Des Moines, Iowa Race: How to Make Lemonade

Hello Friends!

I am usually a planner.  To the extreme.

When I go on trips, I will often have a list with little check boxes to make sure I remember everything.

Lately, I have been trying to relax a little.  Or maybe I have turned to procrastination.  Whatever it is…my list-making did not show up this last weekend and it sure showed.

Friday night we had a little soiree for Dave (the BF)’s roomie who just got engaged, so I stayed out a little later than I wanted to.  Till about 1am. 

Dave and I had planned on heading out to Des Moines, Iowa early Saturday morning at 8am.  You see, my Blend Calee and I have been planning to hang out and run a race for a couple of months now (and I decided to drag Dave along too since he has a cousin who lives in the area.) 

Well I woke up at 8am…and hadn’t even packed yet.  Awesome.

Threw stuff into a couple of bags, including homework, a couple of running shirts and sports bras (I couldn’t decide what I wanted to wear), some post-run fuel along with a big diet dew and peanut butter toast for the road.  I picked up Dave and we were off to the land of Iowa.

We met Dave’s cousin and wife and as we were walking I realized…I don’t remember packing my running shoes.  Seriously??  I came here to run a race and didn’t even remember shoes??  I packed my purple sweatshirt that matched my purple Asics, but left them by the door in Nebraska.  *sigh*

I texted Calee and she had size 8 wide Asics and I wear size 7 1/2 narrow…so that seemed close enough.

After an awesome night of eating and drinking (more on the foodie things tomorrow) with Dave, Calee and her boy Mark, we got back to our hotel and I decided I would get ahead of the game and lay out my clothes for the next morning, the day of the 5K race.

They are ridiculously cute

Guess what?  No running shorts.  Or pants.  I didn’t even pack pjs!  At this point I am cracking up and Dave is making fun of me because really, how ironic is this!?

I decided I would wear some of Dave’s shorts, even though I might look a little rediculous.  Sometimes you can pull of a goofy outfit with confidence and a smile, right?

It gets better.  And by better, I mean more things go wrong but it makes a good story.

I set not one, but TWO alarms to make sure I got up for the race.  With the way this story is going, what do you think happened?

Yup.  Neither went off.  The hotel alarm apparently had the sound all the way down, and my phone alarm was set to “weekdays.”  Good golly!

Since I was already a little nervous I wouldn’t wake up, I did end up waking up 10 minutes after the alarms should have gone off, so it wasn’t such a big deal.

Dave decided to check the weather and it turns out it was going to be a cold race.  Like 30-some degrees cold.  Did I bring gloves, a hat, or something to cover my ears?  (or pants??)  Nope.

It was a freezing race, but it was so fun to hang out with Calee and her friend who was running her first race ever.  The 3 miles flew right by and I felt awesome afterwards.

I’m also so thankful Dave hung out to see me finish the race, even though he didn’t get the coffee he was promised by the guy he was hanging with.

All of this to say, I’m pretty sure God is reminding me to:
a.) laugh at myself,  a whole lot.
b.) it’s okay to plan a little.
c.) when things go wrong, it will probably be okay, so again, laugh and try to have some fun with it.

So make the proverbial lemonade out of lemons!
*~Amanda aka Semi-Health Nut~*

Have you ever run a 5K?

Are you a planner or procrastinator?

Read Calee’s recap of the run here.  She made some lemonade too. 😉