Pineapple 5K

Today I completed my second 5K run. This one was a little different from Chelsea's Run in March.
This one had a couple of these:

One of these:

These guys:

And so much much.

The Hawaiian theme run was hosted here:

Also known as Spanish Landing Park.

It was a fun and festive event help by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I ran for Katie's sister, Kayla. She is currently battling Hodgkin's Lymphoma and kicking its A** :). Kayla isn't the only one I was running for though. A friend of a friend's husband is a Lymphoma survivor, a classmate from high school is a Leukemia survivor and my teammate knows someone as well. I thought about every single one of those people while I was huffing and puffing it around the obstacle course.

I haven't gone running in many weeks. Too many, in fact. Today was a challenge but I did run most of it. I also completed most of the obstacles. The rope climb was kind of scary so I went up one side and down the same side instead of swinging my leg over and going down the other side. Visions of falling 10+ feel kept floating around in my head. There were two wooden walls that I just couldn't get over. They were too tall and my legs just aren't long enough. Staci was a champ and did all of them. The one thing I did that she didn't do (because only one person per team needed to do it) was take off our shoes and socks and wade into the frigid water of  San Diego Bay. I had to put our Pineapple on a boogie board and pull the boogie board down the bay a little. Maybe 50 feet or so. Maybe not even that far. The water went to just above my knees. Good thing I wore Capri workout bottoms and brought a change of clothes! brrrr.

Yes, I wrote "Our Pineapple" a minute ago. The MC, Captain Jack Sparrow (or his really good double), announced just before the race started that each team had to carry a Pineapple with them through out the whole course. Why? Because it is the Pineapple run and it would just make the day that much more entertaining.

There were quite a few obstacles along the 3.1 miles.

Monkey Bars

Parallel Bars over pools of water (Miracle, I didn't fall in!)

Tunnels to crawl through

Rings to crawl through

Tires to climb over and more tires to run through

Pineapple Melon bowling

Pineapple ring toss

Hula Hooping

Tarzan Swing and so much more.

Staci and I had a great time! We are hoping to get a larger group together next year. Be ready to dress the part though:

Just because it is fun and everyone was decked out. One guy was even dressed as a Pineapple.

Here's one more of us and our Pineapple, Gary (named after a sponge bob character).

Thank You to everyone that donated for this run! Those generous donations raised $210 for my individual run. Overall our team raised $305 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Today, lives were touched and funds were raised to help beat these cancers.