DreamBig 2013 - #21 South Carolina

STATE #21 - Kiawah Islands, South Carolina
Kiawah Island Half Marathon
Finishers: 2,590

December 12, 2013
Doesn't get much better than packing all of your friends in a car and going on a roadtrip! We wanted to have a full day on Friday at the beach, so Jack, Andrew, Hunter and I loaded up Jack's CR-V and headed for South Carolina. I think our plan was to just "get there". We stopped for a fancy dinner at McDonald's since it was the only place open on the way and probably got to Jack's house on Sullivan's Islands around midnight. After a tour and a beer, we all went to bed.

December 13, 2013
Since it was Friday, and none of us were officially off work, we hung around in the morning at the kitchen table and drank coffee and closed some things out online. Jack's dad works for Deloitte so we were messaging him on our instant message system letting him know we were safe and sound just hanging at the beach. It was a bit chilly out, but we made a nice little wander down to the beach - figured if we were there we may as well enjoy it. After playing around for a while, we made our way over to Kiawah Island where the packet pickup was being held. After getting our shirts, numbers and an ornament for my upcoming Christmas tree, we decided to take some pictures and then play some Frisbee golf before it got too dark. I am horrible at Frisbee golf but it was a lot of fun regardless. Instead of going out to dinner, we decided to make dinner at the house so we would all have time to rest.

Nerd alert - work day!

Playing on the beach!

This worked well - it was my 21st race - get it?

2nd race for Jack and Andrew - First Race for Hunter

The gangs all here!

Got me an ornament for my small collection

December 14, 2013
Race day! I was nervous - so I woke up early. Not only was the race like 45 minutes away but I had to make sure three boys were up and moving with race numbers pinned on and breakfast. (Just kidding, I'm too selfish for that). We got in the car and drove down to Kiawah Island and then sort of wandered around for a bit waiting for the race to start. I had expected it to be a lot colder and because it was still dark and a bit rainy, so I wasn't expecting it to warm up much. We wandered around for a while and hung out inside until people started moving to the start. It was quite a walk so we just sort of followed the crowds. At the start, I saw a guy wearing a Michigan State shirt and this was the weekend after Michigan State beat Ohio State which allowed Auburn to go to the National Championship game at the Rose Bowl. I made sure to thank him and his team.

Here we go!

Everyone's Bib Numbers 

Gatorade Chew's for the Win Prerace

We all started together but that lasted for all of about 2 minutes. I had run a 4 mile race a few weeks back with these boys and had tried to keep up with them and ended up gased by the end - lesson learned. The race made a big loop around the island going by all of the pretty houses and South Carolina wildlife. Around Mile 5.5, the course turned for an out an back loop and of course by that point, the race leaders were already coming back the other direction.

I actually really like out and back loops because it gives you something to look at as the faster people run by. The out and back stretch went over bridges and had gorgeous views to look at as we ran from island to island. It was also nice because I was able to see Andrew, Jack and Hunter all by going the other direction. The turnaround was at Mile 7.5 which was then even more fun because you get to run back by all of the people that you are faster than!

The course continued on through the neighborhoods and I don't remember there being too many hills until near the end when we hopped on a nature trail/bike course and the course started to do some rolls. It's always at the end I tell ya.

I crossed the line around 2:05 and all of the boys were already done. I joined them for a beer and some photo ops before we all limped back. I was asked to note that the ranking of the boys in the race went Jack, Andrew, then Hunter....and then me. It was Hunter's first half and Andrew and Jack's second half and everyone did so great!

All done with 13.1

Boys celebrating with a cheers

Snapchat announcement and my beer

Andrew and Jack's sock game strong

Official Race Picture - 21 states down, 29 more to go! #DREAMBIG

With our race complete, we head back to the house to hang around for a little while and clean up. While we were taking turns for showers, Hunter accidentally dumped an industrial sized snack mix on himself and then proceeded to just continue to lay in it and eat from all around him. Guess he had never experienced the race hungers before.

Hunter surrounded by the spilled snack mix

When we were all cleaned up, we went down the street to Home Team for lunch where we all ate like huge fat kids. BBQ nachos to start and then crazy plates of BBQ and sides. Andrew was not feeling to hot so I'm pretty sure Hunter and I finished off his food as well.

Home Team  BBQ

BBQ Nachos - eat back every calorie I burnt off running

Everyone needed to rest up for a while and the weather wasn't all that great so we went and lounged around while watching Toy Story 1, 2 and 3 (pretty much the only thing we allowed on TV all weekend - such grownups.) After naps, we decided to rally and pulled our act together and head up to North Charleston to a simple yet awesome little brewery called Holy City. At first our cab driver wouldn't let us out of the cab because the place is kind of hidden and it was dark and she didn't want us to get mugged. Nice lady. They had a Christmas Tree made out of kegs and lights that I just couldn't get enough of.

Keg Christmas Tree!

Andrew's pledge brother, Grant, met us for a beer before we went on our way to make it to our celebration dinner at The Ordinary which is a seafood restaurant in an old bank. We had an awesome meal and then tried our best to keep up the pace by going to a bar across the street to listen to some music, but once we all sat down in a booth we almost all immediately came very close to falling asleep. We called our same cab driver from earlier and head home even though I don't think it was even that late.

A not cheap raw bar treat at the Ordinary - worth it. 

We watched Toy Story... again until everyone went to bed.

December 14, 2013
The weather was fairly decent when we woke up so I made some coffee and went and sat on the sundeck at the house. Once everyone else woke up, we took the football and went out to the beach to play. Jack and I were daring enough to go in the water....like up to our knees... but it was worth it. I had an early afternoon flight to San Diego, CA for work and I didn't want to interrupt the boys day too much so I had Jack take me to the Charleston airport early and off I went! Such a fun weekend with the boys and a huge thanks to the Peard's for letting us borrow the house!

Doing our best to not be freezing - Thank Jack and the whole Peard Family!

21 states down, 29 more to go! #DREAMBIG