I ran 6.2 miles. The .2 counts.

A few months ago one of my besties, Maggie, said some of her friends always run the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston and she was going to do it this year.  She asked if I wanted to run, HA. NO WAY JOSE, I said. I HATE running. But, I do like eating and Charleston is known for great food so I said I would ride with.  I'm not sure what happened, but somewhere along the way I signed up....to run...6.2 miles. WHO AM I?

So we trained..kind of..I definitely ran more than I've ever run in my life and I ran 6 miles one time before we headed down so I knew it was possible. I wasn't aware that 1.2 miles of the race was UP UP UP UP UPPPPP, but that's another story. 

We headed down and hit the expo to get a bib for my brother, and one for me- I had paid to have my package shipped but everything MINUS the bib..the most important thing...was missing. #fail.  We got the bags and signed this cool print of the bridge. 

Matt, Caroline and Maggie!

Here we are pre-race! We were in Coral E, one of the over 60 minute groups. There are 40,000 people that run this race and it went extremely smoothly, they have a really good system!

One of the ladies in our corral had on heels, BIG BIG heels. I probably couldn't walk in those, let alone run in them.  Someone else was saying people run in heels for breast cancer awareness....it seems dangerous to me.

AND DONE!  6.2 complete.  I had thought the whole time we were running 6 miles...that .2 at the end sucked. I saw the 6 mile flags and couldn't figure out why everyone was still running.  10k = 6.2 miles, who knew?

My cousin runs every year and she somehow spotted us our of 40,000 people. Good eyes cuzzo.

Maggie and I made some shirts with freezer paper stencils. Pretty neat, I forgot to put cardboard in mine before I painted and kind of got it all over my shirt.

Here are my splits.  Don't judge. I don't see you running 6.38 miles...and if you did, just leave me alone. I'm happy. I finished.  Mile 2-3 was the uphill of the bridge, and it sucked- as you can tell from that time. 

We clean up nice :) After the race it was time to eat and drink mimosas!

Also, we're insane.  We signed up for our second 10k today! YIKES! WHO ARE WE?

Luck of the Irish!

'The World's Largest Bar Crawl' started with mimosas at my parents, we had 10 people come stay the weekend, and then we jumped on the light rail and headed downtown..uptown, whatever.

The crew's all here...kind of.  Some of our group went ahead to meet up with some other folks and we went to Mariah's to pregame!

Me, Mariah, Marisa and Bailey have a tradition of getting together for St. Patrick's.  We went to Columbia, SC 2 years while Mariah was in school there and last year we did the ' World's Largest Bar Crawl' in Charlotte for the first time.  Unfortunately, Bailey couldn't make it this year and we missed her a lot but the show had to go on! 

We hit up Connolly's and then Roxbury.  I rep Charlotte ALWAYS, but I do NOT know my way around.  I  haven't been there really since I was 18 and have only gone out downtown a handful of times.  I had never been to Roxbury which is an 80's bar kind of like Coglin's in Raleigh, but it was really fun!

Group shot at Wild Wing. 

Found my bestie Allie at Wild Wing.

Me and Kristen :)

Towards the end of the night at Mortimers.  Ran into Julia and Justine, and met back up with the rest of the crew sleeping at my house.

Light Railing it home.

Aftermathhhhhhh Sunday morning.  Mom cooked a ton of food and we all grubbed and headed back to Raleigh for another work week. Being grown up is for the birds.

Buzz City

It took almost the whole opening season, but I made a Hornets game!!  A group of us headed down to Charlotte Friday night before the St. Patrick's bar crawl and went to the game.

A few months ago I became OBSESSED with the Honeybee's Nikes and found some on eBay.  I was SO pumped to wear them to the game.

They won woohoo. The Hornets played the Bulls which is kind of neat since Michael Jordan is an owner of the Hornets and used to play for the Bulls!

I had planned to just go home straight after the game, but no one else was from Charlotte and I wanted them to see the view from Fahrenheit, it's supposed to be the best view in the city....it was pretty cloudy, but still pretty.

Power Tower, Martini Building, Duke Power building lit up in Purple and Teal for the Hornets W!

See! There were more friends involved :)

Go Buzz City. I'm so glad I made it to an opening season game and am SO happy the Hornets are back in Charlotte.

It'll Be Fun He Said.....Krispy Kreme Challenge

"Let's run the Krispy Kreme Challenge," he said.  "It'll be fun, " he said. 

So he signed me up.  Campbell Soup Kids. 5 Points to anyone who knows what is wrong with our outfits. 

Casual 5 miles of running and shoving donuts down your throat simultaneously- doesn't this sound like your ideal Saturday? Oh, let me add that you have to wake up at 7:15 AM on a SATURDAY (okay, this wasn't actually that bad.  I think I may be kind of grown up because I wake up on the weekends in single digits now.)  Oh, let's also add that it was 17 degrees. 

I really like donuts, and I really hate running. We signed up as a 'Dynamic Duo' team- I was hoping this meant he ran the miles, and I ate the donuts. No dice. We both ran the 5 miles and ate 6 donuts each. Here we are, 2.5 down.  I'm not ready for this.

And becuase this is a really cute face....

Dirty people!  There were trashcans that they could have used. #rude.

Here we are!  All finished up!  We finished the 5 miles in 62 minutes.  Pretty good for this lady.  It's the furthest I've ever run.  And to anyone who is thinking "well didn't you take a break in the middle" kiss my rear, I didn't see you out there.  And if you were, just kiss it.

Now onto one of the best things about the race!  The costumes!!  I've got my top 3 picked out.

3rd Place: Donuts.  They weren't the cutest things, but being that my brother and I carted around a Magic School Bus one year...props to you folks running with these contractions on.

2nd Place: This cute family.  The mom and son were Storm Troopers and the Dad was Darth Vader.  Check out their handy way of taking the donuts!!

1st Place! Mr. Wuf and the Granny!  There were 3 of these girls together.   Hair in curlers and all.  I loved this, too cute.

There was also a Santa in a modified shopping cart and an elf was pushing him.  Poor Elf.  That was a LOT of work.  (Santa had to physical impairments or injuries, he was just a bum.  He said he was old and had arthritis from the cold- pretty good response). One of my mini goals was to beat him, and we did. Go team!

See ya next year KKC!

#DayDrinkingInTheDirtyD

So, after the Krispy Kreme Challenge it was time for some shenanigans in Durham.  The plan was to pay $7 and catch the train to Durham.  Walk around and drink and eat all day.  Then ride the train back.....welllllll  below is the train, and we aren't on it.  We missed the freaking train by like 2 minutes. So, what did we do?

We went back to my house and kept on pregaming. Then we Uber XL'd to Durham with a crazy man named Larry.  We may or may not have taken water bottles that were not filled with water. FYI:  Mimosas in water bottle pack some serious pressure and will spew when you open them, think shaken up Coke bottle.

We got to Durham and tried to hit up Dame...too bad there was a 2 hour wait since it was Valentine's Day. So, we skipped it and hit up a little shop on the way to the first bar. I REALLY want this sweatshirt for some reason. I may have to go back and get it.

First Stop: Bull City Burger and Brewery.  We had some beers, ate some duck frites, and chatted about how pumped we were for the day.

Maggie got a grilled cheese sandwich. Look at that thing. YUM!!!

Walking around, checking out the old buildings.

Onward to Bull City Ciderworks.  I LOVE love LOVE cider.  This cidery doesn't hold a candle to the one in Seattle. Sorry Durham!  We all got flights and then just got pints of our favorites.  Look at the pink one :), it was a dry blueberry.  They also had a ginger cider that was SUPER gingery, I couldn't tell if I loved it or not.

screenshot of one of the million snaps from the day. love my brother :D

We were trying to find Triangle Brewing.  I went to Triangle Brewing Plates and Pints a few weeks ago, but we wanted to tour the actual brewery.  It was pretty sketchy, surrounded in barbed wire and across from a rehab facility.  It must have been closed, or we may have been too intoxicated to figure out how to get in- I'm going with the former.  Anyways, we found this gem in the concrete.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Onward to Fullsteam!  We grabbed beers and played Heads Up, if you haven't played it you need to download it. Like right now.

They have flights in cute little NC cut outs. Mariah- I will use this as a reference for which way the state goes :D

Oh yes, busted out the selfie stick.  Totally didn't realize until I was going through my pictures yesterday that we got photo bombed in a serious way.  I love these people, and they are only in Durham- someone has to know them!

Sweet brother and sister selfies :D

We finished up at Full Steam and headed to Geer Street Garden.  The glare is on "The Pile" but let me grab a description off their website: Fried chicken, French Fries, Jalapenos, Bacon, Melted Cheddar Cheese with Gravy and 2 Sauces.  Basically heaven in your mouth....and only a few calories....

NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM.

 

A little pimento cheese action, because we live in the South.

And check this out! We made it to the train! WOOOHOOOO! (or choochooo)  Off we go back to Raleigh!

 

T-Minus One Month until the St. Patrick's Bar Crawl!  This may become a monthly event....

Cheers to my Palentine's: Tucker, Matt Campbell, Mariah, and Maggie. love you all.