23 March 2013 ~ 0 Comments

Color Me Rad 5K Wedding Edition: Project Trash Wedding Dress = Complete

By admin

It feels like so long ago when I made the decision to wear my wedding gown for a second time to run the Color Me Rad 5K to raise $ $ $ for the Special Olympics.

But the day finally arrived!

color-end-toss

To be honest, I am really proud of myself for doing this. I have had a few moments of doubt over the past weeks:

“Is this the right decision? Is it okay to trash my dress? Will I regret it when the race is over?”

YesYes… and No!

It was so much fun, and seriously, how many women can say they wore their dress twice!? And being able to do something for such a wonderful organization like the Special Olympics, simply made it that much more meaningful.

I would NEVER EVER have worn it just for the hell of it (wouldn’t have thought to), but for such a great cause, it’s the least I could do.

So let’s do a quick recap, shall we? Dan took a ton of pictures (135 to be exact), so sit back and enjoy!

On Tuesday, we became tv stars. 

lowcountry live

Okay maybe not stars, but Erica and I got to shoot a segment for our local news here in Charleston! It was awesome to be in the studio and talking about something that both of us were so excited and passionate about. Love that we’re the “duo running 5K in wedding dresses”.

On Wednesday, it was alteration time! 

I put on my full gown for the final time. Instantly, I was flooded with great memories and how I felt when I put it on to walk down the aisle. I felt like a million dollars in the gown and even zipping it up here with my fitness clothes on underneath, I still felt like a bride. Make up probably would have helped…

altered wedding gown

Dan removed the bottom layers of crinoline, and removed the train (plus some). Of course Zoe & Nike wanted to help!

wedding-nike-zoe

We needed two-square feet in order to have a Christening gown made (what I planned to do since our wedding), so he made sure to take a big chunk to be on the safe side. I am going to start looking for a seamstress next month to make the Christening gown, any recommendations are welcome!

What, you don’t do push-ups in your wedding gown?

pushup-weddingdress

On Friday, I headed to the expo. 

Unfortunately, no pictures because I wasn’t feeling all that great and just wanted to get in and out. No such luck… the place was packed and the line was almost out the door. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with the set up and I think it could have been a bit more streamline had they set up their tables up a bit differently.

This by far isn’t the biggest race I’ve ever done, but it was the longest I have ever had to wait. Oh well, probably wouldn’t have been so bad if I wasn’t sick to my stomach.

On Saturday… RACE DAY!

Since I have my longer races coming up, I woke up extra early and logged 4 fast miles before heading home to slip into my wedding gown for the last time.

After getting lost, Dan and I finally made it to the race, with clouds looming overhead and temperatures in the high 40s/low 50s, we prayed for rain to hold off (which it did, and started to rain right when we got to the car = lucky break!).

color me rad boot campers

Jessica and Lynette, two of my awesome boot campers! 

We quickly found Erica and a few other friends! For how many people were there, I was glad finding friends was pretty simple. It was funny when random people would walk up to us and say, “oh I saw you too on the news!”. It was so fun!

color rad wedding gown

Because it was so easy, meant we had time to play around with the camera…

special olympics color me rad

Hello Mr. Color Me Rad Truck! We all agreed it would be fun to get to drive around the country in this thing:

color-rad-truck 1-2-3 Go:

race start

The course zig-zagged around our fair grounds, and about ever 1/2 mile or so we would run through clouds of colored corn starch while volunteers pelted us like crazy! The powder was fine, the squirt guns sucked considering how cold it was out! We kept our pace fairly slow so we could sit back and just take in the entire event.

Erica and I chatted the entire time, laughing and enjoying the course. To be honest I was surprised how quickly the finish line crept up on us… I would have liked another mile or two to be able to have more girl time!

running

There wasn’t even a clock set up, so I have no idea how we did. I don’t care. It wasn’t about a time or trying to get a pr… it was about the Special Olympics, about hanging out with Erica and making great memories.

color me rad charleston

Yup, even my teeth weren’t safe!

close-finished

Perhaps my favorite picture ever:

charleston color me rad

While we were coming off our runner’s high, a few other friends found us!

melissa-me-colorrad

I had no idea that Melissa and Mrs Patty (Ashton’s sister and mom) were going to come! I ran with Melissa last week during the St Patty’s Day 5K! I am so blessed to have found this family as they are the ones that introduced Special Olympics to me. Having them there as support was like a cherry on top of a sundae, making the event perfect.

Then another boot camper, Michelle found me! I love how drenched in purple she got! I didn’t even recognize her at first.

charleston color me rad

IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO HELP SUPPORT OUR CAUSE! Please, we are almost at our goal of $ 1000, but not quite yet.

color me rad

I understand not wanting to spend money, which is why I am only asking for donations of $ 1-$ 5. You can see the donation page here. Every little bit helps and I am extremely grateful to those that have already allowed me to get as far as I have.

And to help more… please SHARE this post either with Twitter or Facebook (or both)!

Thank you so much, I can never explain what this day meant to me! And thanks to Erica for stepping up and doing this with me.

The finale to the race came when everyone was given a color bomb to toss up! That’s a heck of a lot of corn starch… but it makes for a pretty picture!

color-rad-end-tossup-best

Will I do it again? 

I had a great time at this race, it was a lot of fun and because I was doing it for such a great cause made it even better. However, I probably won’t sign up again. It’s one of those races where even though it was a blast, now I can say I did it and I am happy with that. I recommend everyone do it at least once because it has an atmosphere like no other race. For me personally, once is enough, I am afraid a second one would take the joy away and at the end I would be annoyed with all the crap all over me.

Have you done a color run yet? Do you want to? 

If you have, will you do another?

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