Green River Revival

Jeremy and I took advantage of the warm weather this weekend by packing up our Jeep with Apollo necessities (tons of drool rags + gallon of water + poop bags) and headed to the U.S. National Whitewater Center to spend the day under the warm sun that we've truly missed this winter. As you can see in the video that I grabbed from their site, the morning started off with a Color Me Green 5K trail race that I nervously awaited.  It was my first ever trail run and I had no idea what to expect! I was lucky to demo a pair of trail running shoes by Soloman specialized specifically for the dirt, rocks, and mud throughout the trail so that gave me a *tiny* confidence boost.

Photo from: http://usnwc.org/color-me-green/

I've got my demo trail running shoes on & ready to run!

With plans of the river turning green later that afternoon, the staff of the Whitewater Center wanted to turn the runners green as well. Similar to the Color Run, there were people throughout the trail waiting to drench you with green powder with a prize going to the greenest AND cleanest of the race. My goal was to just get through the race period...green or no green...I ended up getting pretty green.

Ready to start!

Ready, Set, Go! A zipline start!

I'm happy to report to you that I survived my first ever trail race without tripping or breaking my leg. I'm not gonna lie, there were a few close calls where I slightly slid in some leaves trying to pass someone, but I must say, those Soloman shoes had quite the grip! I probably would have ate it if I had run in my regular 3 year old running shoes.

Along with 1,200+ other runners, I was painted green as I ran along the trail. That green took a good 3 washings to get clean too!  Oh well. Totally worth it. I ended up in 360th place out of the entire group. I'll take it!

We then relaxed, listened to the live band, and waited for the rapids of the river to turn green. It was a good time and Apollo sure did love all of the attention!