Prairie Dog water station and course marshal crew

My crew and I signed up for another water station/ course marshal at the 3W Prairie Dog race . Need to earn us some free runs right. It gets expensive when your kids start to like running and want to join you. Did you know that if you volunteer at some races they will give you a free race in return ? Yup that makes me SO excited. 3W gives you a $40 voucher for a 4 hr shift. That's a free 5K or 10K . Makes this mom happy especially when her kid asks to run a race with her. Free is always a plus. 

I'm pretty lucky that my kids and my husband are fabulous and will volunteer with me. No complaints either, yes I know I'm super lucky. Normally we are all together at a water station but they needed to spread us out a little this time. No biggie. My husband and middle son decided that they wanted to do the Course Marshal stuff for the 5K turn around. Sounds good to me. We parted ways at the water station as they had to walk a little ways down the trail to get to their spot. Once the 5K was done they came back to the water station to finish out the shift and help me and the other kids. The weather started out warm but then the wind hit and it got chilly. Thankfully we dressed in layers and managed to keep warm. I love volunteering and being able to cheer on my fellow running buddies along the way. It's always fun to see familiar faces and get sweaty hugs from those fabulous friends. My husband always says we runners are a crazy bunch. He's probably right but I love them, crazy and all. 

My Course Marshal crew 

Water and Gatorade at the ready  

Never a dull moment I swear 

After the race we are in charge of taking down the water station. It's super easy, just dumb jugs, pick up trash, fold up the table and stack stuff for the truck to come by and pick up. It's easy and done in a matter of minutes. After we checked in with Whitney and got our $40 race vouchers the kids earned some pizza from the post race party. They claim it's the BEST pizza ever. Kind of how I feel about the post race oranges and bananas . Best stuff ever.

As a special treat we hit up Red Robin for lunch. I am so thankful that my crew goes out of their way to help me earn some free races for Garrett and I . I am especially thankful that they do this with out complaining and they actually DO their jobs and do them well. It makes me so SO proud of them so a special treat is always in order.

Irun4 Natalie and Blake virtual run

Seriously this swag from http://www.levelupruns.com/ is awesome !! I was SO excited when it came in the mail. The tank fits perfect and I absolutely love how you can see the names from far away. The medal is HUGE and bonus points to Level Up for offering an extra medal for my buddies. I got my race packet yesterday and my kids are on spring break so I thought I'd have to put off a run for a week but nope, my middle son decided he wanted to join me this morning. We geared up and did 4 miles. Head on over to http://www.levelupruns.com/ and get signed up for an awesome virtual run too. They have some new ones coming up so don't miss out. 

Instagram winnings rock

How awesome is this. I love Instagram giveaways especially when I win 6 tubes of NUUN . Score me !!

Wind, snow, ice, water and mud

Colorado is always throwing something at us as far as weather. Today we had wind, snow, ice, water and mud. We also hit a new trail and if the cloud cover wouldn't have been so low it would have been beautiful. I plan to run that route again and hope that I'll get to snap some pretty pictures. 

Do what you can with what you have where you are.

That is probably my all time FAVORITE saying. I hate hearing the excuses all the time. Oh trust me I used to be the queen of excuses. The gym is to expensive ( still true ), I don't know what to do, I don't have the equipment, I am to tired etc etc . I had them all and they are all dumb. Well except for the gym being expensive, that's still very true. 

Today I met with my running buddy Lois and we hit this trail in our town. It's such a fun trail. They have different obstacle things all along the path. You can run a bit and then do an obstacle . They have parallel bars, monkey bars, balance beam, ladder, bars etc. We usually hit this park once a week and each time we do something different at the stops.  At one point we found a log and put it to good use. We used it for kettle swings, overhead press and we tossed it back and forth between eachother. A simple log found out on the path was a pretty fun workout tool for us. We even carried it running from one spot to the next. No excuses right .  

We also scaled the rocks. No it's not a rock mountain but going back and forth and up and down a few times is a workout still. Again no equipment is needed just a few minutes outside at the park.

Never give up, there is always a way to get it done and most of the time it's so simple.  Make it fun, enjoy yourself, sweat, get outside. Do it for you because you are so worth it.

What do you run for ? It's virtual race time with Running On The Wall

Why do you run ? And it's a virtual ? Oh heck yes !! So why do YOU run ? Care to share ? I'll share my reasons in no particular order mind you:
1. I like to eat.. a lot
2. I like cupcakes
3. I run for my irun4 buddies Natalie and Blake
4. Me time
5. Time with friends
6. Stress relief
7. Because I can
8. Because it's fun
9. It makes me happy
10. The swag
11. The bling !!
12. The beer .

Seriously the list could go on but you get the jist of it right. We each have our own reason as to why we run. Run for you, run for someone who can't, run for food, run for beer or run just to simply run. I just hope that whatever the reason you're enjoying yourself immensely. I'm doing this virtual race for my irun4 buddies Natalie and Blake and I'm so excited to share this with them .
Check out runningonthewall.com for awesome virtual races, medal holders and so much more. So what do you run for ?  

runningonthewall.com

Post Easter run, seriously needed this

1 to many peeps, 1 bag to many jelly beans. Well you get the picture. Easter was hard on me. I ate and ate and ate some more. Easter candy is the best stuff ever and I like it way to much. Needless to say I was feeling like a big fat slug, not cool . So first thing Monday morning post school drop off I hit the trails with Kodi . I needed the run and so did he. 

This pond is just up from the house and it's my favorite spot. I love to end my run here and stretch. Hopefully come summer, Kodi will behave himself enough to get back his swimming in the pond privileges. Right now they are revoked because he takes off and doesn't come when he's called.. bad dog Kodi, bad dog .

I came out of the shower to this sight. Poor spoiled dog, apparently he's cold and tired. Sure looks comfy doesn't he.