Jingle Bell 5K for Arthritis

Well, it’s been over a week since the 5K. It was so much fun! The weather was terrible- it rained and was cold, but really it was an enjoyable running climate– not too hot! We were dressed to the nines in our Christmas Tree costumes— they were fashioned out of green table clothes, snowflake ornaments, strings of multi-colored twinkling battery operated lights, and gigantic gold bows on our heads. Picture to right…  I was lucky enough to get a group of friends to also compete in the 5K… it was the first race (all running) post-ankle surgery and what not.

In addition, Mariah, Andrew’s soon to be Sister-in-law has rheumatoid arthritits so it this 5K was especially important. Mariah and Austin and a bunch of their friends walked in the Denver 5K on the same day. Her sister and some of her friend walked in the 5k in Seattle… so, covering three different cities and raising more than $4000 for Arthritis, we were out in full force!

There were a lot of people dressed up but I think we had the most original costumes… we were runners up for the costume award— they gave it to a little girl, but as we were walking away, the guy who was MC-ing said “you know we had to give to the kid, right?” so we were really happy and excited… actually, we didn’t even know that we would be called up and have to stand in front of everyone.

After the race we went out to a fabulous brunch in Baltimore, before heading back home. Completely the race definitely jazzed me up for more running in the future. I plan on running a race a month in 2011 and I’ve already checked out a few that I like; Feb (Love the Run You’re With) and the 1/2 marathon in Ocean City, MD. I think Andrew’s still really excited about it too, so that’s awesome!

We took a nice long break from exercising to catch up and what not and then went out for a power-walk last night- it’s getting tougher with the holidays coming up and our trip to the Dominican Republic, but we’re going to try to go on with training through it! We’ll be taking running stuff to the DR with us, although we’ll probably get enough exercise hiking and exploring as it is! I can’t believe next week at this time I will finishing up work and packing my bags! Bring on the Dominican Republic!!!!!