Thursday morning came very early and we layered on clothing for our Turkey Trot 5K.  It was 25 degrees outside but the wind was around 13 mph so it felt much colder.  We froze!  So the race started and it was running up a hill…seriously!  It was not a nice hill either.  Then we turned the corner to find yet another hill. I think the first half mile or so of the run was up a hill. I was so mad that I couldn’t run and ended up walking. I was really pissed.  I had been doing so well training but hills were not part of my training.  So DJ and hung out together, walk some, running some.  We did a lot more running the rest of the way.  I flew down a hill; DJ said she couldn’t keep up with me.  That was fun!  The whole time I was thinking don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t’ fall. My watch couldn’t connect to the GPS for the first .2 miles so according to my watch we did 2.9 miles in 39 minutes…a 13:30 pace.  But the actually finish time was 43:15 which is actually 13:57 pace.  Not bad considering we did some walking, especially in the beginning!    The rest of the times were Juliette at 23 minutes…she almost got the last trophy.  Some woman ran past her and Juliette just let her pass…if she would have known she would get a golden turkey she would have run faster!  Abbie did hers in like 32 minutes and swore she would never run that far again. LOL!  Eric of course was in at 34 minutes…no training of course! ARGH! After the run we made a well-deserved stop at Starbucks for breakfast sandwiches and hot chocolate.  Yum! Delicious!

Here are some pre-race pictures...it was too cold to get action shots!

Well it has been a rest week for me.  Not really by choice but with the Branson trip, I really didn't have much time to work out.  I did 3.1 miles on Sunday by Mike's house.  Again very hilly but I did much better than the last time I ran there.  Monday I was on a bus all day.  We didn't get to our hotel until after dark. I did manage to swim 30 minutes of laps in the small pool.  It was a bit difficult as every time I came up for a breathe I got a mouthful of smoke.  It was horrible. I can't believe they can smoke inside in Missouri...they are so backwards!  Tuesday was an early morning wake up call and more driving and then we had shopping, show, dinner, show.  We didn't get back to the hotel until almost 11pm and the pool was closed. Wednesday I went for a short run. It was about 2.5 miles of hills! It was a slow run but I think I got a good workout.  Thursday was another all day bus day and Friday I was just being lazy.  My long run yesterday was only 2.15 miles.  But I went outside in 8 degrees and ran!  I can't believe I did that!  I dressed warm and it felt pretty good.  The only reason I only went 2 miles was because we had to go to Evelyn's birthday party.   

Pounds lost: 19! (still at 19 even though I gained 4 pounds in 3 days...too many buffets!)

Mileage:

Week 10:  Swim = .5 miles;  Bike = 0 miles;  Run = 7.75 miles;   Total =  8.25 miles

I know I already did a review of Branson but there are some stories I just have to share.  Here is the first one. During intermission at the Down Home Country Show, Mom told the guy behind us something along the lines that they play the violin well.  He corrected her and said that isn’t a violin, it is a fiddle.  When she told me this, I cracked up because technically she was right…but she was in the wrong town.  Here is a little lesson on the fiddle/violin.

If you are in Branson, never, EVER tell a musician that they are a good violin player. You will probably end up with a concussion and have a bump on your head after they smash their beer bottle over your head and tie you up with rope, rodeo style. Just don't do it!  They are fiddle players.

On the other hand, never tell a musician playing for the Boston Pops that they are an awesome fiddle player because you may still have bump on your head from their $1,000 bottle of wine and you will be tied up by their tuxedo tails. They are violinists and have over $100,000 in student loan debt from 8+ years of music school so they can be one of the elite players in the country.

The exact same instrument may be played as a violin or fiddle, it is almost completely an issue of style and intent. As a disclaimer so I don’t have somebody tell me I’m wrong… sometimes there can be differences in the bridge.

Well I’m sitting at the Petro Pete’s truck stop in Albert Lea waiting for Eric to pick me up.  My tour group has left me.  I was sad to see the bus pull out of the parking lot. :(  Hopefully Eric will be here soon but until then I want to reflect on Branson (surrounded by gruff truck drivers).

I had a lot more fun on the trip than I thought.  We had a good group of people.  The trip started early Monday morning.  We had a long ride to Clinton, MO.  We stopped in Albert Lea for our first coffee break.  Mom and I shared a cinnamon roll. Exciting right?  Anyways the next stop was in Des Moines at some buffet place. It was pretty awful food.  The root beer was good and buns.  That is one thing about buffets it seems like they do dinner rolls right.  That was about it.  After another couple hours we stopped at a rest area and the final stop was in Clinton.  This put us about 2 hours from Branson.  The hotel was nice, the pool was warm but they let people smoke in the pool area.  Really?  What is this the 1970s?  Who smokes inside anymore?  I guess in Missouri they do.  Yuck! I swam about 70 laps in their tiny pool.   Mom and I went to Applebee’s for dinner.  It was either that or Arby’s. 

Tuesday morning we made the last stretch of the drive to Branson.  Our first event was shopping in Old Branson which was basically an indoor flea market. Not really my cup of tea.  We walked down to Branson Landing which is a more modern shopping area.  I really liked that.  I bought a nice scarf for $5 and mom got a really nice sweater.  We were running out of time for lunch so we just popped into Subway.  It took 20 minutes for me to get our subs.  I was first in line but there was only one person working and she helped 6 people before she checked us out.  So my toasted sub was cold when I finally got it.  Mom and I rushed through our subs and hopped on a trolley back to the bus.  It was a bit frantic!

After a stop at the hotel to freshen up we hopped back on the bus to our first show, Pierce Arrow.  It was a good show but I really can’t remember much about it.  I mean come on, I saw 4 more shows since that one.  Mom really liked that show.  We went to the Grand Buffet for dinner.  Again it is a buffet and I’m not a huge fan but it was way better than the first buffet we went to.  The dinner rolls were delicious!  The rest of the food was ok, I was desperate for something sweet so I had ice cream. If you know me, that is crazy because I don’t like ice cream! We convinced the bus driver that we need to drive through the Christmas lights display. It was nice.  They had the 12 days of Christmas illustrated so that was cool.  That night we saw the Andy Williams Christmas Show staring the Lennon Sisters and the Osmonds.  They were good.  It wasn’t Donny and Marie though…it was their siblings.  It was a late night as we didn’t get back to the hotel until almost 11pm.

Wednesday morning I went for a run in the Ozark Mountains.  I did about 2.5 miles.  The first mile was mostly downhill so it was fast. The last 1.5 mile was mostly up hill and it took me 3 minutes longer to run the second mile!  I was thinking it has to be elevation.  Now the bus driver informed me that the elevation was only about 1000 ft.  Way to bust my bubble. I thought I was struggling because of altitude.  But I guess it was just my attitude.  Darn.  Wednesday was a busy day. We had 3 shows and 2 buffets.  The first show was Down Home Country at 10am.  I thought it was pretty good. I like old country music.  After the show we went to the first buffet of the day. I liked this one the best but it was a pizza/salad buffet. It really takes a lot to screw up pizza.  I thought it was good.  Our next show was the one that Mom was looking forward, her heartthrob…Daniel O’Donnell.  It was a long show, almost 3 hours.  It was also packed. There were 27 coach buses there!  Crazy!  I liked this show too.  Our last buffet of the day was at the same place as the night before.  We were fortunate to sit next to the bus driver. He was really interesting.  He was probably around my age and we had a good time taking about sports, running and Australia and New Zealand.  He spends 4 months a year driving bus and giving tours over there and he was leaving in January.   The finale show was the Grand Jubilee.  I really wouldn’t say it was a great finale but it was ok.  The thing is I was really annoyed with the female singer. She reminded me of some toothless chick from West Virginia. She butchered every song she sang. How can you screw up “Go Tell it on the Mountain”?  The best part is when they dragged on of the ladies from our tour on stage and sang a bunch of Elvis songs. That was entertaining.  Overall it was an exhausting day!

Today we drove home, nothing to exciting.  We stopped about every 2-3 hours.  We had McDonald’s for lunch and it was delicious…I was craving a burger and fries after 3 days of buffets.  We stopped at a rest area north of Des Moines and it was freezing rain.  That wasn’t very pleasant. We got to Albert Lea about 5pm and Mom and I shared a Pizza Hut personal pizza and now I sit and wait for Eric.  I thought it was nice the bus driver came back inside to say good bye.  As I said, it was very sad to see the bus take off.  Here are some pics from the week: