Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Weekend Update - Our Trip to the Sticks

I honestly don't even know where to begin with this weekend's post. There are so many things that need to be discussed that trying to pick a starting point is like trying to solve a Rubik's cube - there are just too many options. We were literally all over the place in terms of adventures, and not to mention that it was a double race weekend, so you will have twice the race recaps later on. I know I know - I can see you shaking with delight as you read this.

I'll start from the beginning.

Saturday morning we woke up at 3:30 - a time that can only be described as "the time in which bars are STILL open". Shannon had probably still not gone to bed and possibly hadn't even left work yet, but there we were, packing bikes onto cars and drinking coffee at a time when it is still socially acceptable to drink alcoholic beverages. We headed out to Calverton and SJ and mamadukes were off to the races. (I won't go into the race itself because I'll save that for the race recap.)

After a stellar morning, SJ and left home around noon and seeing as how we had been up for pretty much a whole day's worth of time at this juncture, we were going slightly mad. The car ride up to West Point was quite possibly one of the funniest car rides we have had in a while. There was nothing that didn't make us laugh - it was foreshadowing for what was to become one of the best weekends in which everything is wrong but everything is perfect.

Let me tell you a little bit about the place we stayed Saturday and Sunday - but let me first preface it by saying that I have been on quite the streak of bad decision-making. I picked out an awful movie a couple weekends ago, I have picked out a few bad restaurants and then I go ahead and pick this hotel for us to stay in this weekend. Actually, it wasn't a hotel - it was a "lodge", and by lodge I mean essentially a hostel, complete with a shared bathroom facility. Yes, that's right friends - you read that correctly - shared bathroom facilities.

The actual lodge was a converted mansion and we stayed in what were clearly the "servant's quarters" back in the day. That's actually what we nicknamed our room for the remainder of the stay and we got a kick out of it every time we said it. Like I said earlier, it was a weekend in which nothing was right but everything was perfect. We laughed so much this weekend I'm pretty sure it would make stand-up comedians jealous.

Here are a few highlights of our weekend stay at the lodge:

- At one point on Saturday night, there was no running water. Anywhere. Even for the toilets.
- Saturday night, we fell asleep to the lovely, peaceful sounds of a mariachi band at a Latin wedding being held on the property.
- We stole a row boat on Sunday evening and drank red wine out on the lake.
- We saw a bear and SJ freaked out.
- We made at least 35 jokes about not having a bathroom connected to our room.
- There was nothing electric in our room - I'm actually surprised it had electrical sockets. But there was one of those iPod charging docks. Riddle me that one, Batman.
- We toured the weird statues of three Eastern European poets - and Walt Whitman - on the property. Why Walt Whitman was lumped in with three giant busts of three Eastern European poets I can't tell you, but there they were nonetheless.

Sarah drinking red wine on our stolen row boat. We are classy girls.

The view from the veranda. In actuality, if we hadn't had to share a bathroom, the place probably wouldn't have been that bad - or that funny.

As you can imagine, the Arrow Park Lake and Lodge left us with quite an impression and I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone. However, it gave us some good times and we made the most out of what could have quite possibly been a horrible weekend. At one point, SJ turned to me and said, At least we like each other. I can't imagine being here with someone I can't stand. So I got that going for me!

Besides the hostel/lodge/shared bathroom debacle, we had a great time. Saturday night, SJ stumbled upon a wine tasting at a local liquor store and 12 bottles of wine later we were able to leave to go get dinner. The race was fantastic on Sunday morning (more on that in the recap) and Sunday afternoon we went on an epic one hour journey to Cornwall, NY to discover that, much like Cornwall in England, there is nothing going on. Although we did take this picture:


Monday we toured West Point and the military museum and learned some pretty cool things about the USMA. I can see why anyone between the ages of 12-16 could go there and see the place and decide that that is the place they want to go to college and the career path they want to take. It is an inspiring place and I highly recommend going there at least once if you get the chance. There are a lot of interesting facts and you can't beat the view - although I'm sure the cadets that have to be in formation on the parade ground at 6:30am in the freezing cold snow during the winter would probably tell me the view isn't that great.


It was a pretty stellar weekend and I'm not exactly super pumped to be back at work, but with only three days until the TOBAY Triathlon, I really don't have much time to complain. I took yesterday off, even though I was supposed to do a 17 miler over the weekend, and this week is a step back week, finally, so my mileage is down. These bad boys are tired so I'll be glad for the easier week.

Weekly Wrap-Up:

Number of Miles Run: 14. This number is pretty  low due in most part to the fact that I didn't do the 17 miler I was supposed to. However, I am going to do it this Sunday rather than the 12 on the schedule. This is called "adjusting on the fly". Also, I am including the 3.1 miles from the race on Sunday because, well, I ran them so I think it should count for my total. And also because, without those miles the number would be pretty paltry.

Number of Miles Biked: 45. This is okay. I skipped my ride Friday because I didn't have the time and didn't want to stress about it and I had the race on Sunday so that added in some mileage. Two hilly rides for the week and one was at racing speed so it'll do.

Number of Yards Swam: 3800. Hard swim on Friday and then the 800 from the race. Meh.

Number of times the phrase "shared bathroom" was said: 37. It was the highlight of the weekend.

Check back later for race recaps on both the Deep Pond Triathlon and the West Point Triathlon!

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