One Year Running Anniversary, Paintball Adventure and other updates

Yesterday I ran in the Music4Everyone 5k (http://www.music4everyone.org/). This marked the one year anniversary of when I first started running races.  Unfortunately I wasn't expecting to much out of myself for this run. First, is because I donated blood Friday afternoon (and since technically I'm under the weight limit I'm not suppose to donate) and second, it was an extremely warm and humid morning to run.  I find that after donating blood I can be a bit tired and run down for about a week as my body is recouperating and then on top of that it was so humid it was hard to breathe and every part of me was drenched in sweat after the race. I really thought I might not make it through this one. My results showed. I ran the slowest I had in a long while with my finish time being 24.20.  As the race only had about 170 runners I still placed 19th overall and then 4th overall for all women and 3rd for my age group.  Even though I expected to not do as well as I have been it was still dissappointing.

After the race I rushed to Lulu Lemon (http://www.lululemon.com/rochester/Cloverviewplaza) where they host free yoga on Sunday mornings. Again probably not the best idea after running a very warm race but it was worth it. I got to cool down in the ac and do some stretching. I'm hopefully going to go this going Sunday again as I liked the instructor and well hey...it's free!

Moving on to other adventures. A friend and I bought a Groupon for paintball and went the other weekend. Niether of us had done this before and I have to say I was a little apprehensive having heard that it hurts when you get hit.  Here's what I learned from this adventure;

I was grossed out having to use unsanitized helmet/face masks but the first time out on the playing field I got hit right between the eyes with a paintball and was grateful for the mask and helmet.  Yes it really does hurt to get hit and leaves a red mark for a bit but it goes away fairly quickly. I would not be good in a zombie apocolypse with a gun or in a war zone as I freaked out at the sound when all of the guns started going off at once, froze and got shot right away. Like many things practicing helps make you better. I was able to make it through 2 games the entire time without getting shot.  The worst part was when you got shot and were exiting the game because you got shot more from the stray shots still being made.  The ground on the playing field is disgustingly sticky from years of built up paint. And lastly, there are a lot of teenage boys that take pleasure and have fun in paintball pretending they are on a battlefield (I'm not sure this is a positive thing). Oh, and on Sunday's from 1-5pm at NVP Paintball (http://www.nvppaintball.com/) women play for free other than purchasing the paintballs. So if you live in the area and want to get get shot at and hit with painful paintballs this is the place to go. :)

On to other updates. Below is the newest pic of the Community Hand Swap I've been participating in. I think I've gotten all but one maybe two back at this point.  I really liked this one. It came from Austrailia and though it is simple in it's design the quote is exactly what I needed at this time.

Also regarding the Global Peace Project- the founder hooked me up with an Angel Corps member from Australia who created a piece of artwork for me and has been in touch with me via email and just sent out the artwork to exchange with me since my global partner from Indonesia never sent me anything. I thought this was very kind of the organization to do and even more kind of the Angel Corps member.

Upcoming adventures:  This week I'll be heading to free yoga where I work and bringing a couple of friends. We are then going to go SUPing and hopefully 3x's will be a charm and we won't get attacked by a rabid beaver. Then we are going to go for froyo. It's going to be a great day!!!  Friday, I'll be running in yet another race celebrating the 4th of July. I'll be running with my friend and her entire family. My parents are going to come and watch me race. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will be more recovered and run a lot better at this race (supposedly the weather is suppose to be much cooler also). Then both families are going to get together for a bbq at my place. Another great day to look forward to!!!

Boulder Climbing, Charleston, Art Making and 5K races...

Here's some new adventures I've been up to this summer:

1.  Boulder Climbing at the Red Barn at RIT; http://www.rit.edu/studentaffairs/criw/adventures-rockclimbing.php.  My friend has been going and invited me. I've done rock climbing before but didn't realize how different boulder climbing is. It was really fun but difficult. Supposedly no matter how short or tall you are anyone can do any of the levels with practice and strength training; however I will say being on the short end kind of sucks and makes it really difficult to make some of the manuvers. I literally had to take a leap of faith and blind jump at times. Falling doesn't feel the best and my arms were so sore it hurt to move them for 3 to 4 days after climbing.  I will go back though...as I love a challenge!

2. Lovin' In Cup; My friend and I went to see a couple of funk bands at this restaurant bar in our area. http://lovincup.com/  I will plead ignorance as funk music wasn't what I was expecting. This was okay though as I was out to check out something new that I didn't no much about and that is what I got.  Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the NYC based band that played the main show. They were really awesome. Their sound was a mix of blues and jazz but upbeat, fast, and the singer was awesome. (Her voice kind of reminded of us Christina Aguilera.)

3. I had another amazing two week vacation with my sister, nephew and brother-in-law at their home in SC.  As always it goes way to fast.  We went for a weekend trip to the beach and downtown Charleston and had a blast.  My nephew loves the beach and created his own aquarium in his bucket with the gross living things he found- giant slug like things, starfish, shells, and other gross things.  We ate at a great restaurant that was made in an old church, checked out market (and taste tested some southern food), and I took my nephew on a carriage ride around old town Charleston. We even happened to see a regatta going on one evening. http://www.charlestoncvb.com/tour/

4. The Race 4 Music hosted by Music4Everyone 5k fundraiser race; http://www.music4everyone.org/index.html  I was surfing living social deals about a month ago and found a deal on running this race. When I looked on their website I realized that I knew the founder and his wife (the secretary). Long story short they were friends of friends a while back and we would all hang out.  I didn't even know that they had started this organization but I believe it's a great cause and wanted to take part in it so I registered for the race.  Now anyone who knows me knows that I typically run about 2 miles 4-6 x's a week and even though this summer I've kicked it up a notch I was still a little worried I would't be able to the run. I had a friend that kindly joined in and ran with me.  It ended up being a beautiful perfect morning/day in Rochester and it was a beautiful place to run (Genesee Valley Park). I made it and with a time of 27.15- not to shabby!  Only 3 more races to go this summer/fall!

5.  Altered Book Class at The Brainery; http://rochesterbrainery.com/. This organization is fairly new and is an awesome concept. Anyone in the community can teach a class. If you feel you have the knowledge you make a submission to present a class at The Brainery.  As soon as I saw this workshop I had to sign up.  One of the teachers taught an Altered Book Class at the college I work at. I had wanted to audit the week long intensive class this summer but unfortunately had to pick up a summer job and the time conflicted. Sooo I was uber excited to see her teaching this class and even more excited that she and Judy (the co-teacher) hope to continue this series in the future.  I will write a separate blog describing what I learned in the class, what we made, and what I've continued to make.  My plans are to learn more about Altered Book making to pilot a once a month year long group at the Counseling Center this coming academic year. I've done a couple of Altered Books as journals before, took a couple of AT Altered Book classes online, used this style in my art therapy groups one semester last year and basically I am trying to continue to absorb this technique to create the best workshop I can this year. I'll keep you posted on how it rolls out.

***Stay tuned... I have an awesome art based event I'm participating in next week that I will blog separately about.