Frosty

 It is that time of year when a few friends from work get together for the Frosty 5k and Merry Mile.  We did this run last year as a team and was a blast.  Partly because it was good weather and this is a flat course.  Put those two items together and that makes fun for all.

 Above is the usual long sleeve T-shirt you get for participating.  I usually give my running T-shirts to my dogs to use as blankets unless I get one that is really unique.  This shirt is too main stream and pretty for me.  I like my shirts really odd looking like my "Onion Festival" shirt.  The shirt just has a big onion on it with "Onion Festival 2008" written above it.  I get alot of comments about that one.  I tell them "What happens at the Onion Festival, stays at the Onion Festival."

 Running for me lately has been about keeping my diabetes under control and to give me the ability to just eat like crap.  Why not run for two hours and try to polish off a bucket of fried chicken afterwards?  Sounds good to me.  Burn the carbs and replace it with a bunch of fat.  My pace is slow and paying good money to have a timer tell me so just seems wrong.  People say, "well you should do it for the charity" and I tell them isn't diabetes enough for me to support?

 I guess this frosty 5k is my annual race to run now.  The Dallas White Rock Marathon was last weekend and I thought about entering the half marathon until someone told me it cost 130 bucks.  That is a bit high for my slow feet to pay for right now.  My wife and I had participated in marathons years ago and they used to cost us 60 bucks.  At that price I felt that running slow for five hours was worth the price for charity.  It has been so long since I have participated in running events that when I received the goodies bag with my number in it I was confused on this timing thing.  I remember the big plastic things they zip tie to your shoes just before the run and they cut them off right afterwards.  This strip of metal thing looks like I was made in China and being shipped in a box of toys bound for Wal-Mart.

While rummaging through the goodies bag at the bottom was this 8FL OZ bottle of water.  I hope they have more water at the run and I am not supposed to be bringing this with me to drink afterwards.  I was hoping for maybe a GU or snack bar but only this tiny bottle of water was in the bag that falls under the "consumable" label. 

The fun thing about running and participating in running events is having a team.  If I was a member of a local running club then I would have an entirely different outlook on running events.  The game of competition drives us all to better ourselves.  I look forward to the frosty event every year because it is the one time a year my co-workers and I get out and compete to see how fast we can run for 3.2 miles.  After the event we head over to a BBQ place called Rudy's that serves up the best breakfast brisket tacos on the planet.  They also serve Community coffee which is probably my favorite because of the chicory in it.  I think that is the same thing with diabetes.  If we all are on a team that meets regularly and discusses relative subjects then the group as a whole improves their lifestyle.  Just doing things alone there is no reason to improve yourself if you are the only one in the game.  Belonging to a team brings out the energy to help others while improving yourself.  I should join the Plano Pacers again to motivate me not to eat the entire bucket of fried chicken.