Splashes of Color: The Color Run and Scouting for Watercolor Discoveries!

Before the race - all clean! 5 out of 6 of our team!

The Tempe Color Run 5K was on Saturday 1/25 and it was a success! My time was 37:32! It was also my friend Missy's time as we ran the whole thing together.

The sun stayed behind the clouds for about 70% of the run. It was the best I could hope for. Well, the day before we had more clouds, so that would have been nice it that was the case for the Color Run. However, it still worked out well. I was worried about too much sun, and thankfully that wasn't the case.

Every kilometer we were pelted with paint dust. It started with pink, then yellow, and so on. I think the blue is when I ended up really covered. (I was a little surprised how much I sneezed for the rest of the day!)

We had 6 on our team - Whimsical Wandomness. The first picture is 5/6 of us. Missy's daughter Breanna, the sixth team member, was taking the picture.

Missy says I kept the pace so she and I were able to run it! I think I also kept running because when you "pay" for something, you care about it more! lol But seriously, I kept running because I trained for this and I plan to keep it up.

Most of my training was on treadmill since the sun kept blaring around here (this winter has been disappointing and warm. Yuck!) and I was only able to take advantage of cloudy outdoor runs about 3 times! Therefore, as the day went on after the race, I started to ache really bad! 

It didn't help that Chris and the boys and I had to take a long car ride to Wickenburg. Long car rides don't help in such situations. 

The end of the race. I don't think Missy and I are in this shot, but it still shows how dirty everyone gets at the end!

Sholee just after the "Pink"

Tev after the Pink and his Puppets "Oscar" and "Wilde"

Missy and her kiddos after the race!

Mikelle and I after the race

Missy and I after the race!

Mikelle with the Kreps. She stayed behind and partied with them while the boys and I had to bounce!

I am grateful for a friend in Tempe who said I could shower at her house before we set off for Wickenburg (to meet with our Contractor and see how close we are to breaking ground). If I don't shower after workouts, I can't function. Yes, I'm one of the cranky ones when I don't get a shower.  I'm not much fun to camp with if I don't have shower access.

I will do the Color Run next year, but we'll be living in Wickenburg by then. Therefore, I will get a Tempe motel room for sure. I would have leave insanely early in the morning to make the race if I didn't. 

Neon Dash coming up in April!

I am going to keep up the "3-mile rule" with each work-out. There is a Neon Splash Dash in April and I'm especially excited about it because it starts at 8pm. That means no sun (yay!), and they use Neon paint and black light. 

This morning the sun was behind some temporary clouds, so I ran to the clubhouse (a little less than a mile), then accomplished 2 more miles on the treadmill and then ran back home. By then the sun was out, but it was 10 minutes out of the whole thing and I have to obtain more "outdoor terrain" training so I'm not as sore after the next 5K.  

Watercolor Discovery - Cub Scouts Style! 

Christian finishing his project later that night.

A couple days earlier, I taught the Art lesson for Christian's Cub Scout Bear Group.  I forgot how much fun teaching that age can be. Back in my Heartland K-8 days, I remember really feeling my niche with the 4th grade age on up to junior high. Most of these boys are in 4th grade.

However, despite how much fun it could be, because there were TEN 9-year old boys, I also remembered how awesome it is to have adult help! Thank goodness for that. I also knew the boys so I was already aware of which one of them I could whack on the head with a pen or paint brush if I needed to and the parents would be okay with it (that's not exactly a good idea in the general teaching arena...lol) 

I assigned the boys to finish their project at home and email me a picture (since there was no time for them to dry and do the final step while we were there). It couldn't be finished at the activity because Scouts is only an hour and that includes other instruction, modeling and clean-up. Plus, the watercolor paint had to dry before the salt was rubbed off and the Sharpie step was added. 

Later that evening, I sent the steps to each of their parents' e-mails AND spoke with all the parents as the boys were picked up. I still only ended up with  2 1/2 out of 9 pictures sent to me here 5 days later (one is only "half" because he didn't do the Sharpie step even though I talked to his dad when he was picked up and they were recipient of the email I sent later that night with instructions plus links to blog entries with examples of this project). :sigh:  Yes, I am in "teacher mode", but I want these boys to finish the project completely to acquire the full effect of the project. 

 I love the different personalities and effects that come from this project. As I've already mentioned in previous entries about this project, it's also awesome because it doesn't have the pressure of having to look like "anything". The boys can play with the colors and salt effects and see what it "discovered" at the end. When some of the kids feel they "can't draw", this project is perfect. Everyone is an artist. At the end it's discovered even more!

Below are two of the completed ones sent to me. I'll be obnoxious and send another "reminder" e-mail to the missing six. :-)

Let's keep our fingers crossed that Winter can make an appearance here in Satan's Lair! 

Until next time...