The weekend of May 20th I did my friends a big favor. I was a volunteer for their team in the New England Ragnar Race. If you aren't familiar with a Ragnar race it is where you have a team of 12 people (2 vans of 6 people) and you run a 200+ mile relay race. Each person runs 3 times and the amount of miles you run depends on what "leg" you have. It generally takes a little over 24 hours to complete. One of the tag lines is "Eat, sleep, run, repeat." I have to say I was glad I wasn't running. It looked exhausting.
My friend Cynda and I drove up to the Boston area on Friday night. We went to sleep as soon as we got there seeing as we had to wake up by 3:30 to go volunteer. When I woke up in the middle of the night I started walking to the bathroom and I stepped on someone who was on the floor. I quickly looked around and saw multiple bodies sprawled on the floor. Ben (Cynda's husband) and his van of runners were all sleeping on the floor. They only were able to sleep for about 2 hours before it was there turn to run again.We showed up at the volunteer sight at 4:15. For the record, I am NOT a morning person. I was actually pretty bitter for most of the shift. Cynda was good to put up with my bitterness and laugh at me. That what friends are for though. Our team (the Unconquerable Soles) showed up around 5:30. Ben was the runner coming into the exchange point. He did awesome running up and down hills for over 7 miles so early in the morning. That was about as exciting as it got all morning. I spent most of my 5 hour shift writing down the time each runner came in, watching people vomit and gagging from the smell of bad BO.
I have to say, we got a great deal on the hotel room. This is a pile of over 20 used towels. That is about how many showers were taken. The whole team of 12 and the 3 volunteers all slept (at one point or another) in this room, most of us showered and all of use enjoyed the free breakfast. To top it off the Johnson's paid for the hotel with Marriot points... so we got all of that for free... PERFECT!
After breakfast we all went to the Harvard campus where the finish line and party were set up. It was a pretty cool atmosphere. Lots of energy and free stuff ;-) We also scooped out another mormon team, which is always fun. It was a beautiful day and it was fun to be apart of the whole thing.
After the team finished and took pictures we all went our seperate ways for the weekend. I was lucky enough to play 5th wheel to my friends the Johnson's and Jensen's. Mike was at home in Stamford studying hard for the CFA, so proud of him. The 5 of us walked to Mr. Bartley's there in Cambridge. It was delicious. The onion rings were to DIE for!
I have to say, we got a great deal on the hotel room. This is a pile of over 20 used towels. That is about how many showers were taken. The whole team of 12 and the 3 volunteers all slept (at one point or another) in this room, most of us showered and all of use enjoyed the free breakfast. To top it off the Johnson's paid for the hotel with Marriot points... so we got all of that for free... PERFECT!
After breakfast we all went to the Harvard campus where the finish line and party were set up. It was a pretty cool atmosphere. Lots of energy and free stuff ;-) We also scooped out another mormon team, which is always fun. It was a beautiful day and it was fun to be apart of the whole thing.
After the team finished and took pictures we all went our seperate ways for the weekend. I was lucky enough to play 5th wheel to my friends the Johnson's and Jensen's. Mike was at home in Stamford studying hard for the CFA, so proud of him. The 5 of us walked to Mr. Bartley's there in Cambridge. It was delicious. The onion rings were to DIE for!Then we headed to our hotel. Yes, all 5 of us shared a room. I slept on a roll away bed in the "kitchen" area of the room. Cynda and I forgot bathing suits so we decided we would go buy one. And that we did. We really enjoyed the hot tub for a few hours. We all had big plans for a night out on the town. Especially since Scott and Camille didn't have their son Peyton with them.
What we didn't factor into out "big plans" was the none of us got more than 4 hours of sleep the night before and over 1/2 of us had run a total of 50 miles combined. So we drove 15 minutes down the road to Chilli's (I had never been) where we received poor service and mediocre food. On our way back we realized that there was a Chilli's right across the street from our hotel. Nice work guys. We wanted to see a movie but we were all so tired we went to CVS to buy card games instead. We didn't even open them. When we got back to the hotel we all feel asleep talking. The next morning no one was 100% sure how they got into bed.
We spent Sunday morning in Boston. On our way to the U.S.S. Constitution we saw a bike accident in downtown Boston. The guy was riding right in front of us. He hit a big pot hole and flew off his bike. Meanwhile Ben had to swerve so he didn't run over the guy. Camille is a nurse so she was already jumping out of the car before we were even pulled over all the way. She did awesome. She got him out of the street and put pressure on the HUGE cut in his head. He was in shock and so was I. I remembered very quickly why the medical field never interested me. I was a wreck. All this guy had as a broken collarbone and a nice gash in his head. But the blood oozing out and the perfect droplets clinging to his biking outfit. Oh man I needed to sit dow. We called 911 and there were there in about 7 min. Which felt like an eternity for me as I tried not to magically make my breakfast reappear. SICK. So 20 points for Nurse Camille. YOU ROCK!!
Once we sent our new friend away in the ambulance went to the U.S.S. Constitution which is one of the oldest American war ships still in use. It was cool to see the ship deck lined with canons and the city skyline was the perfect back drop. I had to have Ben and Cynda take pictures with me so I wouldn't look like a looser all by myself in all the pictures.
We also visited Bunker Hill while in Boston. It reminded me of the washington monument. I loved the street we parked on. It was so picturesque and perfect. I only wish the sun would have been shinning. Gray clouds don't make for good picture backdrops.
Next we headed to little italy and the famous pastry shop "Mike's." We all got a cannoli (it was my first one ever and I have to say, it was good, but I wish I had gotten the cupcake.)
We nibbled on our pastries while we people watched in little italy by the Freedom Trail. Then we headed to the Italian place Camille and Scott had been looking forward to going to for months. Apparently it was on Dinners, Drive-ins and Dives (triple D) and they had great lobster ravioli. Well when we got there (after a 20 minute drive) it turns out the were closed on Sunday. Good for them for honoring the Sabbath day, shame on us for wishing they didn't.
So we headed back for CT. But we started looking at all the other triple D restaurants from Boston to stamford. We found 2 in Providence road island. The first one we watched the clip from the show that featured their food and everyone (but me) was salivating over the fisherman's stew (yuck sea food!) But they closed at 3pm on Sundays, it was 3:15. Fail. So before we went all the way to the other restaurant we looked up the hours online (thank you smart phones) and it was closed on Sunday as well. So we were pretty let down. But Cynda came through. She rallied the disappointed troops telling us about this great Italian place this Italian cop had raved to her and Ben about when they were in the area earlier this year. Ben had put the name of the restaurant in his iPhone. So Bam. we had a place to go.
HOLY COW!! That place was good. I still dream about their vodka sauce. I love that we are all such good friends we just passed our plates around and everyone sampled and oww'ed and ahhh'ed over the food. I don't think anyone ended up with their actual plate in front of them.
What we didn't factor into out "big plans" was the none of us got more than 4 hours of sleep the night before and over 1/2 of us had run a total of 50 miles combined. So we drove 15 minutes down the road to Chilli's (I had never been) where we received poor service and mediocre food. On our way back we realized that there was a Chilli's right across the street from our hotel. Nice work guys. We wanted to see a movie but we were all so tired we went to CVS to buy card games instead. We didn't even open them. When we got back to the hotel we all feel asleep talking. The next morning no one was 100% sure how they got into bed.
We spent Sunday morning in Boston. On our way to the U.S.S. Constitution we saw a bike accident in downtown Boston. The guy was riding right in front of us. He hit a big pot hole and flew off his bike. Meanwhile Ben had to swerve so he didn't run over the guy. Camille is a nurse so she was already jumping out of the car before we were even pulled over all the way. She did awesome. She got him out of the street and put pressure on the HUGE cut in his head. He was in shock and so was I. I remembered very quickly why the medical field never interested me. I was a wreck. All this guy had as a broken collarbone and a nice gash in his head. But the blood oozing out and the perfect droplets clinging to his biking outfit. Oh man I needed to sit dow. We called 911 and there were there in about 7 min. Which felt like an eternity for me as I tried not to magically make my breakfast reappear. SICK. So 20 points for Nurse Camille. YOU ROCK!!
Once we sent our new friend away in the ambulance went to the U.S.S. Constitution which is one of the oldest American war ships still in use. It was cool to see the ship deck lined with canons and the city skyline was the perfect back drop. I had to have Ben and Cynda take pictures with me so I wouldn't look like a looser all by myself in all the pictures.
We also visited Bunker Hill while in Boston. It reminded me of the washington monument. I loved the street we parked on. It was so picturesque and perfect. I only wish the sun would have been shinning. Gray clouds don't make for good picture backdrops.
Next we headed to little italy and the famous pastry shop "Mike's." We all got a cannoli (it was my first one ever and I have to say, it was good, but I wish I had gotten the cupcake.)
We nibbled on our pastries while we people watched in little italy by the Freedom Trail. Then we headed to the Italian place Camille and Scott had been looking forward to going to for months. Apparently it was on Dinners, Drive-ins and Dives (triple D) and they had great lobster ravioli. Well when we got there (after a 20 minute drive) it turns out the were closed on Sunday. Good for them for honoring the Sabbath day, shame on us for wishing they didn't.
So we headed back for CT. But we started looking at all the other triple D restaurants from Boston to stamford. We found 2 in Providence road island. The first one we watched the clip from the show that featured their food and everyone (but me) was salivating over the fisherman's stew (yuck sea food!) But they closed at 3pm on Sundays, it was 3:15. Fail. So before we went all the way to the other restaurant we looked up the hours online (thank you smart phones) and it was closed on Sunday as well. So we were pretty let down. But Cynda came through. She rallied the disappointed troops telling us about this great Italian place this Italian cop had raved to her and Ben about when they were in the area earlier this year. Ben had put the name of the restaurant in his iPhone. So Bam. we had a place to go.
HOLY COW!! That place was good. I still dream about their vodka sauce. I love that we are all such good friends we just passed our plates around and everyone sampled and oww'ed and ahhh'ed over the food. I don't think anyone ended up with their actual plate in front of them. The rest of the car ride was full of road trip games and laughing. I don't think I had laughed that hard in a while. May was SUCH a stressful month for me since I was putting together the fundraiser. This trip was seriously what the doctor ordered for me to be able to make it through the rest of the month. I am so blessed to have such great friends (and not just these guys. So many other have made living on the East Coast some of the best years ever. And there will be PLENTY more to come.)
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