Summer recap

It is hard to believe that it is already August 11th. As usual, the summer flew by!

I still am completely undecided on Fall marathon plans. There are many factors playing into this, but eventually I'll need to get it together and decide what the hell I am going to do. 

It was been an interesting summer of activity. After the pre-Hartford summer training schedule of 2016 (in the wretched heat) I was interested in a less structured summer. 

It has been fun.

Here is a photo montage of how it has gone down. 

Family Party Run the mountain (peak one)

My cousin Evan and I ran from home, to Hawk Mt, to Mt Ti'rem prior to our annual family party to make sure it could be done. 

It could, so when the day came all the crazy kids joined in. 

And it was awesome.

On the way down, meeting the family hiking up!

At the base of Mt Ti'rem, peak 2. Sweaty. 

Runners and hikers at the top of Ti'rem

We made it to the top, and the kids did pushups... Obviously! 

Cousin party at the Bradlowski's!

We saw a double rainbow. 

We had a blind taste test beer geek competition

The following weekend, I went to a horse show and qualified for Regionals

Annnnd then, we went to Beach To Beacon! (with 8,000 others)

That's my sister on the right. Photo cred: Eric

Whoot! Done! 54:06

Attempted murder

Our only official race pic

And then the next day. Who knows what the fuck this is. 

Oh! A duathlon. Because that makes sense. First bike ride in 2.5 years.
(aka: good thing I am a halfway decent runner)

We won! We won! Who needs training?!? 

Before the bike goes back into the basement, I went  on a Green Machine group ride.
I. Was. TERRIFIED.

This merits an extra paragraph.
I am NOT a strong cyclist by any means. I had a fun time doing the duathlon, whilst and at the same time watching the WHOLE race cycle on by me.
Oh well.

So, before I retired the bike for another 2.5 years, I decided that I'd take one last ride.
Eric goes to Norway, almost weekly for the Green Machine Bike shop group ride.
I have always assumed that these rides were for experts only.

WRONG!
They have different groups for all levels, even for noobs like me.

I went, (after deciding NOT to go, no fewer than 357 times) and I had a blast.
It was very enjoyable riding with people my own speed, and it felt much safer riding in a group.
While I don't foresee much biking in my future, if I take the old beast out again it will be for another group ride!

Celebrating not dying on the bike, with beer. 

That's about it from here.
It has been a wonderful summer, but a really busy one.
While my training regimen has been wildly unstructured, I have been enjoying the activities that I have been doing.
We'll see what happens now that the fall race season is just on the horizon....

Disney Wine & Dine 10K: part one of Lumiere's Challenge 2016

Earlier this year, when there was internet buzz about how the Disney Wine and Dine half marathon weekend was going to change in 2016 I paid attention.
Up until this year, the 13.1 had been a night race. And a late one at that, with a 10:00PM start. This was a race start that seemed to be loved by many, but for my tired ass held zero interest.
When (much to the dismay of many, it seemed) the race received a morning start, and the weekend turned into a challenge with the addition of a 10k, Eric and I splurged for our second Disney Race experience of 2016. We had enjoyed the Dopey Challenge so much more than we expected that we concluded book-ending the year with Disney races would be fun. (needless to say, our budget wasn't as psyched about this as we were. We cut many other race weekend out to do this....)

Beautiful weather, uneventful travels.

We had an uneventful travel day on Thursday, November 3rd and landed in Orlando around Noon to find some of the best weather we have experienced there. The theme of 80, mostly sunny and perfect would continue all week (thank the LORD. We have felt screwed by the weather during previous trips!)

Beautiful Port Orleans Riverside. Perfect, as long as you don't mind sharing bus stops with 10,000 people

We had already had a long day of travel by the time we checked in. For the second time in as many trips, check in was a nuisance, and we found that we had been downgraded to a far lesser room that the one we had booked about 700 years ago. I have heard of upgrades but what's the deal with getting a downgrade!? The issue was resolved but it was time consuming and an annoying first world problem.

Expo and bib pick up. Easy as pie.

After getting our room fiasco sorted, we hopped on a bus to the expo which, after Dopey, we were experts at zipping through. It was DEAD. We easily could have been in and out in 10 minutes or less but we took a bit of time to look at some merchandise and pick up some new shoes for Eric, as he was getting horrible blisters.

Perfect Florida night

We continued our day of non-stop transportation by heading off to dinner at Il Mulino. This was an enjoyable dinner (at The Swan) and we always enjoy a boat ride (to then get on a bus!)

Harry Potter world fun!

We planned our trip to have an extra, non race day on Friday which we made good use of. 

Neither of us had ever been to Universal before. We decided to make visiting a priority on this trip since we don't plan to head back to Orlando for a while. Since we are both Harry Potter aficionados it's pretty amazing that we waited this long to go! (we had planned to go in January but the weather was just too horrid.) We lucked out in the weather department and had a lovely day exploring Universal and feeling too scared to ride most of the attractions. Universal is certainly more of a thrill seekers park! While I personally love a good thrill I don't like feeling motion sick.... In my old age I find that I hit the barf button pretty quickly.  

Knowing that we had a VERY early wake up call the next day we had planned to leave before the park closed. This was made easy, Universal closed very early for a Halloween event so even if we had wished to stay and ruin our feet with miles of walking we could not have!

Back to our resort we went, and we had a low key evening.

Eric and I are perennial fans of Disney "pool bars" and we enjoyed a perfect Florida evening sipping wine and avoiding mosquitoes.

As expected we were up quite early the next day.

We followed our Dopey prep plan, alarm at 3:00, coffee and breakfast in the room, out the door and on a bus as close to 3:30 as we could manage.

While the lines for the buses were significant, we had very little wait.Mostly because we don't mind standing room only.

We zipped right over to the DAMN GLORIOUS EPCOT PARKING LOT, which almost feels like a second home to us now!!

We saw this guy! The 10K/13.1 was "Lumeire's Challenge"

When you remember to submit proof of time you get Corral A!

Since we are the ultimate Disney race experts at this point, we knew the importance of submitting proof of race times. As much as we had enjoyed our view from Corral LAST in January we wanted a different experience this time.

Well, we got it!

The most obvious difference was the much shortened wait time for the start. Compared to the long and tedious waits that we enjoyed (haha) during Dopey, this time we felt like it was instant gratification! The other notable change was the traffic. The runners in Corral A are quick people so we found that running at any pace was comfortable. We were never impeded by other people and, had we been fit to do so (I, personally was NOT) we could have easily been faster. However, that requires fitness which wasn't a thing.

Also, take note of my outfit. Those stripes are enviable.

And just like that, we were starting!

As mentioned, the wait to start was brief. It was a warm and pleasant morning and by 5:00 they had our corral moving to the starting line.

Everyone's taking the selfies

Originally, many months ago, I had a ridiculous plan to lay down a sweet age group PR in the 10k at this race. I rarely run 10k's, and rarely run them well so I figured if, after Hartford I focused a bit on short speed work I could manage this feat with ease. I was secretly hoping to really hammer on it and manage a 45:xx which I have not been able to do in quite some time. I was pretty fit in October and I dreamed that a focus shift to speed work would yield results.

As it happened, the only thing I focused on after Hartford was slacking off.

My fastest run since then had been an 8:58 ap and my longest run was 6 miles. HA! Not exactly a recipe for success but oh well, this has taught me that I really shouldn't have lofty goals so soon after a fast marathon.

At this point, most of you know that, despite everything I did pull off a small AG PR, beating my time from the BAA 10K by a bit,and finishing in 47:16. 

All things being taken into account, I was completely happy with my results and only pulled them off because Florida is bone flat. Despite being somewhat unfit, I can grind through 6 miles at mid 7:xx pace.

Dudes, it felt fast though and was a gross and sweaty effort!

I enjoyed the course, it was exactly the same as the 10k in Dopey.

There were 3 miles of boring bone flat highway which was pretty fun because it was so flat that it basically felt like running downhill with a strong tailwind. 

I don't think that these were popular miles for the Disney diehards, it was dark and quiet. Not much going on. For me, it felt like a normal race day (but dark.) Not much princess photo potential though. 

Then, there were a few miles of Boardwalk/Epcot which, while more pleasant to look at were a bit jarring because twists and turns in the dark tend to trip me up.

I emerged unscathed.

And, I emerged, victorious into a GLORIOUS parking lot to take top honors.

*ahem* *ahem*

VICTORY WAS OURS!!!!!

Since we basically won the whole race we had to wait a bit for a bus because the road was still closed! Oh dear, the many challenges of being in Corral A, and being *elite* athletes.

Eric had enjoyed a good run, with one unfortunate potty break. Despite Reggie making life difficult he still finished in 52:00 and fresh as a daisy. (or something, it was quite muggy!)

It was still absolutely pitch black dark which made me think that the people who were sad about things being changed to "daytime" racing needed to rethink! It certainly still felt like night!

Chilling with Andy

Per the norm after a Disney race, we were back to the resort, showered and fed before 7AM. For the remainder of the day we moseyed around enjoying the weather, sitting poolside and sending lots of snaps to Andy since we missed him! (Andy joined in for the Dopey Challenge adventure back in January, we amused ourselves by sending him pics of glorious parking lots, magical buses, porta potties and such...)

I must admit that I noticed my lack of fitness as the day progressed. My speedwork muscles were crying a little and, overall, I felt rather stiff and uncomfortable. Of course, this was completely and totally deserved! One can't expect to feel great when they aren't particularly well trained.

Much rest required !

We enjoyed our afternoon of relaxation and, other than a trip to Disney Springs for dinner (and a shocking amount of walking to be honest) we did very little.

Once again, we tried to make it an early night as 3:00 is a painful hour to wake at....

Next up: The 13.1, does it turn into a splash 'n dash like the past 2 years? Do we remember to set our clocks back? Do we win the whole challenge or simply whimper our ways to the finish??

MORE TO COME......

BAA 10K: the tardy edition

Since I haven't blogged in over a month I need to backtrack a bit.
June was, in a way, an uneventful month. After a fairly long stretch of training and marathoning I had decided to use June a a time to sort out a few small physical issues (nothing major- but I felt the real potential for the development of something unpleasant...)
(This really deserves a blog post of its own. In case I don't get around to it the short story is: ran Boston, was strong. In the following 6 weeks felt some discomfort develop. Used June to rest from running (80 mile month) Get fixed up (3 chiro/ART appt's) and to do a lot of strength/rebuilding. At this time, I declare success!)

So back on topic now.

Eric and I ran the BAA 10K a couple weekends ago.
Eric is running the BAA Distance Medley this year because this is the year of *all* the extra medals and new adventures! He ran the 5k prior to Boston and the 13.1 is in October.
I always enjoy a good 10k (but not B2B haha) so I jumped on board post haste.

AS IS THE NORM. The weather looked HOT. It was scheduled to be another 88 degree day! WHY.
Luckily, we were really looking forward to spending some time with my family in the Boston area and that was a good motivator to get pumped even when the weather looked gross.
Since the race had an 8AM start we also felt confident that it would be much closer to 70-75, which it was.

We did indeed have a terrific family (and excellent beer) pizza party! It was great to see everyone and most of my attending cousins and their spouses were competing in the Cohasset Tri the next morning. This prompted many amusing discussions about the merits/need for body glide, how to get out of wetsuits, how NOT to transition (by eating and showering) and poop. Normal stuff.

Beer EXCELLNCE

Sunday dawned all sunny. And hot. *sigh* We all got up and put on body glide and tried to poop and then went off to our various race destinations.

Eric and I hopped on the T which was wicked convenient and off we went.
There were other runners on the train with us, pre race cigarettes in hand, ready to go. *serious* athlete alert!

On the T. See that sun? Gorgeous but warm!

We got to the city in time to stand in a porta potty line, have Shalane Flanagan and Amy Hastings run RIGHT (as in RIGHT) by us and to try to properly self seed ourselves in an honest way. Which was dumb, because apparently everyone thinks they are faster that they are. Oh well...

You call can't be Amy, so don't try to line up with her!

We were able to watch the elites finish their warm up (it was really impressive). Old news here but Shalane went on to win and set an American Record! I am a big fan of all 3 of the women running the Olympic Marathon and it was so cool getting to see two of them up close and personal.

Front row seat!!

And then.... We were off. And as seems to be the tragic norm in any self seeding situation the going was slow for a while. I got a bit irked about this, if you can't run 6 miles at a 7:00 pace that is fine. Occasionally I can run a random mile at a 6:xx pace. One mile. Occasionally. I don't line up in the 6:00 area because I don't want to get trampled, yo. DON'T BE A DUMMY. Line up where you belong. It's OK to run a 12:00 damn mile!!!! It's ok to run a 5:00 mile!! (yikes) Go where you belong. Knock it off.

The first mile was in the shade and was bone flat, so really pleasant if I do say so. This made me feel better about the crowd (which, after running the 4 on the 4th seems more like a litttttttle traffic jam but whatever.)
I had no goal for this race other than to not vomit or feel like an asshole so that was nice. The thing about running a race, whether I have a big goal or not is that I'm going to give it my best shot within my current fitness level. That's basically what happened.

After mile one things got pretty warm because the shade vanished (boooo.) The crowd also thinned out and I more or less chugged along, grabbed a couple cups of water (which speaks to the intensity of the sun because 6 miles isn't really that far) and I watched the fast people whip by around the 3 mile mark.
The remainder of the race was similar, warm but reasonable running conditions. A continuation of a good effort. Pretty flat course and people moving at a similar speed to me. 

I ran a pretty solid effort which I think very accurately represented my level of fitness on a relatively flat course on a warm day. I pushed as hard as I could without being willing to vomit or foolishly injure myself. I certainly felt as though I was giving a 100% effort on the day. This pleased me as I have a tendency to swing hard one way or the other- being overly cautious or pushing much faster than my level of fitness permits. I worked the whole time. And I did not barf.

My finishing time was 47:37 which is a nice AG PR for me.
As soon as I was finished I felt like it was 10,000 degrees out as the sun was blazing down like a little skank.
I met a really nice lady (Anne? Was that you?) who somehow recognized me and told me that she read my blog. I felt like I needed to apologize since my blog is garbage! But thanks Anne, you are nice to read here and congrats on a good run!

Eric was right behind me all covered in sweat, as one tends to be. He had run a 49:05 and had had a good race too.

Team Bradlowski! So hot and smelly. Gross!

We stood in front of some amazing misting fans that blew the most icy mist that I have ever felt in June. It reminded me of a nasty Maine morning in March. I'm not sure how this worked because I did not investigate the inner workings of said misting fans but it was delightful.

We sat in the shade for a bit which was quite pleasant. There wasn't much humidity so once you got out of the scorching sun it wasn't a bad day!

View from the Shade

After that we got back on the train, headed back to Scituate, showered and had a wonderful lunch with the Triathletes, comparing notes on the day. Everyone seemed a bit knackered, which in my opinion is the real sign of a good race day!

And that was that. Eric and I headed back home so that I could get ready for the start of Camp season at 8AM the next day (hence, my delayed reaction to blogging. About anything!!)

Next up:
The 4 on the 4th, a horrible time
The Harrison 5K, why is it always 90?
Marathon training: it begins

2016 Dopey Challenge: 10k time

Part three of our Dopey Challenge Experience: The one with the rain..

Friday morning.
Almost a carbon copy of the day before.
Out of bed at 3:00, bad coffee, PB sandwiches, dressed and ready to go walked outdoors AND.

........It was raining........ Like a lot. Real rain, big fat angry drops.

This was not exactly what the forecast had called for but we were more prepared than the day before. We were armed with multiple throw away layers, mylar blankets, gloves, the works. We quickly caught a bus and were on site ready to enter the lovely corral F by 4:00.
Expect the corral did not open until 4:15.

We tried to hide in a tent for a bit. We knew that we wouldn't be allowed to linger but for 5 minutes we stayed nice and dry. I was able to check the radar while lurking behind the rain fly and it did not look good.

Short lived tent hiding.

Once settled into our corral I made my emergency blanket into a make shift tent of sorts and hunkered down, eating all my snacks for a good half hour or so. By the time I emerged the corral was full and Eric and Andy had once again made friends (shout out to our fun Texas triathlete friends!)

My cozy tent

Right at 5:30 things got underway and right off we knew something was up. There was a 10 minute hold between corrals. UGH.
One part of my brain was pleased and hoped that this would take care of the unbelievable gridlock that we experienced in the 5K. The other half of my brain just wanted to get going already! In the end it was no big deal. Other than getting very hungry we suffered no ill effects and actually had good time with our new found race friends.

The start of the race was a carbon copy of the day before, we headed to the start, race announcers told the same lame jokes, tiny fireworks and BOOM off we went.
Except it was pouring. I was glad that I was wearing my less favored pair of shoes!

See the rain? Yeah.

We proceeded to have a perfectly pleasant run. I can't speak for Eric and Andy but I enjoyed myself much more than the previous day. We had a small stretch of highway which really freed up the bottleneck and allowed for some actual running. Right around that time we lost Andy to a bathroom break (we had decided before the race, that if anyone needed to stop they would be left! Bwahahah.)
Eric and I continued on. There was a lot of dodging puddles as well as other runners. This was a big day for five-across-walkers so that made for a unique challenge.

Rain rain rain, running in the rain! There we go!

We kind of looped back to Epcot and at the International gateway turned towards the Boardwalk. This was a really cool stretch of the race from a visual aspect but very challenging because the crowds were thick and the ground slick. We then went back into Epcot and did a bunch of funky windey turns that eventually took us "out back" (that's the best description that I can muster) and to a glorious parking lot finish (same as the day before.)

Glorious parking lot finish!

We finished in 54:45 which both Eric and I felt good about, with the miles to come, and the crowds and congestion we were both staying remarkably close to goal pace.
Well. I was. Prior to learning of our #lastcorral placements I was shooting for a 26:00 5K, a 52:00 10K, a 2:00 Half and a 4:14 Full. So honestly, this is so much better than I expected!
Plus, I really enjoyed the 10K race and while it was still an adventure of strategy and skill it involved a bit more actual running!

VERY pretty medals!!!

Eric and I headed back to the hotel and due to the amazingly efficient (and warm) bus system we were home and showered before Andy got back. And he was only about 10 minutes behind us!

We originally had considered heading to Universal for the day but the lousy weather promoted us to (happily) change plans. Whether it is Disney or Universal, if you are going to drop $100 on a park ticket then you better plan to make use of it!

We spent the day doing delightful things.
First we all sat in bed drinking hot chocolate and watching terrible TV.

We also had a lot of shoes to dry

Then (at about 9:45) we were (wait for it) ready for lunch so we took a lame bus in the rain to Downtown Disney for some lunch.
When we got there the skies OPENED UP. It was raining so hard that the rain was bouncing off the ground, total, full on pouring!

We hunkered down in Wolfgang Puck's and had a combination of some breakfast and then, when lunch was available some lunch. Eric and I have been here before and we think it is one of the better food choices available. I was so hungry that I basically inhaled my food, and any scraps that the boys would give me so it has my seal of approval.

After eating and a little shopping a miracle happened.
THE SUN CAME OUT!!!!

THE SUN!!! THE SUN!!!

We then got to take the awesome boat back to POFQ. Because I always enjoy a little walk I rode down to Riverside and walked back. It was gorgeous and I thought happy thoughts about how lucky I am to be able to travel to beautiful places to enjoy my hobby.

Yeah, it wasn't ugly

When I got back I found the twins at the pool bar because we had finally decided to let housekeeping in to clean up. Despite our best efforts there was a pile of towels the size of Mt Everest and about 3 full trashcans. Housekeeping might actually have hated us had we not left them fat stacks of cash.

After some relaxing hot tub time it was time to depart for our one fancy dinner at California Grill.
We wanted to take a ride on the monorail beforehand so, with over an hour in hand off we went to catch a bus to the Magic Kingdom.
We waited. We waited more. And some more.
And for a while longer.
And then we got old and died.

We gave up our plans of pre dinner monorail-monorail and started to hope that we would make it there 15 minutes before our reservation to check in, as they expect you to do.

The bus did finally arrive and we proceeded to hit every red light. Then we disembarked as far away from the foot path to the Contemporary as humanly possible. 

We had given up all hope of arriving with 15 minutes to spare and were just hoping to make it in time. We started hoofing it over from the bus ports to the Contemporary with 7 minutes in hand.
SEVEN. SEVEN MINUTES.
We totally would have made it if we had been able to cross the road but no, there was a shit ton of traffic. Andy was somewhat behind us literally cackling in glee as his fitbit was recording a record setting day of steps. This made the power walk of doom more fun! More steps! Winning!

In the end, we made it to the check in booth at exactly 5:15 and found a big ass line.
As previously discussed Disney is good at lines and since we were late we were seated immediately instead of being made to wait. So, we basically won. And dinner was kick ass good so there's that!

You really can't beat the view!

After dinner we did take a loop on the monorail and made more friends (shout out to the family of 21, yes 21 who we had a very amusing conversation with!)

Then we were back on the bus and in bed. Not on the bus.
We knew that the next day would be a little different with a longer walk to the start, twice the number of runners and (obviously) twice the distance for us to cover. We felt that our 8:00 bedtime was a touch on the rebellious side!

And for those of you keeping track:
Today's 10k results:
Sara: 54:46
Eric: 54:47
Andy: 1:07:26

Countown to the Dopey Challenge 2016!

With less than one week to go until we depart it has just occurred to me that I have barely talked about our (my, Eric and Andy's) upcoming Dopey Challenge adventure.

This has been years in the works, and this is no exaggeration! On our second date Eric and I were both about to take on major athletic challenges. He has his first Ironman a few weeks later and I was basically on the eve of my first marathon. I asked him what would be next for him. After all, an Ironman was basically the most outrageous athletic achievement that I could think of! What on earth would one do next?
It was then that he mentioned taking on the Dopey Challenge (for those of you who don't know, because I did not, the Dopey Challenge is 4 races at Disney on 4 consecutive days. A 5k, 10k, 13.1 and 26.2)
My reaction to this wasn't the most positive. First, having never done a marathon I could not see the wisdom in running a bunch or races beforehand (I still see the issue here.) Furthermore, I could not comprehend why someone would travel to Orlando, get up at 2AM every day to race, hardly be able to stay awake to enjoy the parks and ALSO pay about a gazzilion dollars to do so. I also spewed some stuff about feeding the corporate giant blah, blah. (at this point I feel like I do a bit of everything, big corporate giant and tiny homegrown. it's all ok)

As it so often happens as the years passed I began to get on board with this insane idea.
When Eric and I were in Orlando in 2015 we concluded that 2016 would be the year that we would take a crack at it. This may have been fueled by the fact that is was about 48 degrees while we were in Florida, so basically perfect running weather. We also might have had some wine. It's hard to say.

And THEN Eric and Andy turned 40 this year and that's a perfect excuse. Bucket list race! Spend all the coin! (which we did.)

So here we are TODAY. One week until the 3 of us hop on a plane to claim our destiny, or some such bullshit! It really should be a blast, I do enjoy a good Disney trip. Thus far, "RunDisney" has not exactly met the high standards that I expect from a Disney experience but I plan to head into this adventure with an open mind. If nothing else, we are going to be spending 5 days in Florida away from the dumb cold weather and that sounds excellent.

Here is what has happened to this point:
-Sometime last MAY the 3 of us waited with bated breath to drop about $550 each the second the race registration opened. For me, registration was chaos. Everything that you don't want to have happen did (the site would not load, it booted me out half way thru my registration, and THEN after completing the form AGAIN after I put in my credit card it took so long to try to process that it timed out and I had to do the whole damn thing AGAIN.) I know traffic was high and it happens but it was frustrating to me. I was ready to put in my race finishing times to improve my corral placement and there was no obvious or easy way to do this (runDisney- there must be a better way!) And you all know what happened then. I dropped the ball on figuring out what to do/who to email and am now enjoying life in corral P. Totally my mistake but big game changer. But it's cool- it's gonna be about 90 so no need to hustle!

-I literally bought plane tickets the day they went on sale. That was easy. Smart. It's just easier to fly out of Portland and flights sell out so damn fast (lesson learned on previous trips.)

-There was hemming and hawing about where to stay. I did an embarrassing amount of research on onsite vs offsite, the costs involved, transportation, getting to the parks easily. No stone was left unturned.  I should probably consider a career change and be a travel agent, jeesh.
In the end, we decided to stay onsite. Yes, you certainly can get somewhat more spacious accommodations offsite but within the budget we were working with the most logical and time saving conclusion was to stay in a Disney resort and use their transportation.

-I have been to Disney enough to know that if you want to sit down and eat, you get a damn reservation and you get it early. While I wasn't as on the ball as some, we are guaranteed a place to eat each and every night. Done.

-There has been some other behind the scenes crap. Typical stuff like making sure we are in the BEST building (haha I have a preference. Close to the pub. And the extra restrooms since there are 3 of us in a room.) Customizing magic bands (important) Locking down the Fast Pass (CRITICAL) Again, why am I not working in the travel industry? So confusing. 

And that's about it. There are some other details that will make for another amusing pre adventure blog (if I have time!)

I can't speak for Eric and Andy but I'm really looking forward to heading south for a few days. Doing a race like this is certainly something you only do once and I'm planning to slow down a bit (not that I have a choice, corral x for the win) and enjoy the sights!