That Bee's A Runnin' Fool...

UPDATE!
October 21st- Today was the day I ran a race in my bee costume! We hit the 200 mark earlier this month, but I was already scheduled to be on vacation the first 2 weekends in October. It was almost a little anti-climatic, being so close to Halloween. But a few people laughed, and some wanted pictures of me... I obliged.

I'll upload some more pictures soon- it's late and I had a busy day with the race in the morning and an event out at Oatlands all afternoon! But here's a picture that my wonderful, supportive, not-afraid-to-be-seen-with-me husband took after the event. I was handing out stickers and talking up the pollinator plates:

I appear to be throwing up some gang signs. Hey, us pollinator supporters are kinda like a gang...
we gotta stick together, right? Like a hive. Which sounds way nicer than a gang.

MORE PICS! - Uploaded October 22

Just as I promised, here are some more pictures from the race.

Here's the race start!

You can see my right arm reaching over me, to my left wrist, to turn on my Garmin as I crossed the start line. Not that it mattered.... because I completely forgot to turn it off at the end of the race (I was feeling kind of sick at the end, which has never happened to me before...). But I had a timing tag, which was ok- and glad that I did, because I was expecting a very slow time for this race, but all things considered, I didn't do so bad.

Here I am, rounding the corner and heading for the finish line! The course had 2 long-ish inclines, at the beginning and end- because of that, I expected a slow race time and wasn't necessarily busting my butt to hurry to the finish. Also by this point I was pretty frustrated because the Clif Peanut Butter Crunch Bar and coffee I had for breakfast were making me kind of nauseous. A quarter mile from the finish I was actually debating on whether or not to go off course and puke somewhere. I've never felt nauseous during a race before, but I blame it on the breakfast- I usually just have toast or something, and the Clif Crunch Bar was unusual for me.

Also you can see I'm holding the costume custom-logo-emblazoned wings. 1/10th of a mile in, they were bouncing EVERYWHERE on my back and were too unwieldy. Yet I was somehow able to keep running as I moved to the side of the course to pull them off. I am not nearly that coordinated... but other than the upset stomach, things seemed to be in my favor today.

Aaaaaaaaaand the finish line! No puking. I would have been moving as fast as the girl right behind me had I not been feeling sick, but at this point I just wanted to cross the line and rest and not feel sick any more. My actual gun time was 10 seconds less than this, so that gave me a 10:07 pace. A year ago when I was training for Marine Corps Marathon, my pace was around 12:00/mile and I haven't been keeping up with my running much since then. So even though compared to many of my friends I'm a slowpoke, I'm pretty happy with this pace! If I can get my plantar fasciitis issues taken care of (making an appointment for that tomorrow), I might be able to get back down to a sub 10 min mile. Hooray!

...And maybe I'll even wear the costume again!



(July 29th)

On June 7th, we received our 100th application for Pollinator Plates! Woohoo!
...But I know far more than 100 people have contacted me saying they want plates. In fact, as of July 29th, over 450 people have said, "We Want Pollinator Plates!"

So here's what I'm going to do to encourage folks to send in their applications:
When we reach the 200 applications mark, I will run a race dressed AS A BEE (complete with wings and antennae)!

Another offer I'm making:
If you've submitted your application and you own a small business, you'll be considered an official sponsor and I will display your logo/website/whatever on the wings of my bee costume.

Yet another offer I'm making:
If you own a bee (or other pollinator) costume and want to run the race with me, I'll pay your $10 plate fee the 1st year! (You can run at your own pace- I'm a slow poke- just make sure I see you at the race and get your name and info!) And this doesn't mean JUST a pair of antennae- nope, not getting off that easy!! ;)

So get to it! Send in those applications so you can see pictures of me (and possibly others) in full bee garb running 3.1 or 6.2 miles! You can even come to the race and see it in person if you want! :)