I’ve got a goal, to spend the 144 days of summer off the couch.

The snow has melted and this week the kids get out of school for summer.  As the school year ends I’ve been able to fit in a couple events with some friends. The first was Running for Ed. No not a person but a fundraiser for our local schools-Ed as in education. This is a team of five and we each have two legs to run. The total course is 42 miles around town and change overs at the schools. Most teams have a theme or costume. We were the “Crayons.” When my friend Simone told me our costume I envisioned some sort of hat that was a crayon tip with a face cut out. I was pleasantly surprised (see photo). I joked I might wear it again for Halloween. One of the funniest comments of the day was when one of my teammates passed someone and she heard them say” I got passed by a crayon!” We also got placed in the last group (fastest runners) to start the relay. Not sure how that happened because I’ve never run a six minute mile in my life. Maybe it was because our captain was on the winning team last year. It was a blast for a good cause.

The next event was Little Red Riding Hood. I’m not sure how many women are riding their bikes but there’s a lot! One number that was tossed around was 3,000. You choose your own distance, my group chose 80 miles. This isn’t a team event but the seven of us got warmed up and into a rotation of drafting. There was no more talking or joking, our heads were down and we were rolling out the miles. If you didn’t know you would have thought we were professionals.  It ended up being a bit shorter than 80 miles but I was happy to see the finish.

It is always a fun time to get away with fiends for the night and share the day together. I’m not sure there is another place that has so many people that are active and enjoy exercising fundraising at the same time. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue my theme for the summer “144 days off the couch” as the boys get out of school for the summer. I might need to multitask and take advantage of time when the kids are in lacrosse & golfing camps. Oh to be a kid again! At least I feel like I kid when I’m with friends and exercising! Good thing my friends invite me to participate. They’re helping me to stay in shape over the summer for the winter! Or maybe they know I need to work off the winter lunches! Hmmm