triple T... tie-dye, tongs and tiles.

Happy Labor Day, friends and readers! I hope you all have had a nice little holiday.

A few months ago me and a friend (link to her blog is provided but don't worry about clicking because she never updates... xoxo JMT=) began talking about how we wanted to start doing races. You know, 5k here... 10k there... maybe a marathon one day-in the FUTURE. Well, she has been committed to training all summer while I have been... not committed to training. After much encouragement from her, we both signed up for Macon's Labor Day Road Race. This would be our first 5k together. She arrived in town last night from Atlanta to be here for our race that started at 7:30 this morning (GASP!). So in preparation for our first event of many to come in the future, I told her that when she came down to Macon she had to have some ideas on traditions we could create for every race we ran. Well she failed miserable and had nothing ready. Not one single thing. But lucky for her, neither did I! But we both liked the idea of coming up with ideas so we thought of some together... = )

A few weekends ago, we created tie-dyed tees. While maybe not the most flattering color on me, we decided that we would wear our matching tie-dye tees for our race day. Tradition Numero Uno: TIE DYE.

Since I have not been training, I knew I at least needed to have a good play list that would hopefully inspire me for 3.1 miles. This brought about the idea to have a race day song for each race. Tradition Numero Dos: TONGS. *Well actually its song but since I like to have things all start with the same letter, we decided to change it to tongs. Stupid and ridiculous you may say, but I say memories, my friends, MEM-O-RIES... (oh and by the way, here was our tong choice... so gewwwd.)

The third and final thing took the most time but is one of my favorites. I told JMT that I wanted to have something to show for each of our races. This is something that also has to be done in various cities since we never know where we could end up running our next race. We decided that we would paint a tile at a local pottery shop, with memories from our race. Tradition Numero Tres: TILES.

So in preparation for our big race, I suggested we rent the movie Run Fat Boy Run, because who doesn't like watching a movie that will basically play out the upcoming hours and events for me? That's what I thought. Well it was as good as I had heard it was. Hilarious. So good. So much fun to watch before our big race.

So here we were the night before our race and we had mentioned to Ruch that she should come cheer us on to the finish line and more importantly be there to shuttle us home. This seemed like a great idea to us and Ruthie and even her friends that she had to spend the night. We EVEN offered to buy them all Starbucks since they would be getting up several hours earlier than they should on a holiday. (*note: if you ever want teenagers to do anything for you, offer them Starbucks. they fold like a deck of cards.) So we told them we had to leave at 6:35 in order to get there a few minutes early. Well, 6 a.m. rolls around and we get up and begin getting ready but what did I hear coming from the other room? What did I see coming through the door???

NOTHING.

The four girls that were so excited about Starbucks and cheering us on the night before were sound asleep. Oh no no no. You made a promise, RCQ. So I tried to wake her up by sending texts, calling her, even playing her alarm clock. She didn't budge. None of them did. So me and race friend were off to our race all by ourselves, without a fan section and without a shuttle.

sorry girls, when you lie, I play DIRTY.

p.s. - can't wait to see you at the finish line of our next race! xoxo!

So friend and I arrived at the race and saw lots of interesting things... a.k.a. people. And I also realized that I am not as serious of a runner (if at all) as ANY of these people were. For instance, we are about to run a race and what are people doing before? RUNNING. Won't they get tired? Apparently not if there shorts are short enough! I have alot to learn.

pre-race.

I won't explain alot of how the race felt (like I was going to faint the last kilometer) or anything else because I am sure you are extremely bored by this point. I will say however it was good to have a faithful friend that could have outrun and finished way earlier time to run by encouraging me on and letting me know each kilometer we finished. She is a good friend. And a good race friend.

post race.

(don't let the clock deceive you; our time was much better thanks to JMT)

After we finished, we headed to ride on an unplanned tour of Macon, courtesty of a very confused bus driver. My legs thank you, Mr. Bus Driver, for the 1.5 miles we had to walk back after you took us in the wrong area. We celebrated our finish of a few seconds over 30 minutes by visiting Panera for coffee and bagels and of course to complete our first Tile for our first race. Below are the rest of the pictures from our adventure!

not excited about our "tour de Macon" on the C&H bus.

so we decided to walk back to the start instead.

and we FINALLY made it back to the car to get a picture with our AWE-OME race shirts.

and this is at Amphora, where we finished our third T for the day...

before painting.

during painting.

finished painting. (front)

finished painting. (back)

Thanks JMT for a memorable Labor Day... Here's to many more! NEDA!