Iron*Girl Clearwater Weekend – Part 1

I have to break this race into two parts because this weekend was BUSY – but in a good way (plus, you know, I’m always too wordy).

Saturday afternoon – Paula arrived around 1. If you want a good recap of our afternoon — check out her post. She was about to kill me. In fact, I even tweeted it – just in case people were wondering where I went.
In summary, I was running behind. Then, I thought I left the keys to my mother-in-law’s condo at home (they were in my bag the whole time – OF COURSE). So we wasted about 30 minutes in the car.

When we hit traffic around 4:00 on I-275 I thought Paula was going to throw me out of the car. Thankfully, she didn’t and we made it to the expo with about 20 minutes to spare. Whew. I was going to do anything to get our damn bibs. ANYTHING. Unfortunately, when we got there they were COMPLETELY out of swag bags. Really Iron Girl??? I guess they underestimated the # of bags they needed and the race was a lot bigger than planned, but it was still pretty crappy. I mean, I didn’t get my free sample of Rohto eyedrops! Or my Dole yogurt snacks. I’m pissed (I was looking forward to the Iron Girl Powerbars — and now I have to BUY one to try it).

At the expo I got some Gu’s (sidenote: I am officially in love with Plain Gu’s) and a Sweaty Band (that I am in lust with) while Paula bought the expo. Seriously.

We then had a mini-photoshoot (it’s how we roll) and headed to the condo (which was previously occupied by a 90+ year old). My mother-in-law is currently renovating it (they just finished the kitchen and it looks AWESOME), but the decor is very much that of a 90+ year old. And I think it scared Paula. Although, I know we were both thankful for a free place to stay! Plus, the area is GORGEOUS. We actually ran through it during the race — more on that later 🙂

We headed to dinner around 6 and went with the Clearwater City Grill. Where I took lots of pictures (*shocker*).

Honestly, I should have gotten an idea on the food when the server kept making funny faces when we ordered. It wasn’t pretty.

I did buy Paula some beer (to make up for earlier) and I order a Magic Hat #9 for myself (you just can’t pass that up when it’s on tap). I was looking forward to taking advantage of her later (it didn’t work).

Our appetizer was REALLY good — sliders on pretzel bread. The dinner was HORRIBLE (Paula’s was too – her dinner was burned). I ordered calamari (I was craving it) and a side of veggies. The veggies were good, but the calamari?? DISGUSTING. First off, it wasn’t cooked and then the batter had NO flavor. They should not have calamari on the menu. Thankfully, the server took my dinner off my bill.

After dinner we hit up Cali Yogurt. This cute little yogurt shop across from the Church of Scientology. The yogurt dude was super patient with Paula and me. Thanks yogurt dude! We both ended up getting the Taro Root yogurt. Sounds weird. Tastes AWESOME. I got mine with kiwi, raspberries, and blackberries. YUM. If there was a Cali Yogurt close me, I would be back. So if you live in/near Clearwater — go there. Then you can also stare at the Church of Scientology in (creepy) wonder.

After yogurt, we head back “home” (and checked out the views — amazing) where I attempted to take a shower. That’s when I discovered we had no hot water. AWESOME. I still managed to halfway shower, but I figured running with gross hair wouldn’t kill me, so I skipped my hair. Shhhh. Don’t tell (FWIW, it’s clean now!).

Then it was bedtime – with a 4am wakeup. Woot!  There was a big race to look forward to…More on that in the morning!

Since I’m EXTREMELY behind in blog reading (hello, 75 posts on my Google reader) and facebook reading — what did I miss?? How was the weekend? Tell me about it 🙂