Frozen Bootie Warm Heart 10K!

Today’s Numbers: Nancy's Total Movement Mileage: 134.8 (running: 87.6; walking: 8.4; biking: 38.8) Money Found For Food Bank: $22.05

2,015 in 2015 Change Hounds progress: Nancy: 134.8  Aaron: 119.1 (b: 103.1; w: 16)  Elly: 25.9 Total: 270.7

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!! I've always liked this day; what could be wrong with a day to say I love you to anyone you love? I sent my brother a Peanuts Valentine like these I gave my fave peeps ...

He likely thought I was weird, but I don't really care. At least he didn't get one like Pit Crew #3 humorously exchanged with a friend of his as a vocabulary assignment in Spanish class. Both boys wrote sentiments to each other like, "You're tall" and "You're ugly." I'm still laughing about it!

ANYWAY, Valentine's Day started off around here with our Frozen Booty virtual run with Mary Kate! YAHOO!! Actually, Mary Kate renamed the event Frozen Booty Warm Heart 10K! Not only is she in a little warmer climate, but she also rules! We found out about the rename when we called to check in at the start time:

That's our team selfie. Mary Kate is in the phone. See her?

When she answered, I yelled into the phone, "Are you ready for some FOOTBAAAAAAAALL?!" She did not miss a beat before responding a very definitive, "Um ... no." I have to throw her some props for the quick response because it was, after all, morning. It was also the morning after she'd gotten home from a work trip, so I have extra props and kudos to shout out about her because how many of the rest of us would have been all, "Um, no, I have no plans to run with you the morning after being out of town because I have some not-running to do that day!" She's amazing!

So, we exchanged our morning greetings, and Mary Kate reported perfect, 40-degree running weather where she lives! She sounded totally upbeat and ready to roll, so we stopped the jabbing and headed out to do this thang ...

PC#2 and I usually do a bit of a walk to warm up, but not today! We hit it immediately. I probably should have warned her, but, whoops. It was 33 degrees for us, but with zero wind, we were warm really fast. Both of us shed our gloves almost immediately which was a shame because with our red gloves, we were so Valentiney. With this run, I also discovered I am woefully unprepared to run on Valentine's Day as I have only one red shirt that I thought would be too light for today. I had to go with a Christmas shirt. Oh the problems!

In other problematic moments, check out this action shot selfie I snagged at the beginning:

Whoops. We'll try that again later. In the meantime, states away, Mary Kate was having a fantastic time with the run-site-seeing combo you know I enjoy so much. Look what she saw!

Hot air balloons, baby! I know they were lovely in person; I
appreciated she knew I'd love to see them!

I know it's either hard to believe or just plain sounds weird, but I love these virtual race opportunities. It's fun to take a moment to (mentally) stop and really think about the fact that there is someone out there literally and purposely running with you. You get to share a goal at a distance, and you decided to do so together. It's a very cool thing. I was thinking about just that when PC#2 and I hit about the half way point, and I was sending all kinds of vibes to Mary Kate. It was at the same time she said she encountered this ...

And, I quote her: "Construction ahead! A truck blocking my path!
My turnaround spot has been compromised!
Finding another way!"

She was problem solving her situation while I was creating and trying to fix one I was causing:

Uh, whoops. I didn't learn a whole lot
from the earlier pic attempt, now, did I?
Let's try this again ...

There she is! I did it!

And, while we were running along and seeing this ...

How very thematic, right?! And, thank goodness I managed to
also capture trash in the foreground. Nice!

There. That's good for the frozen booty concept!

... Mary Kate was checking out this!

Awwwwwwww!

By the way, on this particular run, I worked hard to avert my eyes and not specifically scope for money. I keep working at not looking for it during actual Half Marathons so I'm not a total nuisance to those around me. So, I do need to practice the not-looking strategy on these training runs. For real. But, it just kept finding us! And, really, what were we to do but pick it up?! It's like it's our responsibility to collect it if it's going to throw itself at us. Even on our very last stretch when we were on an awesome pace, I just had to stop for the string of three pennies I spied in the street. We were on that pace where you're going along strong and hard, and such a sudden stop makes you want to throw up a little. But, it didn't make me as queasy as when PC#2 was going on about glazed donuts last weekend. Just sayin'.

In good, sound time, PC#2 and I called it a wrap!

And, we met the boys who presented us our Frozen Booty medals! Yay!!


Those medals are bling-a-licious. See?!

Very soon thereafter, the call came in from Mary Kate:

Nice to make her wait while I take a pic of the call coming in,
huh? I know ... great friend!!

We congratulated, we chatted, we laughed ... it was all so very good!!

We three togetherish!

That's a wrap to the Frozen Booty Warm Heart 10K! Thanks for coming along with us! Virtual runs, virtual fans!! We all work well together!

 

With that, it's time to continue on with the day and being with those we love! Enjoy your Valentine's Day, and I'll check in after the morning run!