I had the most amaxing trip up the coast this weekend. More from my trip to Big Sur coming soon.
{MF Dre}
The Most Beautiful Place Ever
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Category Archives: Adventure.
12 Runners, 200 Miles, 30+ Hours – Ragnar SoCal Leg 2.
About 7 hours after we exchanged air leg 6, van 1 was back on duty. We had spent the last few hours showering baby wiping, rehydrating, fueling and stuck in awesome Friday afternoon Southern California traffic as we made our way to exchange 12. Collectively we were about to cover about 40 miles over Legs 12-18.
Between the hours of 6:30p – 6:30a all runners are required to wear headlamps, reflective vests and tail lights….good thing because things get a bit cray at night on the back-lit mountain roads leading out of Orange County and into San Diego.
Steph led us out the gates again and into the night sky.
Followed by Rachel who made 8 miles look easy until a stray dog started chasing her {pic not included}. Then she made hauling it into exchange 14 look easy!
And then Janice took off into the pitch black sky lit only by a feeble headlamp. The van made a quick CVS stop on the way to the next exchange and just as we arrived at the exchange we got a text from Janice.
ROAD KILL?? nope.
She just got a little tough love from the course and needed her elbow bandaged.
!!!Emergency Triage Van to the rescue!!!
Seriously that is how dark it was!! Rachel and Lauren performed a little on-course triage before sending Janice back out onto the path. {note: if Janice would have needed it one of us to take over her leg, one of us would have totally stepped in, but she’s a beast and was hardly going to let a skinned elbow stop her from total kick a** domination}.
She slap-bracelet exchanged with, Speedster, aka Lauren, who took off for a quick 6.7 miles turned 8 miles when she and a group of runners got lost on an unmarked golf course and then doused by the sprinklers. Told you Ragnar at night turns is a little cray…. dogs, spills, sprinklers???
Julie dominated her next leg in sparkles…bet you didn’t know they also double as reflective gear and we exchanged at 17 for my 7.5 mile beast of a leg
{Photo courtesy of Lauren}
yep. 2 miles straight uphill. ask me how that felt???
there’s a reason I’ve been running these hills. I started out pretty conservatively but consistent. I was determined to run the entire hill. I turned on pandora via my road noise vest and started getting into a patterned stride. Focused, breathing, determined. And one by one I started passing people on the hill. PASSING PEOPLE. I passed 10 runners on this hill. WHAT??? For those that are not familiar, this is not your typical course….there are not a ton of runners out at one time. You’re pretty spread apart, single file along the road. There can easily be a quarter-mile or more between runners. So yeah, 10 kills on the first hill alone. That decline was so sweet. The air was cool – probably in the 40′s – a whole different run than my first and I was absolutely jamming down this hill and back up to the finish.
Interestingly, I thought I would have been scared or nervous running along the side of the road through the mountains in the middle of the night. 1:30a really isn’t a time that I would ever consider running — ever. But this was by far my favorite leg of the race. Maybe because I dominated the hill and totally upped my confidence that I could be a hill runner (and had another 2 kills after the first hill). Maybe because it wasn’t hot. Maybe because it was beautiful running along the mountain and under the stars. Or maybe just because I knew that once I was done I could try to nap it out for a few hours… who knows??
but this smile is all heart. all hill domination. all happy.
I think each of us would likely say, Leg 2 was frickin’ awesome.
Have you ever run in the middle of the night?
{MF Dre}
Shannon Harris liked this post
12 Runners, 200 miles, 30+ Hours — Ragnar SoCal Leg 1
If anyone ever asks you to join a 12-person, 200 mile relay, do.not.think. Just.say.yes. Seriously a no-holds-barre, 100% committed YES.
Two weeks ago, as the Mr. and I were in the RV driving up to Gods Country for his race, I got an email from some friends at Ragnar asking me if I wanted to join a team of bloggers for Ragnar SoCal. Crazy timing as I had literally just told the Mr. I was craving a little adventure.
Insert immediate YES to the question from Ragnar and I quickly became a Ragnarian, completely naïve, but wholly enthused about whatever it was that I was about to take on.
6 van mates/strangers sharing extremely close quarters for 30+ hours didn’t sound all that bad after all…. Or did it??
So here’s how it worked. Ragnar paired our team of 6 with another team of 6 to create a full team of 12. I guess originally there were 12 of us but last-minute 6 people dropped out… so pairing us with another team of 6 was the perfect solution because despite being a team, the only real interaction you have during the relay is with your 6 van mates anyway.
Steph, Fit Mom In Training
Rachel, Running Rachel
Janice, Fitness Cheerleader
Lauren Sugar Coated Sisters
Julie, Angry Julie
Our start time was 8:30am Friday which meant the van was loaded and we were at the starting line by 7a for check in, gear check (each runner must have a reflective vest, headlamp, and tail light) and safety debrief.
it’s pretty hard to take a man in a full orange body suit seriously as he calls out info, but we tried
A quick handstand at the start and we were off and running at 8:30a with Steph leading us out of the gates and down the beach path in Huntington Beach.
(Photo courtesy of Julie)
We swiftly made it through 6 legs, passing the “slap bracelet” baton, though not without challenge – it was HOT! And our routes had zero shade…something none of us were truly prepped for.
I held the closing role in our van, going out for my first 4 mile leg around noon. – the final leg that brought us through the finish of Van 1, Legs 1-6. You’ve seen my recap in photos of Leg 1. This should have been my easiest leg …
Starting with a decent decline followed by a couple flat miles, seems like it would have been a slam dunk but the sun was blazing and I struggled to keep a decent pace. I felt slightly defeated by the heat and my personal aspirations to kick a** every leg of the race, but I wound up having a little chat with myself along the route and reminded myself I was there to have fun (and it was only 4 miles – not 26.2 miles of brutal heat like Boston last year). I pulled it back a little to not keel over from heat exhaustion (so dramatic I know) — I wanted to make sure I would have the energy to kick it into high gear on my middle of the night second leg and soon to be sleepless third leg.
and guess what?
I stopped wimping out and being a heat index drama queen and totally made it.
(Photo courtesy of Steph)
Running into the first major exchange where Ragnarians from 650+ teams cheered you in and readied their second vans for legs 7-12 was pretty frickin’ cool.
And since this is long enough, Legs 2 & 3 details coming soon.
Do you love or hate running mid-day?
Ever run Ragnar? or a Relay like this?
{MF Dre}
Another Race Weekend
Nope. Not me this time!
We’re off to God’s country somewhere, honestly I really don’t know, and if you’ve heard of Buttonwillow Raceway that makes two of you (you and the Mr.)
I’m excited though. I love watching the Mr. in his element, pursuing his passion for racing, competing and experiencing the thrill that racing delivers both of us.
For all the cheering and race support he throws my way, its fun to reverse the roles and support him. And the great thing about this whiskey tango RV we own is that there’s room for everyone to come!!! (And everyone has their favorite spot too)
Here we go!
{MF Dre}
Tiffani Brooks liked this post
Art Rebel.
The Mr. and I have a think for surprising one another…remember this date I planned? Probably one of the most randomly fun nights ever! A few weekends ago I took the Mr. out on another surprise date which turned out to be quite an unexpected night.
I had heard about the Art Rebel gallery from a friend and it sounded pretty interesting, but I didn’t know if it was a must do. However, when I saw the voucher on Gilt City I scooped up two tickets and told the Mr. I had an adventure planned which included an early dinner here. Each month Art Rebel creates a unique Underground Art Bite experience. Guests nosh on bites and spirits to get their creative juices flowing while participating in a variety of art activities.
Butcher paper with hand drawn shamrocks was strewn across the wall when we walked in and we were handed a palette of paint and told to start creating. Each person was to contribute to the mural for the evening.
What you can’t see here is that the Mr. painted 3:59 in Neon Yellow paint inside his shamrock – with his wish that I would go sub-4 the next morning during LA Marathon. {Someone might have had too much Irish Whiskey}.
My camera died towards the end of the night so I didn’t get to capture all of what I had hoped – including the finished mural, but we also did Spin Art!!! and Glow in the Dark Art!!!
This was so much fun – in fact way more fun than I even thought it would be. It brought back a bit of the childish whimsy that used to be so natural when it came to creativity. It’s funny that as children, we have no qualms about our ability to create masterpieces each and every day. Our parents hang them proudly from the refrigerator and we glow with their adoration, but as adults, we’re shamed by our presumed (or natural) lack of artistic talent.
I say screw it. Reconnecting with paints, pens, crayons and markers for a date night with the Mr. was a great way to rebel in my art.
Every child is an artist. The quandry is how to remain an artist once we grow up – Pablo Picasso
{MF Dre}
Day Trippin.
One of my favorite things about living in Los Angeles is that it is fairly day trip friendly. Two hours in the car can easily get you to Santa Barbara, San Diego or Palm Springs.
Yesterday morning we woke up early, stopped for our favorite Honey Vanilla Lattes here and headed north to Santa Barbara for the day. We had a little motivation — tax time — but after we got that out-of-the-way our awesome friend/accountant made it rain, we enjoyed the rest of an absolutely gorgeous afternoon dockside with Oyster Shooters & Bloody Marys in Santa Barbara followed by an amazing drive home along the coast and a final stop at The Sunset Restaurant in Zuma Beach for a glass of wine and the sunset, of course. 
Do you have a favorite Day Trip?
{MF Dre}
Deal Spotting.
Friday’s 3:30am wake up looked something like this. Braids, beanie, bugs. Welcome to the #bcod hotness {and brainless comments}
by the way – How do men look this good pre-5am? Jealous party of 1.
We made our way to Grand Rapids, Michigan on Friday through sleet and snow, planes, shuttles and automobiles style.
We have been traveling a ton over the last six months. Between bachelorettes, races, track parties, and weddings we have been consistently back and forth to the airport. All this traveling is definitely.not.cheap – it gets crazy out of control, particularly when you’re trying to save up for other things like house renovations, trips abroad and more racing adventures. So I am always looking for ways to save a buck – or twenty – along the way.
Some of the things I do:
- Buy tickets early!! I’ve been able to score some great deals by just getting ahead of the curve, setting price alerts and committing to the travel sooner than later.
- No Checked bags. If it doesn’t fit in one bag, it’s not coming. I’m hardly paying anywhere from $25-50 on top of each ticket to haul my clothes. Sorry airlines. You’ve lost me there.
- Bring Snacks. Airplane Food – that must be some sort of oxymoron. It’s not food. It’s overpriced and always disappoints. So we bring snacks, sandwiches etc.
- Rent Cars via Discount Sites. I’ve been able to score $12/day rental cars through sites like Hotwire, Priceline etc. And sometimes you can even score a great deal in combination with your airline ticket. This totally beats renting through the rental sites themselves and can save a lot of money on cab fares once you get to your destination.
- Use Public Transportation. In cities where it makes sense, like Chicago, we use the “L” to get us back and forth to the airport – a $2. fare each way vs. a $50-60 cab fare.
- Drive to LAX. Speaking of cab fares – from our house to LAX, though only about 8-10 miles, cab fare is about $45 each way. When you put that together, you’re looking at about $100+ round trip including tip. When we can’t wrangle a friend to take us, we ALWAYS park at the Parking Spot. For about $16/day we can park overnight (note: they often have coupons on their website as well for even further discounts) and a couple of nights at this rate is almost always cheaper than taking a cab.
This trip, my-go-to parking spot offered us a complimentary stay! SCORE! 
There are a myriad of other parking options at LAX, but I became a customer at the Parking Spot about 8 years ago when I started traveling a lot for work. I picked them for a variety of reasons, some really obvious — like the fact that it is really hard to forget which van is yours when you’re looking for a Spotted Yellow Van. The rest of the vans all look pretty much the same, but Polka Dots. If I’m confused, something is terribly wrong.
I am also seriously lazy about washing my car. I cannot stand this errand, ever. So I almost always take advantage and have them wash my car while I’m gone. For only about $2 more than car wash in my neighborhood, the convenience and delight in having a clean car upon return (and not having to sit and wait forever for it to be done) is pretty much awesome.
(photo edited from Source)
The Parking Spot also makes an earnest effort to try wake me from my brainless fog. By handing me a free copy of USA Today on my way onto the shuttle, I almost feel guilty for spending dumb money picking up a stack of the other smut filled with stories that have about a 0.1% chance of being true (saving money again!!)
(photo edited from source)
The Parking Spot is always open, you never have to wait more than about 5 minutes for a shuttle, the drivers are friendly and professional, they’re always open and their facilities are really well lit. {because late night/early mornings at airport parking lots isn’t my idea of the safest place}
It’s just so easy and convenient. We arrived back at LAX late this afternoon and walked outside the terminal, shuttle was already there, we hopped on and were in our car cruising home in 10 minutes.
Definitely a deal worth spotting on your next trip to the airport. They have locations all over the country! Don’t forget to check their website for active promotions and coupons too!
How do you save money when you travel? Any tips I’ve missed?
{MF Dre}
FitFluential LLC compensated me for this Campaign. All opinions are my own.
Raine Mitchell liked this post
A 25-Hour Adventure
Back to back weekends away and a move sandwiched between. Sounds like the type of year I’ve had. Kind.of.ridiculously.stupid.insane.overwhelming.and.outrageously.fun right?
I jetted out of LAX last night to Sacramento and then hauled my cookies in a Nissan Roller Skate of a rental car up about 80 miles north to Willows, California. Home of the California Highway Patrol, California Department of Motor Vehicles, and the main offices of the Mendocino National Forest…oh and Thunderhill Raceway Park – Northern California’s premier Motorsports road racing facility and the site of the longest automobile race in the United States – The 25 Hours of Thunderhill
yeah. remember that we both race long?
I’m up at arguably the only pretty race track in the country getting ready for one hell of a race that begins in earnest tomorrow. Here are just a few snapshots of what’s going on.
Prep and Qualifying rounds today.
Believe it or not, this is fun.
{MF Dre}
PS. All photos courtesy of Gunnar Nettleship Photography – our wedding photographer as well!!
Milestone Monday
Having some major back end issues on this site over the last few days. GRR.
Kind of presents a problem when you have a lot to say. I plans. and thoughts. and changes ahead for this little MF Blog. Big Ones.
But FIRST I’ve got another MILESTONE!
{as if this year hasn’t had enough of them}
If you wondered why perhaps you didn’t see any big fancy overly type-A MF honeymoon plans detailed here with some form of a DIY inspired travel bag, crazy unheard of adventures and a host of DT restaurants planned into some off-the-wall trip, eek we will call that a #fail.
We never planned one. It was in our plans all along to postpone the honeymoon and take a trip over the holidays, but as luck turns out, we went into escrow the week of our wedding on a place we can’t wait to call home.
Looks like our honeymoon might now involve sitting on the floor of our new home with pizza boxes and a few bottles of cheap wine. The term house poor is a reality, but I can’t wait to DIY the heck out of our new home and {few} empty rooms in a few short weeks when we move in!
Anyone up for a painting party?
{MF Dre}
Masked Mexican Madness.
With all of the madness going on lately, the Mr. and I have been head down working through our jobs, planning our wedding and a few other really big things going on. Friday night I planned a little surprise for the Mr. to give us a chance to get our heads out of “doing” and get back to fun.
The last big surprise I planned was this – and we were overdue for something a little out of the ordinary. So I planned it with a girlfriend of mine whose husband is a good friend of the Mr’s. We agreed. All Surprise. No Clues. No Questions Allowed.
{plus, there was really no way these two were ever going to guess this one}
Lucha VaVOOM!
from their site:
Lucha VaVOOM is a non-stop, action-packed scream-a-thon, where Mexican Masked wrestlers flip and fly, performing breathtaking acrobatic feats. It’s good vs. evil played out in a one fall, Lucha Libre exhibition-style match for maximum enjoyment.
In between matches, the finest, handpicked burlesque acts from around the world astound us; at Lucha VaVOOM, we like a little sexo with our violencia. Raucous aerial acts, Pogo-stick peelers, hula-hoop hotties; we’ve got it all.
um. yes… pretty. much. got. it. all.
As we waited for the doors to the Mayan to open, the show began on the sidewalk next to us as the wrestlers arrived in beat up hearses and on top of coffins.
Once inside, we staked out our location ringside
If you’re down for getting a little dirty, midgets flying into the air and dodging masked Mexican wrestlers as they dive out the ring, you have to sit ringside. {plus, there are about 20 huge bouncers surrounding the ring for the sole purpose of blocking, tackling and catching these wrestlers before they hit the crowd}
This was one of the most insane experiences we’ve ever had. And by insane, I mean ridiculously fun. Who doesn’t love fat, sweaty men in spandex, a hulahooping striptease by a ladyboy and flying chickens?
Oh, not you??
Try again. GO. Pinky prom, you’ll change your mind. Next show in LA is around Valentines Day. Who wants to come with us?
This is absolutely the kind of fun you want need to have at least once in your life.
{MF Dre}