laffin' & lovin'

Well, lots of things happened on the way to San Diego.  It’s all funny now, but only a few things were funny at the time.  

For those of you to whom I didn’t gush about my week in California, the thing I was looking most forward to was the Ragnar Relay race.  The Ragnar is a 202 mile relay race from Huntington Beach, CA to San Diego, CA.  There have been bunches of e-mail form “coach” (my brother) pre-race.  Those e-mails were addressed to our team “Nike’s Redheaded Stepchild.”  They went to a bunch of Hurley employees and two implants (myself and Jeff).  After months of preparation by coach,  weeks of training, and a bunch of e-mails with my new BFF Cindy about how scared we were, we piled into two vans and hit the ground running.  

Things that were funny at the time:

1. Cindy wearing a towel on hear head that she would then give to Mangan while looking like an Amish woman with the backdrop resembling Lancaster, PA.

2. How SWEET Van 1 was in comparison to Van 2.

Van 2:

3. Billy running 3 miles before officially running his first leg.

5. Courtney zooming in on Jeff at the table after we finished and passing the picture of his thighs around the table.

6. Cindy calling us from a shopping mall…after running seven miles in the wrong direction.

7. Telling Mangan we wouldn’t be able to finish with him and popping out from behind benches and trees to join him!

8. Bill and Mangan having a slumber party in the top of the van.

9. Reflective vests.

Things that are funny NOW that weren’t funny at the time:

1. Finding out that Billy was wondering in the middle of a busy road .5 miles away from his exchange then finding him on a stretcher being wheeled into an ambulance.  Followed by this picture which was when we knew we were able to laugh.  (Billy wants to be like Cindy.)

2. 110 degree heat index.

3. No air conditioner in110 degree weather.

4. Packing all of the Gatorade in the trunk, then going to open it and it being broken.  Cindy went under the seats to pull out everyone’s things and all of our Gatorade…in 110 degree weather.

5. We drank 36 bottles of Gatorade among the 5 of us.

6. Sleeping for only an hour before leg 2…in the van/trunk of the van.

7. Coming in 11th place out of 309 co-ed teams and 34th place out of 539 teams with one runner down, one that went 7 miles in the wrong direction, and one that ran at a walking pace (me HAHA)!!!!!

Thanks for welcoming me to the Hurley family, Stepchildren.  Only insane people think what we did was fun.  Glad to be among like, insane minds.  Van 2, thanks for your counseling and support and the cold towels.  Ragnar 2013 training starts after my half marathon!

This past weekend, the girls headed to Charleston, SC. I flew into Charlotte to spend a day with my cousin Courtney and her family and even had the treat of grabbing coffee with two Citizen Schools NC friends :)

Then I headed down to Charleston to spend the weekend chatting, giggling, meandering, and soaking up some sun, great conversation and comfort from some of the most important people in my life.