Another Color Run, here and gone. This summer is flying by and I am not ok with it. But it’s been such a blast! This color run was one of my very favorites! No sleep but plenty of fun. Literally, I got 2 hours of sleep every night.
I flew out Thursday morning (I had to get up at 4am. Woof). It’s always easy to find all the other color run staff at the airport because we all wear something that says color run on it. Everyone on this trip was seriously so. Freaking. Awesome. So kind, so fun, and so hardworking! We got to Amarillo which was quite dry. I was expecting it to be humid as heck, but Amarillo is in the pan handle of Texas so the weather was perfect. We stopped for lunch at Torchy’s Tacos, which seriously has some of the best tacos I’ve ever had! We went twice because it was that good. That night we got everything set up at Kohl’s for packet pickup. And I acquired my 2 nicknames for this trip: “The BYU intern” & “Data” because my stupid phone ran out of data and I couldn’t use it.
After set up we went to the tourist trap of Amarillo for staff dinner- Big Texan Steak House. HOLY COW. It was freaking awesome. It was totally decked out in everything Texas. You could ride in a limo from the parking lot to the front of the restaurant, and the front of the limo had longhorn antlers, or whatever they’re called. Also, they have this deal if you can eat a 72 ounce steak, fries, and a drink in under an hour, your meal is free. My stomach hurts just thinking about it. But it did it! I ate a 72 ounce steak! Haha juuuuust kidding. I’m not thaaat fat. But the food was so good. There were 2 cute little old men all dressed up with guitars walking around to serenate people with some country music. Seriously, I love Texas.
On Friday we spent all day setting up for the event, per usual. The festival area was located on this hill area next to a hospital and next to some main roads. The first 2 I’d done were at a park, so it was a change of scenery for me. There were only 2500 participants at this race (compared to Hershey, 20k!) so it was really small, but that made it even more fun! My friend Ali who is literally the coolest person ever (she got kissed by Usher. How can anyone top that?) was one of the MC’s, and she asked me to sing the Star Spangled Banner! Hoooooly cow, I haven’t been that nervous in a long time. I used to sing all the time, but for the past 4 years I’ve had vocal nodules (like the girl from pitch perfect who has nodes) so I haven’t really sung because it hurts pretty bad, plus I’ve lost a lot of voice control. Regardless, I decided I needed to get back into it so I happily agreed. That night we went back for round 2 at Torchy’s Tacos. #Yumyums.
The next morning we got up suuuper early, and with 2 hours of sleep I felt so rested and ready to go. Jk lolz. We got everything set up and then I just walked around trying not to pee my pants because I was so nervous. I kept practicing and making sure I had the words down to the Star Spangle Banner. When I was in high school I sang it at a basketball game and I tooootally messed up the words so bad. I don’t even know what song I was singing, probably something from Miley Cyrus. It was bad. So I didn’t want to do that again in front of 2500 people. Thankfully it went alright! It wasn’t my best, but for my first time singing in front of people in 4 years I didn’t mess up to horribly. Maybe I can convince the race director at my next race to let me sing it again. We’ll see.
We finished clean up at around 3, and by the time I got back to my hotel I counted 37 mosquito bites, 2 of which were larger than a quarter. I fell asleep and woke up 6 hours later and completely panicked because I thought it was the next day already. Hehe it wasn’t. A lot of the staff got together and went to Midnight Rodeo, a place where every dancer’s dreams come true. There’s a country room with a circular dance floor, and then a hip-hop room to dance to some serious jamz. It was a blast. Something weird- as the guy at the front was checking my ID he noticed my height and said, “What?! Utah?? You’re too short to live in Utah!”…. um sir, you make no sense.
And then as soon as it came it was over. What a fun trip with such great people. Can’t wait for another color run! Next stop, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
P.S. I would also like to announce that I have now overcome one of my biggest irrational fears- airplane bathrooms. I kid you not, every time I go in there I am silently praying and singing songs to myself so I won’t have a panic attack. But now I’m over it! Yayeeeee. I am still working on my fear of porta potties. Stay tuned.
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