New Thing #61 - Race for the Cure - Part II

For the last four months, I've been training to run my first 5K, along with my sister Stephanie. Neither of us have ever ran a 5K and Steph was asked by a friend to run in the inaugural Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Columbia. I couldn't let her do it alone, so I chose to train right alongside her for 4 months. Check out our blog at www.our5Kjourney.blogspot.com for the entire journey. For now, I'll just write about the day itself, and how I participated this time, rather than watched from the sidelines.

Last night I went to bed feeling pretty peaceful and calm for today. The nerves hadn’t quite began. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t sleep worth crap. I was in bed by 10, but it was much closer to midnight before I think I even fell asleep. I was awake a short time later, and that continued on and off all night long. It seemed like I was always awake, so I’m not entirely sure how much sleep I actually got. The more I tried to shut down all my thoughts, the wider awake I became.

My alarm went off bright and early at 5 am, so I’d have a chance to get dressed and eat before Steph and I needed to head to Columbia. I heard my sis up and about, so I knew she was as antsy as I was...or else she would still be in bed. :) We had a quick breakfast, me with toast and yogurt, her with some oatmeal. My nerves started kicking in a bit, so I wasn’t really able to eat much else. We had planned on taking a couple of bananas with us, but completely forgot them at home.

We left the house a little after 6 and made our trek to Mizzou’s campus in Columbia. The skies were turbulent, as it had rained pretty much nonstop throughout the area all night. We hoped it would hold off long enough for the race, or at least be done before it started. It was still dark and gloomy outside, so that did not help my energy level at all.

When we made it to the race site, we mingled throughout all the tents and took some time to head to the ladies’ room before race time. I did NOT want to be running on a full bladder! Soon, our parents, along with Steph’s husband and two girls, met us and they looked over our stuff while we stretched and participated in the group aerobic warm up. If you could call it a warm up. It consisted of about 5 minutes of jumping up and down and stretching the quads. Uh, really? I need a bit more of a warm up than that!

The skies had not looked good all morning, but around 7:20 or so, the lightning and the thunder started...but still no rain. And this was the kind of thunder that pretty much hit right after the lightning, letting us know it wasn’t hitting far away at all. This did not bode well. I had barely wrapped my mind around the race in general, let alone the race in the bloody rain. A few minutes later and the skies opened up for a little downpour. Mom and dad had brought some cheapie ponchos and Steph and I threw those on to try to keep the majority of the rain off of us. We looked mighty fine! The rain continued to sputter on and off, dropping buckets one minute, misting the next.

The race officiates were trying to decide about holding off for 10 minutes or so, or starting on time. I was lost in my thoughts, trying to keep the poncho from sticking to my skin because it was so damn humid out. They decided to continue slightly behind schedule, so we went and took our place among the other runners. It had pretty much stopped raining at this point, but I wasn’t ready to take off my poncho just yet. I didn’t want to ruin my mp3 player, nor did I want to run without music.

Steph and I were nervously bouncing about, waiting for the countdown...I just wanted to start already! The anticipation was killing me. Finally, they started the timed runners (they were giving out prizes for the fastest times). The original plan was to start the timed runners and then 10 minutes later start everyone else who was running, followed by the walkers. Well, as soon as the countdown was over, everyone just started running, so Steph and I both took off with the mob. It was 8:10. I wished her luck and told her I’d see her at the finish line.

I had looked at the race route the night before, so I was pretty familiar with where the mile markers would be. I was determined to finish at least one mile without walking, so I paced myself pretty well and made it up the first hills in stride. Apparently a few of my cousins were on the sidelines, but I completely missed seeing them. Since we were still pretty much in the beginning stages, most of the people were still kind of stuck together. I had to bob and weave to get out from behind the slower runners or the people who had already stopped for a walking break. Between dodging people and trying not to slip on the wet pavement, I guess I ran right by them without seeing them. Bummer. But, at least I know they were there, thanks guys!

About a half mile or so into the race, I realized I would not be able to run with the poncho. I figured I wouldn’t, but wanted to keep it on for as long as possible to stay dry. Well, that idea didn’t last long. I ripped the front open a little to let some air in and it ended up ripping down most of the middle and fell off my right arm. I said eff it, and tried to rip the rest off. That would have been easier had I not tied a knot in it. So, here I am, running, trying not to trip or slip and trying to tear that poncho off without stopping to walk. I finally got it off, while looking like a spaz in the process....I kind of felt like the Hulk ripping his shirt off! I didn’t see a trash can handy and I did not want to run with it, so I just handed it off to some unsuspecting volunteer keeping traffic off the course. Oh well!

As I was nearing the end of the first mile, I was feeling pretty good, a bit winded, but good. I hadn’t quite gotten into a groove yet, but I did finish the mile without stopping. And I was on track with what I usually do for the first mile...right around 11 minutes. At the end of each mile, they had water stations, so I took that chance to down a few gulps of water and walk off some of the exertion. I looked back a couple of times to see if I could see Steph, but there were just too many people.

Also, while I was walking a few times, people were running REALLY close to me, and as I was swinging my arms, I punched one guy in the arm and another girl in the crotch. My bad. But geez, don’t run so bloody close to me! The second mile wasn’t quite as good as the first one. I switched off quite a bit, but I still did more running that walking. I usually tried to only walk on the uphill portions to conserve my energy. It was muggy and cool all at the same time, so sometimes my breath was a bit labored. I rounded the corner to complete mile 2 and I was happy to see the water volunteers once again. But, seriously, don’t fill the cups so darn full! I didn’t want to slow down to drink it, but I think most of it went up my nose or onto the ground, since I was bouncing around so much. I only took two sips before I tossed the rest onto the ground.

The final mile was coming up and I finally hit the sweet spot and fell into a good groove. I was pleasantly surprised that I had no stitch in my side and I was feeling pretty good. Most of the third mile was downhill, which was a relief, but I found that running down the hills was starting to take a toll on my knee. I prayed I could finish without any serious pain and pushed through what was starting. I walked up one small hill, but for the most part ran the entire last mile. I had hit 24 minutes at the end of mile 2, so I knew I had to kick it up a bit to keep under my 35 minute goal.

As I was rounding the last half mile, the emotion of the day started to hit me, but I forced back any tears, trying to save them for when I was done. I didn’t need to be trying to run through tear-soaked AND rain-soaked eyes. The end of the course was to put us into Faurot Field, the football stadium at Mizzou. As I was rounding the lot outside, I was ready to be done already. I wasn’t sure how far into the stadium I’d be running, so I was trying to conserve what little energy I had.

There wasn’t a huge crowd of spectators all day. I’m not sure if it was due to the fact that this was Columbia’s inaugural Susan G. Komen race, or if the weather kept most people at home. But, fortunately, there was a decent number of people in the stadium cheering us on. It spurred me forward and as I saw the finish line in sight, I kicked the speed up to about a 7 and sprinted across the finish line with my arms in the air (I’ve always wanted to do that!)

Holy crap, I’m finished!! Woooooooooooo!!! I looked down at my watch a minute or so later and it said 8:45. So, I finished in under 35, which was my goal. Booyah! They didn’t have a time clock, so I don’t know the exact time, but who cares?! I finished! I finished! I finished! The whole time I ran the rain just sputtered and misted here and there, but pretty much stayed away. Moments after I finished, the downpour started to gain speed. I had no rain gear, throwing away my only defense. Oh well. At least it kept me cool!

I was having trouble gathering my thoughts at this point. My brain was a bit jumbled mess. All I could think about was breathing and getting water. I know I walked around mom and dad and Shawn, but I have no idea what I said or did. I just couldn’t process anything at that point.

I had trouble catching my breath right away and went in search of some water and the bananas they were handing out. I could see people drinking and eating, but couldn’t see where they were. Someone finally told me they were at the other end of the field. Good grief. I started to walk down, but quickly realized it was a lot further away than I anticipated and didn’t think I could make it down and back in time to see Steph cross the finish line. I turned around and headed back in time to see her enter the stadium. As she got closer to the finish, I headed towards her, so we could run across together. I saw her clutching her side, so I wanted to be there to urge her forward. I ran with her the last 50 feet or so, and she made it in under 40, beating her goal as well! Woooooooooooo!

It was an emotional hugfest after that. We were both gasping for air and crying at the same time. Not easy. We were also getting completely drenched. I tried to put my sweatshirt over my head, but that didn’t really help. We quickly stretched and decided that the rain was getting worse and we needed to get to drier land. We headed under the stands, where I FINALLY got a banana, and took a much needed break. At this point the rain was coming down so hard it was difficult to see some of the people on the field. I felt bad for those still running and especially those that were walking. I just thanked God that he let the two of us finish before it started. We still had to make the trek up the hill to our cars and even though I shared an umbrella with my niece, I was still soaked clear to my bones. My shoes were so full of water, they felt like cement blocks. The whole left side of my body was sopping wet and I was tired. T. I. R. E. D. And majorly hungry.

We headed to Bob Evans afterwards, where I ate my weight in omelets, potatoes and french toast. Yum! But, after I ate, I was cold and full of food and just wanted to sleep. My cousin, Angela, was such a sweetheart and let me shower at her house before I headed back to St. Louis. It felt amazing. Although, I’m not sure it was such a good idea. The hot shower just made me sleepier. It was an incredibly long 2-hour drive back to St. Louis!

After it was all over and done with, I was full of so many emotions. Pride at what we accomplished. Exhaustion over the morning and the last 4 months of training. And a little lost as well. It’s over? Really? This has been on my mind for 4 months, what do I do now? Remington, my niece, asked me if I was going to do it again and I told her maybe. Just not anytime soon. :)

Well, we did it. My first 5K is officially over, and despite the craptacular weather, I’m very happy with my finish.

I have to first thank my sister Stephanie for running with me. This has been an amazing journey, and I wouldn’t have wanted to do it with anyone else. You inspire me every day and I’m so proud of you. Thank you.

Thanks to my parents for their support and for standing in the cold rain to watch us. I’m very blessed to have such wonderful parents in my life.

Thanks to my brother-in-law Shawn and my two beautiful nieces for supporting both Steph and I and for being there as well this morning, even though it was pretty gross out. And thank you to Remington who drew us each an awesome picture of us crossing the finish line. It was awesome.

Thanks to my brother for his support and for cheering us on from Illinois. Sorry you couldn’t be there, but maybe you can run with us next year! ;-)

Thank you my cousins Angela, Terron and Stephen for getting out of bed way too early in the morning to cheer us on. Sorry I didn’t see you as I passed, but I know you were there!

Thank you to ALL of my friends, family and coworkers for your support today and over the last four months. It has really meant a lot to me that you’ve all shared this journey with us. I can’ thank you enough for pushing me out of my comfort zone into something new and unexpected.

And thanks to everyone who donated to a very worthy cause.

Will there be another 5K? Who knows. Never say never, right? But, I think I might take a break from the gym this week. :) We’ll see what happens after that.

Wayyyyyyy too early in the morning!

Rain ponchos...hitting a runway near you!

Emotional Hugfest!!

New Thing #60 - Balloon Glow

Last night I headed to the Balloon Glow held annually the night before the Forest Park Balloon Race. The Balloon Race is an annual event (38th to be exact) where the Energizer Bunny balloon is launched from Forest Park and "hound" balloons are launched to chase it. The balloon that drops a birdseed baggie closest to the Bunny (after it lands) is declared the winner. I have been to the actual race before, but never to the Balloon Glow.

My friend Brenda recently bought a condo a hop, skip and a jump from Forest Park, and she had a housewarming party to begin the night. We started off with some yummy snacks and adult beverages (except for me...big 5K Sunday!) When the sun went down, we started the trek through the forest past the History Museum and the racquetball courts, down the hill and past the Muny and over to the ball fields. It took us only 15 or so minutes to walk over there.

Let me just say that walking through Forest Park in the dark is not the best of ideas. It's never a good idea on any given night, due to possible random hooligans looking to cause trouble. But, it's also not a good idea, no matter the amount of people, because you're walking through crap you can't SEE. Shortly after we passed the bright lights of Lindell and the History Museum, it became quite clear that I would end up breaking or spraining something. I could barely see my own feet, let alone the ground and its possible death traps. We pretty much followed the mob of people, but at times, there were no more streets or sidewalks to lead the way. We just took off down a grassy knoll and hoped for the best. And for some reason, we were all walking like we had rabid dogs chasing us. I don't know why we were walking so fast, but I didn't want to lose our group in the masses, so I had to keep up.

At one point we were walking down a large dark hill and I took a wrong step and landed about a foot past where I thought my foot should have stopped. Sonuva. I'm not sure how I stayed upright or how I didn't sprain or twist anything. Good grief. I've been training for this 5K for 4 months. If less than 48 hours before the race, I hurt myself, I'm gonna be pissed.

Somehow, miraculously, we made it across the park to where the Glow was taking place. Basically, the Balloon Glow is just an opportunity for people to drink, eat bad food, let their children run wild, and oh yeah, see hot air balloons up close and in person. It's actually pretty impressive when walking up the hill and seeing all the balloons lit up like Christmas trees. Well, giant Christmas trees lit up with butane. I don't think anyone with us had seen hot air balloons up close and I certainly hadn't see one all lit up at night.

Of course, to stay inflated, you need to light up the burners, or the balloon itself will start to fall. Each balloon was randomly hitting the "gas" to light up, but occasionally every couple of minutes, a horn would sound, and all of the balloons would light up at once. It was pretty damn cool.

When we were coming up the hill, I didn't think we'd be able to get right up to the balloons. I assumed they'd be roped off, and we'd have to walk around the perimeter with every other Tom, Dick & Harry. Nope, you could walk right up to each basket and have a chat with the people inside if you wanted. Of course, they were pretty busy trying not to lift off the ground, but the fact that everyone could be so close, was pretty cool.

Our group was pretty fascinated at how hot the butane really was...and we were several feet away from the balloons. Me, being the Miss Fancy Pants that I am, got to explain the process and about how hot they really are. I'm not sure I was helpful. I may have just sounded like a know-it-all, but whatever. I like to share my bucket list knowledge.

I'm a fan of the balloons that are shaped like something other than a balloon. One had ears for a bear, another was shaped like a box of popcorn, and another was the legendary Energizer Bunny that leads the race every year. It was really fun to get to see all of them up close and personal.

We didn't really stay around the balloons all that long, since we got there towards the end of the display. But, we had a good time. Afterwards, we headed back up the hill to await the display of fireworks. Unfortunately, they were pretty weak (of course, I compare them to the ones downtown on the 4th, so anything is weak compared to that!), but still enjoyable nonetheless.

On our way up to wait for the fireworks, Brenda fell right into a giant gopher hole. I'm not even kidding. One second, she's walking right next to me, and the next, her foot is in a hole all the way up to her knee cap, and she's collapsed on the ground. She said nothing was broken and that she didn't hurt herself, but considering the alcohol intake, I'm not sure if that was a truth. :) (Love you B.) One foot to the left and I would have been the one going down into that hole.

We had an absolutely gorgeous night to enjoy the festivities and I'm glad now that I was able to see the Glow.

Thanks to Brenda for throwing her housewarming party and inviting me along to the Balloon Glow. It was lots of fun!

New Thing #59 - Tag, You're It

Last night I headed out to Chesterfield to play laser tag for my coworker's birthday. I've always wanted to play laser tag, but have never had a place close to play. Chesterfield isn't necessarily "close" to my house, but believe me, it's worth the half hour drive!

I subscribe to the Groupon e-mail and that's how I heard about Chesterfield Sports Fusion. (If you've never heard of Groupon, it's a daily coupon sent via e-mail that has a fantastic deal around your city. I suggest you check it out and see if your city is on there.) I missed the actual Groupon for this, but when I saw laser tag mentioned, I was intrigued. I visited their website and saw that this place has a dodgeball court, rock climbing wall, 18-hole mini-golf, a crazy tunnel playground thing, an arcade and the laser tag court. In mentioning it to my coworkers, we all agreed it would be awesome to head there for Jonathan's birthday.

It looks like it's in an old warehouse, so if you head to Chesterfield, keep your eyes peeled. We drove right past it and didn't realize it was there. Fortunately, we got there around 8:30-9, so it wasn't crazy packed with kids. It was actually fairly empty, which was great. We each paid for a laser tag session and a round of mini-golf, both for under $15. A laser tag game was just getting started, so we had some time to kill and headed over to the arcade.

I do love me some racing games, so I naturally headed straight for those, while the boys pretty much stayed at the football toss the entire time! It was soon time to head to laser tag, and we waited patiently for the other game to end. They have a score card screen outside the room showing each person and each time they scored a hit. Each person is given a code name and someone at the facility decided to use Star Wars characters, like Yoda, Darth Vader and Han Solo sprinkled with a few random names like Spongebob, Robocop and Chuck Norris. Someone was smoking something that day! Each game reuses the same set of names, and I ended up with Mace Windu. I had to be reminded who that was, since it's been awhile since I've seen the Star Wars movies. (And appropriately named, whoever got the Chuck Norris code name in the game before ours, was kicking major ass. It ended up being a 10-year old kid.)

Finally, it was our turn to go and we realized that we would be playing against a group of 9 20-year olds. Fortunately, we had 9 on our team as well, so we thought we would be evenly matched. Especially considering one of our guys was in the Army. However, we should have been forewarned when they were all in dark workout gear and tennis shoes. They were out for blood.

We had to watch a quick cheeseball video on how to use our gear properly and the rules of the game. All important information, just presented in a way that we couldn't stop laughing over. So, here goes. Everyone gets their vest that has lights on the front and the back, and a gun attached to the front. The gun also has a light on the front of it. These lights are basically sensors that start flashing when an opponent's laser hits it. Once you've been shot, your entire vest blinks for 6 seconds, at which point you can't be shot again, and you can't shoot anyone yourself. (The not being able to shoot part really sucked.) There's an LED screen on the back of your gun that tells you your name, rank in the game and who just shot you. Oh yeah, and there's to be no running. Because apparently, there are walls and obstructions you could run in to. Really? I thought laser tag was just a free-for-all in one big open room.

We each then proceeded to get our equipment and initialize our guns and then it was on like donkey kong. We were at a distinct advantage because no one in our group had been to the course before, so it took us a few minutes to get acclimated to our surroundings. And in those few precious minutes, we lost our advantage. The other team headed straight for higher ground and as we were running around like headless chickens, they were popping us off one at a time from the balconies. They were also stationed at each of the ramps to the upper decks and would pop off a few shots if you even attempted to enter their territory. After a few minutes, I quickly realized that once I got shot, I had 6 seconds to blow past them and try to head for a safer place before getting shot again. It kinda worked unless I ran from one pack to the next in time to get shot again!

So, yeah, that no running rule? Complete crap. We were all darting around, in and out of bunkers like a pack of wild dogs. I was crawling on my knees at one point to avoid capture and I have a gnarly bruise on my knee to show for it. Jonathan was doing some crazy dives and rolls and landed on his pack at one point. Another friend, Brian, somehow tripped (guess we should have listened to the no running rule) and cut his ankle on something. Most other times, we were all just kind of running around looking for people to shoot. I had some kills, but unfortunately, not enough. I swear I'd look around and see no blue lights (the other team's colors) and somehow my vest would light up like the 4th of July. WTF? (Probably the decision to wear a yellow shirt in a blacklight environment had something to do with them picking me off so easily.) Also, I kept forgetting that my gun had a sensor, so I didn't have to be visible behind a barrier, they could just nail the gun. Dave, the soldier of the bunch, was off the chain. He was pickin' people off like it was child's play. He kept running past me and all I'd see was a green blur (our team's vest had green lights). He just came out of nowhere and would get like 5 people at a time, since they were huddling together. That was their strategy. They stayed in packs, so if one of them missed you, someone else would nail you.

It was 13 minutes of complete and utter chaos. But it was also 13 minutes of pure enjoyment. I can't tell you how much we laughed and giggled as we ran around that course. I didn't want it to end. We all felt like we were about 10 years old again. During all the chaos, I never once paid attention to my gun to see my rank, but fortunately, I didn't come in last. I was close, but I still got some kills. The guys from the other team were pretty PO'd when they discovered that Dave came in first place with the most kills. Other than Dave and Jonathan, most of our team was at the bottom of the rankings.

We ended the night with some mini-golf and a few more arcade games, but laser tag was by far the best part of the evening. I will definitely go back, and look forward to taking more friends and family there sometime. It's pretty cheap and makes for a fun evening. Since most of my coworkers were there, they can attest to my boss that it would be a great team-building exercise!

Our group! (The 12 year old taking the picture didn't inform me that my face was half covered.)

My coworker Erin and I with our gear. No idea why I have crazy eyes and look like a sociopath.

New Thing #58 - Zip, Zip & Away

I was finally able to go ziplining this weekend. I've been talking about wanting to go for years, even before my bucket list was formed. I never knew of any place near St. Louis that you could do it, but this summer a course opened up at Meramec Caverns called Caveman Zipline, less than an hour from St. Louis. It was pretty cheap, so I wasn't sure what to expect from the course, but at this point, I figured anything was better than nothing.

Meredith was able to come in town with me and go, because who else would I get to be my adventurous partner in crime? I can always count on Meredith to cross over to the crazy side with me. Our zip time was 11:30 and we arrived a bit early. We took the time to sign our waivers accepting the fact that we're responsible...yadda yadda yadda. I've signed enough of these forms that I really don't read them anymore. They just try to scare the daylights out of you anyways.

The place was packed. I couldn't believe how many people were going ziplining. According to some of the workers they said it was one of the busiest days they've had since opening in May. This is why I recommend reservations if anyone ever goes. Come to find out they can take up to 12 people at a time and they try to fill those 12 spots as much as possible. We ended up going with a couple and then a group of 7 people including a young boy and a grandma who was in her 60s. She was terrified. Surprisingly, she ended up doing really well. Way to go grandma.

The first order of business was to get our equipment which included a butt harness, the pulley system for the cables, helmet and gloves. We also purchased carabiner water bottles to take some gatorade with us. The butt harness wasn't too bad, the guy tightening mine didn't cut off the circulation too badly. It was actually more comfortable than the sky diving harnesses I've worn. Meredith's was a bit tight and I think it might have started cutting off her circulation at one point. Our pulleys were hooked onto our harnesses along with our full bottles. I quickly realized that maybe the water bottle was a bad idea considering how difficult it was to try to walk while swinging that thing between my legs...on top of the pulleys and carabiners already dangling there. That must have been entertaining for people to watch us walk.

Rockin' the butt harness. (Don't stare too long or you might be blinded by my legs.)

We're cute in our geeky-lookin' gear.

Now that we were all geared up, it was time to head to the practice site where the two guides explained how to actually zipline. There's a bit more to it than just flying balls to the wall down a rope. And this is where Meredith and I started to rethink this idea. But, in hindsight, the little practice area that was 4 feet off the ground was nothing like the actual zipline. And it was much more difficult.

The first rule is to cross your ankles and keep your feet outstretched in front of you (which makes you lean back a bit). That's supposed to help you go faster. Noted. Next, your non-dominant hand goes at the top of your strap underneath where the pulleys are attached to the rope. (You can use this hand to spin you back around if you get twisted. I did not find that this worked at all.) Your dominant hand goes at the bottom of the strap and can be removed to help you brake. So far everything seemed pretty easy. Then they explained braking. You basically slow yourself down by adding friction to the line with the palm of your hand. Yep, while you're flying 50 mph down this metal cable, you're supposed to use your HAND to slow you down. Good thing we had those leather gloves. Braking involves applying pressure down on the cable to slow you down. The harder the pressure, the more you slow down. The important thing to remember, which I totally blanked on during the first zip, was that you're supposed to brake behind you. Essentially whatever direction you came from. That's easy enough to remember if you don't get twisted around. When you twist and end up going backwards, your brain doesn't compute fast enough and you put your hand in front of the pulley system. This is a big no-no unless you enjoy getting your hand pinched in between a large metal cable and steel pulley system.

Then, the guides explained to us about the emergency brake and self-rescue. The e-brake is what they do if you're coming in too fast to the end tower and you haven't braked or if you have braked, but you suck at it. Rather than you ending up splattering yourself on the pole, they throw a rope out 6 or so feet that literally will stop you in tracks. The rope is attached to the metal cable and when your pulley hits it, you don't go anywhere, except into a state of whiplash I presume. I was kind of paranoid about this because I was not looking forward to the whiplash that was sure to occur. The self-rescue seemed "easy" enough, but I did not want to have to do it. If you dangle your feet or twist too much during a zip, you can lose momentum and not quite make it to the end. If this happens you have to haul your ass to the end going backward hand over hand on the cable. While practicing on the ground, this was more difficult than it sounds. I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to do it.

Once all eleven of us had tried out braking and self-rescuing on the practice line (I did the braking just fine, but then again I was only going about .0125 mph.), we headed up to the first tower. Tim, one of our guides, informed us that there were 71 stairs to the top. One of the ladies in our group proceeded to count Every. Damn. Step. as we went up. Seriously? Not necessary lady. By the time we got to the top, I'll admit, my nerves were running rampant. The height didn't bother me at all. In fact, zipping over the Meramec River didn't really phase me. I was honestly more freaked out about keeping my form and remembering to brake, but not braking too much that I have to self-rescue, but braking enough that I don't plow into the tower, but still enjoy what I'm doing, and.....you get the idea.

Tower #1, all 71 stairs of it. This is where we left from.

Some random person leaving the first tower.

Another random person zipping over the parking lot.

Carlos, our other guide, took off first so he could be at the end tower to grab us, stop us or e-brake us if necessary. Both boys looked fresh out of high school and today was their first day working together. By the end of the course, I could tell that they didn't really like working together. It got a little more awkward as the day went on. Once Carlos was set at his end, Tim started sending us one by one to the other side. Apparently all the radios were dead, so they had to yell at each other to see if it was safe to send the next person. Yep, I said yell. Across thousands of feet and a river. Brilliant, guys, just brilliant. You could just barely make out the other tower, so it was hard to be able to see. We did all manage to make it across each time without rearending the person before us.

You can't even see the other tower across the river.

This is the tower with my camera zoomed in as far as it would go.

Time was ticking slowly as Meredith and I waited our turns. We were back in the corner, so we figured we would be last. Nope, Tim had other ideas and he randomly snatched Mere from the back and sent her on her way. From what I could tell, she did really well. She kept her form and I don't think she twisted at all. She also made it to the end safely without having to pull herself across. Then, it was my turn. Tim hooked up the two pulleys to each of the two cables, and attached the cord to me and I was all set to go. I "sat down" in the harness, and "legs up, feet crossed" and away I went.

Mere getting hooked up.

Look at her go! Sorry I had to cut it short, but Tim was beckoning me to get strapped in.

I will warn you before you watch this that I wasn't actually holding onto my camera. It's just on a neck strap, so every time I moved, it moved. I couldn't hold it and brake at the same time, so this is the best footage I could get! Take some Dramamine first if you're prone to seasickness.

It. Was. Awesome. It wasn't quite as fast as I was expecting, but it was so freakin' fun. Which is why I got totally lost in what I was doing and realized almost too late that I was supposed to brake. I ended up getting twisted, so I was coming in backwards. I had no idea how far away I was at all and suddenly I heard "BRAKE!" and I was able to brake myself to keep from plowing into Carlos. In my haste, I also did the braking on the wrong side of the cable, so that my hand was in front of the pulley. Big no-no. Fortunately, I didn't pinch my hand or break anything, so I was lucky. And I was so ready for the next zip.

I would have to say that the crappiest part of the entire day was the waiting. The entire course took around an hour and a half and I was probably waiting for an hour and fifteen minutes of it. You had to wait for each person to get across and get unhooked before the next person could go. So I was either waiting to zip or waiting for everyone else to finishing zipping. It was kind of a pain in the rear. One of the reasons Tim didn't like Carlos is because he was taking forever to unclip us. He was very chatty and I think that slowed him down a bit. But, he was just trying to engage us into having a good time.

After we all landed at the second tower, we had to walk up a sky bridge to get to the next tower. This was harder than it looks. It's a wobbly wooden bridge with an incredibly steep incline and they ask you not to run up it. What the crap? I got close to the top of this first one and I was losing momentum and about rolled back down it. It took all the muscles in my calves to make it up. Wow, that made me feel like a huge wimp. Now we were at Tower 3 and had the shortest and fastest zip ahead of us. According to the sign, we could get up to 50+ mph on this one. Sweet! That one was super fun and I managed to stay facing forward the entire time. I barely had to brake any (and I braked properly this time), so I came in perfectly and had a 9.7 landing.

The wooden bridge. See? It's a bit steep.

It was incredibly wobbly and difficult to walk up!

Like a glove! :)

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

We had to trek across another sky bridge and this time Carlos made us touch some dead tree limb hanging across part of it. Why? I have no idea. But, he wasn't going to let us on the platform if we didn't touch the stupid vine of life. Whatever dude. You have issues. Tim just rolled his eyes. The third zip from here I got to go first. Tim told me I probably wouldn't have to brake at all. I ended up getting twisted from almost the beginning and went backward for most of it. I ended up coming into the tower butt first. When Carlos unhooked me he asked if Tim sent me backwards. I said no, I did that all on my own. I'm super cool like that.

Me. Being Awesome.

See the wooden support post in the middle of the picture? And just to the left of it is a vine crossing the bridge straight up and down? Yeah, that's the vine of life. Exciting, right?

Ahhh, rope bridge!

Again, more waiting, so I took a drink break and tackled trying to get my carabiner loose to be able to drink my Gatorade which had grown quite warm at this point. This was the first time I went before Meredith, so I was able to video her coming in to land. She was pretty good. She managed to keep herself straight most of the time and not twist at all and she landed so easily on the platform. She's such a rockstar.

Mere's Landing. Such a pro. :) And to think she was nervous! lol

Finally, one more sky bridge (finally) and we had to trek up more stairs to get to the final zip. This was the highest tower and would also be the longest zip. We were to head back across the river. When we first arrived, the parking lot is right under the line and we saw lots of people having to self-rescue. Tim said that not many people make it all the way across without having to help themselves a little. Fan-freakin'-tastic. I was enjoying the ziplining at this point, but I was really ready to be done. I was tired and hot and tired of the drama playing out between our two guides.

Last bridge to the final zip tower. What you can't see is the extended height that isn't visible through the trees. We had many more stairs to climb to get to this highest tower.

That's the view from the tower. You definitely can't even see the final tower we landed at. The bottom of the picture is the river.

A view of the ground from where we were.

On top of the world. Or at least the top of the Caveman world.

Tim really didn't want his picture taken, so he decided to pout! Those young whipper-snappers are so silly.

According to them, the last tower was called Ja-Oo-Oo, which in some Indian dialect means Caveman. Sure it does. So, they told each one of us we had to yell it while zipping. I attempted my best Captain Caveman version. Since they didn't recommend braking at all on this zip to keep up our momentum, I got much better footage than the previous three zips. I still ended up getting twisted around though. Dangit. And I almost made it all the way to the end. I only had to pull myself a few feet to get to the platform. They had a guy taking photos of us as we came across (to purchase of course). When I went to look at mine, I looked stupid because I had my camera in my hand the whole time. Needless to say I didn't buy any pictures.

The final zip!

We finally headed back down the last tower and returned all of our gear and harnesses. My butt was very happy to be out of that tight thing. My back was a little sore at the end from leaning back in the harness as I zipped, but it wasn't too bad.

All in all, it was a really great experience, and I'm glad I was finally able to go. Now, I really want to go on a much bigger course. AND have fewer people to go with so I don't have to wait so damn long. Thanks to Meredith for braving the Caveman Zipline with me! :)

New Thing #57 - Siplicity

Yes, the title is spelled correctly. It's Siplicity, the name of the winery 5 of us plan on starting soon. This is due to the fact that I went on a winery crawl for the first time today. I went with my friends Betsy and Natalie and their friend Kelly for her birthday. Kelly's sister, Crystal also joined us.

Believe it or not, I've never been to a real winery, only that wine bar I went to a year or so ago (which, by the way was awesome, and I'm sad it closed down). Since I didn't really dip my toes into the wine pool until a few years ago, wineries weren't my thing. Nor did any of my friends really go to wineries back in the day. After I started drinking wine, I was really only limited to Rieslings, so it's taken awhile for me to really enjoy other wines. And now that I've expanded my repertoire, I was finally able to make it happen.

We headed to Southern Illinois, south of Carbondale this morning to the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail. There are a dozen wineries all within minutes of each other, nestled down back country roads. It took us about an hour and a half to two hours to get to the first one, StarView Vineyards, and we arrived right at lunchtime. And it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I guess I had in my head that wineries were huge, acres and acres of grape vines and vast, spralling estates sprinkled with numerous buildings. Nope. This first vineyard had only two main buildings, a small section of grape vines and little pond out back. I never would have guessed it was a winery on first glance. It was cute though and I was excited to have a look.

StarView!

The main building.

The barn out back.

Upon entry, there was a bar dotted with people having their tasting, so we walked around for a few minutes. There was the main entry hall with the wine bar and gift shop, a side room filled with tables and chairs that could serve as a dining hall during the chillier months or a reception hall for an event. And off the back was a nice deck overlooking the pond and grapevines, filled with umbrella tables. Once the hall cleared out, we took our turn with our tasting. As I've stated before, I much prefer sweeter wines than the dry, so I took the sweet route, along with Natalie and Kelly, while Betsy and Crystal went with the dry route. Our tasting included 5 wines and our first was Vidal Blanc, a semi-sweet wine with nothing special. I mean it tasted okay, but I wasn't blown away by it. Next was the Venus and it was slightly sweeter, and rolled around on my tongue a bit more. (I have no idea what that means, but it sounds cool.) The third was my favorite, the Moonlight White, and I immediately took to this one. Natalie and Kelly agreed that it was their favorite so far as well. The fourth, Silver Star, knocked me over when I smelled it. It was bad, I mean like dirty socks bad. Okay, so it didn't smell like dirty socks, but it wasn't a great smell. I couldn't imagine it tasting very good, but I gave it a shot anyways. And I was surprised that it tasted a lot like grape juice. The lady explained to us that this wine was made with the same grapes used to make white grape juice. How could something smell so bad and yet taste like something as good as grape juice? The taste of it was good, but I knew I'd never be able to make it through an entire bottle. It was just too sweet.

Inner dining hall.

Grapes!

Pond off the back deck.

The final thing we all tasted was their Sangria and it was a little party in my mouth. It was light red with a sweetness that wasn't overpowering and it was heavenly. The minute we tasted it, we all agreed to split a pitcher of this angelic nectar. We ordered some appetizers and then headed out to the patio to relax. We nibbled on (and by nibbled I mean engulfed) our spinach and artichoke dip, bread and oil and olive tapenade. The amount of bread they gave us could have fed an entire village. But, considering the way we were pounding Sangria, it's a good thing we had all that bread.

Mmmm...oil and bread.

Spinach artichoke dip and bread.

Crystal, Kelly, me, Betsy & Natalie

After finishing our Sangria, and you know, the food, we decided to make our way to the next winery on our list. But not before Kelly, Natalie and I all purchased a bottle of the Moonlight White. Next on our list was Owl Creek Vineyard, and it was just a short hop skip and a jump away from StarView. Owl Creek was smaller in scale than StarView, but it was charming and quaint and didn't come across as cheesy even though they played on the owl theme. We had a quick tasting here that once again consisted of the Sweets. Betsy joined Kelly, Natalie and I on this route, whereas Crystal stayed with the dry theme. The first was Whooo's Blush, a rose wine with a strawberry undertone. It was kind of dry, but not too bad. The lady serving us said that it was the second most popular of the sweets. Next was the Water Valley White and it used two grapes, tasting a lot like the Silver Star from Starview. Except this one wasn't as overly sweet like the other one. It still tasted a lot like grape juice, but it was a bit more tarty (this is why I will never be a wine conossieur. I use words like tarty to describe wine.) I really liked it. Number three was Ruby Red Concord and tasted a lot like the Water Valley White as well, but I didn't like it as much. It was almost too grape-juicey for me. Fourth was Zengeist, named after two of their owls, that was a dessert wine. This one was pretty fantastic as well. Finally we tried the Framboise, another dessert wine with raspberry and brandy undertones that packed quite a kick at the end. I found out why when she told us this wine had the highest alcohol content of all of the wines. Right-o. That one'll knock you on your ass.

This was smaller than StarView.

More grapes!

Me & Betsy by the cool sign.

Nat & Bets

We didn't spend a lot of time at Owl Creek, mainly because it was smaller and didn't have as much room to spread out. We quickly finished our tastings, each bought a bottle of wine (I bought the Water Valley White) and headed out. Oh and we also kept our tasting glasses because they were awesome. I ended up with a total of 3 tasting glasses for the day. I now have some random additions to my tiny wine glass collection.

Von Jakob Vineyard was third on our list and it was about 20 or so miles from Owl Creek. All that wine and good food made me nap for a bit during the drive. At first glance, Von Jakob looked less like a winery than the first two. It wasn't nestled among the trees and situated by a little pond off the beaten path with charming little buildings. Nope. It was a giant tool shed right off the road. The grape vines were out back, but it definitely didn't look like a vineyard. It could have been a biker bar for all I knew. We saw enough of those in the tiny towns we drove through to get to each winery.

The back deck of the tool shed.

The scenic view.

Our tasting was completely free here, where both the other wineries charged a few bucks and only let us try 5 wines. At Von Jakob, which I swear I kept calling Von Trapp all day, they let us try as many wines as we wanted. And try we did. I couldn't even keep track of how many I tasted. Not that I was drunk, but there were so many coming at us so quickly. I have no idea what order I tried these in, but here ya go: Hillside White - semi-dry, Jonathan Apple - sweet, Late Harvest Vidal - sweet, Hillside Red - semi-dry, Honey Peach - semi-sweet, She's a Peach - sweet. I think I tried more than that, but these I know for sure. And I loved every single one of them. Even the red wine. Probably because it was only semi-dry. I knew that this place could be very dangerous since everything tasted so good.

The outside may have looked like a tool shed, but the inside was rather large and the back patio area was huge. They let us take food outside, so we bought a pitcher of the Jonathan Apple Spritzer to take with us. The spritzer was a bottle of the JA wine, 1/2 can of Sprite, orange juice, pineapple juice and sliced oranges and apples. Again, I think this is what angels' sweat tastes like. The girls had packed cooler upon cooler of food for us to eat so we wouldn't have to pay for winery fare. And eat we did. You'd think we were staying for three days. We had 5 different kinds of dips/spreads, 4 different kinds of cheeses, 3 different kinds of crackers, grapes, watermelon, celery, M&M's, you name it. We tore into that food like a pack of vultures on a fresh kill. Seriously it was kind of out of control.

Some of the food.

This is part of the wine label. The bottle was sweating due to the heat and the label came right off. And I had the bright idea of sticking it on my arm. Yeah, I'm brilliant. Until I tried to pull it off my skin.

Somewhere during our feast, Kelly purchased us some wine to drink, and I believe it was the Honey Peach. I liked it during the tasting. At first sip it was light, refreshing and sweet. At 54th sip, it was little too overpowering it its sweetness and I think it made me a little nauseous. (But that could have just been because of the 8 pounds of food I just pounded.) Also at some point a rowdy group of hoosiers (not the kind from Indiana) sat at the table a few feet from us. And about 4.5 seconds later some girl dropped her wine glass in her rowdiness, causing them to move to the table directly behind us (and blocking the fan. A$$holes.). Seriously the guy behind me was sitting so close that I could hear his little brain cells crying out in torture. Every time he got up (which was often), his plastic chair would ram into the back of mine. "Oh sorry, if we're bothering you ladies, just let us know." You think? A few of the girls were more plastic than organic material and one girl was keeping a stick in her purse. Seriously. A stick. They told us they were riding around in a dilapidated bus, and Natalie swore it was the rusty old bus we passed at another winery a few hours before. We never did confirm this, but I believe she was right.

We spent quite a bit of time at Von Trapp, oops Von Jakob, and it was an incredible amount of fun. You can't beat gorgeous weather, good company, good food and good wine. On our way out, we passed through their inner hall and discovered the funniest thing of the day. Granted, we were all a bit tipsy at this point (some more than others), but there was a lovely version of "Born to be Wild" being sung. By a guy slightly stuck in the 80s with gray hair and the patchy facial hair of a teenage boy. It was probably the most unenergetic version of that song. Ever. But the best part? There were about a half dozen silver-hairs boogeying their little hearts out. It was absolutely hysterical in the best possible way. I hope when I'm a grandmother, I can still shake my money-maker to Steppenwolf by a washed-up wedding singer.

Oh yeah, and rather than walking around the dance floor and the group as a whole, Natalie decided to walk right through the middle, causing everyone to gape at her in horror. It's amazing none of those people took a switch to her.

Our final destination was to be Rustle Hill Winery and this place was gorgeous. This was a bit more of what I was expecting. It's main hall was intricately decorated with indoor seating, an outdoor patio, a terraced hill dotted with picnic tables and benches all facing a stage, flanked by a pond. Up the hill were cabins that could be rented. It was stunning. Our tasting here consisted of 6 wines and we could choose anything they had. I started with Vignoles, a semi-sweet white that was pretty good. Next was Chardonel, a semi-sweet white that I didn't like at all. The Sweet Seyval Blanc was a sweet white that was pretty darn tasty (but, who am I kidding. About this time of the day, they really all started to taste the same). I tried a dry red, Cabernet Franc and it tasted a bit like how I think a cotton ball would taste if I dipped it in grape juice and sucked it til it was dry. Then, we tried their Sangria, of which they had two varieties. The first was their red, made with Chambourcin, a dry red. I actually really liked this. Next was the peach, made with their Chardonel. I liked this even better, which is shocking, since I didn't like the actual wine itself. Then, ohhhh, she suggested we mix the two together, and it was an explosion of awesomeness in my mouth. That's really the only way I can describe it. It was the last thing I tasted of the day and they definitely saved the best for last. We all agreed again to snag a pitcher of this, and we headed back outside to end our day. It seemed to be a Sangria kind of day.

We had the munchies again, so we snacked on some of our remaining stash and listened to some of the live music wafting our way. It was such a great end to a wonderful day. The weather was perfect, the company was great, and the wine (especially the Sangria) was exactly what I needed on a nice holiday weekend.

Our final stop.

The drive back was interesting though. Natalie's husband was our DD, and the poor guy had to listen to 5 drunk girls ramble on for an hour or so until the sun went down. As soon it started to get dark though, we were all passed out in various states of inebriation until we made it back to St. Louis. I call that a day well spent.