Alison, ‘12

___My Saturday started much earlier than usual this weekend. I rolled out of bed at 7:45, then got in the car and headed towards my first actual 5k road race (often called a “fun run”…oxymoron?) with Kaarin and Sarah from Sprinting Spiders. Kaarin’s high school hosted the 5k, called Sprint for Clint, to raise money to cover the medical expenses of one of their cross country runners who was severely injured in a car accident. It was in a small town near Farmville, Virginia, about an hour and a half from campus. The roadside farmer’s markets all had signs posted saying “Please Pray for Clint” – it was very sweet. Our run consisted primarily of wooded trails behind the high school, almost all of which was made up of tall, steep hills in very close proximity. Sprinting Spiders ran a 5k last weekend on an entirely flat course. That’s the sort of run I’d been expecting! I made alright time…31 minutes for 3.1 miles haha. Needless to say, I will be running much harder next time! The run had a great turn out, with runners from all age groups. A ten year old boy definitely sprinted past me to the finish line.___Sarah and I powered through our showers and booked it over to Dhall. After burning off all those calories, we simply had to replenish them as soon as possible! I was literally ravenous, or as Sarah said, “ravenous like a raven.”  We went from Dhall to Regency Mall in order to check out the latest Forever 21 clearance sale items. The logical next step was obviously a stop off at Toys ‘R Us, where we spent more time and had more fun than we did at Dhall and Regency combined. Most of our time was spent squealing over the robotic stuffed animal toys that move in response to your touch, then hiding whenever we heard the footsteps of our fellow adult shoppers. One of us then conceived a genius plan for the remainder of our afternoon: making cookie dough to eat completely raw. Yumm. My friend Heather was home from UVA and she came along for the deliciousness, bringing some ingredients along in plastic baggies. The whole experience kinda made me wish I’d picked up an easy-bake oven at the toy store. Anyways, for a rainy, gross day that started far too early, I had a pretty fantastic time!___Next weekend I’ll be going to Virginia Tech for Halloween, making rounds as a member of the green monkeys team from Legends of the Hidden Temple. I’m slightly disappointed about missing Halloween desserts in Dhall, but it’ll be worth it to see my friend Rae and hang out at a big, state school on such a great night of the year!