A weekend of doing and feeling good

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I was so stressed getting ready for this past weekend and now that it has come and gone I’m both relieved and sad.
Coordinating a companywide volunteer-a-thon is no joke, the logistics alone could send your brain into overdrive from *will everyone show up to *will we have enough supplies to *will we make a dent?

Well, yes-yes-and yes to all but most importantly, I realized that sometimes it's OK to not be in full control of every little detail, stress less and have more fun cause in the end, it will all work out. With that said, with two events to prepare for, this weekend kicked my stress buds into overdrive.
On Saturday, 40 of us participated in the 17th Annual Philadelphia Cares Day and painted our way through a school that was to be shut down 7 years ago due to its age and struggling neighborhood. The principal, a soft spoken white man who doesn’t speak a word of Spanish came into the predominately Latino school and turned it around and now, we were tasked with bringing on the wow factor to his 430+ kids. We painted, removed 10 year old staples, attached coat hooks and hopefully delivered during a 4hr volunteer-a-thon that left us all exhausted and exuberated.

I left covered in paint, came home, showered, changed and drove to the Borgata for some adult fun before retiring for the night in preparation for my very first 5K race. I was so paranoid to oversleep that I set 2 alarms and enlisted my running companion and motivator Nina to call and wake me. When all of the alarms went off at once, I was far from sleeping. The adrenalin had kicked in and I was up and warming up by 6:30am...don’t recall the last time I was up that early but guess what, there were people out and about…fascinating.

I arrived at Boardwalk Hall ready to take on my maiden voyage and before I knew it, I had come 6th right behind Nina whom I have come to call Zen Nina but really should call Kick-my-ass Nina. Thanks to her words of motivation, I did my best time yet and while I wanted to smack her every time she pushed me, I’m forever grateful and ready for my next challenge. Half marathon anyone?

Feeling great about all the good I did for mind, body and soul but mostly glad that it’s all over and the upcoming weekend promises to be the opposite of last; black tie wedding and much eating, drinking and dancing…now that’s what I call a good time!