet we remain unimpressed.

After running for the bus back to NY (ironally the only actual running we did all morning), we arrived safe and sound back at my least favorite place in the entire expanse of the Universe: The Port Authority.

There, freshly clothed in my race souvenir shirt, my Color Me Rad 5K shirt was put to its final resting place. Farewell, good soldier.

 

I scrubbed, and scrubbed, and scrubbed...and scrubbed. Along with a full layer of skin, I think I got most of the color off. Then brunch with some lovely ladies followed by a lazy afternoon in the park where I did a lot of this:

Two early mornings make for a sleepy exhausted MeriG, but all-in-all it was a great weekend. Looking forward to seeing what my pre-dawn wake-up calls have in store for me next week...