Monday, October 22, 2012

ZOOMA Great Lakes Weekend Getaway

Words can't even begin to describe the experience that was this past weekend in Fontana, Wisconsin with over a dozen of my closest running/blogger friends:

Front: Erin
Second row (L to R): Kim and Kelsey
Third row (L to R): Amy, Kelly, Jackie, Marcia, Jenny
Back row (L to R): Maggie, Bobbi, Kelly, Sierra, me, Katie, Kayla

Instead of trying to describe the festivities in words, I'll just share pictures and themes (reminiscent of a project from one of my high school English classes where we had to visually depict a story).

THEME 1: FOOD

There was food.  A LOT of food. 

 
Yummy yummy!
 
"How far can a runner run into the woods?"
"Halfway.  Beyond halfway, a runner would be running out of the woods."

 
We all own stock in bagel-manufacturing companies.
 
No explanation needed.
 
Yummy yummy!
 
Disclaimer: Between all of us runners, I estimate that we ran a collective total of about 3.1415 MILLION miles at the ZOOMA race on Saturday morning!
 
Oh wait, everyone ran except the lone race volunteer (that would be me).  But I gallantly proclaim that race volunteering and cheering takes a lot of energy!  (More about my volunteer experience coming soon.)
 
In short, we all EARNED the mass quantities of food that we had on hand.  No questions asked.
 
THEME #2: FUN AND GAMES
 
These ladies are all awesome and were a huge blast to hang out with. 
 
Believe it or not, we did not spend the whole time talking about running, either.  Although there were certainly plenty of references to things that only those close to running would understand, such as simply "Mile 22."
 
Post-race lunch

Playing "Loaded Questions"
It looks a lot more tame than it really was.

Playing Taboo.
Concentrate, concentrate!!!
I just Tweeted!!!
 
THEME #3: PICTURES
 
We were in a safe environment, so we could let our guard down in front of our castle fortress.  Literally and figuratively.
 
Before
 
After

Ever after
(It took us about 10 tries to get this picture to work.)

Disclaimer: Surely I jest.  The castle in the above pictures was actually just an entrance to the neighborhood that we stayed in.  I'm not sure of the castle's historical significance, if any, but it made for some fun pictures. 

And never mind that we had to move out of the street every few minutes to allow passing cars to go through the castle entrance.  I'm sure everyone thought we were wreaking mischievous havoc.  (It's a good thing that we were only there for the weekend.)


In front of the house.
The big character in the middle in all brown was a great photo model - not a single muscle movement or even a blink while we were taking this picture!
 
The famous picture of the Beatles shows them walking across Abbey Road. 
The weekend group did the ZOOMA Race at the Abbey Resort.
Here, we're just walking.  (Some with more swagger than others.)

BONUS THEME: The indescribable

Obligatory pillow fights

Kim deflating an air mattress
 
To be honest, I'm not even sure what this was myself since I wasn't there when it happened.
But anytime you get a blurry action photo you know something good was going on.

In summary, what a great weekend!  It would have been fun for me to actually run the race with everyone else, but for the sake of my injuries it turned out to be a good thing I didn't run.  I so wish that I had not been battling sleep deprivation, work commitments, and a cold while I was there, too.  But all in all, it was so much fun to hang out with amazing friends and to meet so many incredible new friends.  I can't wait for our next running/blogger getaway!

Coming soon to my blog near you: A recap of my experience volunteering at the ZOOMA Great Lakes race.


16 comments:

  1. Game off! Game on!

    You were the best cheerleader ever! Thank you so much for volunteering!

    (Last pic = Gangnam style. 'nuff said :) )

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    1. Game off! Game on!!!

      Gangnam style, eh? Awww yeah!!! I wish I could have been there to participate because I don't know how to do the Gangnam dance, either. =D

      Thank you for the positive cheerleading feedback and I was happy to be able to help out!

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  2. You were an awesome cheerleader!!! Thank you for volunteering!

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    1. Thanks for the positive cheerleading feedback, Maggie! You looked truly AWESOME out there leading the pack of 5K runners. =)

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  3. No, Bobbi! Don't tell her what we were doing. Now we'll have to kill her.

    Just kidding.

    I, for one, LOVED having you there. It was such a boost to know we had you to look for on the course and you were the best cheerleader out there.

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    1. Give me liberty or give me Gangnam!!! ;)

      Thanks so much for the positive cheerleading feedback, Erin! I was very happy to be able to assist with your gloves on the course, too (unknowingly right before the start of that horrible hill at Mile 11, yikes!)

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  4. LOL. I LOVE this post. All the captions are fricking hilarious. "Ever After" really made me laugh. And yes, I asked Sierra to show us the Gangnam style dance. She is really good at it. I wish you could've stayed longer!!!! It was such a blast hanging with you! Thanks for volunteering!!!

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    1. Thanks so much, Kim! And thanks for all your help in organizing the weekend's festivities, too! I wish I could have stayed longer, too - but I am already looking forward to our next running blogger getaway in the spring. WOO HOO!!!!!

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  5. Thanks for volunteering!! You are awesome!! It was so fun hanging out!!!

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    1. Thanks so much, Kayla!!! You are awesome, too - and it was a blast hanging out this past weekend! I can't wait for our next running blogger getaway in the spring!!!!

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  6. I wish I was there to hang with all you cool kids :) that is all.

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    1. We all wish you were there to hang out, too!!! But I hope you had a peaceful, restful, relaxing weekend - and you'll definitely have to attend our next running blogger getaway planned for sometime next spring. =D

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  7. This looks like a sleepover on steroids plus running. Aka so much fun! Glad you had a good time! I'm curious to hear about your volunteer experience.*

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    1. Thanks, Amy! A sleepover on steroids plus running is a FANTASTIC description of the festivities!!! I'm putting together a post on the volunteer experience but in short, it was not good. More to come soon!

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  8. It looks like you had a fantastic time! Even though you didn't run the race, spectating is still a fun thing to do. Can we please plan another running destination race/blogger retreat? I am definitely joining in on the fun next time around!

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    1. We missed you this past weekend!!! AND!!! There is talk of another running blogger getaway at one of several races in the spring, with the frontrunners being either the Illinois Half/Full/10K on April 27, or the Wisconsin Half/Full on May 4!!! How cool would it be for us to run a race at UIUC!?!?!?!? Fingers crossed that the Illinois race ends up being the next destination. =D

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