The Purple Run

This was my first time at the Grand Canyon University Run to Fight Childrens Cancer and it was amazing! I was a little skeptical considering how it started off.

Hubby and I went to packet pick up on the Thursday afternoon and let me tell you....it was a mickey mouse show. There were volunteers that had no idea what was going on. Some didnt even know there was a 10k or a survivors walk. The names were suppose to be alphabetical though there were no signs up. People were just standing around clueless. You would have thought someone would take charge, or found a superior to take command. Didnt happen. One table had bibs, another was tshirts and a third was a bag of junk. No clif bars, buttons, stickers or even granola bars; just a clear bag full of adverstisments. Not even coupons. There was suppose to be a pair of shoelaces in the bags but those had not come yet. A group of us waited 25 minutes for these shoelaces that turned out to be plain jane yellow. Hubby thought they would at least say fight against cancer.

So on saturday morning I woke up at around 5:45am. I know my body needed a few hours to digest and do its morning wake up. Hubby got woken up around 6:20am. He just needed to brush his teeth and throw on some deoderant. I figured we would be there in plenty of time. My 10k race wasnt till 750am. Though I didnt take into consideration traffic. Everyone and thier dog was coming off the I17 to Camelback. We waited about 15 minutes trying to get off. Then creeping down towards the university. By the time we arrived I was worried the race would be over. So instead of continuing to creep down the street we got off and parked in a daycare parking lot. I was willing to risk the ticket....but then others followed. They wouldnt ticket all of us right?

When we got there we stood for a moment to look around. There were people everywhere showing off thier purple tech tees, red volunteer shirts. Lots of stand up booths and music being played over the pa system. I wasnt sure where to go, so when in rome. We followed the masses. 

The 5k race was about 10 minutes late in leaving. So that pushed the 10k racers back also. Instead of 750am we left at 8am. The announcer did a good job at passing the time. Asking whos first time this was. Was this any ones first 10k? and keeping us in the loop on how many minutes we had to wait.

And we are off....slowly. We had to make our way through the chute and activate our gps timers. Once we passed the red line the crowd thinned out a bit. I tried my best not to get caught up and go too fast with the flow.  I started off more near the back this time. That way not to get trampled or feel like I was in the way.

My gear consisted of my new balance running shoes, pink compression sleaves,black under armour shorts, pink skirt overtop, nike blue tank top, sun glasses, pink and white hair wrap, arm band and my hand held water bottle. In my hand held there were a few pieces of gum and clif shots.I didnt wear my purple shirt because it felt a little small for me and I didnt like the way the letters felt. I didnt want any chaffing while I was running.

So we seemed to be doing a big square. At every major street we turned, avoiding crossing the street in traffic. There were pylons giving us runners one lane of the street with police escorts. Every so often you would hear stay within the cones. Kind of hard sometimes when you have strollers two and three wide across the lane when we are running. 

So I felt good. I didnt feel the need to walk. Mentally I had to slow my pace down a bit so not to go too fast.When we came into finish the first loop I tripped over a railing in the ground by security. I did this graceful arms flailing around trying to catch my balance. I managed to stay upright. Then I passed my wonderful husband for my second loop. Still feeling good. I made my way around the second loop. It always seems longer when you have done the route. You think you are done but really your not. I kept checking my watch to see how far and fast I was going. The last couple of miles I had a pacer. A short haired blonde lady in front of me in blueish capris. I was determined not to let her out of my sight. When she sped up I would do so also. She slowed at the end but I kept going. I wanted to prove to myself I was not going to be the last one across the finish line with the balloons.

There was hubby. I checked my watch. I think the course was a little short. My watch said 6.12 versus the 6.2  My official time was just under 1 hour 8 mins. My watch said 1 hour 8 mins and 2 seconds. Oh well.

We went for some food and water. Bananas and bagels and granola bars. We took a stroll around the grass yard. There was all sorts of activities for the kiddies to amuse them self. A super huge blow up castle with slide, face painting, snow cones and colouring. There were massage booths, wigs for kids, a couple of vendors selling neon blinkers and head bands.  Water bottles were every where for grabs. I snagged two bracelets and a water bottle. 

In the middle of the field there were these ropes that people use for boot camp. Damn....its hard work. Give me a set of those babies and Ill be in tip top shape in a week. There was also cheerleaders dancing in the middle with a pa system and DJ. We had the university cheer leaders, phoenix suns cheer leaders and also coyote cheer leaders. They were doing a great job getting the kids dancing and encouraging them to get their groove on. We got some good pictures. Also sent a picture to Caleb.

After about 40 minutes of watching we headed on our way. This event got great reviews from me and hubby and it will be on the bucket list for next year.