The angels are back baby!

 After a few years worth of a hiatus, we're back!  Kirby's Angels are B.A.C.K-Back!  This most recent race experience was built on a quick split-second decision I made back on Thanksgiving Eve. Just moments before we raced out the door on our way to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family in Fremont, I clicked submit. Thereby committing to the Frostbite Marathon Relay in January.  Inside my head I said to myself, "Well if nobody else will run it, I will just run the entire marathon myself!"  Thank God the angels showed up yesterday because a full marathon might've killed me and then I'd be the only angel around and everyone else would've been really sad and that would have been a real buzz kill!  As it is, I am still feeling exhausted and sore today from the 9.6 miles I ran and I even took a four hour nap last night before I went to bed for the night!!  

Anyhow, after I signed up on a whim, I kept bothering everyone until I nagged (I mean encouraged) everyone enough and finally had all 5 of us once again committed to the torture (I mean fun) that is Frostbite Marathon Relay!  Alan Martens really does a TON of work to make sure this race is one you don't want to miss. He is a fantastic race director!  There's great food, nice shirts, and a carefree fun-loving environment for everyone to enjoy. Plus you're getting a killer workout!

Alan Martens Race Director

 Frostbite Marathon Relay

That split-second decision to sign up pushed us all to train super hard this past two months.  Super. Hard.  We've been super serious about our training too. Super. Serious. We've been following strict running schedules, researching the best ways to complete marathon relays and eating super healthy all holiday season long!  Now I hope you are picking up on the sarcasm in my voice in all of this because I think we all did train as hard as we could given the circumstances and also I think we were all somewhat unprepared for the occasion because life happens and the holidays happened and also we drank a lot. We have all been doing a lot of LIFE lately which can really interfere with training.  I think we can all agree the holidays just do a number on any semblence of eating healthy that one could have strummed up the past two months.  So fueled by christmas cookies, vodka and leftover Christmas ham, we dove headfirst into this event.  

The night before the Frostbite Marathon Relay is typically team dinner night and arts and crafts time (aka we make a ridicuous and perverted relay baton for the competition).  The baton competition is the only actual prize awarded at Frostbite so it is kind of serious.   This year time was tight so we had to forego the baton battalion and we just drank too much and played cards instead.  It's called going with the flow people and sometimes you have to do that. This was one of those times.  Also during our drinking festival, we learned that Amy was sick which was not ideal because we were like 8 hours until race time. We scrambled for a couple seconds (or hours) and then luckily found Happy Mary who was willing to sub for our team!  Yeah can you really do any better than someone who has a nickname that starts with "happy" when you're desperate for someone willing to run a bunch of miles for you? I don't think so.  We were happy!

The "addition of Mary" and "subtraction of Amy" somehow "equalled a change" in our Sunday morning plans. It was some kind of bizarre algebra equation that you could spend hours contemplating,or you could just take my word for it and move on in the story... We rerouted our messy van and headed into Spring Lake to fetch Kirby and then Grand Haven to pick up Mary and then we were southbound and down; Ready for some serious running, drinking, freezing fun. We were off to run Frostbite Marathon Relay!!! About five minutes into the drive I realized I forgot our meal tickets, but Mird remembered our pudding shots so it was ok.  Kirby smooth talked the race people and got us new meal tickets when we arrived and we all had plenty of pudding shots all day long!  Everyone beat their planned times too.  Courtney missed the turn into the final stretch home which cost us first place so we had to settle for second, but other than that the entire race went off smashingly. 

Don't worry Courtney you're still the best anchorwoman we could have asked for--you made up for it with your talking (about deep feelings) and your superior beer drinking skills. If things had gone just a little differently, we would have won the whole dang race. Just kidding, but we did do awesomsauce out in Holland for 26.2 miles (actually closer to 28 since Courtney got lost, but I don't think we get bonus points!).

After the chili and beer, we all headed home to our various responsibilities (volleyball practice, FFA meetings, naps, and dog walking)  

Kirby's Angels 2023

We're just little Angels...

The whole team and Kirby's at the heart of it!

Gibson Church in Holland was exceptional...                                                              The food buffet was so wonderful

Gibson Church had a spread of food and drinks to keep any runner going strong all morning long.  They had a changing room so you could get your sweaty clothes off and dry clothes on which when it's 30 degrees out and windy is key to enjoying a relay race of this magnitude. They even had gluten-free banana nut muffins and best of all they actually tasted delicious which is actually impossible so it was a miracle!  Their pastor was outside welcoming everyone as they arrived and their members were scattered around cheering, serving and otherwise caring for the runners.  If this church were closer to my home, I'd be considering switching churches to join them.  That's how amazing they were!

The Curragh After Party

The The Curragh Holland was once again an exceptional race location and the staff took such good care of us.  The chili was as usual out of this world delicious and HOT and of course for beer drinkers the ice cold celebratory beers were second to none.  

So while us sisgters didn't get a new state off our list this past weekend, we did have an unforgetable race experience with a bunch of angelic friends. Amy we missed you terribly and we are so glad you're feeling better. Mary we are eternally thankful for your happy spirit, your willingness to jump in at the eleventh hour, your flexibility, and of course for running the longest leg of the race!