I’m super excited to be posting about finishing one of the items on my list of 33 things I want to do this year. I finished the 5K Shamrock Walk in downtown Portland yesterday. I’ve been working toward this goal since June 2012 when I broke my ankle. It took surgery and several months of healing to even walk at all. I was in physical therapy from August through the end of December trying to rebuild strength and walk normally. In January I started training on my own to be able to walk in this event. And now it’s finally crossed off the list!

Left: Green argyle socks that I bought at Target for 90 cents! Right: My sister and I before the start. Her crazy headband was pretty tame compared to what everyone else was wearing.

I had so much fun participating in this walk. My boyfriend and I took the Max to the event and the first thing I saw when we crossed the bridge was a sea of green 8K runners going down Naito Parkway. The waterfront was packed with 35,000 runners and walkers. We got lucky and had some sun for the walk. My sister is so amazing that after she finished her 8K run, she found me before the start of the 5K walk event and walked with me the whole way. My boyfriend finished his 5K run and then walked back so that he could finish the walk with us. It meant a lot to be able to finish this after all of the trouble with my ankle last year. Along the route we passed the place where I broke my ankle, and I hopped of the walk to take a photo of my feet in the place where I broke it.

You typically see some strange things in Portland, but this day was crazy x 100. There were lots of green tutus, beards, unicorns, green wigs, boas, hats, crazy socks, dogs in green sweaters. It was so energizing to be a part of all that madness. Next year I’m definitely going to have to amp up my green because I felt a little underdressed in my argyle socks and green shirt.

I’ve decided my next event is going to be The Color Run in September. I want to run that event, so I have lots of work ahead of me. I think the thought of starting a race in white and ending up plastered in color is a great motivation. :)