Healthy You, Healthy Earth 5K

Happy Earth Day!!!  How are you celebrating??  If you’re coming up short on ideas, I posted a whole list of ideas last year on how to live a little greener.

I’m working all day today, but I did my celebrating yesterday by participating in the Healthy You, Healthy Earth 5K and river restoration project right down the street from my apartment!

I’m not exactly used to waking up at 7am, can you tell??

My super sweet boyfriend, who normally doesn’t crawl out of bed until closer til noon, even got up and came with to support me and play photog.  In the middle of my 2nd mile he started popping out of the trees with my camera to take pictures of me.  I felt like I was being chased by the paparazzi, but much nicer and much cuter.

I went into this race with the goal of running it in less than 30 minutes.  I tweeted my goal yesterday morning, to make it official, and noted that I definitely wasn’t expecting to break any personal records.  I set my 5K PR about two years ago with 26:59.  Well…. much to my surprise, I sprinted across the finish line yesterday morning right around 26:30!!!!  I didn’t get my exact time because they weren’t recording them, and I forgot to stop my Garmin right away, but I am so so stoked that I beat my time!  I’ve only been back into running for about the last month, and running about 3-4 times a week.  I definitely didn’t think that I would be in any condition to be setting a PR!

Oh yeah, and not only did I PR, but I also came in right around 8th in the entire race!  Talk about an ego boost!  It was a very small local race, but it still felt amazing to do so well.  It’s all about the little victories, right?

Honestly, I think I did so well because I had an absolute blast running that race.  The scenery was amazing, and I was just soaking it in the entire time with a huge grin on my face.  Most of the race ran right along the Green River, and the light was hitting the water and the trees so perfectly.  I wish I’d been able to take pictures while I was running.

After the race, Keenan and I headed over to grab some water/strawberries/orange slices from the refreshment station, and walked down to meet everyone for the riverside restoration project.  Everyone who participated in the race was allotted a tree or bush to plant alongside the river.

Meet my little fern.

I made way too many “love fern” jokes (name that chick flick!), but somehow managed to get my little friend in the ground.

Apparently I’m not a fast enough hole digger (I swear the dirt just kept falling back in the hole!), so Keenan got in on the action as well!

I’m so happy to be a part of something that makes my community a better, greener place!

Happy Earth Day!

<3 Lindsay