The Big Debut

On Saturday, June 23, The Flying Carrot project made its big (well big-ish) debut at Bob's Bash 5K, 9K, and 20-mile race. The race was held at Aspen Valley Ranch in Woodland Park. After many trials at finding the right location to position the bus, we found the perfect shady spot. From there set-up began as we decked out the inside of the bus with educational artwork created by students from the Food, Culture, Community and Health class at UCCS. While the bus remains unpainted for now, we printed a large poster of The Flying Carrot logo to add pizzaz to the outside of the bus. 

The interactive educational piece included a taste testing of fresh, seasonal produce (peas, broccoli, turnips, beets, garlic scapes) from Venetucci Farm and arugula walnut pesto made with arugula and garlic scapes from Harlan Wolfe Ranch. Homemade thyme crackers (made with thyme from my own garden) made a tasty accompaniment to the pesto and served as a salty treat for the 20-mile runners. Recipes for the pesto and crackers were provided as well. Another activity involved something called the healthy plate, which is a guide to how to eat to support optimal health. Depending on your level of activity, there are 3 options: the healthy plate for those who are only lightly active or focusing on weight management, the fitness plate for those who are moderately active, and the performance plate for athletes who regularly train and compete at a high level. We provided paper plates and a variety of art supplies with the idea that people (mainly children) would create their own healthy plate. Hard to tell if this activity is a total success yet because there were only 2 children at the event and I could only convince one to participate. :) Nonetheless, she seemed to have a great time! My favorite part of her plate was when she used watercolors to represent her favorite fruits and vegetables (i.e. a stripe of red for strawberries, a splash of purple for eggplant, and green for salad). Additionally, there was a colorful handout on how to identify a whole food. 

While we knew the event was going to be small, it was even smaller than expected. This was partly due to the Waldo Canyon Fire that started just before the race, creating less than ideal conditions for the runners in addition to the already challenging elevation, heat, and difficulty of the course. Despite the low turnout, we took advantage of the few spectators we had and shared the purpose of the Flying Carrot project and got ideas for future events. The feedback seemed positive (the event photographer particularly liked the crackers and pesto)! Overall, it was a great place to start as we prepare for bigger events.