Ok my team "This isn't a 5k?!" walked a lot of it. It was (literally) freezing temperatures. And we had to wade through 6 creeks. And dodge deer. Unfortunately no scrambling over monstrous hay bales as I was hoping but it lived up to my expectations pretty well. People had some fantastic costumes so we are doing it next year and dressing up, but having warm costumes because seriously it took a full 1/2 hr for my hands to even begin to get feeling back in them. I can't imagine how the people who had bathing suits on (or less) felt. Crazies! There were some dudes who had camelbacks full of some kind of alcohol...they didn' t wade through the creeks-they did face-plants and back-falls into them-not on purpose. Soaking from head to toe in muddy (FREEZING!) water. We saw one of the guys at the end...he seriously looked like death.
My ankle held up really well considering the uneven terrain we were running through-aka dead cornfields and streams- and the only injuries I sustained were some bruised shins from scrambling up banks on my hands and knees and a nice scalp wound from a thorny bush I did a headbutt into. Scabs in your hair feel really weird. Not bad for someone as un-graceful as me.
Pics are on Facebook, I didn't bring my camera with me for good reason, it would've been broken within 10 minutes. My fav costumes included the hoard of zombies, 2 diff pacmen, and one guy had a shirt that said I have to poop and he had rolls of toilet paper all over him.
My friend Morgan came to visit for a few days which was totally awesome! I was a bit worried about trying to keep her entertained here in Iowa since I know most people don't think of it as a super exciting place. Highlights: bowling, Harry Potter, Des Moines: free art museum, ice skating outside (!!) where we were the oldest people by like 10 years who didnt have little children, yummy food and of course HANGING OUT WITH ME! :) One day I planned out a 10 hour roadtrip (I cut it down from 49 hours) around mid east portion of Iowa seeing all sorts of beautiful roadside attractions like the tallest double railroad bridge, a 80 ft tall rusty wheel structure built by a 90 yr old, largest frying pan, lg metal corn cob, dark angel in a cemetary which has a death curse when you kiss her (still waiting), big cow, 2/3 of a bridge, community of flags, and replica of a star trek ship. Ames itself has 3: world's largest gnome, largest pitchfork, and large metal woman's head (creepy). Pictures are once again on fb-I am too lazy to put them on here too :)
Doesn't that make you wanna visit me?! If you do, theres still a TON of roadside jems I want to discover!! Most of them were really in the middle of NOWHERE and it got a little worrisome sometimes and Iowa really is kinda ugly in the winter before the snow and once all the corn is dead/chopped down but we still had a lot of fun. We weren't huge fans of the "freezing rain"-seriously if its gonna be cold and wet just snow already! I can't believe the Pac NW got snow before us!
This is my second year in a row spending Thanksgiving with strangers although this one and the last weren't even in the same universe as far as fun times go. I guess I can't even call them strangers...it was full of my new friends and fantastic food and a loooong awesome game of cranium. I am so thankful to be where I am with people here and around the world I can call my friends. And also a little less than a month til I am home, which I am really excited about! Also my cat's deserve a thank you for not pissing on anything recently and being good cuddlers when I'm missing home/company. I am starting to feel super guilty about leaving them for 3 wks during the break. :/
Hope everybody had a great fun and food filled thanksgiving too! Thanks for reading and acting interested in my life and thoughts :)
