swirling our way to the finish

it'd been awhile since i got to run with my friend delovelydetails and her hubby.  she's been crazy busy with expanding her business, which has been super exciting for them.  so when she sent me a link to a 10K and invited me to join them, i hesitated for about a split second before signing up.  see, 10K is my least favorite distance to run.  i love 5Ks and i'll do a half marathon, but 10K is inexplicably miserable for me.  not to mention, i was already signed up for a 5K the day after...but i figured if i could power through 3 barre classes in 2 days, i could do this.  never mind that it was all going to happen one right after another.  beast mode!

we arrived at irvine meadows amphitheater with plenty of time to check in, browse the expo and hang out for a bit.  the bib pickup process was really organized and easy breezy.

photo op!  we took advantage of it before the crowds arrived and it got crazy.

this right here was going to serve as our motivation to get through 6.2 miles:

and this was about as empty as we were ever gonna see it.

we registered for free cake, because, well...cake.

hula hoop!  i thought i was jammin' there for a bit...

womp womp.

the bag check area was pretty cute - instead of boring old alphabetical order, they assigned you a froyo topping to locate your bag.

okay, we are definitely dorks.  we spied those helpful honda guys in blue and had to.  you would too!

then it was time to head to the start line.

after the national anthem was sung, we were off...with a drone overhead capturing all the action.  a little creepy, but kind of cool too.

i don't even remember the first mile, so we came up onto this mile marker before we realized how far we'd already gone.

there were volunteers and loud music to cheer us on every so often.

the "flat and fast" course wasn't exactly that - there was a pretty gnarly hill about halfway through the first 5K.  we got through it and then found ourselves doing a loop around the parking lot:

and then we headed into the amphitheater area, where there was a fun misting station to run through.

the last time i was here, the old lady and i were going to one of our bazillion jonas brothers concerts.

halfway done!

this is why i don't love 10Ks so much - i'm not a huge fan of running past the finish line before i'm actually about to cross it.  in fact, that shit just plain sucks.

and this one was just the 5K...twice.  this meant heading back up that hill for a second time.

that didn't stop me from taking advantage of another photo op at the top, though.

quick selfie just before the finish!

the "motivation" station volunteers didn't really seem into it.  at least they were blasting some fun music.

all done!  yup - the medal was a spoon.  cute and unique!

time to "treat yoself."

the froyo area was definitely more crowded now.

one last finisher's photo and then we were outta there.

they're doing this run in the l.a. area in a couple of weeks, too.  i would totally do it again if we didn't already have unalterable plans.  a nice cup of frozen yogurt with an assload of toppings was really nice to celebrate a run with.  if this race comes to your area, i highly recommend it!