Myrtle Beach Vacation

I can't even tell you the last time I've been on a full week's vacation.  Typically Dennis and I do long weekend trips or things like that, but this year we (Dennis) decided to take charge and arrange a full family vacation in Myrtle Beach.  With 4 other families.  

I wasn't completely sold on this idea, and since that was the case, I didn't want to have anything to do with the planning (as far as selecting a house, location, etc) this was all up to the guys with little faith that it would actually happen, but low and behold, our Google Calendar was marked.  Bravo boys!

Since most of the group was heading down from PA they came down to VA the night before to split up the trip.  Then on Saturday morning the 3 families began our journey.  With a few minor hiccups in the beginning (of course I forgot to grab Shane's ear Medicine from the fridge and remembered 5 minutes into the trip) we were off!

Car rides for me are an excellent time to catch up on my sleep.  I have become an expert on sleeping in the passenger seat, and timing my naps correctly with the children.  This was no exception.  After about an hour or so, Shane, Seth, and myself were out cold.  About 3 hours into the ride, we got a call from Dave's car and something was wrong with their car.  So we all exited to evaluate the problem.  The problem was fixable, but expensive and was going to take a while to fix which wouldn't normally be an issue, but we had 8 kids between the 3 cars to entertain while this all went on. 

After going on a lunch run and having a picnic outside, the kids started getting a bit antsy, so I decided to run a CrossFit Kids class!  It was a good way for me to be a little active on this day of travel and hopefully burn off some of the energy of the kids while we were stuck.  

Finally we were back on the road and got to the condo.  The other 2 families had already arrived, and we all took the night to settle in.  

Day 1 was nice (aka Father's Day).  We spent the day at the beach and then went out to dinner at a nice-ish restaurant to celebrate.  

Happy Father's Day Dennis!

The next morning or Day 2, the guys had planned a golf day - so while they were off doing that, I decided to take a walk to one of those obnoxious beach stores where Shane could pick out a new toy for the beach.  On the way home we found a small playground and since we weren't in a huge rush, we stopped for a bit to play. 

 

The rest of that day was spent at the beach where we found an awesome pair of aviators in the ocean that I rocked for the remainder of the vacation. 

That night we headed off to a smaller boardwalk for some ice cream and fireworks.  The kids enjoyed the ice cream, the fireworks, not so much. 

The next morning we decided to venture out to a local Crossfit Box, Breakers CrossFit.  The box was close enough to our condo that we could ride our bikes to the box.  

The work out was a lot of fun, but that is basically all I really have to say about the class, the coaching, and the overall experience at this affiliate.  

After we got back we decided to take a leisure bike ride with the kids and Dennis' sister around.  We didn't know exactly where to go, but we ended up on the East Coast Greenway path which goes from Maine to Florida!  The ride was getting HOT so we headed back in after about an hour. 

The next to do CrossFit Box was Crossfit North Myrtle Beach.  We had to drive a little ways to get there, but it was worth it.  Funny enough most everybody in the class was a drop in, with only 1 or 2 regular members there.  The coach, the instruction, and the class was really great.  Dennis and I really enjoyed dropping in. 

With not another good CF box option to visit the next and lats day of fitness was an extremely long and hot bike ride with the entire family.  We biked about 14 miles with both kids in tow and it was just too hot to do anymore.  

Overall I was happy to get 3 solid days of fitness in while on vacation (let's be honest getting ANY fitness in would have been a win).  I just feel so much better/am able to relax more when I am exhausted and have spent some energy.  

The rest of the trip was filled with ice cream, boardwalk, rides for Shane, a night out with Colleen and lots and lots of the beach time.  It was a new type of style of vacationing for me and it took me a while to adjust, and when I finally was adjusted it was time to leave.

Happy to add 2 more boxes to my list and a New State to my tally.  Thank you Myrtle Beach for the great weather and good times!

Overnight Hike Up Old Rag Mountain

When Dennis and I first joined CrossFit Hydraulic one of the members was talking about getting up at 2am and hiking up a "local" mountain to see the sun rise.  This was something completely up Dennis and I's ally but the biggest issue with us was childcare.  With not enough notice it wasn't an option for us and as it turned out, nobody else went either. 

A few months later two DIFFERENT members posted this photo to FB:

This photo reminded us that the hike was something we wanted to do, but we wanted to hike overnight to see the sunrise at the summit.  Dennis' mom was planning on coming to VA to watch the kids so we'd thought we'd take advantage of that and do the hike Friday night into Saturday morning.

I was a bit nervous doing the hike after a long week of work and exercising and such, but I figured it was something I'd be able to handle.  

After getting home at 9pm from work, I took a quick nap and at 12:30am myself, Dennis, Brennan, and Paul were en route to Old Rag Mountain.  

With all the excitement, none of us slept on the way there and it was fun energized car ride despite the time.  We arrived at the park at 2am and our adventure began.  

The first thing we noticed were the stars.  They were amazing and we hadn't even started the hike.  We knew the trail head was about a mile from the parking lot and off we went, semi guessing that we were headed in the right direction.  Until we spotted this:

Phew!  The last thing I wanted to do was hike in the wrong direction so this little sign made me feel 100% better.  

About 10 minutes into our hike - we all were like holy crap - it's humid and within minutes we were all just covered in sweat.  We also learned that whoever was first in line would walk into all the spider webs and whoever was last would get all the bugs in their face.  This was only the beginning of our adventure.   

Once we got to this sign, the hiking turned from a walk into a mixture of climbing, squeezing through places, and a hunt for the trail markers.  Although challenging, we were all having a blast!  We occasionally stopped and turned off our headlamps to gaze at the sky and the starts were truly amazing. I haven't seen a sky full of stars like that since living in Vermont and it was nice to appreciate them!  Clearly getting to the point of slap happy (We all were making bone head comments at this point), we were getting closer to where we wanted to be for the sunrise. 

We only lost the trail twice (both times kinda scary and at one point I thought we lost Dennis for good) but with the help of 3 girls that we caught up with, we were on the right path.  

We found and awesome spot to set up shop until the sun came up and we popped open a bottle of bubbly and ate some bagels too! 

 Once the sun was up, we were ready for the journey home.  Or so we thought.  The way down was LONGER than the way up and let me tell you this, it was borderline torture.   

The way home was a down incline, but it was just so long and boring, and we had been walking for what seemed like forever, our bodies were starting to ache.  FINALLY we got back to our car and we were all in such disbelief as to how many people were STARTING the hike as we were finishing it.  Seriously, it was a constant stream of people from the parking lot and cars were lined up to get in.  

Overall - this was the most fun I've had in a really long time.  It was slightly out of my comfort zone, but I was willing and able which made me happy.  Some of our notable quotes (that will only be funny to our little hiking group) are as follows:

The moment in the car ride when Karen and Dennis admitted to not drinking or ever trying coffee.  

Dennis ruining his shirt within 1 second of the hike with bug spray. 

While gazing at the hundreds of stars, "It's so beautiful, and not a star in the sky"

"I'm drunk because I don't have a stomach"

"I can't believe you even brought whipped cream"

On the way down after a few hours of walking we came up to a stream and a bridge, "I won't, I can't"



After the drive home (which thankfully included a short nap) Dennis and I put on our drinking hats and attended a Brewfest that we had been looking forward to for months!  We O'Donnell's do not mess around!

Year of Cardio - Baltimore 10 Miler

The Baltimore 10 Miler is the last "short" run before my half in October and full in November.  The timing of the races weren't ideal since there is such a huge gap between the 10 miler and the Marathons but it makes sense not to be doing the longest runs in the summer.  

Overall the run went well, Dennis and I had a nice little weekend together (thanks to my parents for coming down and babysitting) and we both successfully ran the challenging race. 

Packet pick up was on Friday at the zoo so we had to take a half day (darn) from work to head straight there to get our numbers.  The drive wasn't horrible (except for the rain) but I used the car ride to catch up on some much needed sleep.  Once we got our packets, we found our hotel and figured we'd take a walk to dinner.  

We found this really neat restaurant/butcher that was in a converted garage.  

The next morning we got to the start line and eagerly waiting for the race to start.  We had a little bit before the gun went off so we made sure to visit some of the promo tents beforehand. (even the 10k finisher picture op, lol)

Mentally I was 70% there.  I had missed a couple of my training runs, one being the 7 miles and that really screwed me up in my head.  So as predicted, at mile 7, I started to fall apart.  I had to walk for a bit and it was just a matter of getting to the finish line.  

I finished JUST under a 10 minute pace, with a time of 1 hour, 38 minutes and some change.  Not my best 10 mile time, but I can't be upset with my time.  

Dennis did awesome and was very happy with his time!  Post race we enjoyed the festitivies, included 2 free beers!

Since we had babysitters for the weekend, we decided to keep the party going and we met up with some friends for more drinks.  First we went to South Riding Inn and then we went to another place after that.  

I am VERY happy that my running is done for the time being but feel very accomplished for running/finishing this race!