Half #10...Who woulda thought??

TCBG (The Charlie Brown Gang) made a trip to Lawrence, KS on April 16, 2011 and conquered either the half marathon or the 5K on April 17, 2011. My good friend Ken Childress (AKA Pig Pen) already posted a great blog about the run itself, but I thought I would post about the adventure.

First, everyone is asking how on earth we all became "TCBG". Here's the story to the best of my recollection:



As you have read before Pat and I began kind of running together back a couple of weeks before the Tulsa Run 15K, which takes place in late October. Pat has a tendency to "milk" his woes when someone pushes him to his true capabilities. So I would always say "poor Pat", which then got shortened to PP. Pat wasn't too fond of PP, but said that his mom always called him that. So then I thought you can be Peppermint Patty!! This is how it all began. I originally wanted to be Sally because it starts with S like Sandra, but Pat said I wasn't as sweet and kinda as Sally...okay he didn't really say that, but he said I fit Lucy much better. And since Lucy is the one that sets up her booth "The Doctor is In," and I'm still very proud of finishing my degree I have owned the nickname "Lucy".



When Dana started running with us, in our Elite Covert Running Group, we had to give her an appropriate TCBG nickname...since she is such a sweet caring person, we immediately dubbed her "Sally". Once Lawrence was close, we knew we needed to find good nicknames for Ken and Paula. Everyone has to admit that "Pig Pen" is extremely appropriate for TZ, as he is the trail zombie who would rather play on the dirty trails any day of the week. With Paula, we wanted to pick someone who hung with Peppermint Patty, so we named her "Marcie," who is Peppermint Patty's best friend and affectionately calls Peppermint Pat "Sir". I doubt we will be hearing Paula call Pat "Sir" but you get the idea :).

Okay, so our adventure begins at my house at 8:30 Saturday April 16, 2011. Pat has major control issues with cars and driving so he "volunteered" to drive and since the 5 of us could all fit in his car alright we let him. I have a tendency to get car sick, so Dana and Ken bought me my own steering wheel so I could be a "front seat driver".



I had great fun with my new toy. I let Pat borrow it while he let me drive his car around different parts of Lawrence. We made it to just north of Owasso and it was time to get some coffee and fill up the tank of gasoline so we could make the entire way to Lawrence.



We made a couple of other potty stops on the way up, but for the most part we just trekked on up to get to the home of the Jayhawks. Once we got to Lawrence we went to my all time favorite Mexican restaurant, El Mezcal. It was so super yummy!! After that we went and checked into our hotel and headed off to pick up our race packets. Pat was now officially the keeper of a half marathon race number and chip.



After that it was time for a tour of Lawrence! You can't go to Lawrence, KS without visiting the Phog Allen Field House.



I took a close-up picture of the gang with the statue of James Naismith:



We visited the Booth Athletic Museum...amazing stuff in there:

The original "Pay Heed" sign..there is still one in the Field House


What Marcus Morris' locker looks like:


The Original Jayhawk mascot costume:


The had hand prints, foot prints, and "wing spans" of some former KU basketball players, it's quite amazing how big these guys and gals are:








TZ once caught a fish "This Big"!!



And of course the National Basketball Championship Trophies:


After looking around the Museum, I took the gang to the place where I got married: The Lawrence Visitor Center. It is still a very beautiful place, and we even got to witness one of the freight trains passing through. There are about 100 trains that pass through Lawrence every day. We decided to get a picture with all of us in it:


Then we went to Downtown Lawrence. Downtown Lawrence is just a great place to hang out. We went and visited Sunflower Bike Shop, Jocks Nitch, a T-shirt shop (I don't remember the name), Wyldeberry Wines (I highly recommend the Elderberry Sweet Wine), and Brown's Shoe Store. Then I decided to take the gang to see where Boca was born and meet Boca's family. So we took a trip to Ozawkie, KS (TATUR Dave) has family here too. It was great fun. Here's Boca's canine mom and dad:

Dad "Lovey"


Mom "Mocha"


Then it was time to get some dinner. We went to a Lawrence favorite Italian restaurant: Paisano's. One of the 2 high schools was having their prom, so we were worried we would have a long wait, the 25 minutes the hostess told us, turned out only to be like 5 minutes. It was great. They have the best bread sticks anywhere!!! I was trying to get a picture of Ken and Dana, they tried to do a kissy face picture, but I snapped just after the kiss..Dana's face was just too priceless not to post it:



So of course I was nice and took a second one:


Then I captured Pat and Paula as well:


The rest of the TCBG had calamari as an appetizer it seemed to work well for all of them as a prerace food:


Then it was back to the hotel for some rest. I slept great! Race morning was great! A little chilly but perfect. Here are the Race photos I have to share: TZ has a much more detailed report on the run itself.









At the end of the run with one of my favorite Lawrence buddies Krista!! It was her 2nd half!!





Once the run was completed, we headed back to the hotel, took showers, ate at Culvers Frozen Custard: Home of the Butterburger, and hit the road. Here are 2 pictures to commemorate the ride home:





I never would have thought 4 years ago when I began running that I would get to the point that I could say I've completed 10 half-marathons, but I have indeed done so. This trip was not at all about it being my 10th half, but rather an opportunity to do something that I enjoy doing with friends that also enjoy doing the same thing...all in the name of fun and good times!!