elionwyr | in which i am ridiculous...but a bit faster (Reply)

Yesterday, I participated in my second 5k walk…by myself.

Participants for this event are encouraged to dress up as superheroes. I initially planned to wear something I’d worn to a convention in the past..

…but found that (perhaps for the best) I’d finally purged the costume in a recent gathering of stuff to take to Goodwill. So I was left in a vague sort of need for something superhero-y. Alas, ‘superhero’ is of of those categories that’s not really punched out on my geek card, no matter how much I love the X-Men movies, and the only t-shirt I own that was even vaguely appropriate was a Hellboy t-shirt.

I asked the Book of Face if Hellboy counted as a superhero.

“Heck YEAH!!” was the unanimous response.

Okie dokie! But do I settle with just the shirt, or do I try to throw together a costume with whatever I could find around the house?

(…The answer should have been A.)

I had a wig that had ginormous horns attached to it. I tore those off the wig and played with a few different ideas for attaching them to myself securely enough to allow me to walk without losing them. Bones suggested having them come through a baseball cap. I tried that, wasn’t happy with it, tried attaching them to a hairband wasn’t happy with it, and then found a pair of goggles I’d bought years ago for an unrealized steampunk costume. Once I popped the lenses off, the lens bases actually fit very securely into the bases of the horns. I reinforced them with some hot glue, painted the horns more Hellboy-esque, and called it done. Bones had an overcoat that was close enough to what Hellboy wears to be more than acceptable for use. I had a soft sculpture kitty pin that I attached to my lapel as a nod to the character’s fondness for cats. I took a latex tail made by the now-defunct company Specter Studios and painted that red as well, making sure it would poke out far enough from the coat to be seen, and I decided to NOT paint myself red. (We tried to get a hockey glove so I could have a semblance of a huge left hand, but that particular plot didn’t pan out. Alas.

So…bad-ass inspiration:

Fan-girl version:

….Heh!

And, of course, no one got it. At all. Even with the t-shirt. I was pretty much just Satan at a family event. Woohoo!!! Thank heavens I didn’t bring a cigar as well.

The important thing, though, was that I walked faster than last time…I went from 58:30 to 54:53. I’m learning that first my shins will hurt. Then my ankles will hurt. And that will suck. A lot. But if I keep going, that will all go away and my right foot will be the only thing that hurts – specifically, the plantar fascia. And that will hurt for the next few days. (I am assuming this will get better as I lose some weight.)

I still can’t stay I enjoy walking. But! I’m happy that I was faster this time.

This Saturday, I do it again…in a cemetery. Without horns. :)