Recap Time.

Clint’s 40th

Clint’s birthday was January 29th. Sadly, I was out of town on a business trip so was unable to celebrate with him that day, but if you recall, I left him a few decorations to get him by until I returned. 🙂

He was able to meet his mom, stepdad and son, Kyle, for dinner that evening which made me feel so much better about being gone. I was excited to get back Friday evening so he could open his gift from me! This gift took me days of research you guys. Seriously.

The anticipation… what is it? Even Champ couldn’t wait to find out!

THAT, my friends, is a moonshine still. I picked one out that he gets to actually solder together himself. He is totally stoked. Watch out, folks. Pirtle Moonshine, coming right up!

Friday evening we chose to stay low-key because Saturday was a whole other story! We traveled to Des Moines, IA where we met up with a group of friends that came in from all areas. Clarinda, Cedar Rapids, lake of the Ozarks, Omaha … even VEGAS! The look on Clint’s face when Cole walked into the bar we were at that afternoon was priceless. Sadly for me my iPhone was being stupid and I didn’t catch it on camera.

We had a ton of fun walking around downtown Des Moines, even during the snow storm. All that snow turned the men into 10 year old adolescents again. I can’t even tell you how many snowball fights were had while we walked from bar to bar. Priceless.

SUCH a fun night!

I think we all had a blast….

Until the drive home the next day.

Interstate was a bit sketchy…

Slow and steady won the race!

Cheers!

Apparently I like to spend my weekends running long distances.

Who am I?

m2m

This past Saturday I added the Market to Market Iowa Relay to my list of races. M2M is a relay race between two cities, 6-8 person teams, 75 total miles, 17 exchange points and a celebrated group finish.

It. Was. Awesome.

We set up our groups into two 6-person teams so that each team had one person running every stage. Having a partner turned out to be a great idea. More time to chat and less time to focus on the rainy weather and the miles.

Meet my team:

Team Runaway Brides

And the other team

Off Like A Prom Dress

minus 1 because she was already running

Each team had a runner 1, 2, 3, etc. At each exchange point the runners would pass a timing chip off to the next group. This exchange happened for 17 stages.

6person

I was runner 3 and was teamed up with Tracy, a fellow fitness instructor.

Tracy and I found ourselves with very similar stories, which made the distances seem shorter as we had much to talk about. We also challenged each other by running at faster paces then we normally would. Our running distances weren’t bad at all, but when you combine the distances with long intervals of rest, your body tends to respond with stiffness.

Tracy and I

It took us a little over 11 hours to run the 75 miles. We managed to hit all the weather elements, minus snow. Cold, Rain, Wind, Hot. But, we had an absolute blast. I only knew four of the 12 runners so it was a perfect set-up as we had so much to talk about and learn.

Highlights from Leg One