5k vacation

"If you can't fly then run. 

If you can't run then walk.

If you can't walk then crawl

but whatever you have to do

keep moving forward."

~Martin Luther King Jr.

I completed my first 5k and had a mini vacation on Wed-Thursday thanks to me dear friend Val. She drove 2 hours to come pick me up, and drove another 3 to the beach, the whole time being sensitive to my weird FND car sickness (I can seizure if I'm in the car too long. We had to take a 30 minute break for me to cool off and me take my pills.) All the while being entertained by her fabulous 4 year old Lili! 

There were some hard core memories heading to Virginia Beach. We had both lived there at one time so we kept pointing to things that we remembered and places that held special and mostly negative experiences in our lives. But the fact we shared them together made them bittersweet.

The first memory was of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. It is the spawn of aweful driving and traffic in the 7-Cities area. A truely aweful place, to be sure, but still beautiful because you are driving almost on the ocean then you go under the ocean. It's super neat. 

20 minutes later we were in Virginia beach. It was supposed to storm all day Thursday so we decided to do our virtual 5k that night instead of the next day.

We got to the room unpacked really quickly and I put on my number and snapped a quick picture before heading out.

We took a leaisurely pace as I'm a cripple and the 4 year old was also doing the 5k. We averaged 2.82 miles per hour. I took a couple pictures.

It started to drizzle and lightning and thunder called in the distance. It brought to mind Vikings when Floki was saying that Thor was cheering them on (I haven't actually seen the scean, but I've been told about it) It made me feel as if Thor was cheering me on,

Eventually Lili started getting cold so I took off my sweatshirt and gave it to her. It was a dress. With her hoodie up she looked like a little alien. The whole 5k she just wanted to play in the sand. She was a trooper the whole time. Eventually it got too much and we walked in the sand.

This is a picture of us all with my medal (Theirs hadn't come in yet) We were wet, cold, hungry, and exhausted. Val bought us booze and we went straight to bed.

 A funny story not related to the race, while Lili was getting ready for bed she asked me what my mjolnir pendant was. I told her it was Thor's hammer. She proceeded to hit me with it saying she was Thor. So I squeeled and played the slayed Jotun to the nines. I don't know if that was blasphamy, and frankly I don't care. That was adorable and fun. I'm sure Thor would have gotten a kick out of our little warrior.

This was the trail we used. Val kept us on track using the Nike+ app.

So apparently when you run you get a medal. I didn't think it was a big deal until after my race when I realized that I had done something worthy of an award. This is my first medal! It is Star Wars, and I'm stoked about displaying it!

I'm going to build something like this:

I really like the quote because once I accepted my handicap, I found peace. In that peace I met an amazing doctor and now I'm on the road to recovery.

Anyway the next day was still icky, but in between rains we hit the beach to play in the sand.

I made a little sand castle alter to the land spirits. I gave them a chunk of my skin since I had no tobacco to give (I was with Lili. I didn't want her to think that cool Auntie LaLa was a smoker and therefore it was okay to smoke)

Because it was rainy we went to the aquarium. My phone went missing so Val took all the pictures.

After the workout I got the night before, I was shaky and a fall risk so I borrowed a wheelchair because I stupidly left mine at home.

All in all it was an amazing experience. I'm already planning another virtual race as well as a non virtual race soon. I'm going to fill up my display board so quickly. But since it's my goal to do 4 5ks this year, that's okay.

I'm going to do The Disney Yellow Shoe Race

Another Miles for Medals race

And also I'll be doing a 4th of July race with a bunch of people! I may be slow, but I'm hooked on 5ks.