My little boy is growing up so fast! I can't believe he's now 7 years young; reading, protecting his little sister and mastering his humor/teasing. He's such an amazing, loving, handsome, sweet, caring, kind, funny, intelligent, energetic little guy full of life and smiles! You love your family, friends and football and put all your heart and energy into everything you do. You make us very proud and we love you very much! 💝🎂🎉🎁
batkids
This year we celebrated his birthday with a batman theme 🦇 at DARTemUP. We dressed up in bat apparel, engaged in nerf battles, played arcade games and ate pizza and batcake. All in all an excellent time was had. Ry was super excited to share his birthday with friends and family, and we couldn't have asked for better weather too!
batman cake and cupcakes
A big thank you to everyone who came out and celebrated Ryland's 7th birthday with us❣ 💗
I didn't run this race last year as I was still babying my hip, so this year I was determined to run it, especially since this was the 1st year they offered a medal!
A big thank you to Brian and team HEB, their tent rocks every year! Free ice-cream, breakfast tacos and massages for the win!
This year was unseasonably cold! We left the hood around 5:15 am so that we had plenty of time to park and hit up the potties. We were waiting at the start line for almost an hour and hardly anyone was in the corrals. We figured out later it was because they were all hiding in buildings to keep warm!! It was 44 degrees at the start, overcast with 3 mph winds. Burrrrrr!
Pfelly's!
ladies of beef
selfie
The cold weather did make for a great run! We were only freezing before and after the race...like shivering blue lips cold! I pretty much stayed with Jessica the entire race, she was my white rabbit. :) Thanks to chasing her I hit a new 10K PR! We actually had the same exact chip time, what are the odds!?
My official chip time: 53:25 at an 8:36 pace for 6.2 miles.
My Garmin time: 53:28 at an 8:30 pace for 6.3 miles
#TeamBeef!
garmin
Pfelly's and HEB tent
1st Cap10K medal!!
We only hung out at the HEB tent for maybe an hour max. We were all just too cold. I made sure to get my free massage before we left. After we got home and took hot showers, we met at Rio Grande for a celebratory lunch of queso and margs!!!
2018 was my 2nd year to run TIR and my first time as Captain! Jenn and I decided after last year we should start our own team with the Pfelly's group. Since we ran with a well organized team last year, we were well prepared by leveraging some of their timing sheets and expertise. Being captain was a whole new ball game, it was up to me to make sure we had all the material, hotel accommodations, rental vans, gas cards, team shirts and checklists put together for the team and both vans.
I registered our team back in Nov/Dec of 2017, and the rest of the team members just had to make sure they were registered by the end of Feb. It took a while to settle on a team name, but we finally agreed on Salamis & Mommies (S&M), with Rihanna's S&M as our theme song. Recruiting and making sure we had all 12 runners + 2 designated drivers was a bit nerve wracking, but thankfully we secured all the spots.
I almost waited too long to book our hotel rooms for Gonzales. I called the first week of January thinking I had plenty of time and most of the hotels were already booked! Thankfully Sleep Inn & Suites still had enough double queen rooms to book us all together, we needed 4 rooms total. Whew! That same week I also called around for rental vans and ended up booking with the same company as last year, LongHorn Rentals, they were the most affordable and had a TIR discount! So glad to have the big items out of the way.
Next came our team shirts. So glad Tutuy stepped up and took over designing our team logo. I started checking out shirts from Dicks, Academy Sports, Walmart, etc. Eventually Jenn and I went to Target and finally found some tanks we liked for the team. I made sure to get everyone's sizes and placed a bulk shipment order. My neighbor, Angela, printed the tanks for us as well as our designated driver t-shirts. They look awesome! We had a meet and greet at the end of January to pass out shirts and go over all the info and any questions everyone might have.
Team shirts!
Finally our weekend had arrived! There were a lot of last min reminders sent out the week leading up to TIR. I printed off a gazillion directions and cut up running leg instructions, purchased the gas cards for the vans, food, packing, etc. Everybody met at my house between 5-5:30 pm so we could load up, decorate the vans and head out to Blacks BBQ.
Team S&M
Van 1 feeling 'good', on the way to BBQ
Blacks BBQ
Carb and protein loading. #teambeef!
We spent the night in Gonzales at the Sleep Inn & Suites. Our official start time was 6:58 am on Saturday, so we went to bed around 10:30 pm and were up at 5 am. We wanted to get to the start a good 45 mins-1 hour early just in case. Thankfully the hotel put out their breakfast early for us runners. We parked and picked up our bibs around 5:45 am, hit the potties, took pics and waited to start. They were actually ahead of schedule and we were called up to the start line by 6:50 am. The 1st mile we all ran as a team, and since I was the team captain I got to continue on with the 1st leg. BOOM!
Ready to run!
I enjoyed my 1st run as it was still dark (I should have worn my reflective vest) and overcast. Unfortunately it was already 70 degrees and a bit muggy. Half way through my run it started to get more light out where I didn't need my headlamp. I saw NO ONE on my run as we were spaced out from the start by a good 5-10 mins, therefore I didn't get any kills. I averaged a 9:34 pace for my first leg.
running in the 1st leg
1st leg complete!
we always selfie
Grab that @$$!
funny guys just had to copy us
Van 1 finished around 11 or 11:30 am and we found a tex-mex restaurant for lunch. Afterwards we headed straight for the exchange point to try and nap. Van 2 had much faster runners than van 1, so our recovery time was shorter. By 2 or 2:30 pm we were off running again. Now it was HOT! Full sun, 88 degrees but felt closer to 98 on the road. IT WAS BRUTAL. Poor Michelle went out too fast and the sun got her, Jason had to finish off 0.7 miles of her run, which apparently pissed off another team and from then on we were in constant competition with the Regulators.
before starting our 2nd legs...chillin
Michelle's 2nd leg - oh the heat...and still digesting lunch
I started my 2nd leg (#16) around 5 pm. I was lucky because just as I started some clouds came out and the temp started to drop a bit, plus there was some nice wind. I ran with a cold towel around my neck and ice in my bra. Every mile or so someone would come out and pour cold water over my head and back to keep me cool. I decided not to push it during this run and I averaged a 9:56 pace. Again no kills as we were in the lead...how we were in the lead I have no idea, but we knew the faster teams would catch us during the night runs.
Love this shot of me running in, gorgeous!
#TEAMBEEF
YEAH 2nd LEG DONE!
Here's where we started getting into the night runs. We met van 2 around 8 pm for the switch off. We drove around for a bit to find a sandwich shop them went to the exchange point to sleep. A couple of us got out our sleeping bags and slept outside the van. Unfortunately our exchange point was also at a train crossing! Every 30 mins a train would drive by and blare their horn! This did not bode well for sleep. I think we started running again around 12:30 am.
Jenn starting her night run
My 3rd and final leg (#30) was around 3:30 am and I was the last one to run in our van. Again the low was only 70 degrees and now we were in Houston so it was extremely humid. As our van and the Regulators were the only ones still out front, we didn't see anyone on our runs, therefore again I didn't get any kills. This was probably my longest leg and I averaged a 9:47 pace (stupid humidity). The nice thing about this run is that the store we ended at was giving out free breakfast tacos! Food for the win!
Once we ate our tacos and changed, we drove straight to the last exchange point which also happened to be the END. Since we were downtown Houston we couldn't sleep outside (too many homeless people), so we all had to squeeze in the van. I think I managed 2-3 hours of quality sleep at this point, even though the van started to get fairly humid after a couple hours (we couldn't leave it running for AC). Around 7 am we all slowly got up, a few of us found a Starbucks for some coffee, hit the rest rooms and waited for van 2 to arrive. The nice thing about being so far ahead was that all the port o potties were still clean and fully stocked! Van 2 finally arrived after dropping their last runner and we all headed to the top of the tower to wait for Chris and run in as a team.
TIR tower
waiting for Van 2 to arrive
the tunnel
Waiting for our last runner
Our last runner came in around 9 am!!! It was so awesome to be the 2nd team across the finish line. This did not mean we placed, in fact we actually were 30 in our division and 52 overall. I was able to video us all running in the last 0.1 miles together. It was such a different ending this year as we didn't go to San Jacinto, but oh so much more enjoyable as it was 20 miles shorter!
That's a wrap!
After we finished we grabbed some free beer, our 3 pizzas for the team and took some group pics. By this time it was 10:30 am and we were ready to head out. My van, van 1 went straight home. Van 2 actually found another tex-mex restaurant to celebrate. I did try and get our van to have a celebratory mimosa on the way home but no-one seemed to be up for drinking except me. Everyone just wanted to get home and showered. We arrived back at my house around 1:30 pm. So much earlier than last year! In fact I was able to make it to Ry's soccer game at 3 pm! I was mentally out of it for the rest of the day and Monday. Recovering from sleep deprivation is rough and takes longer than you want it to.
celebrating afterwards with mimosas
Over all a very successful TIR experience and my first time as captain. :) I'm sure we will all run it again next year, though I'm hoping to pass on the captain torch.
