New Thing #62 - 10/10/10 - Fall Sunday Funday

Oh wow, it was a Bucket List Trifecta Day. I polished off THREE new things all in the span of about 11 hours. Good gravy I'm tired. Bear with me, lots to talk about.

I planned a Sunday Funday with my friend Brenda weeks ago, hoping it would be a nice fall day. At least we got the nice part right. It's fall and that means cool crisp days, hot apple cider, pumpkin picking and the leaves changing colors. Scratch those first two. It's October 10th and it soared into the upper 80s today. Seriously? I love nice weather, but I look forward to fall weather, and this was nowhere near it. I was in a tank top and flip flops and still had a sweat stain down my spine. Sexy, I know.

Our day started with a trip to Eckert's, followed by dinner at Fast Eddie's Bon Air, capped with a little ghost hunting on the Haunted Alton tour. I'll break each part out for you. :)

Act 1 - Eckert's

For those not familiar with St. Louis, Eckert's is a family owned apple farm in Illinois just across the river. Their first location was in Belleville over a hundred years ago and have since opened locations in Millstadt and Grafton. Brenda and I opted to head over to Millstadt hoping it wouldn't be as packed as Belleville was. Not really the case. Neither one of us had ever been there, so we didn't really know what to expect. We were looking forward to doing our own apple picking and would hopefully find a few good pumpkins to bring home.

We started with a lovely drive through the windy roads of Southern Illinois and made our way to an enormous apple orchard dotted with buildings, cars and port-a-potty's. Good thing they had a a few acres of empty pasture for all the cars to park. I guess the nice weather brought everyone out to play. I swear though Brenda and I were the only ones without a kid in tow.

We didn't really know what to do first. We opted to grab some apple cider (cold, not piping hot) and a funnel cake and settled in to watch the Jack-o-Lobber crank out a few pumpkins. Yes, this was a custom-built pumpkin cannon. And every hour, on the hour, they would make a big production of stuffing a few pumpkins into the end and shooting them out at lightning fast speeds. This is true entertainment, kids. We had to wait awhile before the show began and then the host selected a few helpers out of the crowd. One to pick out a spectacular pumpkin, one taller spectator to load it into the cannon and shove it all the way down the barrel and another to do the countdown. It was cute and dear lord, I didn't expect it to be so fast. I could barely even see the pumpkin shoot out the end, nor see it fly across the horizon. I did however see it crash land a mile or so away into an empty field. It's good fun, but I can't help but think that it's a waste of perfectly good pumpkins....

The view from the top of the Lookout Point.

Mmmmmm....Tasty Treats!

A zoomed in view of downtown StL.

The volunteer prepping the plunger.

Pushing the pumpkin down to the end.

Ready for action!

Fire in the Hole! I tried to follow it with the camera, but quickly realized that was never gonna happen!

A two-fer this time!

After the Jack-o-Lobber, we milled around, taking in the sights. Brenda fed a deer, a tiny cow and a camel. Random animals at the Eckert's farm. We listened to some tweens sing some realllly bad Lady Gaga karaoke, we walked through a pretty lame corn maze and checked out a building full of so much randomness, I don't even know how to describe it. It was a cross between a not-so-haunted house and a museum. Odd.

Feeding the adorable tiny cow. :)

The camel was playing hide and seek with me and he didn't want his picture taken.

Who knew you could ride a camel at an apple orchard?

Lamo corn maze.

Finally, we decided we had seen enough and wanted to go apple picking. We got in line for the apple wagons and rode down the dusty trail to the orchard. Where we kind of felt jipped a bit. It seemed like most of the trees were picked clean and what was left were unripe or rotten. The ground was littered with discarded apples and cores. I only ended up with about a half dozen apples. I guess that was okay, because really, what was I going to do with more than that? We loaded up and got back on the wagon to go to the pumpkin patch. I was determined to find some pumpkins for my porch. In transit, we heard someone talking to their uncle or father who was already in the patch and they said it had nearly been picked clean of good pumpkins. Dammit. We opted to just ride up to the farm and buy one of the ones we had already seen available for purchase. I think I'll survive without actually picking my own pumpkin.

No, I wasn't taking a picture of the dude eating an apple. Just trying to show some of the orchard.

Slim pickins.

I think I'll just buy one of these!

We decided we had seen enough, but still had quite a bit of time to kill before the haunted tour started. Brenda's brilliant idea? Fast Eddie's Bon Air for dinner and a drink. Let's do it!

Act 2 - Fast Eddie's Bon Air

Wow, this place is one of a kind. In the 20's the bar was opened by Anheuser Busch but had to be sold only 10 years later due to new laws regulating breweries from owning bars. A half century later the Eddie in Fast Eddie's purchased and it quadrupled in size. It can seat over 400 people, but on the weekends you're lucky if you even get a seat. The crowd is one of the most eclectic I've seen. Rough bikers stopping in for a cold one, prostitots dressed to the nines looking for some sugar, college kids enjoying the cheap food and cold beer, grandmas and grandpas shaking a tail feather, you name it. It was a people watching DREAM! Probably one of the best things is that it's a 21 and over bar. No matter what. Even though they serve food, you still can't get in without an ID. So noooo kiddos!

Speaking of the food. It's good and it's cheap. Dirt cheap. Basket of fries for $0.99. 1/2 pound Fat Eddie burgers for $0.99. Yep, that's right, a 1/2 pound of ground beef for the same price as a bucketful of thin crispy perfect french fries. The menu is definitely limited and it's by no means gourmet, but it's cheap and fast.

Delicioso!

You don't even order your food from your server. You have to go order from the "kitchen" which is basically right in the middle of the bar and they give you a number. Throughout the bar they have a giant screen that pops up your number when it's ready. If you miss your number, you miss your food. That burger was very scrumptious too!

And don't bother bringing your credit card, all they take is cold hard cash. Their servers take your drink order and you pay as you go. No building up a tab here. Your first round could be with one waitress and by the time you're ready for another, some other waitress will stop by your table. That doesn't give you must chance to build up a rapport with your server, but hey, at least there are plenty to go around!

I can see how this place is popular. I mean, hell, Brenda and I both ate dinner for under $5 TOGETHER. Our beer tab was almost triple our food bill. I'm not sure I could hang out there very often though. The smoke was so thick I almost needed a machete to make my way across the room. I also have a feeling fights break out more often than not, based on the crowd.

After we left Fast Eddie's, I wanted to change into some warmer clothes before we went walking around Alton. It's nice during the day, but the evenings still feel like fall. I guess this could be a bonus bucket list entry. I used a gas station bathroom that we needed to get the key from the cashier. And it came attached to a wooden board. Never had to get a bathroom key on a stick before. I'd like to point out that the bathroom was INSIDE the gas station in full view of the cashiers. I'm not entirely sure why you needed to get the key unless they had problems with people using the bathroom for unspeakable things. Blech, makes me shudder. I was not particularly happy about changing my clothes in there, but fortunately nothing touched the ground and my feet never left my flip flops. Note to self: never use the bathroom at the station next to Fast Eddie's. EVER.

Act 3 - Haunted Alton Tour

I love the cartoon ghosts!

I'm so scurrred!

Ahhh, Alton, IL. Such a "lovely" little town. And apparently known for being "One of the Most Haunted Small Towns in America." Brenda and I were hoping for a little paranormal activity, but I'll be honest. If I actually saw a ghost or some kind of crazy sh*t happen, I would not be able to predict my reaction. No, wait, I could definitely predict that I'd scream and freak the eff out. This is why I do not watch scary movies. I do not like things appearing out of nowhere to scare the bejesus out of me. Alive or not. Which makes me wonder what in the heck I'm doing here in the first place. I'm not entirely sure what to believe when it comes to ghosts. The logical part of me says it'd be stupid not to believe that these things are possible, but my scaredy-cat part doesn't really want to actually see or witness them. Although the logical part does, so I can finally have a true answer and not some Hollywood hocus pocus. I realize I make no sense here, but deal with it.

So, we're headed to Alton to see if we see any ghosts roaming around or lurking in any darkened basements. Good times. Now, based on my last ghost hunting experience, I wouldn't actually see any ghosts, just "orbs" floating around. Which to me, is a total bummer. If I'm going to have my pants scared right off of me, it better be by something with a see-through body. Or at least that green slimy blob from Ghostbusters that eats leftover hotel food.

We arrived early and made sure we had a potty break before it began. There would be no stopping along the way and I didn't want a full bladder to worry about. That could be disastrous. In the meantime, the guides showed us a picture that someone took two nights before in the haunted church. Um, so yeah, there was a see-through person in the picture. And it wasn't photoshopped by some random person. Brenda's coworker was the one who took the photo. I'm a fairly trustworthy person, so I didn't really have any reason to believe it wasn't real. But I also don't like being hoodwinked, so I wasn't holding any judgment until I saw the church for myself. The guide assured us that ghosts are in the shape of people, not floating orbs. Sonofa, who the heck am I supposed to believe now? Good grief.

We set off shortly after 7 and was told we'd be doing quite a bit of walking and most of the tour would be outside. Our final two destinations would both be inside, one an old tunnel used to hide runaway slaves with the Underground Railroad and another an extremely haunted church. We. Couldn't. Wait. Our first stop was the site of the first penitentiary in the state of Illinois. And we soon realized that our guide LOVED telling stories. If you think my stories are long-winded (and I know you do), this guy puts me to shame. He proceeded to tell us all about how this prison held all kinds of dark and grisly deaths from overcrowding of Civil War Confederate prisoners to a small pox epidemic that quarantined prisoners and guards alike. There were so many people dying just from being around the remaining dead that they dug a giant hole within the prison grounds to dump the dead bodies into. And then they sent them downstream to an island in the Mississippi river, only to have them returned again to the prison site. I won't give away too many details, but it was kind of eerie to be out at night standing on the former site of this prison. Yeah, it's now a parking lot. Gotta love urban expansion. :)

Don't let the concrete stains fool you. Lots of people died under this parking lot.

Next we learned about The Mansion House where it is believed that an old Indian hunter, who was renting a room, was found dead in his room with his own hand around his neck. He had spent nearly every night there keeping the entire population awake with his screaming about the ghosts of all of the Indians he had killed that were coming back to take their revenge on him. So, at this point, I'm thinking, cool, we'll get to go see this place. Nope. It burned down in the last decade and nothing is left. Well, crap. Again, what good is the ghost story without the actual structure to back it up? Dangit.

I'm kind of beginning to wonder about this ghost tour, but we press on to the next location where a police officer vanished in front of a building during his night watch in the 1930s. Again, it's a chilling story of a guy who vanished and who's body was found a few days later showing a brutal murder. Our guide continues to tell us this story while standing on an empty lot. The building that this took place at was once again not there. So, 3 for 3. Don't get me wrong, I love a good story, but sonofabitch, I wanted to actually go inside and see some crazy stuff! Not see random lots where things used to happen.

Be careful. You could vanish from this very spot. Without a Trace. That sounds like a great title for a TV show. Wait......

Our guide then told of a story of one of his nightly tours and walking an entire group of people down a dark alley and right into the middle of a drug deal. Ah, good ol' Alton. We hiked up a steep alley and then another hill before our guide needed a moment's rest. He wasn't exactly agile nor in tip top shape. We waited for him to catch his breath to move on, but nope, he decided to tell us a story instead. Imagine that. But this time, the story was not about a ghost. Nope, it was about one of the tallest men in the world who happened to grow up in Alton. Yep, he wasted about 20 or so minutes of our time talking about this boy growing up and his trials and tribulations of life at growing to be over 8 feet tall. Fascinating stuff, if that's what you paid for. We did not. At one point, I looked at Brenda and said that an 8' tall ghost had better start walking down the sidewalk or I'm gonna start to get pissy.

Finally, our guide was ready to press on, but we stopped again for another history lesson. This time about one of Abe Lincoln's debates before he became President. There's a few statues close to the river depicting the legendary debate. But, nothing haunted about it. I'm thinking maybe this guy is a history professor in his "day job" and he was practicing for his Monday lecture or something. Get to the spooky stuff buddy!

Finally, FINALLY, he announced that we would be going into the first of our two buildings next. SWEEEEET! We walked up to a particulary spooky looking building and Brenda and I were so excited, we thought we might pee a little. It looked old and like something ominous had to have happened there. Come on buddy, quit the idle chit chat and let us go in.

Oh wait, we don't get to go in?

This building is from the World's Fair in St. Louis in 1904 and it was relocated to Alton because some rich dude liked it?

And now it houses a bunch of lawyers?

And there's no ghosts lurking around?

WTF.

My patience tends to wear thin when I feel like I'm being bamboozled, and I was starting to feel this way about this tour. Don't get me wrong, I loved the stories behind the hauntings, but I could have read those online. I didn't spend $25 to listen to some guy tell me something I could read myself.

As we rounded the next corner, the next house was visible. And it was pretty big. We found that this house was built by a family dedicated to helping escaped slaves reach their freedom in the north. There would be a tunnel in the basement that we'd get to see that the slaves used to hide from the Confederacy and it's followers. After the war was over and the house sold, it was turned into a tuberculosis hospital and the amount of people who died there was staggering.

It had been nearly 3 hours since our tour began and we'd finally get the chance for some real possible paranormal activity. Because of the small size of the tunnel, our guide broke us up into two groups to take us below. Fortunately, the current owners are pleasant and allow these tours to commence throughout the holiday season. We entered a door underneath the front porch and proceeded down a stairwell in the basement. Through two dingy rooms, we found the entrance to the Underground Railroad tunnel, and that was exactly what it was. Just a short tunnel with no windows or doors except the one entrance. I'm not sure exactly how it was hidden from random people, but I suppose the disguise was disgarded after the war.

We get to go inside! Wooooo!

The front door is pretty.

We filed into the tunnel one by one and then our guide proceeded to turn off the rest of the lights in the basement. One. By. One. Until it was pitch black with only the sound of shuffling feet of the group. Brenda freaked a little and grabbed onto my arm for reassurance that I was indeed a living breathing soul. I freaked some, but I just didn't let it out verbally. For some reason, I didn't want to touch the walls of the tunnel. Most people were leaning on them for support, but something freaked me out about touching the walls. I don't know what it was, but I just had a feeling that I shouldn't do it. The guide eventually turned the lights back on and gave us an opportunity to take a few pictures. He told us how sometimes people would see ghosts walking past the entrance while they were standing inside. No such luck for us. It was funny though, I was torn between wanting to look and hoping I'd see something, to refusing to look in case I actually saw something. I'm weird like that.

Why are you smiling Brenda?! There could be a ghost right behind you!

I finally touched the walls, but only in the light.

Looking out into the rest of the basement.

I thought if I turned off the flash, I might catch a glimpse of something.

Nice.

Random room in the basement. Again, I was hoping to catch something in the corner.

We stayed for a few more minutes to take pictures of the tunnel and the remaining rooms downstairs. I hoped something might happen, but eventually we made our way back to the surface to let the other group go down. While we waited, our other guide told us stories of people who rented the apartments in the building. Over the years, numerous people made claims of crazy sh*t happening, and then eventually breaking their leases and moving out. Some such things like keys and other items going missing, only to show up in other places hours or days later, a single knuckle rapping on a door to the basement, with no body on the other side to indicate where the knock came from, scraping and the sound of moving furniture and muffled noises coming from empty apartment. You know, the usual. I honestly don't think I could knowingly move into a building that has claims of hauntings. Whether it's true or not, I'd be scared shitless all the time. I'd either think it really was ghosts, or that some crazy serial killer was trying to break into my place. Either way, I'd never get any sleep.

Speaking of sleep, I was in desperate need of some, but I didn't want to miss out on the final stop on our tour. The First Unitarian Church. The place that Brenda's friend caught the ghost with his iPhone. Eventually we made our way down the street to this church and it definitely looked spooky outside. It could have been because it was 10:30 at night or because we knew that something lurked inside. We didn't spend too much time outside, as our guide wanted to tell us the story from inside the church. And, by the way, it's still a functioning church. He took a few volunteers in to make his nightly donation and then the rest of us filed in afterwards. It was dark and they were definitely going for the spook factor on this one.

Cuh. Reepy.

I was trying for a face in the window, but no luck.

So, the story goes that a beloved minister took his own life by hanging himself from one of the light fixtures. No one seems to know why, but apparently he was pretty pissed at life if he did that and continued to haunt the church for the rest of eternity. We made our way from the actual church pews into the adjoining room where the suicide took place. Our guide hadn't mentioned the light fixture at this point, all he said was that the minister was found hanging. He then asked us all if we had any idea where the body was found. For some reason, my mind went to that one light fixture. Everyone threw out guesses, but no one guessed that. Then, he revealed that it was the light fixture I was thinking of. Holy crap, I'm possessed! Ha, just kidding. I only thought that because he was standing nearly directly underneath it. I figured he had some kind of dramatic ending going on.

THE Light Fixture.

It wasn't this light in the church, my flash is just ridiculously bright.

One of the other guides stepped forward at this point and said that during one disturbing evening, she heard a man's whisper in her ear that said "Shut him up" during one of the storytelling sessions. Creepy? Perhaps. Although I wanted to say the same thing at least a dozen times during the tour, so I can't blame a ghost for wanting the same thing! If the minister really does lurk around, he's probably heard that same damn story a hundred times or more! Our first guide also told us about his wife coming along and feeling like she was being strangled at one point. They left the church and she had rope burns down her neck. Coincidence, who knows? But, given the current timing of being in the church, the lights being off and the stories, I was freaking myself out and kinda wanted to get the heck out of dodge. I took a gazillion pictures, hoping to catch the crazy lunatic wandering around, but I think the flash on my camera is too powerful. Or, you know, there really wasn't a ghost. Whatevs.

Finally after over 4 hours of wandering around, we finished the tour. Good grief! I was incredibly pooped.

Goodbye creepy church.

We headed back to St. Louis, 4 hours after our tour began, with no ghost sightings, but lots of knowledge about the bat shit crazy stuff that has gone down in Alton. Mental note: don't move there.

Thanks Brenda for going on our Fall "Date"!

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! :)