Pink Up the Pace

Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile- I have been working on a few new exciting projects I will let you all in on once I get them off the ground. Recently, Chad and I took some time to participate in a breast cancer 5k in St. Augustine called “Pink Up The Pace.” St. Augustine is only a two hour drive from Orlando so we got up really early in the morning the day of the race, were on the road by 5am, and made it up there an hour before the start.

Once we arrived, we were surrounded by all things pink- a pink fire truck and over 2800 fellow runners all wearing their pinkest attire…..this was my view from the start line- the pink behind me and all the pink in front of me….

At 8am – we were OFF!! Chad, of course, being the better runner, started way up in the front of the pack- I stayed back in the 13-14 minute-a-mile pace group. That’s how I roll…….

And as I started rolling I found myself running behind these guys…….

Those were some of the local lifeguards who ran in their “attire”- one guy even ran with a dummy on his back. Also making an appearance were men in pink skirts, men in hot pink bras and men wearing pink wigs. Many of the women had dressed up too in their pink tutus but the men were the most amusing.

We passed some incredible scenery in downtown St. Augustine, past the Bridge of Lions on the Mantanzas River, through some old neighborhoods just on the outside of town and we finished running down one of the busy touristy shopping corridors.

Chad joined me after he finished his race (he had a great race) – he backtracked a little through the track and joined me for my last 1/2 mile. After I finished we grabbed some water and went to stand near the finish line to watch the others as they crossed the finish line. There were tears and cheers- there were a lot of women donning special pink breast cancer survivor shirts the sponsors had given out.

After most 5k races there are always local businesses and sponsors that have samples and food after the race. Usually, it’s water, bananas, bagels and Pink Up The Pace was no exception….

But I found the greatest sponsor food EVER…….

I am so proud of myself- I only had one half of one. But there were boxes and boxes of them and I had to refrain from grabbing an entire box….but I had just run 3.1 miles so even if I could run I wasn’t going to get far……..

There was also a local smoothie shop with samples of their organic 100% juice smoothies…

Chad had a mango-strawberry one and I decided to try something different- I got their fig-date smoothie…it was…interesting….I would probably just order the mango-strawberry if we visited the store.

As part of the entry fee we paid to run the race, we were invited to explore the city a little more. We got free access to ride the Red Train Trolley Tour around for the day, which also included entrance to the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum. I also had a vegetarian place I was really excited to try since the last time we were up there so I will post our post- race adventures next time.

For more information or to join next year’s race- visit Pink Up The Pace.

CHOW!!!

Lots of fun on the way- stay tuned!!