Walking the Walk - 5k's & Beyond

5k's and other walking/running events.  As each one passes I'll update with some pics.

April 13, 2013 - Color Me Rad 5k
This one is going to be a blast... of color!  It's a 5k walk where you will be attacked with color bombs (colored corn starch) by other walkers, runners and color squad volunteers.  It's going to be messy, it's going to be gross, it's going to be so much fun!

From their site:

Start out as clean as a newborn babe, and throughout the run, you'll coat your chaffing thighs with Color Bombs of blue, green, pink, purple, and yellow until your face, shirt, and body come out silk-screened like a tie-dyed hippy on the other side.  Each section of the run adds a new explosion of color to your clean, painter’s palate until you cross the finish line into a final blitzkrieg of color. 

I was so excited to try this out.  I'm not very athletic at the moment, but I've done 5k's before, walking, at about a 20 minute per mile pace, so I knew that I could get it done.  Also, they have different waves that you can sign up for, 10 minutes apart for about an hour.  This way not everyone is starting at the same time.  Even better, those who start in the first wave and are slow (or walking) will still be finishing when tons of other people are, so they don't feel like "I'm the laaaaast one!" like I usually do.

Are you ready for pics yet?  Let's start off with a 'before' photo:

 In case you are wondering, we're wearing white because color shows up best on white!  We were provided with blue shirts to commemorate the event, but they are not quite as much of a blank slate as these were.  They also gave us each a RAD temporary tattoo and sunglasses of our choice (Pink, Purple, Green, Red, Orange and Yellow, I think).  Next year I want to make some shirts that say the name of the event, date and location to wear.

Here's a shot of the sea of people behind us from our place at the starting line:

At the front of the start line was a monster truck, onto which climbed volunteers armed with fire extinguishers which were used to spray the crowd in their first color of the day./div>

Curious as to what it looks like when that cloud is surrounding you? Wait no further:

And we were off!  Jessy soon grabbed one of our color bombs (little bags filled with colored corn starch) and bombed us both:

Along the course there were 5 color stations.  Two had color mixed with water in those same containers that exterminators use often - you know, the ones with the long handle to spray with?  Yeah, those...  And the volunteers would spray you as you ran (walked) by.  The other three just had huge bags full of colored corn starch that volunteers would grab by the handful and just throw on and at you.

As you can see, it was messy.  Here's us when we were all done:

Lookin good, don't we?  =)

Here's just a few of the professional photos:

09/20/15 - TrackTown Fitness
From their site:

To all citizens of TrackTown, 

As we continue to grow and develop and look for new ways to make our great community even better, Vin Lananna would like to personally invite you to take part in our inaugural TrackTown Fitness program.  He will conduct the first session Sunday, Sept. 20 at 8 a.m. at Hayward Field.  This free program is open to all and will continue every Sunday through the fall.  It’s designed to teach anyone the fundamentals of how to run or walk for better health.  It will also serve as an on-ramp for other community training programs in January. 

The TrackTown Fitness program is based on the concepts first taught by University of Oregon track and field coach Bill Bowerman more than 50 years ago.  His community jogging classes have been credited with sparking the running boom in the U.S. and we intend to use those same principles to make Oregon the healthiest state in the country by the time we host the IAAF World Championships at Hayward Field in 2021. 

If you’ve ever wanted to be an active runner or walker but didn’t know where to start, this is your chance to learn the path to better overall fitness in a fun, social and welcoming environment.  Participation in local road runs is one of the most popular avenues to a healthy lifestyle and we believe this program will provide you with an important first step in making such events as the Eugene Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K more accessible as a runner, jogger or walker.

And a follow-up article:

The inaugural TrackTown Fitness program made an auspicious debut at historic Hayward Field on Sunday. 

Beautiful weather and the promise of coaching from TrackTown USA President Vin Lananna drew nearly 200 local residents to the track for an inspirational morning of movement and exercise. 

Those in attendance reacted with enthusiasm as Lananna referred to the group as leaders in the movement to make Oregon the healthiest state in the nation by the time Eugene plays host to the 2021 IAAF World Championships. 

This won’t be the only team Lananna coaches in 2016. 

Last July, the Hall of Fame coach who directed highly successful collegiate programs at Dartmouth, Stanford and Oregon, was named head coach of the men’s track and field team for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. 

At the conclusion of Sunday’s session,Lananna had one final message for his new training group. 

“It is important that you come out here and bring someone else with you,” he said. “We have no limits on our capacity, so let’s try to do our best to make this the healthiest state in the nation by 2021. We start here. You guys just took the first step.”

Attending the first session of TrackTown Fitness was an amazing experience.  The expected about 50 people and instead just under 200 showed up.  It was inspiring to be in such an iconic space with so many others who want to get fit, and of such varying degrees of fitness already. 

They had us split ourselves into 3 groups, a walking only group, a walking/running group and a running only group.

I was in the walking only group.  Jessy started there and then moved to the walking/running group.

It was a great experience and I can't wait to go back on Sunday.

You might not be able to tell, but, Jessy and I are in this pic!

TrackTown Fitness - Day1 from Tim Lay on Vimeo.

10/04/15 - Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure