I Vacated...AND GOT ON NATIONAL TV!!!

You are now reading the blog of a real, live, nationally famous runner.  Let me tell you this weekend's Story of Glory.  {clearing of the throat}  It all began in December, when I told my cousin that I wanted to sign up for the Freeze Yer Gizzard in a Blizzard 5K in International Falls, MN.  For those of you not from these parts, International Falls is THE COLDEST point on the map in the lower 48.  Make that 49...Hawaii doesn't even come close.  Why did I want to do this?  Adventure, folks.  This IS thejenniadventures afterall.

When we sent in our registrations, I informed her that I had no intent of running, perhaps just crawling - but that my ONLY GOAL was to make it onto the FRONT PAGE of their newspaper.  Big dreams produce big results, as I had no idea {innocent eye flutter} that CBS national news was covering the event.

The drive takes nearly 5 hours.  As I hopped into her car, I said "Mind if we make a couple stops?  Like to the Thrift Store?"  The glimmer in my eyes made her groan, as visions of 1980's matching windsuits danced through my head.  Unfortunately there were no matching outfits...so I purchased a shiny, metallic, TEAL, 1980's windsuit for myself...leaving my cousin wandering aimlessly down the costume aisle.  It was her lucky day.  There was a skintight bumblebee outfit with a tutu attached that had her name on it!  By the time we got to our hotel, it was late Friday night.

RACE DAY:  We awoke 2.5 hours prior to the race {against my will - ugh - morning people KILL me!} and got dressed.  I anxiously awaited the looks we would get in our tutus and metallic shine as we approached the registration table.  But oddly enough, I got no chuckles or cross-eyed glances.  In fact, I got the feeling that I was perfectly dressed for this northern Minnesota crowd.  The Bumblebee however, was a different story...

At one point, a woman walked up to me with a sympathetic side-hug and said, "Ohhhh, hunny.  Are you a smoker?"  Tipping my head, I said no I was not.  She pulled her arm away and said, "Oh - I guess I thought that was why you are running with a monkey on your back!"  I laughed.  That made sense.  But then I stopped laughing.  Because I realized EVERYONE THOUGHT I WAS REALLY TRYING TO LOOK GOOD!!!  Sigh.

As the gun went off, Michelle and I did high-kicks, giggled, danced and twirled.  Alright fine.  SHE did high-kicks, giggled, danced and twirled THE ENTIRE 5K.  I slowly chugged along, cursing swear words at her annoyingly large amounts of energy.  BUT I MADE IT!  I ran the whole darn thing, to which I was both proud and a bit shocked!

After showering, we headed back into town to watch the Turkey Bowling and Smooshing events...and started chatting with a guy outside the coffee shop...WHO ENDED UP BEING WITH CBS!  He was the "microphone holder guy" that we had seen while running.  When he found out that we were the Bumblebee and "Poorly Dressed Sidekick" he chuckled and said they got footage of us that will definately be shown this Sunday on the national CBS news!!!

To top it off, we were approached by the Chamber of Commerce...the woman shook our hands and thanked us for coming.  She said there is going to be some great shots of us on the FRONT PAGE...and she hopes we come back next year!

We assured her we will...and we've already got our outfits planned out!