Happy Earth Day! Shannon

Earth Day is by far my most favorite holiday. Ok, so it's not really a holiday, but it should be. I like it because it's not commercialized and it's point is to bring awareness to everyone how important Mother Earth is to us. Of course, we should be doing this every day of the year, but we live in a society that believes that Mother Earth will continue to provide for us no matter what we do to it. But I won't get on my soap box, I will just share with you my Earth Day celebration.

As with most holidays, you don't always get to celebrate on the DAY of the holiday and that is what happened to me yesterday - the official Earth Day! However, I did get to celebrate in a small way. I went out to the Folsom Lake Trail Run Series for race #1 of the Spring series. I celebrated by running a very fast (for me) 3 mile trail run. I averaged a 10:27 mile. WOW! That is really fast for me. I finished 53rd out of 78 overall - not too shabby. Turbo Turtle Pam finished 50th - you go girl! However, I am truly, truly impressed with our age group totals. I finished 7th our 15 and Pam finished 6th! WOW!! The best we've ever done. WOO HOO!

And in the spirit of Earth Day I wore the brightest green shirt I could find. I love my Nike 5k 2009 neon green shirt!!

We're off!!

Pam is directly behind me to the right. She doesn't stay there long. This is the only time I'm in front off her. After this she was out in front of me the whole way.

See you can't even see me anymore. I think I'm right behind that guy in the red shirt.

This is heading back. As usual this Trail Turtle was out there by herself. But it was ok cause I was on cruise control.

As usual Diane put on a fabulous race and I'm looking forward to running in more. If you want to see more pics, click HERE.

So, back to Earth Day. I usually celebrate Earth Day by planting a plant. My favorite thing to plant on Earth Day is Jasmine. Mainly because I love the smell and it's really hearty. I need hearty plants because I'm usually busy doing too many other things than to care for my plants.

This was an Earth Day jasmine I planted several years ago. I love it. It's my favorite. It's just below the steps to our front door and it has taken over the railing. LOVE IT!

This is a jasmine I planted a couple of years ago in our backyard. It's taking over the upper deck railing. Again, LOVE IT.

This year I decided to try a couple of different things. Since I couldn't do my planting on Earth Day, I decided to plant 2 plants to make up for it.

This is a Salvia. A purle flower that attracts butterflies.

This is Rosemary. I've attempted Rosemary before but something happened to it. One day I went out to check on it and it was completely gone. As if it had never been there. No dead stump or anything. So I'm thinking hubby pulled it up thinking it was a weed. Ya, he'll never do that again! Rosemary is a very hearty plant as well, plus it just smells really good!

Tomorrow, Pam and I head out for our 2nd 50K. This time it's in our backyard. Folsom Lake. I love these trails and I know it won't be as hard as Way Too Cool, but 31 miles IS hard no matter what trail you're on. I'm a little scared as I haven't been as diligent about my training as I was with WTC, but I'm gonna take it easy and not push it. There are no cutoffs for this one, so that stress is not there this time. So I'm going to enjoy this race. I know Turbo Turtle Pam will take off at some point, leaving me in her dust, which is ok!! I'm bringing my iPod this time and if I feel the need for some musical encouragement, I'll have it handy. Mark is planning on being at the finish line again this time, so that will be another encouragement for me.

So, wish us luck, and tell me what you did for Earth Day, if anything. I'd love to hear about it.

Stay dirty!!