Blue Bell Fun Run Race Review

Saturday was the 34th annual Blue Bell Fun Run in Brenham, TX.  It was my first time to run the race.  I, like many others, was drawn in by the offer of all the free ice cream you want at the end.  (Let it be known that I am probably the world's biggest Blue Bell lover.  Ice cream is my favorite food and Blue Bell is the best!)

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Race Logistics

There was the option to pick up your packet Friday night, but we chose to pick it up Saturday morning.  The race was fairly large considering it was in a small Texas town, but very organized.  The race starts and ends near the high school, which receives all the profit.  We were directed to a parking spot and made our way to the cafeteria to pick up our bibs and race shirts.  They are adorable royal blue dri fit, a pleasant surprise, especially since the race only cost $25.  I also appreciated the fact that they let my sister trade in her medium for a small since they were unisex and rather large.

The race was chip timed (another surprise for such a cheap race) via a bar on the back of our bibs.  The school bathrooms were open for our use, which was much better than the usual race port-o-let.  Lines were long, but moved quickly.  Fruit, water, and some kind of breakfast bar were donated by HEB for pre-race snacks. 

Races make for great people watching (probably because most runners are wierdos).  Scanning the crowd, I realized that this was a family friendly and dog friendly race.  Lots of pooches and strollers.  Races included a 1 mile fun run (for the kids), 5k, 10k, and 10k relay.  Start times of each race were staggered, with 1 mile run at 8:00, 10k relay at 8:15, 10k at 8:30, and 5k at 8:45.

The Route

The start was up a hill and around the corner from the high school/finish line.  Upon reaching the start, I saw there were corrals.  Volunteers held signs stating "under 7 minute miles" "8 minute miles" "9 minute miles" and "10+ minute miles".  I shuffled in with the 10+ers, which was a mistake because this group included all the walkers. 

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It took a couple of minutes before I was able to cross the start, then a lot of bobbing and weaving ensued. We started on a downhill, but I was quickly introduced to the foreign-to-me incline.  A little after mile 2, the 5k route broke off from the 10k. 

The 10k continued into a very nice neighborhood, then at about mile 3 we turned a corner and I saw it.  A hill so huge and daunting, it may as well have been Mount Everest.  My legs were already burning from the unfamiliar ascents and descents.  So I walked.  I figured I could power walk up the mountain just as quickly as I could run up it. When I reached the summit, I looked to my left to see the most beautiful view of a field with a tin barn and looked to my right to see an empty water station.  Damn.  They ran out of water at the top of the hill!  (Let me add here that there were water stations manned by athletes from the high school at every single mile, as well as someone calling out time as you reached each mile.) Oh well.  What goes up must come down, and boy, do I love a downhill.  The next mile was gorgeous. It was fields and trees and shade.

At mile 5, the 5k route met back up with the 10k to finish the race.  I was dying. There was a volunteer who encouraged us by saying there was only 1 mile left.  That mile consisted of a small uphill, then a larger uphill (still not even close to 3 mile mountain), followed by a downhill to cross the finish.  When I finally reached the downhill, I booked it, but there were lots of 5k walkers in my way.  I felt insanely fast as I bobbed and weaved my way to the finish.

My Garmin showed 6.39 miles at the finish, but I hit go before crossing the start and have never worried about tangents.

The sky was overcast and it was trying to rain, but I never felt more than a few drops.  Just enough to make it humid.  The wind was gusting at over 20 mph, but only a couple of times did I feel like I was running into the wind.  Then again, while struggling to power up those monster hills, I wouldn't have noticed anyway.

Post Race

The finish was crowded and I had to loop my way back around to find water.  I downed 2 glasses then had one thing on my mind....free ice cream!

We made our way over to the ice cream truck, which was a feeding frenzy.  There were boxes of every type of ice cream bar or popsicle imaginable set out.  People were grabbing by the handful.  I chose a peach bar and a cookies and cream ice cream sandwich.  Immediately the wrapper was torn from the peach bar, and I took a bite as I made my way to the time tent.  The peachy goodness kept me occupied as I waited to see my time.  When I reached the front of the line, I realized it wasn't posted yet.  Oh well.  I was sick of the peach so tossed the last few bites and tore into my ice cream sandwich.  Yum!  This is what I think of when I think of Blue Bell.  Creamy, smooth, delicious ice cream.  I scarfed ate half and my stomach said "enough!". 

We were on a tight schedule, so didn't stick around for awards.  The winners of each division received an adorable medal which resembled a half gallon of Blue Bell ice cream.  They were also giving away coupons for ice cream via a raffle, but I failed to throw my bib number into the pot. 

The reason we were in a rush to leave was because we had to backtrack to our hotel to shower before heading to the bluebonnet trail.  Little did we know, they had showers available in the locker rooms of the high school.  That would have saved us an hour.  Oh well.  Live and learn.

All in all, it was a great race.  Very organized and accomodating.  Although, it was not a great race for me personally.  I couldn't get out of my head, despite the fact that I was jamming an awesome new playlist. 

My recommendations

-If you have the opportunity to run this race, do it.
- Book a hotel way in advance.  We waited too late and nothing was available in Brenham.
-If you want to tour the creamery, go up early on Friday.  It isn't open on the weekends.
-Train.  More specifically, train on inclines.
- Bring your family and your dog.
-Pray for good weather.


Do you hill train?  What is the most fun race you have ever run?
Obviously, I don't hill train.  Hills are non-existent in my neck of the woods.
Red Dress Run in New Orleans is the funnest.race.ever!  But it's not really a race, because even if you wanted to run, you couldn't.  It's more like a bar crawl.

Blue Bell, Bluebonnets, Wildflowers, & Wine

First off, let me say thank you to all my wonderful friends, bloggers and non-bloggers, for all your comments, texts, Facebook messages, and phone calls.  How can a girl stay grumpy knowing she has such a great group of people surrounding her?

I left my worries behind and headed to Texas hill country for a weekend getaway.  Friday, we stopped at the outlets in Cypress, TX for some shopping.  I restrained and didn't spend too much money.  There were 4 pairs of shorts (pink gingham, grey embroidered with lobsters, green embroidered with anchors, and green with coral paisley) and a pink seersucker skirt I was lusting over at J.Crew, and somehow managed to walk away with none of them.  I did splurge on a gorgeous mirror at Marshall's that I have absolutely nowhere to hang in my house.   

We had dinner at a Mexican joint in Waller, TX.  Why is Texas tex-mex so much better than Louisiana tex-mex?  The portions were huge so we ended up eating leftovers for lunch on Saturday.

Saturday morning warranted a very, very early wake up call so we could drive to Brenham for the Blue Bell Fun Run.  My sister ran the 5k while I ran the 10k.  I'll do a full race review soon, but just know that it was very hilly (especially when you only run Louisiana flatlands) and very far from a PR for me.



My shirt says "There is no I in team, but there is in ice cream". Totally appropriate!



After finishing and stuffing my face with free ice cream, we headed back to the hotel to shower and eat leftovers.

Once our bodies were clean and our bellies were full, we loaded up the car to head to the wildflower trail from Johnson City to Fredericksburg.  Wildflowers are a big deal in TX, especially bluebonnets.  Also becoming a big deal is the Texas hill country wine scene.  We stopped at a winery just outside of Johnson City.  I was thankful to get out of the car and stretch my legs.  A tasting and tour of the processing facility ensued.  The vineyards were beautiful, but I didn't take any pictures.  I ended up leaving with 3 bottles of wine, although I'm not in love with any of them.  They were cheap and I'll likely use them for sangria.

A little ways from the vineyards was Perdenales Falls State Park.  We took a very short hike (fyi- leather sandals are NOT the best hiking shoes! You think I would have learned my lesson at the Grand Canyon) to view the falls.  They weren't huge waterfalls but were beautiful.  The water was very clear and green, and I wanted to jump in.  The pictures do not do it justice.  This park had miles and miles of hiking and biking trails, as well as camping spots.  I would love to camp and explore this park more.

We left the park and headed to dinner at Pecan Street Brewery in Johnson City.  It was suggested by Southern Living.  We all ate burgers and I had a Ten Penny Nail Ale.  It was an amber ale and beat Abita Amber in flavor.  The burgers were delicious and that is from a girl who is very, very picky about burgers.  They were served on homemade beer brioche rolls.

After dinner, we continued on our search for wild bluebonnets.  The drive from Johnson City to Fredericksburg was dubbed the "wildflower trail", but we saw very few bluebonnets.  We continued to drive through Fredericksburg to Kerrville, where our hotel was reserved for the night.

Sunday, we woke up, ate continental breakfast, and headed back to Fredericksburg.  Our first stop on the day's agenda was Fredericksburgh Herb Farm that didn't open until 10 AM, so to kill time we browsed some shops in the quaint German town.  It was raining and 56 degrees.  I packed no pants and was freezing!  The shops contained Texas made eats (jellies, jams, salsas, pickled things), vintage reproduction toys and lunchboxes, Texas themed souvenirs, and outher touristy things.

The herb farm was more of a garden with herbs and other plants for sale.  On site, they had adorable cottages for rent, a spa, and a farm/garden to table restaurant.  My grandma purchased an artichoke bush (like what is pictured below), my sister bought lavender, and I bought basil since my seedlings died. 

East of Fredericksburgh, we stopped at the Wildseed Farms. It was part tourist trap, part plant nursery, and part gardens.  We walked around the grounds and looked at the most beautiful wildflowers.  Upon viewing their bluebonnets, we decided it is late in bluebonnet season and that is why we haven't seen as many as we expected.

Sporting my Katniss Everdeen look in the side braid and "hunting jacket".

After 5 million hours in the car and a stop at Dairy Queen for a chicken finger basket and pecan turtle mini-blizzard later, we found fields of bluebonnets.   Where were these bluebonnets?  In between Waller (where we stayed Friday night) and Brenham (were we ran Saturday morning).  So, between driving to the race, driving back to the hotel to shower, and driving back west, we had passed them a total of 3 times already. It wasn't until the 4th time that we noticed and decided to stop.  Might I add that this field was 4 hours closer to home than the "wildflower trail".



We frolicked in them and took pictures.  My sister said it's tradition to take pictures in the bluebonnets for your first birthday.  I missed that opportunity, but made up for it by laying in/smashing a pile for a ridiculously awkward photo op in my 27th year. I'll spare you those pictures. 

The weekend was a nice escape from life, which I am back to today.  Let the car shopping resume. Oh, and I have to get back on some kind of eating regime.  I feel disgusting after all the ice cream this weekend (and the candy last week)...and I am going to a pool party Saturday.  At this rate, I will have to wear a moo moo instead of a swimsuit.

What did you do this weekend?  Does anyone want to sell me your car?