AM~Erica is QT Trippin'

So anyway...

Today was our first Sunday back to church after a couple of weeks off for "vacation." (part of it HERE)

On this first week back, I had to step up in some promo: in less than 5 weeks, we will be taking part in the DeFeet Hunger 5k Run/Walk. I stepped up promoting it, last minute, last year...so, with me being the "champion" for our church (the one designated as the go-to for race info leading up to the race), and being the "Champion of Champions" (I'm actually the one who is giving the other champions ideas on how to promote at their churches), I needed to step it up!

With how I dress for races (some of my cosTUTUmes HERE), and how last year's race went (reminder HERE), I knew I needed to create excitement, kind of like I do for Trunk-or-Treat promo time. (some of that HERE).

Also, check out the wrap up video from last year, too!

Oh yeah...I'm the crazy tutu runner

So, of course I had to go over-the-top!

Oh yes...tutus (there are two tutus - with the top one lighting up), striped leggings, last year's t-shirt, and bright running shoes. This was going to do it!

It did draw attention, as hoped, and I looked delightfully ridiculous. But it was reminiscent of what I'd wear on the race course, so that's what I wanted to do.

Yes. There were a lot of comments, and it took some a little bit to realize the tutu lit up AND blinked. There was a lot going on.

But I did show up to church like this. Made sure to get pics of my set up, my outfit, and definitely my "shoefie" (shoe selfie) to have put on the De-Feet Hunger Facebook page (HERE). A thing we're trying is to get shoefies on the Facebook page once anyone registers. Register, take a shoe selfie, post it on the page.

My #shoefie for registering to do DeFeet Hunger

Well, after church, I knew I had to stop to get petrol for my car to get home. So, I stopped at QuikTrip to fill up. Yes. In my striped leggings & fluffy tutus. Pumping gas.
But it's OK. I don't mind. I think I got some odd looks, but I was prepared. This part is never a big deal to me. Work the weirdness. Ya know?

Then I realized...I try to get a newspaper every Sunday! You know...for coupons & sales papers (mostly for price checking & such), so I was going to have to suck it up & waltz into that QuikTrip like nothing is off kilter, in my tutus & striped leggings, to go inside to get that paper!

I pulled myself together, walked across the parking lot, and tried to keep an eye out for a vehicle that looked like it was about to head out. It was parked close to the middle of the parking spaces, so it was by the slightly inclined mini-ramp. You know the thing? Where it's painted off as a walk way, not a parking space, and you don't have to step up to the sidewalk? Yeah...that.

So I headed to step up on it while seeing if the vehicle was going to pull out. Well, I ever-so-slightly misjudged where I was not stepping up, caught part of the lip of the mini-ramp with my toe & tripped a little...

...I tried to catch myself. You know, a little trippage. Just enough to give myself a small heart attack...

...but I couldn't catch myself, so I double tripped...

...then I STILL couldn't catch myself...

...and I stumbled toward the door about 3ish-5ish feet more of sideways shuffle steps...

...and I could see this guy holding the door open for me as he watched in horror...

...as I hit the ground like a giant sack of bricks...sliding ever-so-slightly toward the unopened door, but stopping about 2 feet short. In my red & white striped leggings and the fluffy red tutus.

The guy just looked at me stunned & asked if I was OK. I picked myself up as quickly as I could, told him I was fine when I entered the door he held open while I thanked him.

I began to realize there were about 3 people out there who witnessed the ridiculousness. Awesome.

But then I realized there were probably some on the other side of the glass doors who watched what happened. I did what I had to by just pretending it's what I meant to do. I could feel the sting on my palms from catching myself, as I landed on the concrete, along with the banged-up feeling I had on my hip. But just get the paper like it's part of your everyday, Erica! Geesh!

I picked up my paper, waited my turn, payed, and I could feel odd eyes on me. I'm sure it was just the witness of my fall & totally not the crazy getup I was in. Amm-i-rite?

But, alas, I realized I couldn't find my keys. *GULP* I was going to have to find them outside. So I looked on the other side of the glass door that I narrowly missed when I went sliding toward it, and I could see my keychain & keys laying close by.

As I started to open the door to get them, another guy opened the door for me & right on top of my keys. I excused myself & mentioned the keys were mine. He bent down to grab them for me, noticed the Ford keychain on them, and he asked, "Oh, is it for the Ford Focus right there?"

I said nothing. I took my keys & hurried away from the very closely parked Ford Focus to Bessie, the car I drive that used to be my grandmother's, and tried to get in as quickly as I could to head home with my full tank of gas & newspaper.

Oh how entertained those around me must have been! Oh the story they got to take home with them!
Then a friend brought up possible video.

Wait...What?? Oh man!! There might actually be surveillance video of the weird chick in striped leggings & fluffy red tutus that looks like she may have escaped from somewhere, forgot her helmet, and needed someone to tie her shoes for her as she couldn't step up on a sidewalk without looking like she might be on something.
*FACE PALM*

Well, I'm definitely feeling that story. The soreness of the fall has in. But I'm still giggling at the looks of the people around & the horror on the face of the poor guy when he watched me hit & slide when all he was trying to do was just hold the door open for me.

I do believe my tutus have superpowers, but they did not save me today. They are more for speed...well maybe they cushioned my fall a bit. YAY for tutu superpowers!

I'm going to bruise. I'm going to be sore from tightening up my muscles in anticipating the fall. I'm going to feel where I actually caught myself in the fall. However, my ego is in tact. It was pretty hilarious.

If there's video, I will share it. Until then...I'll let you imagine what craziness might have looked like in your head. Go ahead & giggle.

This is when truth is stranger than fiction.

And don't worry...I'll have a different cosTUTUme next week. Maybe it won't be nearly as eventful though. All for the sake of promoting this race coming up.
Intrigued? Go ahead & register, too!

Teen Boy took this pic & loved how my right fist turned into a ball of light

Come join me & then you can post a shoefie, too.
REGISTER HERE to run, walk or volunteer!

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica

AM~Erica PR'd

So anyway...

After I've mostly gotten over the BLACKLIGHT RUN DEBACLE, I was not about to give up running.

Well, I've been looking forward to a particular race coming up. Why? I was looking forward to a particular 5k to get a PR! What's a "PR"? It stands for Personal Record.

A Personal Record can be for several things:
Time
Pace
Distance
Miles Accumulated/(week, month, year)

There's several things you could set a PR for.

Well, I had been running long enough (in my mind) & trying to make some progress in my journey. I felt it was time to try to strive for this PR:

Run 3.1 miles in 30 minutes.

I have been so close a couple of times. I've been close on a training run, and even by guesstimate on the Blacklight Run...but wanted it to be official-official!

So, I've been working on running hills.
I've been working on distance.
I've been working on fartleks.

I've been reaching quick spurts of fast paces.
I've been hitting some pretty big inclines & descents.
I've been working on longer distances.

Though I have a super secret formula to a PR (because it's worked before), I will say the final step of the non-mathical equation is the tutu.

When you get a race shirt with your race packet, there are 2 camps on whether to wear the race shirt during the race or not. I am strongly in the camp that you EARN the shirt, so you do NOT wear it during the race...it comes anytime afterward. So, it stirs my creativity as to how I can stand out in a crowd, and still be part of the theme of the race I'm running. I then get my brainy-brain working to come up with an appropriate cosTUTUme to wear! (like some of these ideas HERE)

This 5k I was looking to PR happened today. It was the De-Feet Hunger 5k Run/Walk. It's a 5k race put on by the Heartland District of the Missouri United Methodist Conference to benefit Harvesters as a part of the conference's set day for SERVE 2014. It's an awesome ministry!! You can check it out HERE!

Well, since we are doing this race to benefit this food pantry, and since I didn't want to wear the amazing race shirt yet...I had to think. But I had to make a very quick decision! I thought our church was going to have some shirts done up for our church folks to reflect a theme we are officially unveiling this week...but we are beginning the sales of the shirts this week. So I couldn't work with that shirt like I originally thought.

So...what could I do?

I settled on soup.

Not to eat while thinking...but to actually create a cosTUTUme around the iconic Campbell's Soup label!

I found some shirts out there that I was hoping to get my hands on. It was a no-go. I also wanted to find a Campbell's Soup costume! Halloween is coming & there are stores with costumes out...so I went looking. Since I've seen them in stores before & have seen some online, imagine my disappointment when I couldn't find ANY! I would have no time to order, either! I only had a day by the time I realized I needed to change gears.

Well, I had to rethink some things...I had to pretend I was crafty.

With the Campbell's label still being so simple to this day, I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to recreate!

So...I set out to find a couple tanks &/or camis, think about what fabric paints I already had, and then work from there.

With a red cami I cut off to be worn over a white tank, this is what I came up with:

I stared at an image of a Campbell's Soup label. I tried really hard to even do the lettering as closely as I possibly could.

The gold seal was just going to be plain since I didn't feel comfortable with recreating the picture on it. So, I left it solid & eventually wrote "SERVE" on the top half of the circle & "2014" on the bottom half of the circle with black Sharpie.

I tried seeing what it would look like with the tutu...

I was actually getting pretty excited!!

I also knew it there was going to be a fabulous fall-like chill in the air during race time, so I pulled out some stirrup running leggings I have, along with a long-sleeve running shirt...both in a dark silver. I thought it might do pretty well representing the can.

Here's how it looked on race day!

Oh...you see the black mark on the back of my top in the picture on your right? I added a barcode....

And I went out with several representing members of my church to run/walk this race! And I ran it!

You know what? I felt GOOD! My pace was faster than expected, but I could talk to other runners who might be running beside at the time, or even cheering other people on that were on the other side of the course, whether in front of or behind where I was at. I could thank those volunteers who were helping to block traffic & yelling encouraging words!

And, a large portion of the race was at an ever-so-slight incline. Thank goodness I've been working on hills! It didn't seem like much to me. But I'm sure others were not doing so well with it.

But, nonetheless, I was shocked with myself! I wondered if I was going PR...

Then, once I figured out I was going to MAJORLY get a PR, I crossed the line like any other tutu'd former ballerina/hardcore dancer should:

That's right. With a grand jete'!

Why? Well maybe in my quest to get a 30 minute 5k, this happened:

Yeah...my official time was finishing in 29:19!! I totally SHATTERED the 30 minute thought! Like...by a lot!

When I did my very first 5k, the Park Trot, I couldn't believe I finished in 31:52.
When I did the Firecracker Flight, I knew I'd have a turtled time with a big hill of 35:30.
When I did the Royals Charities 5k, I felt pretty good about my 31:33!

But...look at that time up there!! I thought I might get down to 30 minutes...but had NO idea I would get this!!

What a day!
Not only did I set out to PR, do my necessary formula to try to insure it, but shattered it. Hardcore.

Not only that, my hubby did amazing by finishing 4th overall & getting 2nd in his age division! He got his own PR, too!

Oh...and most of those pics I have were taken my Teen Girl. Why? She came home from college for the weekend in hopes of helping get some pics of our church folks during the race & meal packing afterward. Well...she was actually approached, WHILE we were there, to be the official photographer for the race!! They gave her a press release & she did what she could to snap some pics along the way. She did GREAT!!

Also...Teen Boy was taking his ACT while we were at the race.

And Lil Guy did an awesome job sticking with his big sis during this race stuff!

So, a treat was called for:

Oh yes! Doughnuts & coffee! Pumpkin doughnuts, pumpkin latte, regular coffee, apple fritter, warm & fresh glazed doughnuts, cinnamon buns...mmmmmm....yeah....

Don't judge. We'll be heading back this coming Friday for their Talk Like a Pirate Day promotion (past promo HERE)

Later on, I could start feeling my PR setting in: soreness, fatigue, tightness, yet elation!

Worth it! Cuz I PR'd! BOOM! *Mic Drop*

And I should bring up the almost 20 folks from our church who did the run/walk, plus several others who volunteered! A couple during the race, and several more to pack meals afterward!
Oh! Our church can also claim the 1st place finisher for F 10-19, 3rd place finisher F 30-39, 1st AND 2nd place finishers M 40-49! So proud of our group!

More to come...

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica