Palmetto 200

OK. OK. OK. So the Palmetto 200 was one of the best times I’ve ever had. What an unbelievable 24 hours. Here’s a recap of what went down:

Thursday

5:30 p.m. We meet at my friend’s house to get into the van we’ve reserved for the weekend.

5:30 p.m. We get an update from Andrew who is picking up the van that the rental company doesn’t have any vans available… and apparently a rezzie doesn’t mean shit. (We are supposed to meet our other team members, van 2, at Cracker Barrel in Summerville at 6 p.m.—obviously not happening. )

6:45 p.m. The rental company tries to pass off a Ford Expedition as an acceptable form of transportation and living space for 6 people each with 3 bags, a fully stocked cooler, several blankets and towels, various running equipment and recovery items such as foam rollers and resistance stretching bands. HA. Excuse Alamo Rental, we need something much larger than that.

7:30 p.m. Andrews rolls up with a pimped out luxury van that Charles Barkley could do jumping jacks in and still not be close to hitting the ceiling. #winning

8:00 pm. We decide to get dinner at McAlister’s in Tanger. Good call. Delicious. Van 2 is already in Cola, wondering where we are so we send them this nice photo:

soooo....we're running a little late

10:00 p.m. We stock up at Bi-Lo getting bananas, granola bars, lots o’ Gatorade, water, and beer. Gotta stay hydrated.

10:30ish p.m. We arrive at our hotel in Columbia. Not even one potty break along the way. There were 3 girls in the van. #impressive

11:30 p.m. I fall asleep watching the Wofford Terriers do work in the NCAA Championship vs Arkansas. #conquerandprevail #weendeduplosing

Midnight-5:30am I got approximately 3.5 hours of restless, stuffy nosed, shut eye. I was too anxious to really sleep.

Friday

6:20 a.m.: The team meets downstairs in the lobby to get our Palmetto 200 shirts and our team shirts. Van 1 packs up our stuff and we head to the start line, Van 2 follows behind to see our first runner off.

7:00 a.m.: Our first runner, Guillermo, takes off wearing a reflective vest, a head lamp, and two “blinkies” because it’s still pretty damn dark out and he’s got a five miler through downtown Columbia. This shit just got real.

scrambled legs pre-race- G is all geared up and ready to go

7:00 a.m.—Noonish: Van 1 runs the town, covering 43 miles. Got stuck in the mud once. Danced the Bernie at a gas station (evidence below). Crushed our first leg and we are all jacked up on adrenaline and Gatorade. We hand off the baton (awesome reflective slap bracelet) to Van 2, say good luck and are off to find insane amounts of foods. #crackerbarrelforthewin #biscuitsorcornbread #whychoosesides? #both #carboload

3:00-5:00pm: Van 1 hangs out at Santee State Park, resting, rolling, stretching, until Van 2 finishes its first leg of about 30 miles, between 4 people. As we are waiting for our ridiculous amount of food at CB, we get an update from Van 2: Luke, runner 7, collapses into a ditch only minutes into his first leg. He eventually comes to and seems ok but obviously is out of the race. So Van 2 has to pick up the extra miles. We find out later that Luke has HBP and will need to see a cardiologist to determine if anything else is wrong. Scary stuff. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

5:00 p.m-11 p.m.: We run. Again. This time covering about 37 miles. I run around 9 p.m., there are no street lights and I am a moving hazard for people with epilepsy because I’m covered in reflectors and blinking lights. I make 1 kill at the end of this leg.

me adding my first kill. i was real excited #cheesin'

Saturday

Midnight-1:00am: WaffleHeezie in Moncks Corner. Van 2 is on the way to crushing 35 miles.

1:00am-4:30am: We don’t sleep. We try. We try SO SO HARD. But vans, regardless of how luxurious they are, are still not conducive to sleep, especially the sleep you need for a 24 hour race.

4:30am-10:00am: We run. Covering 33 miles. I make 2 kills. BOOM.

10:00 a.m.- 2:30: Van 2 covers the last 6 legs of the race, covering about 31 miles of Mt Pleasant, Sullivan’s Island, downtown, and back to Mt Pleasant to end at Patriots Point.

Saturday night after the celebration at Patriots Point, I came home and slept for an embarrassingly long 12 hours. The past 48 hours had been so hectic and so fun. Our van covered 111 miles in under 17 hours. This was a two day adventure I will always remember, I highly recommend to anyone who runs, and I can't wait to do it again next year.

just chillin' at McAlister's 

Lauren just breakin' it down in the van

G is a phenomenal dancer

Santee State Park taken over my exhausted runners

loungin' at Santee 

after we finished our night runs 

trying to smoothly pass the baton to Andrew (I was not smooth)

Jamie and me right before one of my legs

i was cold

Andrew coming in hot 

a little football action. we are all super athletic, obviously

like i said, we are skilled in every sport

G, Lauren, Me, James at a check-point

cracker barrel was a must. #nofoodleftbehind

this is what a smooth hand-off looks like

Jamie starting her 8 mile run like a boss

G crushing his second leg like it's nothing #areyouevenwinded?

"Screw it" became our motto after the Thursday night debacle

van 1 baby

holla from the way way back

van 1 all smiles after we finished day 1 

adding my kills

DONE. #whendoirunagain?

so fun

what a beauty

scrambled legs finish photo

finish line photo- take two

just saying...

Cruise News

Hey, remember that time I said I was going on a cruise? Like over a month ago? Yeah, well that happened. And it came and went and we're back alive. No crazy norovirus, no loss of power, no toilets backing up. Basically, it was a normal and enjoyable cruise. Five days was the perfect amount of time to be away. It was enough time to relax, read a book or two, get a short-lived tan, and then want to return to your normal routine at home.

We went on an older ship, the Carnival Fascination. But it was still really nice and it lives in Jacksonville, which was such an easy drive to make. I had no idea how close the port was. If you live in Charleston, you could decide you want to cruise on the Fascination one day and then be at the port that afternoon. Hey...anyone wanna go? Anyone?

We had two days at sea bookending two days in port. The morning of our first sea day was a little disappointing, weather wise. It rained from about 10am-noon, so we wandered the ship and played trivia. The Jones family is a hardcore trivia team. We don't play around. We take trivia very seriously and always, always walk away with at least one gold ship on a stick to prove our vast knowledge. This time, we won in "general" trivia, which means we are geniuses in a myriad of areas, including but not limited to geography, history, sports, pop culture, bad 80s music, and Disney princesses.

In Nassau, we spent the day in Atlantis. This was probably my favorite part of the trip. I knew Atlantis was going to be enormous and beautiful and fun, but it was all those things to the tenth power. Every surface was sparkling and fancy. There was a gorgeous casino and luxury shops on the main floor of the resort. Based on how gorgeous the lobby was, I can't even imagine what the rooms are like. I would have loved to get a tour of some of the suites. I did find some photos online of the grand luxury suites and they are unbelievable... and of course cost a few mortgage payments. I know that because the prices aren't listed online, which can only be bad. We spent about an hour exploring the aquarium which ran along the bottom of the hotel's lobby. There were some huge Groupers, like the size of mini horses and yellow mini sea horses the size of the banana runt. You know the candy, runts...? That's what the sea horses looked like. Atlantis is home to an unreal number of pools and water slides and we took advantage of the coolest looking slides that day. There was one that went straight down into the fiery depths of hell, I mean into a shark tank, really into a shark tank. It was called the Leap of Faith, and I'd say the name fits. The drop is terrifying and really does feel like its a 90 degree angle. You fall so fast that your back kind of comes up off the back of the slide. You fall for a second or two in an open air slide and then you get shot into a closed clear tunnel that's in the middle of a shark tank. It all happens so fast, but you can kind of see the sharks swimming around you as you zip past. And even if you can't see them, you know they're there... which might even be scarier. But really, it was awesome. My dad and I went on it three times and laughed our asses watching each other get shot out of the tunnel at the end. Good times.  Just take a gander at this video and you'll get an idea of how awesome the water park is.

At Half Moon Cay, Carnival's private island, we did nothing. We laid in the sun and did nothing. And it was wonderful. 

Oh yeah, I did swim once, just to say I went in the clear Bahamian waters and had silver fish darting around my knees.

The last day was another sea day, so we spent it outside enjoying the sun, catching comedy and karaoke shows, and kicking ass in trivia.

On the drive home the next day, we spent two out of the three hours planning our next cruise, because that's just what we do. 

Here's the playlist of answers from the 90s music trivia game we played...and lost. You were given a snip-it of the song and then asked to identify it. It's a good list. The 90s had awesome music. There were some more songs too, but like I said, we lost.

1. I Want It That Way- BSB

2. Crossroads- Bone Thugs n Harmony

3. Hit Me Baby One More Time- Britney Spears

4. Fantasy- Mariah Carey

5. Gangsta's Paradise- 

6. Say My Name- Destiny's Child

7. Never Gonna Get It-

8. Killing Me Softly- Lauren Hill

9. Iris- Goo Goo Dolls

10. MmmBop- Hanson

11. Butterfly- Crazy Town

12. Return of the Mack-Mark Morrison
13. Bitch- Alanis Morissette


Here's some more photos. Thanks, Gart.

Yeah...this.

the leap of faith

models

good looking parents

cuties...and amazing dancers

aquarium 

ancient diving suit...cool right?

Preston, killing it.

P and me in front of some crazy sculpture in the Atlantis lobby 

Fascination from the shore 

towel dog holding a butter (chocolate)

Let's go Rays! 

groupers the size of a Toyota Prius

more fish

jellies

Nemo

another of P with the diving suit

moray eel

ancient diving pod. neato.

Half-Moon Cay

towel frog

creepy towel bunny

food and drinks ready to be packed aboard for the next cruise

Being a phenomenal indoor soccer player and an expert trail runner is so tough, I need a vacation.

This month has been a blur. Being a shorter month, February always comes and goes way too quickly. That being said, I feel like a bunch of things have happened these past 3 weeks. Let's recap.

I started playing arena soccer with my best friend from middle and high school. She and I played soccer together from the ages of about 10-18. Then we went to separate colleges and stopped playing for awhile. There was a summer during college where we played full field coed soccer. It was fun but once I got obsessed with running and krav, I just couldn't make the time for it each year. Until this winter when Eliza told me to join her weekly "indoor" soccer team. The games are outside but in an uncovered arena. You play off the walls and it's really face paced. Using the walls is exciting, because you can get awesome rebounds and goals by intentionally passing to another player off the walls near the goal. But you can also get duped on defense by players who wall pass to themselves and get around you. I am pretty familiar with this second example. 90% of the time, I'm the one getting duped. We aren't the best team out there but we aren't the worst either. I think we've won about half of them so far, but the weather has forced us to cancel some too. Ain't nobody got time to play in 30 degree downpours. #nothankyoupneumonia #gohome Anyway, it's been really fun spending time back on the "field" and catching up and reminiscing about soccer days with an old friend. (Our team name is the Pattaters in case you want to be a fan an follow the standings.)

Me attempting a wall pass.

I recently signed up for the Palmetto 200, which is a 200 mile team relay race from Columbia to Charleston. I'm on a team of 12 and we each run 3 legs, all with a few hours in between each leg. So there is only 1 person running from each team at a time. The race starts Friday morning and ends Saturday afternoon. That being said, there will be some runners who get night runs. Exciting! (Read as terrifying!) We meet soon to assign our legs. Speaking of legs, the way they broke out the legs is illogical. You would think they would divide 200 miles by 12 and get 16.67 miles for each runner. Right? Makes sense to me. But based on the "worksheet" I got via email, it's like leg distances were created arbitrarily. Some runners are running 12 miles total, while others are running 24. Say whaaat?!? If I get assigned to 20+ miles, I will kill my friend who pressured me into this. Anyway, I'll keep you posted mom and dad.

Krav life has been good. I'll start teaching my own Wednesday night class at 7:30 in March. It's going to be basic krav skills from level 1 and level 2 with a bunch of cardio throughout, because Lord knows I love cardio. Doesn't everyone? I am hoping to have a good steady following of students. I've had several women come up to me and tell me how excited they are to have a female instructor and to see a female that knows how to defend herself and fight if she needs to. I'm hoping to inspire more people to become more confident in self-defense techniques and also more prepared mentally and physically to do whatever it takes to get home safely.

On to more fun things...my family is going on a cruise this weekend. It's a five dayer out of Jacksonville. We have two days at sea, a day at Nassau, and a day at Half Moon Cay private beach. It should be nice little getaway and an escape from this awful and wet 30 degree weather we've had here. Counting down the hours to sunshine, cocktails, and a midnight chocolate buffet...less than 24 hours. BOOM. Can't wait.

cruisin'

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit

"My two daughters are in the habit of saying 'Rabbits!' on the first day of each month. The word must be spoken aloud, and be the first word said in the month. It brings luck for that month. Other children, I find, use the same formula." -- Notes and Queries, 1909

"Why," the man in the brown hat laughed at him, "I thought everybody knew 'Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit.' If you say 'Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit'—three times, just like that—first thing in the morning on the first of the month, even before you say your prayers, you'll get a present before the end of the month." -- Robert Lynd, Solomon in All his Glory, 1922

Yesterday was the first day of February, hence the title and allusions to start the post. The tradition of saying RRR has always been a thing in my family since I was little. My mom would remind my brother and me before going to bed that we had to say "rabbit rabbit rabbit" first thing when we woke up the next morning or we'd have bad luck all month. And even to this day, at the ages of 26 and 29, we will get a text message from her with the reminder, sometimes it's simply the three rabbit emojis. My mom is becoming quite the savvy tech and social media guru. :|

This past weekend was  Super Bowl XLIX, which means Super Bowl 49 for all you normal people. My parents came over to watch the game, but my bro and I had been sick for the last few days and he fell asleep at like 8:30. So our Super Bowl "party" was more of a boring coughing/dozing get together. And I was the only one rooting for Seattle. #cheatershouldntwin #ughwhy'dtheywin? 

Even if he lost, he'd still be winning. LOOK at that family. 

Monday was Groundhog's Day, and Punxsatawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter. Womp Womp. But from my research, I've learned that Phil is pretty much an idiot. His accuracy rating is a  39%. He's made 119 predictions (even though groundhogs only live about 6 years). Because Phil is failing predictions class, I'm not banking on this cold continuing. But during my research to prove that Phil is a furry fat dolt, I came across the history of Groundhog Day, as well as several sites in honor of the Bill Murray movie. I actually think I had to scroll through an entire page of Google search results to find the holiday. Anyway, the Groundhog Day celebration is rooted in a Celtic tradition that says if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on February 2, the Pagan holiday of Imbolc, winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow was seen, legend says spring would come early. So now I wonder, why a groundhog? I suggest we choose a smarter hibernating animal or reverse the rule. 

Punxsatawney Phil pondering seasonal change.

Well, welcome to February. Let's hope spring gets here soon!