206 | Kapalua Looper 50k | Myrtle Beach Trip

In this episode, Erika and Tara recount their adventurous trip to Myrtle Beach, where they participated in the Myrtle Beach 24-hour ultra race. They share their travel experiences, including airport mishaps, family interactions, and the excitement of planning their race. The conversation highlights the joy of running, the challenges faced during the race, and the fun of creating a unique race experience with friends. They also touch on their golfing adventures and the importance of family support throughout their journey. In this episode, we recount our fun-filled trip to Myrtle Beach, including our first experience at Medieval Times, family time, unexpected connections, and travel adventures. We also dive into our Ask Me Anything segment, sharing insights and answering listener questions about our experiences. Join us as we relive the highlights and laughter from our weekend getaway.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Trip Overview
03:09 Myrtle Beach Ultra Race Plans
09:46 Travel Challenges and Race Postponement
10:40 Arrival and Family Time
13:17 Brunch and Planning for the Weekend
13:42 Aid Station Preparations
19:38 Trivia Night and Future Plans
23:25 Golfing Adventures
24:27 Golfing Highlights and Experiences
25:33 Squirrel Adventures and Golfing Fun
30:52 Creative Race Bibs and Family Time
35:41 Preparing for the 50K Challenge
40:25 The Inaugural 50K and Celebrating Wins
47:32 Reflections on the Experience and Future Plans
48:39 Medieval Times Experience
56:10 Theatrical Show Highlights
59:09 Sunday Recovery and Family Time
01:08:15 Race Cancellation and Reflections
01:09:44 Final Day Adventures and Goodbyes
01:13:27 Game Night Chaos
01:15:08 Neighborhood Drama and Community
01:17:00 Retirement Life and Community Bonds
01:19:17 Travel Adventures and Flight Experiences
01:24:00 Ask Me Anything: Reflections and Insights

Takeaways

The importance of planning and spontaneity in travel.
How peer pressure can lead to new adventures.
The joy of experiencing warm weather after a cold spell.
The significance of family support during events.
The fun of creating a unique race experience with friends.
The challenges of running long distances and managing health.
The camaraderie built through shared experiences in sports.
The humor found in travel mishaps and unexpected situations.
The excitement of trying new activities like golfing.
The value of making memories with loved ones. It was my first time at Medieval Times and it was so much fun.
The dinner show was a unique experience with no silverware.
We had a great time with family and friends during the trip.
Unexpected connections can happen anywhere, even on vacation.
Traveling can lead to unexpected adventures and flight changes.
The community in the neighborhood was very supportive and caring.
We had a blast playing games with neighbors and family.
The weather affected our travel plans but we made the most of it.
The Ask Me Anything section was fun and engaging for listeners.
We are excited to plan future trips and races together.

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Don't Fear The Code Brown and Don't Forget To Stretch!

Transcript

Erika (00:57)
Welcome to episode 206 of the On the Runs podcast. East Coast is recovering from a crazy snowstorm and cold spell over the weekend and I finally made it back from my epic trip to Myrtle Beach.

As you can tell by the intro change up, I don't have my usual co-host Eric today, as he's probably still skiing somewhere. But I am joined by my fantastic travel partner and newly adopted sister, Tara Taradactyl. What's up, Tara?

Ptara (01:26)
Yeah, nice. Good job. Good job. How's it going?

Erika (01:31)
Pretty good. Eric's going to definitely have some editing to do, but that's okay. But I am so happy to see you again. This has been like seven days in a row, I swear to God. But I love it. I love seeing you. You are awesome. And it makes me happy.

Ptara (01:41)
I know.

Yeah, me too. I know. was like, woke up this morning and you weren't here. I was like, what do I do?

Erika (01:51)
You can start your day much, much earlier because yeah, it was a struggle for me to try to keep up with your schedule because I felt weird leaving you all alone all this time. Well, at least at night. Should we have snuggled?

Ptara (02:01)
I know and then I felt weird when I was like, all

right, I'm going to bed and you guys are just still up. So, but we made it work. We made it work. So.

Erika (02:09)
Yes, but we'll totally get into that because Tara and I, yeah, as I mentioned, we are back from our incredible Myrtle Beach trip and man, we have a lot to fill you guys in on. was such a trip. But let's go into the whole reason why we were traveling down to Myrtle Beach in the first place. So I forget how I even heard about this race, but I kind of did my little magic and got you into signing up for another ultra. And I guess that's peer pressure for you. Proud of that.

Ptara (02:38)
Yeah, the good kind.

Erika (02:39)
But yeah, we

went to, yes, we had signed up for the Myrtle Beach 24 hour ultra. And the whole premise of this was it was a 1.1 mile paved loop around a pond at this place called Market Commons down in Myrtle Beach. And we were only planning on doing about half of it because for our state challenges, we're each on our own state challenge journey. I'm doing a marathon in every state, at least you're doing a half marathon at least.

And I was planning on doing, I had the big goal of doing 50 miles that day. Cause I'm like, it's 12 hours. We'll see how it goes. And you were like, fuck it. Let's do 50 K. And I was like, yeah, she's going to get ultra again. This is fantastic. So yeah, we had some, some big goals and you guys are going to find out what happened.

Ptara (03:29)
I am. You brought me over to the dark side of the ultra community and ran hamster wheel in twenty twenty four and I absolutely loved it. So when you mentioned this race, I was like, you know what? I need South Carolina and I'm in. So totally was looking forward to this trip. And it was January. So like, let's get the F out of New Hampshire. And we actually picked probably. ⁓

Erika (03:50)
you

Ptara (03:53)
I don't know if you want to say the best or the worst weekend to go because you guys got two feet of snow and Eric and I were complaining about how cold it was when it was 40 degrees. So we were having a good time down in South Carolina.

Erika (04:06)
I definitely think it was the best time to get out of here. I mean, we could have probably gone to Clearwater where everybody was actually having nice weather, but I'm still not mad at our choice.

Ptara (04:16)
we did good. we ended up, Eric and I booked our flights at the same time. had a, what was our, was like a six to five 55 departure out of Manchester, which for me love that you guys know Erica. She's not a morning person. But I told her, I was like, I promise I won't be like a 10 out of 10 in the morning. I'll like back it down a little bit. Six out of 10,

Erika (04:23)
Mm-hmm.

you

Ptara (04:37)
But we had, I think Erica had to get up at 3 45 and she ended up driving to my house and left her car in my driveway because I live probably, I don't know, five miles from the airport. And we had Matt shout out, Matt picked us up and drove us to the airport. And so our flight leaves at five 55. Our flight starts boarding at five 25. We get to the airport at 5 AM on the dot. We walk out of Matt's truck, have our stuff.

Erika (04:41)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ptara (05:07)
We go through the revolving doors, we walk up, well, we didn't walk, we rode up the escalator. We both have TSA pre-check, which is amazing, but we didn't even really need it because there was nobody there. So from the front entrance of the airport to sitting down at our gate, it took five minutes. It was beautiful. Reason.

Erika (05:13)
You

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

You always hear Eric

like, MHT is the best. And it honestly is great. No complaints.

Ptara (05:31)
Yeah, I was just going

to say reason 657. Well, I love flying out of Manchester. So so yeah, we we were there and you know, we had plenty of time decided to go get a Starbucks coffee because of course I needed more went and got my Starbucks and then we were waiting to board and we were friendly with a couple that was sitting across from us. this is prior to the Southwest's new change, which we will talk about later.

Erika (05:37)
Mm-hmm.

Ptara (05:55)
⁓ But it was, I think we both had ⁓ A, but I think I was a couple seats ahead of you. regardless, we get in line, we line up, we get on the plane and I'm like, let's go a little bit so we can have two seats together. So we get to the spot and I had my hands full. I had the coffee, I had my phone, I had a backpack, my water bottle, my suitcase. So I think I like picked the seat and Erica and I made a deal that on our first flight, I'd have the window and she'd take the aisle. And then the second flight we'd switch.

Erika (06:14)
Mm-hmm.

Ptara (06:23)
So I go in and I throw everything down, trying not to spill my coffee. So I put my backpack and my phone on the seat and I have my coffee. I put my suitcase above the overhead and then I like get in the middle seat. I sit down and Erica gets situated and then all of sudden I'm like, no. So I have one of those little magnetic wallets that go on the back of your phone and I pick my phone up and there's no wallet and I am.

freaking out like this. has my ID and two credit cards. And I never I'm never a mess. Like I'm so like put together and I'm just like, what is going on? So freaking I'm looking everywhere. I open every pocket of my backpack and I'm just like, my God. And I'm like, I think it may have felt fallen off like where we were sitting. So I have to get the frigging flight attendant to come over. And I'm like, can I have two minutes? I'm like, I lost my wallet.

Erika (06:55)
Mm-hmm.

Ptara (07:18)
I was so embarrassed. And meanwhile, I've got friggin' boob sweat. I've got pit stains, because I am like so embarrassed. I'm sweating. I'm freaking out. And I'm just like, my God. she tells me that I have like a minute. So I go sprinting on that girl. I'm sprinting off the plane. Everyone's like ready to go. I run to Starbucks. Nothing. I tell the people, the gate attendants and tell them what the situation is. They're all looking. One woman was down on all fours, like looking under the chair. Nothing.

Erika (07:45)
Aww.

Ptara (07:47)
And I'm just like, my God, I don't know where it is. So I get on the plane and I'm just like, I think I'm to have to get off this flight. I don't think I can go because I'm like, I have no money and I have no idea. I'm like, how am going to get home? And then I, I don't know what happened. I was just like, fuck it. Let's just go. So the plane starts like backing up and then all of sudden I find it. So it's black, which you can't see it.

Erika (07:55)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Ptara (08:15)
And it was upside down. So you can't there's like a little opening that like if you had a my ID, you could see like the white. It was flipped upside down so you couldn't see anything. And it was on the floor under my seat, like in a corner. But the carpet is navy blue. ⁓ my God. I was so embarrassed.

Erika (08:27)
I was literally sick.

was sitting next to

like helpless. I'm like, I can't make this better. There's nothing I can do or say that's gonna make it better. And I was just like, maybe can you put a lock on your card? But luckily it didn't come to that. And my God, we were like, yeah, are we gonna have to mail you your passport? Like I've got you for money. Don't even worry about it. But all panic at five o'clock in the morning is not how you want to start your day.

Ptara (08:41)
Right.

Right?

I know.

No, it was awful. I was like, and then of course we'd land and someone's like, did you find it? And I was like, so embarrassed. I'm like, I did. But anyways. Yeah, exactly. I know. But now everybody knows. ⁓ But it's just like that stuff like that never happens to me. And from now on, I will be traveling with my passport ⁓ just because of that. So. Yeah, so ⁓ that's how the trip started.

Erika (09:00)
She tells me, she's like, don't tell anybody I found it. I was like, secret save with me. ⁓ man. Yup, yup. So was very eventful.

smart, just in case. Oh, God,

Ptara (09:24)
Pretty good.

Erika (09:25)
But honestly, besides that whole part, we did not have a full plane. So Tara and I had our own. We had the middle seat in between us empty. We got some space to spread out and just relax. And unfortunately, though, we got some sad news as we were landing in Baltimore waiting for our connecting flight.

Ptara (09:46)
Yeah, I know. I always get the Wi-Fi like Southwest has free Wi-Fi if you're a Rappers reward. So I was on my phone and I got the email popped up and it was the race has been postponed to February 7th and 8th. Oh, I was like, no, which I honestly was like 90 % leaning towards it being postponed. And for those of you that don't know,

Erika (09:51)
Mm-hmm.

Wah wah.

Ptara (10:10)
That storm that hit us was coming up the coast and South Carolina was scheduled to get freezing rain and down there they just don't have the stuff to treat it like they don't have the Millions of plow trucks and salt and all that that we have up here. They have like four so That was kind of a bummer, but we were kind of I think prepared for it ⁓ So, you know, whatever we were still kind of, know in good spirits because when we landed it was like 58 degrees out

Erika (10:16)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

When I say I was so happy just having a sunny warm day and you know like spring 60 degrees versus fall 60 degrees, there's a difference. But the spring 60 degrees when your body has just has been so cold for so long, this was the most wonderful feeling in the world. Like we both just get outside and we're like, what is this? What is this wonderful feeling on our skin? And we had skin showing. We were like rolling up our sleeves. Could not get shorts on fast enough.

Ptara (10:41)
It was so nice.

Yes.

I know it was so great and that was at what 10 in the morning, 1030. So it only got warmer. It got up to 66 degrees on Thursday. It was by far like the best day. So almost six, seven.

Erika (11:11)
God, it was wonderful. But yeah. ⁓

you

Almost.

man. But yeah, we had an absolute like just getting off the plane. Our mood just instantly lifted and we were ready to just let the weekend be what it was going to be. then Mommy and Daddy Hamill came. ⁓ they came to pick us up and they I hope you like them as much as I do, because they are such a hoot. Like they were just really fun. I you you're part of the family now.

Ptara (11:35)
And then.

They were a blast. They were so great. Yeah, I know they were

awesome. was they were just like the best host and it was so much fun. And I actually sent them both a message last night on Facebook. I sent him a picture of my mom and I at the Bruins game and I was like, we made it and thanked them for their hospitality and kindness. And I was like, now you're going to have a hard time getting rid of me.

Erika (11:59)
You're sweet.

We'll get into that a little bit later. But yeah, so mom and dad were like, it's going to be like a meal time soon. Do you guys want to get food? they're like, you know what? We couldn't decide between if we were taking you out to breakfast or lunch. So we're going out to brunch. We went to this place called Mimosa's and we got this beautiful flight of Mimosa's. I couldn't even tell you what they were, but like, oh my God, they were absolutely delicious. I think it was like a $30 flight.

Ptara (12:36)
Yeah, it was some Valentine's

Day themed. So they had like Cupid's kiss and like love bomb. There was four little four little mimosas and they were all freaking delicious. So Eric and I were drinking at 11.

Erika (12:42)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. So

that kind of got the day started. If you were following our social media throughout the day, ⁓ we were steadily just creeping up the drunk scale. It was a blast. Yeah. You got to drink. Like, I don't know, drinking when it's nice out is just so much more enjoyable, especially when you're day drinking. But the warm weather just, they go down so easy. What can you do?

Ptara (12:59)
yeah, that was my drunk day Thursday.

yeah.

⁓ totally. Yeah, they were flowing. The beers

were flowing. ⁓

Erika (13:17)
Yep.

So we had a wonderful brunch and at this point we're kind of just talking about what the rest of the weekend was going to hold. And we're like, you know what, we're going to run. We're going to run anyways. So we picked Saturday as our day we were going to run. And we told my parents, we're like, can you just take us to the grocery store so we can just pick up some stuff? We were going to make our own little aid station. So you want to tell them what we had picked out for some aid stations next?

Ptara (13:42)
gosh, if I can remember them all, got goldfish, the extra cheesy ones. You and I both got our own candies, but obviously we were sharing everything. I got the ⁓ gummy chewy nerd clusters. And then you had the sour watermelons, right? Yes. And then we had smart food. We got pickle shots of pickle juice. ⁓ Both of us grabbed a Coke. ⁓

Erika (13:46)
Mm-hmm, best kind.

Yep. Yes, the Sour Patch Kids. Those are my favorite.

Mm-hmm.

I got some

seltzers because I sometimes like a little like bubbly-ness to just get rid of some like flavor. What do they call it? Like flavor. ⁓

Ptara (14:14)
I don't know.

Erika (14:16)
I don't know, you get sick of like sweet things, so you just need some palate cleanser. There we go.

Ptara (14:19)
Yeah, there you go. But yeah, we grabbed a bunch of stuff. We got three different types of beers. We got Coronas, we got ⁓ White Claws, and then I don't know, I think it was the Mimosa's, but we grabbed this like Mexican beer variety pack and it was like spicy watermelon, pina colada and pineapple. I don't even know what was the other one.

Erika (14:26)
you

you

They were both like something picante. Like it was a little bit of a spicy beer. They were Modellos, I think. I don't even know, but neither of us had tried them before and we're like, yeah, fuck it, why not? Let's give it a shot. We were stocking up not only for, well, we really didn't drink during the race, ⁓ our race. But we were thinking like, we're going to be here for like five days. Why not just get a whole bunch of beers, have some variety?

Ptara (14:48)
Yeah, Modelas.

They weren't.

Yeah.

Yeah, in which I think we bought the perfect amount because when we left on Tuesday, I don't think there was maybe there was like two left.

Erika (15:17)
Mm-hmm.

No, so

we gave my dad a couple, so he helped, but I think I drank the last one out of the cooler on Monday night. I was like, meh.

Ptara (15:24)
right.

⁓ right, right. But I will

say that when we were walking the neighborhood on Thursday, we were getting beers from the neighbor. So people were like, yes, shout out Mike for the I.P.A. fridge in his garage.

Erika (15:34)
Sailor Mike!

I think we came home with three extra beers, and they were all double IPAs with at least 8.5 % alcohol. We didn't touch those, actually.

Ptara (15:45)
Yes.

Yes, he loves the

IPAs. I had one while I was there too, because I ran out. he. Yes, yes, it was great. So, yeah, while we were walking the neighborhood, I went golf club shopping your dad got us a tea time Friday, which I was so pumped about. I.

Erika (15:55)
⁓ so, that's four then. Four free beers, woo!

He was so excited to just, he knows,

like he knew that you were like a, I think you're professional. I don't know if that's exactly what you would say, but to him you're professional. And he was just like, oh my God, I get to play. he likes to play with me, but I am nowhere near as good at golf. Like I could kind of whack it occasionally. But he was like, yes, yeah, yeah.

Ptara (16:35)
I gave you a couple pointers. We got

you hitting the ball straight and it was good.

Erika (16:41)
But he was just excited

to play with somebody like at least his level. Me, not so much.

Ptara (16:45)
Yeah, he it

was so funny. He was like sending me messages on Facebook asking me what gave me a couple of courses, asked me where I wanted to play. And then he was like, are you going to bring your clubs? And I mean, for just one round, I wouldn't if we were going to be playing multiple times. I probably would have. And then so he was like, all right, I have a couple of guys in the neighborhood that you could probably put a bag together with. So I think three, three of the guys helped me out. ⁓ But it was funny. This stuff for me, like I love this stuff, too.

Erika (17:00)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Ptara (17:14)
⁓ But the first guy, Dick, Dick and Gloria, he came out and he had a set of men's clubs and women's clubs. And anybody that knows golf, like I can't hit women's clubs. I would literally shatter the shaft with my swing speed. So I was like, so I was like, no, put those away. I'm like, but let me look at these. So I took that set and then we went next door. I didn't like anything in his garage. And then we went across the street and I forget that guy's name, but he had nine sets of clubs in his driveway. Maybe Tom. Yes.

Erika (17:25)
Snap them in half.

I want to say Tom. I don't

know.

Ptara (17:44)
But I was like,

hey, Tom, like, I need a stiff flex, at least 60 gram driver shaft. And he's like, I'll be right back. And then he comes back and he's like, how's this? And I'm like, I love that. And he's like, what do you hit for a driver? And I was like, I have the tailor made stealth. And he's like, hold on. And then he goes somewhere else and he grabs it. He takes the head off of ⁓ the ⁓ shaft of one. He brings it over. He puts it together. He cranks it up. And he's like, what do think about this? And I was like, ⁓ love it.

And then he got me some wedges, so we were good to go.

Erika (18:16)
See, that's where you and I are still

so different because I'm like, I need a lefty cup. I know no other words whatsoever associated with golf, so. ⁓

Ptara (18:20)
You're right.

Yeah, no, it's I mean, if you don't golf

a lot, I mean, even a lot of it to me is foreign. There are some people that get like really technical and I just am not, you know, I'm like, I go to the professionals and I get fitted, but they're the professionals. And like I not that I don't care, but like I don't need all of that information because like, yes, I am competitive and I'm a really good amateur golfer, but like I'm not a professional. but yeah. thanks.

Erika (18:29)
Really?

Mm-hmm.

Hmm. You are in my book.

man. That was, yeah, that was just so fun. My dad's like, take a video of her, dude, like doing a swing, practice swing. And everybody was like, ooh, just watching you. like, yeah, I could do this. And the fact that you had to say, like, don't worry, I won't wreck your lawn. If it were me, I'd be like, watch out for your, like, kitchen window because this club's going through it. Yeah.

Ptara (19:04)
You

Right.

Yeah, that was great. then Erica and I walked back across the neighborhood and I had like a legit holding of beer in one hand and golf clubs in the other. And it was 67 degrees out and I was like, I'm living my best life. It was so great. So, then your parents took us out to dinner.

Erika (19:32)
Perfect day. Perfect day.

Yep. Yep. I don't even remember. we went to the Sneaky Beagle. So we get there because that's just a restaurant, a a bar and grill kind of place. And and they just happened to have trivia that night. And my eyes light up with like, you guys know, we were talking about it when like Eric and Carolina and I were having a meeting and I was just like, my God, trivia. Like, that's where my attention goes. But this was probably the worst round of trivia I've ever played for the sole purpose. weren't

real like trivia questions. were more like, like I can't even describe how these questions were just more like general knowledge. Like if you knew it, you were lucky you knew that.

Ptara (20:16)
Yeah.

Right,

yeah, I was no help. ⁓ I was the, what do you want to call it? The ticket bitch. When we wrote down the answer, I had to walk it up to the guy. That was the only contribution I made. I did not answer one question. Yes. Yeah, but yeah, I had a couple beers at dinner and I was feeling good after dinner, but I was like, okay. I was like, no more alcohol for me.

Erika (20:26)
You

You did wonderfully because that just saved me a trip. was like, ⁓ she's got it. Yay.

yeah. Well that probably

spurred our other bad decision that we made that night. just, were in my parents kitchen after dinner and we were just like scrolling on Facebook using our phones. And of course I get a targeted ad for the Myrtle beach marathon. And I'm looking at it and I was like, usually this race, I figured I'd never be able to run it because it always falls on the first weekend in March.

Ptara (21:03)
Yes.

Erika (21:12)
which happened to be at the end of February vacation and my coworker always took it off. So we're not really supposed to do like overlapping vacations since there's so few of us. And I found out that this is actually like the weekend after. So I immediately like start texting Chrissy and I'm like, Hey, Hey, are you going to be back by then? And she's like, Oh yeah, I come back on this day. And I was like, Oh my God. I was like, Tara, they have a half marathon too. And so like the wheels are spinning. We just start talking and

We're planning our next trip down to Myrtle Beach already. We're going back. But it works out better because ⁓ the postponed date for the Myrtle Beach 24-hour ultra that we were supposed to run was only two weeks later. So it would have been way more expensive to get a flight down. And also that Super Bowl weekend, that would have just been too crazy. And we've to be in New England for that. Come on, go Pats.

Ptara (21:43)
We're going back in five weeks. So yeah, we both signed up.

Yeah.

Right. Yeah,

absolutely. Although I'm pretty sure we would have gone to the frigging neighborhood party. Your parents neighborhood is like goals. Like I am so ready to retire. I got home. looking at my 401k. I'm like, can I I can fit in with these people? Like, can I just do this? Sell my house and do it now. But they're having like a big Super Bowl party and everyone's bringing a dish. And so I was like, I mean, we would have we would have made a good time out of it.

Erika (22:13)
I know, right?

Can I make this work? Life is cheaper down there.

Like 60

% of them are from New England anyways, so I guess it works out. Yeah, you got a point. But yeah, we already made our plans and yeah, we're heading back at the beginning of March. So we're coming back, mom and dad. Get the rooms ready.

Ptara (22:36)
Yeah. Yeah. So.

Yeah.

Yeah. yeah. And then we went to bed. think I went to bed first every single night because I stayed up late, everybody. OK. I was up until like nine thirty ten o'clock almost every night. So I partied even on the days I wasn't drinking.

Erika (22:54)
Mm-hmm. You did. I got to give you credit. Yes.

Yup. Yup. She sure did. And your body

still woke you up early the next day.

Ptara (23:09)
Yeah,

I know. I did actually sleep in, though, which is the reason why is because I didn't have my dogs because my one dog Jack is the one that wakes me up every morning at four. ⁓ But I did like I would wake up and then I'd make myself go back to sleep. So I ended up, you know, I slept actually slept really good at your parents' So that was great. Yeah. And then so.

Erika (23:18)
Mm-hmm, yeah.

Gotcha.

Good, good. Well, I, on the other hand, tried to wake up early just so

you weren't by yourself the whole time, just staying in the bedroom. But yeah, we woke up early. Well, I woke up early, or the next day on Friday, because you were going to go on a little shakeout run with me before the Saturday big race.

Ptara (23:47)
Yeah,

yeah, so we got up and Friday wasn't that bad either for weather. So we did our I actually did our shakeout run in a tank top and shorts. ⁓

Erika (23:51)
Mm-mm. No.

And I was

only in a long sleeve and pants. Wait, yes, I wore pants. Was I in shorts? Did I wear shorts? You guys, I wore shorts in January. Excellent.

Ptara (23:58)
Yes. So no, no, you were shorts. I think you were shorts. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you were shorts.

But yeah, so we did our shakeout run and then we came back, showered and got ready to go play golf. So I get it. Let me. All right. So the golfing. This was great. Like I was I was so excited. Your dad was like he was super excited, too. And we got there like probably a little too early, but it's fine.

Erika (24:11)
Hmm.

Yup. You take it away on the golf part.

Ptara (24:27)
We hung out in the pro shop for a little bit. was a little crisp out. Like it wasn't warm. The wind was blowing, but we both had squirts on and I had like a three quarters. I had a golf shirt on and then a three quarters zip. Your mom did give us a blanket just in case, but I think it was like in the fifties, but it like that little breeze just kind of like when it, when it was, I say when the wind was winding, it could kind of like cut through a little bit, but I wasn't upset that I had a squirt on. Like I was comfortable all day. So.

Erika (24:32)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

you

same.

Ptara (24:57)
Yeah, so we got carts. We got to the first tee and let her rip. And it was awesome. Erica made a four on a par three all by herself. She hit a great drive. She was on the green and one, but she three putted, which she was kind of far away, but it's fine. I'm like, you made a bogey, a legit bogey. And then her mom had a birdie.

Erika (25:08)
Yay.

Which is probably the best

I've done is getting it like a bogey. Because every other one I was like, well, this is like four over. So that's like a booger. I don't know what we're going to call this one, but sure.

Ptara (25:22)
Yeah.

Yeah, and your dad was like all into it. He was keeping score and stuff. I didn't play that great. I hit the ball great off the tee, but those greens were like really hard. And obviously I'm not trying to make any excuses, but I had other people's clubs and I didn't know how to how far each club went. So ⁓ but it was I I was pumped. I was in my happy place. So we had a great day out there. It was fun. And then Erica made a new friend on the golf course.

Erika (25:33)
Mm-hmm.

You did great for, for what you had.

my God, you guys. All right. So you know me, like I may as well be a Disney princess at this point because my dad always will bring when he golfs a bag of like little crackers and like he'll maybe have like Cheerios or something. He's he tells me turtles like Cheerios. So that's good to know. But I take this little bag of the crackers and we were looking all morning long for a squirrel because he said that they're really friendly. They like to eat snacks.

And I'm like, oh, all right, I'm going to make this work. So we finally find a hole that has a squirrel just in a tree. So I throw one of the little crackers at him to get him to come out of the tree. And then I hold one in my hand, and I'm like, come here, buddy. And we're talking when we talk squirrels, this is a black and white squirrel. It's different than the ones we have up here. It's super, super cute. It's kind of weird looking, actually. You're like, what is this?

Ptara (26:47)
Yeah.

Erika (26:48)
I get it to come out of the tree and it's slowly like working its way over like dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun

Squealing with glee because it is the cutest thing on the planet

Ptara (27:18)
It was very fun

to watch. He was in her element. He was a very cute squirrel, though. Yeah, yeah. But that was the only one we saw all day. I wonder if it was probably too cold for them. Yeah, so. Right, yeah, but.

Erika (27:23)
Yeah, that was why I came golfing, not for the actual golf, but for squirrels, so, so worth it. I would assume, mean, yeah, they're hibernating or something for a little while. It was so freaking

Ptara (27:39)
and I did learn that Erica is like good for probably about 15 holes of golf and then she was just spent. So ⁓ we played this like really tough par five. Yeah, it is. I know, and I walk all the time. So imagine how friggin tired I am after playing 18 holes. But.

Erika (27:46)
Golf is tiring. It's tiring.

Mm-hmm.

You're right, wow.

Ptara (27:55)
⁓ we

got to the par five and there was a couple, there was like water across the thing and I actually went in the water. That was the only ball I lost, but Erica went in the water, Linda went in the water. And then I was like, let's just, I'm like, get in the car, Erica. We're going to just go, we're not going to hit over this. Let's go around. But yeah. And then she was so funny. She's like, is it okay if I just pick up my ball and ride in the cart? I was like, yeah, that's fine. You're like, I think I'm mentally over this. like, I get that.

Erika (28:07)
you

Perfect. That's the golf I like to play.

You

Ptara (28:25)
Totally get that.

Erika (28:25)
It was

really exhausting and I don't know why. It might be that I was just like tired from the day like before, just drinking before. I don't know, but I was just like, I can't, I can't do it anymore. I'll practice. ⁓ God, yeah.

Ptara (28:35)
Yeah

I was also hungry too because

we had bagels for breakfast, but then we didn't bring any snacks with us really. And we had those crackers from the cart girl. Yeah, I know. But we played at 10 in the morning, so we didn't get done until two. So we ate lunch at like 2.30, but I was starving. So was like, my God. I think on the last three holes, I was like, I'm getting hangry. And then I was like, do you think I can eat these? Can I eat these?

Erika (28:48)
It didn't even occur to me. I did, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

It's just whack. Let's finish this.

Ptara (29:07)
crackers that you fed the squirrel and you were like, ⁓ think those are stale. I was like, at this point, I think I might need them.

Erika (29:11)
you

They were like the cheesy

Ritz bits though, like those are delicious. So I would have been all for that, but no guarantees how long they've been around for.

Ptara (29:20)
they're so good.

Yeah. So yeah, so that was fun. We got back to the house and it was funny. Your dad was on a call with somebody and your mom was like, just wait, listen, listen to him. And he was like, yeah, he's like this girl I played with today, Eric, his friend, like my best drive, I hit it down the middle and she was 60 yards past me. It was great. It was beautiful. I was like, my God. It was so funny. He was like so impressed.

Erika (29:27)
man.

you know your family when my dad's like, yeah,

you know you're in when my dad is like gloating over you. It's important. It means a lot.

Ptara (29:55)
Oh yeah, and I even told him, I'm like, we're

going back and I think we're going to do Thursday to Sunday. And I was like, we could even play on Thursday because the flight gets in early. But I was like, Don, we're going to play golf. And he's like, Oh, yeah, yep. Yeah, I'll get on it. I'm on it. So so we will be golfing another day.

Erika (30:02)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ Let's maybe

play like, I feel like we should play like three nine holes or something like three rounds of nine, because then I can hang. Otherwise I'm going to be like, all right, I'm good for another like 15 and then see you.

Ptara (30:19)
Bye!

Yeah, or we could just

pay for nine for you and then you could just ride around the cart. That's an option. Yeah, always an option. Yeah, you can totally do that. Yeah, yeah. So so yeah, so then after that, we ⁓ we were like, let's make bibs. Let's make race bibs for tomorrow. Just for, know, obviously for social. And then your mom was so cute. She was like, hey, Tara, do you think I can go in your room? And I was like, my room.

Erika (30:27)
That is more on my speed. Is it really? Can we do that? OK. Yes. Awesome. I'm in. I found my way. ⁓ my gosh.

Yup.

Ptara (30:52)
I was like, you can do whatever you want, it's your house. So Eric and I had our own bedrooms, which was awesome. We shared a bathroom. ⁓ We'll talk about that later. That poor toilet. I might have to send your parents a new toilet. But ⁓ so she she went into my room air quotes and she comes out with this big box of like arts and crafts and she was so cute. She's like, I'm going to make you guys medals. We're like, ⁓ so.

Erika (30:52)
You

Mm-hmm.

Ptara (31:16)
She ended up making us these really cute stars and ⁓ they're magnets. So I have mine on my fridge and we called our race. Go ahead. What was our race?

Erika (31:26)
We named it the Kapalualuper is the name of, well, that's my parents street. And we did hella laps around that neighborhood.

Ptara (31:38)
Yes, and you kind of got the idea from Loopy Looper. So we were like, let's go with it.

Erika (31:42)
Yup, yup, it popped into my head

and I was like, my God, this is perfect. still really proud of myself for that, it's great.

Ptara (31:48)
Perfect. Yeah, we were like on fire and then we were like, let's make the race bibs. So we

just it was literally like a piece of paper you would get out of a notebook and cut them in half. then so it was myself, Erica and Holly. So Erica was two because number two. And then I was six, seven. And then I was like, you know what? Holly is going to be 69. So myself as the race director, you know, the bibs were totally random. So just I don't know how it turned out that way.

Erika (32:03)
I'm number two.

Ptara (32:18)
So we had our bibs, we put stoolie stickers on our bibs and yeah. yeah, we did that. And then I think we,

Erika (32:20)
worked out wonderfully. Yep, yep.

What did we do for dinner that night?

Ptara (32:27)
⁓ Did we go out that night?

Third Friday. ⁓ no. we got a pizza. Yes. Yes, the pizza. This pizza might have been the culprit. I don't know what it was, but ⁓ that segues us into early bedtime. And what was the wake up call for our race day? We wanted to start at seven. So I think we were like six o'clock. You got up.

Erika (32:31)
Pizza, pizza, we had pizza.

Mm-hmm.

So, yep.

Yeah. I usually, if I know I have to do a long, long run, I have to get up at least an hour early just because I'll have to eat more food and try to be more awake. Usually like for our run that we did on Friday with like just a two, it was two miles. I think I rolled out of bed like 20 minutes before, like maybe a half an hour before we went out. So I definitely needed a little extra time. So I'm like, all right, 6 a.m. here we go. And yeah, we just had the 7 a.m. planned start time.

And yeah, you told Holly and she lives 10 minutes down the road. So she just jumped in her car, headed right over and yeah, met us for start time.

Ptara (33:34)
Yeah, so Holly is like one of my best friends from back home and she relocated to Myrtle Beach two years ago and she lives 10 minutes away from Eric's parents. So it worked out great because Holly had signed up for the race too. told her what our plan was and she was like, well, how much are you guys running? And I was like, I think we're going to try for the 50K. And she was like, well, I don't really have any interest in doing that. But Holly came over and she ended up doing 20 miles, which was the longest she's ran since running a marathon, I think, like three years ago.

Erika (33:58)
Fair enough.

Ptara (34:04)
So she did awesome. so we got ready. had.

Erika (34:05)
which is

Yeah, you told her like, or she

said 12 miles or between 12 and 16 she was aiming for and then she just throw out 20 and we're like, wow, that's awesome.

Ptara (34:14)
Yeah,

I know, which is crazy. But if you're a runner, if you know, know. So, yeah, so we were all fueled up trying to figure out what to wear. That was a little tricky because I think it was like 40 degrees when we woke up, but it was supposed to get colder as the day went on. And I started out in fleece line pants and a long sleeve with a T-shirt over it. And I had my gloves and hat and.

Erika (34:28)
Mm-hmm.

Ptara (34:38)
That did not last long, as you guys saw in one of the videos I was stripping. yeah. but we ended up we had the garage up. We had our own little aid station. We had all of our food out there. We had extra glitter. We had lube. We had sunglasses. We had it all. So it was great. yeah, in the loop. my God. We'll get into that. ⁓ Major code Brown's on my side.

Erika (34:43)
⁓ Yeah, half on half off.

to bathroom that was the most important part.

Mm.

Ptara (35:06)
what did we say though? It was a little under 1.1 mile the loop.

Erika (35:11)
think it was just around that. And so one of the questions from the Ask Me Anything segment, Eric sent us a couple of questions. That was one of them. How did you choose this course? Well, it was super convenient because literally we ran by my parents' house every time. But the loop was basically the same distance that the other course was supposed to be for each loop. So it was very comparable. And I mean, yes, we could have just kept going in a circle. That would have been fine too.

we would have ended up with an extra couple of laps. We didn't want to do that.

Ptara (35:44)
Right. Yeah. And honestly,

running it 29 times or however many I'd never got bored. And that was also because there was a lot going on in the neighborhood. ⁓ There's a couple more houses going up. they people were working ⁓ and the guys thought we were fucking crazy. This one guy is like, what are you doing? And I was like, we're running. He's like, how long? Because we were literally people probably were eating breakfast, lunch and like looking out their window at like those girls are still running.

Erika (35:50)
Mm-hmm.

so much.

Right?

Ptara (36:14)
Um, cause

we were out there for seven hours, I think. Um, but the guys were cheering us on and, know, of course we got some looks and the one guy that was driving the cement truck, he's like, well, how many you at? And I was like, 22. And he's like, 22. He's like, keep going. And then the next time we came around, I think we took a walking break and he's like, why are you walking? I was like, me a break. Let me walk. Yes. Cause my everything hurts.

Erika (36:17)
Yep. Yep.

Because it's necessary, trust me. But yeah,

we also had to switch directions a few times because we're like, all right, this way is so windy. So we figured if we just ran in the opposite way, maybe there would be less windy spots. I mean, we did pick a good direction where we weren't just blasted in the face with wind every time. Yeah.

Ptara (36:49)
Yeah.

Right. Yeah. No, I thought it was great. It worked out great. And there were

like two porta potties because they're doing so much like ⁓ building. They had to have porta potties for their construction people. So that was great. But we also had the house every mile. And I pride myself in my gut. Like I never have issues ever. I've had one really horrible run where I literally shit my pants three times and I

Erika (37:09)
Mm-hmm.

Ptara (37:21)
knew exactly I ate something that I never eaten the night before and I think it was bad. really think I had food poisoning that day because it lasted all day long. But I never have issues and I took five dumps. Five. Like one of them was like a legit Fourth of July firework display. Like I sat down and I was like, I think the whole neighborhood heard that. ⁓ And the poor toilet, I had to like scrub it with the brush every time because it was just like

Erika (37:24)
Oh no. Oh no!

You

That is a visual.

Ptara (37:50)
fucking Picasso in there and I was mortified, fortified. Like I never ever have issues like this. I always do like pre-race poop, wake up and I poop. And you and I have had this conversation. I am so regular every to every morning. I wake up and within five to 10 minutes I do my morning poop. Yeah, and it happened that morning too. And I was like, awesome, great. But like every 10K I was like, ⁓ great, we're going to need another great. We got to stop.

Erika (37:58)
Uh-huh. ⁓

Stay with me too! Yeah. But it's so weird.

Yep.

Ptara (38:20)
And

it was like getting so old. I was like, what the fuck is wrong? But it wasn't like the urge that like, oh, my God, I'm going to shit my pants right now. It was just like, I have to poop again and I have to poop again and I'm pooping again. Hey, guess what? I got to poop. Like it was so it was nonstop. So.

Erika (38:28)
Mm-hmm.

You

felt

so bad about that too because, so we did have the pizza beforehand, but so you had three pieces, I had three pieces, I was fine. I just like, I don't know what it, I don't either.

Ptara (38:45)
Yeah, right. So I don't know what it was. I have no idea.

I literally have no idea. But I'm like, I've been eating like very healthy and clean for four weeks. Or or I'm like, I haven't drank. Thursday was the first time I drank since December. So that was a month. So I'm like, maybe the alcohol took like. Yeah, so yeah, and I'm running 30, 31 miles, so my body is probably like, what the like, what are you doing? Yeah.

Erika (38:54)
So it's p- there you go, we had pizza and it's like greased you up. ⁓

Well, they're all stacking up now. It seems kind of suspect.

That's a huge thing too. If you're

not used to that, your body like rebels and clearly it did. ⁓

Ptara (39:18)
Right, exactly. So,

I mean, I did not poop myself, but RIP to that guest bathroom toilet. Ma'am, I'm to send your parents a gift card to Home Depot. My sincere policy.

Erika (39:31)
Honestly, I was thinking about that too.

I was like, this does not have the flush power for what we needed to do.

Ptara (39:38)
Yeah, I think we went through a whole bottle of like bathroom spray too. And maybe like a case of TP. So.

Erika (39:41)
you

I

will make sure my mom is taken care of. We'll send her some more supplies.

Ptara (39:49)
Yeah, she just

gets a random care package of toilet paper, a new toilet scrubber, some spray, candles. yeah. So yeah, so Holly ran 20 and then she took off and then you and I were solo for the last what's that 11 and a half. But we did give out awards.

Erika (39:53)
Mm.

We've got to send her the toilet cleaner too. ⁓ God. Yep. Yeah. We'll hook her up. Thanks, Mom.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yes we did!

Ptara (40:17)
since this was

the inaugural premiere first ever. ⁓ And we had three age group winners, which was amazing.

Erika (40:25)
Can you believe that

you guys? all won!

Ptara (40:29)
All three of us won our age groups, which is amazing. We all set course PRS. ⁓ So it was great. So we did a little trophy presentation before Holly left. ⁓ And then you and I finished. actually ended up changing into shorts because I was like so warm. So I ran. ⁓ my God. The I got to give a shout out to run rabbit. ⁓ What what is the name of that jacket? ⁓ I am obsessed.

Erika (40:45)
Mm-hmm.

Hell yes.

The cocoon. I think it's the cocoon 2.0.

Ptara (40:58)
Cocoon

2.0, I love you. Will you marry me? ⁓ Erica, like, let me borrow it and it's the best. And it's funny because do know Sharla Stevens? She's a millennium running lady. Yeah.

Erika (41:01)
Mm-hmm.

I saw her post the other day where she was like wearing the kitchen

sink worth of stuff like and but one of them was the cocoon and I was like I'm telling you these things are fantastic.

Ptara (41:16)
Yeah, so she listed

everything and I was like, my God, the cocoon, I'm obsessed. And then Erica Sweatt commented and she's like, I have two too. so they're what, $120? I am buying one, but they just, yeah, they're out of my size. Right, so I am eyeing it. Like I literally have an email pinned at the top of my email from Rabbit, because I was like, I need it. The best, like 10 out of 10.

Erika (41:24)
Yep.

telling you they're worth it. Yeah. Gotta get your size back. Mm-hmm. Yep.

Love it. I'm telling you, whenever I get

a code, I will let you know. And I even have rewards points. I will donate them to you. Get some money off that way. we'll make sure you get what you need.

Ptara (41:48)
Yes.

you're the best. You're the best.

So but I am. Yeah, I was like fine. Like I loved the shorts. I had my ⁓ compression socks on and I had to change shoes up twice just just to give my feet something out. But you you stayed in pretty much the same thing all morning, didn't you? ⁓

Erika (42:06)
Mm-hmm.

Yep. Yep. And so I had

on one of the cocoons as well. so that is, it just, it's very lightweight, but it keeps you very warm. And it almost feels to me like a neoprene, but it's not like it's like a fleecy, like a very light fleece, but it just keeps you so warm. It dries super fast. And that's one of the reasons why I kept it on. Cause once we would take a break, I'm like, man, this is drying. Like I don't even like, it's not making me cold from like sweating so much. So yeah, I had that on.

Ptara (42:28)
Yeah.

Right.

Erika (42:42)
I had a vest on. did do a sock change because I buy these, they're from N'Gingie, the toe socks, and they're like a skiing pair, but they keep your feet super warm. And I was like, that's the one thing I can't handle is when my toes are cold because I lose feeling. They sting. It just doesn't feel nice. And I had them on and I was like, I am so toasty in these. I don't think I need these anymore. So I wound up changing out of those. But yeah, fleece leggings.

I had an ear band and like the gloves kept coming on and off too, depending on where the wind was, but I was totally comfortable the whole day. It was nice.

Ptara (43:20)
Yeah, yep. No,

it was great. I think we had like really good weather minus the wind on a couple corners. ⁓ But we I want to say like after Holly left, you and I did ⁓ like run walk loops. So we started we would run to and walk on run to and walk on. And I was just kind of like my hip flexors were flaring my I have a hamstring issue on my right leg. And I don't think it's more than my hamstring, but it's nerve from when I had my ⁓ back surgery.

Erika (43:26)
Yeah.

Yep, which was totally fine with me.

Mm.

Yeah.

Ptara (43:48)
like my nerve never really fully healed. And so I just have to deal with that. ⁓ So it gets really cranky the higher the mileage. So we decided to do, you know, like I said, run to walk one and then we hit 30 miles and we were like, let's do a beer mile. So our last mile, we grabbed a beer and we walked her home and it was glorious. So.

Erika (43:50)
Yeah, dude.

Mm-hmm.

Fuck yes, beer laps.

I like how we were taking videos and I had to say, I'm like, look, we're doing a beer mile. No, we're doing a beer lap because beer miles are like when you just chug the beers, sprint a lap, and usually you're drinking like four beers and 10 minutes max. I mean, no, we were not doing that.

Ptara (44:25)
Yeah, yeah, let's clarify. We were not

doing that. We were literally drinking a beer in a mile.

Erika (44:32)
Yes, yes.

tend to do that around in the South. I've done races down here, and it's a legit thing. People would be like, beer lap. And you can get a whole group of people, and they'll just walk a lap with a beer. And I was like, this is marvelous. So I started doing that up in my Notchview race, and I'm never going back now.

Ptara (44:47)
You

Yeah, that was it was actually really tasty. think we both had white claws, which so it was basically like a soda water. So it was quenching. It was delicious.

Erika (44:57)
Super easy, yep.

Now I got a question for you. Before we decided we were going to do like the 30 miles, what was the longest run you've you've done recently? Like besides, like you probably were in half marathon shape, but like you ramped it up. You definitely did.

Ptara (45:13)
Yeah, I ran 13 in November. And since then, I have not run more than I think eight miles in a long run. But I mean, I run three days a week. feel like my cardio is decent. And I just like. Yeah, I just have this like switch where it's like if I have something set in my head, and I think I attribute this to growing up being an athlete and just being super competitive.

Erika (45:19)
Mm-hmm.

Did you fucking? my god.

You fucking winged a 50k dude, you're like me! Yes!

Mm-hmm.

Ptara (45:43)
I put something in my head, I believe it and I think it and I will do it. Like I'm not gonna like I'm not gonna say like quitting. Sometimes you need to know when to throw the towel in. But I'm perfectly, I'm knock on wood, I'm feeling healthy and I could care less about my time. So and it's not like I was, you you have to do this in four hours. Like, no. And I was like, I want to have fun. And we came down here to run an ultra. So we're gonna run a friggin ultra. So.

Erika (45:54)
Yep. Yep.

Fuck yeah.

Ptara (46:11)
Let's just do it for funsies. And

I got to give you credit because I don't think anybody else would have done that with me of my friends, at least running friends. You are the one. Yes. Yes, you you are the one that I will call if someone was like, if your life is on the line and somebody has to run thirty one point five miles for you to live, who are you going to call? Erica, ten out of ten times. Yes. So.

Erika (46:18)
Let it be known. I am down for this crazy shit. Yes, always.

Count me in, count me in. I

feel like somebody tagged me in that reel. Like if you're about to win a million dollars, but you have to find somebody to run a marathon with you on like a moment's notice. And I think it was like Chad, Chad Zimmerman. He was like, I'm bringing her. And I was like, yeah, it's a good, it's a good choice. May not be fast, but hey.

Ptara (46:46)
yeah. Yes, Erica is the one. So that was

I know everyone's like, you did that for fun. And I was like, yeah, I'm like, what else are we going to do? ⁓ yeah. Right. No.

Erika (46:57)
Yeah, Eric was calling it a pretend 50K. A 50K is a 50K. It may not be an official race, but it

doesn't negate what we did. We still did the miles. We had the fun.

Ptara (47:09)
There was nothing fake

about that because pretend and fake are kind of the same words. And I did say in our reel, said, fake 50K. And then Eric corrected me and he said, I called it a pretend. I'm like, it's the same thing. But I mean, it's on Strava. It lives there now. It happened. It's on my Garmin app.

Erika (47:14)
Fake. ⁓

Quote, quote.

it was very real. It was very real. ⁓

We can say it was for fun, not pretend. The verbiage here has to be correct, but. But yeah, we did have, we gave ourselves plenty of time in the day to do it because we really didn't have too much going on, but we did have dinner plan.

Ptara (47:35)
for fun. ⁓

⁓ my God. So your parents were like asking us what we wanted to do. And when we came down there, they were so funny. And I got to say, there's nothing better than so I'm 42. I'll be 43 this year. Eric is going to be 40. But like we're older and it's just so great that like your parents were like planning this whole weekend for us. And we're like full grown adults. Like you would have thought that we were a couple of teenagers coming down to like, you know, and and

Erika (47:54)
Mm-hmm.

40,

Right.

Ptara (48:15)
It was just

so fun. I was like, I love that we got to do this. like, you know, like I said, we're adults, but we're like having this whole weekend planned with your parents and they were like, so thrilled to have us. So ⁓ they mentioned ⁓ Medieval Times. So I have been once before I've been to the one in Orlando. Yes. if anybody has never been to Medieval Times, I recommend going at least once.

Erika (48:31)
I wish I brought the crap. Left it at my parents'

Ptara (48:39)
For me, it's something I haven't gone since I was 18. And I was like, oh my God, it was so much fun. I'll go again. But like I wouldn't go like more than once a year. But I didn't know that they had one in Myrtle Beach. So we had what a 5 p.m. reservation. They only have one show this time of year because it's their slow season down there. So so yeah, tell them a little bit more about our experience.

Erika (48:47)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

So this was my first time ever going to a medieval times and it was the biggest dork fest I've ever seen but don't get me wrong It was so freaking fun. I was like being dorky with everybody else but like you you walk around you see people in like chainmail armor and Like they have plastic swords and I'm like, yeah my people so the whole premise of this is

Like I kind of attributed it to almost being sorted into like a Hogwarts house. So you get there and you, get like assigned a section. We were in the black and white section. So you have your own night to cheer for. And we're like, yes, let's fricking go. And this is basically dinner and a show. So we get inside, we sit down and then they start like serving you some food before the show starts. And the one caveat here.

is that they do not give you silverware. So you are, you're on your own, man. My dad was like, I was going to bring a fork. Yeah. That reminds me of the, the new girl quote from Nick Miller. He's like, I've got two perfectly good forks on the ends of my hands. So that was basically the, the quote of the night. So you start off with like a bowl of soup and it's got a handle on it. So you're not like literally using your hand to eat soup.

Ptara (50:04)
Fork. Spoon.

You

Erika (50:26)
But they called it like dragon's blood. And then you get a piece of garlic bread and use a dragon scale. Like, I'm like, this is so fucking cute. Like, I can't with this. And of course, we're drinking, so I'm really getting into it. But we, oh, oh, go for it. Yeah, yeah.

Ptara (50:40)
Oh, wait, let me interrupt you real quick. So the

first drink that we get was before the the what do you want to call it? The doors. I was going to say the drawbridge before the drawbridge opened. We go up to get drinks and I go first and I ordered I don't even I think I just got a beer. I don't remember what I got. No, I got a Tito's Tito's and soda vodka. Yes. So the guy's like, all right, I give him my ID and then I pay. And then Erica goes.

Erika (50:49)
Yeah, before they open. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I thought you added Tito's. Tito's and vodka.

Ptara (51:10)
And he didn't card Erica. wait, no. Wait, wait. he.

Erika (51:12)
I attribute, no, he didn't card me, but I attribute

it because I, couldn't see me in gray streak. had the hat on.

Ptara (51:19)
no no no he carded

he carded you but he didn't card me that's what it was and i was like ⁓ so i look like i am fucking old but this one over here gets carded so

Erika (51:23)
Yes, yes, yes.

I have to, I

think it is literally because you couldn't see my gray streak because I had the dumb ass crown thing on, but I was like so dorking out just talking to this guy. He was asking me what I wanted. And I'm like, I think they had like frozen margaritas. And I was like, I would like your, like the margarita in your, your most like, ⁓ regular of glasses, please. And Susan gives a chuckle.

Ptara (51:49)
Bottom.

Yeah, that's where they get you. can buy like the guy

at the end of our table had like some type of horn that he was drinking out of. I don't know what that is called, but obviously it's from medieval times.

Erika (52:00)
I saw that.

⁓

God, but then he asked me, he's like, do you want it spiked? And I was like, yes. And then he's asking me what kind of vodka or tequila I wanted. I'm like, I will take your most bottom shelf, like the bottomest of shelves. And was making myself laugh because I was just being such a dork, but when in Rome, right?

Ptara (52:23)
Yeah, right, exactly.

yeah, sorry to interrupt there, but I just wanted to know that I am an old lady and Erica is a young buck, apparently.

Erika (52:29)
No, no, fine.

I

just blame you, couldn't see the hair. so we, this is where, yep. And then they started bringing out the main course and this is definitely where you and I differ. So you and I are very different just in general. Like you run hot, I run cold and I morning person, night person, and I go to eat my chicken. They give you this big ass chicken leg.

Ptara (52:36)
haha

We got our soup and the bread and then.

Morning person, night person.

Erika (53:02)
No forks, like, and I will not, like, even when I'm eating like a chicken wing or something, I will only use my, like, pointer and thumb to eat it. Like, I don't like being really messy. So here I am, like, nibbling at it, trying not to get it all over my face. then Tara just, what did you say to the waitress?

Ptara (53:20)
I told the girl,

was like, I'm gonna motorboat the shit out of this chicken.

I looked like I had grease on. I was just both hands and I was like, ⁓ and I look over at Erica and she's like, I took, yeah, took videos and I was like, I'm to make so many TikToks out of this. So if you look at my TikTok, it's a funny video and it has me and I'm just like dig right into it. And then it's like Erica over there like, I don't know. ⁓ gross. So we had some fun, but they also served a piece of corn. So obviously that was easy.

Erika (53:25)
I'm tickled.

Yup. We had fun taking some TikToks.

Mm-hmm.

Ptara (53:55)
and then like a potato wedge.

Erika (53:55)
that potato.

Ptara (53:57)
that was seasoned to perfection. So good. Yeah.

Erika (54:00)
I could have eaten like 17 of those. It was like a half

of a potato. Was it fried? I don't know. I still would have eaten like 17 of them. They were so freaking good.

Ptara (54:06)
Yeah, I think it was fried. So good. And then we

had a eclair for dessert. Yeah. So.

Erika (54:13)
for dessert. Yes. But let's talk

about this show. It was so like very theatrical. Like you have like your, your master of ceremonies kind of guy and he's riding a horse in the middle and, then you get the king and the queen. They're on that end, like talking to everybody in the court, I suppose. And, and then it's like this huge production when each of the nights come out. there's six different nights and

Ptara (54:21)
yeah.

Erika (54:40)
Everybody has to cheer for their sections. So there was a green section, a red section, red and yellow section, black and white. I forget what else. Blue. I think there was just a yellow also, but it really did remind me of the Harry Potter houses. Because the guy from the green side, I was like, this guy's wicked snappy. He just had the long black, it looked like a little greasy hair. And I was like, he's totally a Slytherin. You're going down, dude.

Ptara (54:49)
Blue. Yeah.

Erika (55:09)
We're shit talking the other the other nights, but it was like it was an awesome show there were like Dancing horses like what is it dressage? think it is when they dance and then they had like a Falcon that came out and was like zipping around the whole place and we were like, my god They tell you like not to put your hand in the air because it will get you like it was it was pretty legit ⁓ They had like jousting. I was totally into that

Ptara (55:16)
Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

Dressage, yeah.

Erika (55:37)
and then the like sword fighting and shit like when the hell do you get to see that especially during dinner like come on.

Ptara (55:42)
right? they

had like the wall of weapons that they could choose from. And that guy grabbed the mace and I was like, ⁓ I love that. ⁓ But it was very theatrical, like you said, so like, one guy would get hit on his shield. And next thing you know, he's doing like five somersaults in the sand. And he was like, ⁓ I was like, wow, wow, that was good.

Erika (55:59)
Yeah. but like

the swords would hit each other and they would spark. And I was like, I was taking videos. Like, I really felt like a kid. It was so much fun to watch.

Ptara (56:06)
Yeah.

Yeah,

it was fun. mean, again, I recommend anybody that hasn't gone go. ⁓ They have like a bunch of locations like across the US.

Erika (56:20)
You got me the best freaking sticker I have ever seen. So there we go. Can you see it?

Ptara (56:23)
Oh, so I got up to go to the bathroom and I ran by this like little

kiosk thing and this stuck out. says, slay the day with a sword. And who who is that? Mike Beeman. So, Mike, if you're listening, I got you a sticker, too, and I will hand deliver it to you at the Boston Marathon. So, yeah, I was like, oh, my God, I need to buy these. So.

Erika (56:36)
Yup.

Slave of Day, wrap the steps, let's go!

You were so nice. ⁓ God. Yep.

Ptara (56:53)
that and

then yeah and then the show was over and we like both went to the bathroom and I was chanting black and white black and white while I was peeing. ⁓ I was like my God what is wrong with me. ⁓ But then we left and went home and and then we made another tick tock. did the ⁓ Devil Wears Prada tick tock so they give you those crowns when you walk in and they're basically comparable to the ones that you get at Burger King. ⁓

Erika (57:03)
And I was laughing. Big surprise.

Yup.

Yes, yes.

Ptara (57:22)
but it says medieval times. And there is a TikTok that is, it's, ⁓ I don't remember the lines, but it's like, what if I don't want to live the way you live? And then.

Erika (57:32)
the Devil

Wears Prada, and then it has Miranda being like, don't be ridiculous, Andre. Everybody wants this.

Ptara (57:38)
Everybody

wants this. So Erica had hers on and I was just standing next to her and she took my crown and put it on my head. that's another one that we did on the TikTok. Posted a lot of TikToks this weekend.

Erika (57:49)
⁓ We

had a lot of fun. We were like crying over that when like, was like, my God, we need to do it for this. Cause a lot of people do for like runners at like the, the non runner and the, the runner put pit like pitting the bib on the other person. And I was like, dude, we should do it with the fucking hats. Like laughter. Yup. Yup. It was great.

Ptara (57:54)
my god, yeah.

Yeah, it was perfect. We nailed it too. We only had to like do it twice. So yeah,

so yeah, then we got home and I think we played cards, which we'll talk about that next. But.

Erika (58:17)
Yep. Yep. We learned a new game

called Swoop and it's really fun. It reminds me of Asshole or President or whatever you called it, but the college drinking game. It's my favorite drinking game ever. And I was like, my dad's trying to describe it to me. And I like kept interrupting him and making him mad because he's trying to tell me, I'm like, but I kind of know how to play this, but I just have questions. easy to pick up.

Ptara (58:27)
Yes.

Yes, it was funny, but we picked up quick. ⁓

But then we ended up playing a more competitive game the next day. So we'll go into Sunday. So Sunday was kind of like our lazy day. And honestly, like, I don't know about you, but I was sore Saturday night. I woke up Sunday and I felt surprisingly good. Like I thought I was going to be so much more like worse off. And I was like, ⁓ it was just I had to do some stretching and I was good.

Erika (58:48)
Yup.

Same.

Ptara (59:09)
So.

Erika (59:10)
Let me tell you people, walking seriously helps. Like if you need to walk during a race, especially if you're doing an ultra distance of sorts, it will help you feel so much better. And I mean, yes, you could, you could run the whole thing. could whatever, get a better time. But like the walking that we did during this set us up. So we were not sore and not hurting for the rest of the weekend. Like that's how I prefer to do it. ⁓

Ptara (59:33)
Yeah, it was great. Yep.

So I had told you since Holly and Dave lived down there, I was like, well, if we're not doing anything Sunday, I'm like, I'm going to have Holly come pick me up. And so that's what happened. She picked me up early morning and her, Dave and I, they took me to breakfast, which was great. ⁓ And then after that we went back and I got to see her house because I haven't been down there yet. So that was nice. And then Holly and I did like a four mile walk in her neighborhood ⁓ and I hung out there for a little bit. And then I think you just hung out with your parents and

Erika (59:39)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yup. got

to sleep a little bit later, but that only meant like 9.30, which really wasn't that late. I think I went to bed at like one o'clock the night before that. yeah, was not, it was not a lot of extra sleep, just laying down was good. But yeah, I went for a walk with my mom around the neighborhood again. And then, yeah, we were just hanging out until Pat's game.

Ptara (1:00:05)
Yeah.

yeah, you were up late.

Yeah. Yup. Yeah. I came back and, um, put on my Drake May sweatshirt and was ready, ready for the game. So Eric, his parents had told me that they were having a couple in the neighborhood over for the game. And I was like, Oh, okay, cool. So her, your mom made a lasagna, which she made it for us to have the night before the race, but we ended up saving it for the game on Sunday. So, yeah. So

Erika (1:00:34)
Mm-hmm

Mm-hmm. Yup, still tastes too good. ⁓

Ptara (1:00:52)
We were just hanging around and then the game was getting ready to come on. And I'm like, I think I was sitting in the recliner and then I heard the front door and everybody gets up. So I was like, I'm to get up and meet this, this couple. So I stand up, I turn around and my jaw drops and I was just like, no way. So the couple, I know them from North Conway, my hometown and the

Erika (1:00:59)
Mm-hmm.

you

What are the freaking odds,

right?

Ptara (1:01:17)
I know

and it's so funny because we ran by their house in the Ultra and I saw the New Hampshire cars and then they had a vanity plate that said Ski NH and I said to Erica I go my god I'm like I wonder where they're from and I'm like and Erica's like I think I think my parents know them so maybe we could like go over and introduce you so but it was a surprise because your dad was talking so it happens to be two Don's your dad Don was talking to Don and said ⁓ my daughter's coming down

Erika (1:01:21)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Ptara (1:01:44)
She's bringing a friend and she's a really good golfer. She's the head women's golf coach at St. A's and he looked at him and he goes, Tara Watt. It's like, yeah, I know. So this couple, they're in their, I think they're in their seventies, but they are from North Calamity where I'm from. And their son, Brett is, I want to say he's like eight or 10 years older than me, but their nephew, Kevin, I went to high school with and we know so many people.

Erika (1:01:51)
It's such a small world,

Ptara (1:02:14)
And I know Don from the mountain and from the golf course. So it was just so great. Like it was awesome. And Betty is just a hoot. I've never met Betty, but poor, I felt so bad for your dad and Don, cause her and I were talking the entire game. Cause she just kept asking me questions. She showed me pictures of her grandkids and she's just, Oh, it was great. I had.

Erika (1:02:23)
She's the sweetest thing.

It was fun

to be on the other side of it, like, just seeing you guys kind of reminisce and just kind of get acquainted again, because it's been how long since you've seen them?

Ptara (1:02:44)
Yeah, haven't seen a gosh, it's been years. which is

Erika (1:02:47)
Yeah. Yeah. But this was

a secret that, so my mom told me about this and I was like, okay. And she's like, just don't tell Tara, don't tell her. And I'm like, I won't tell her. It's fine. I'll keep the secret. Like I honestly forgot about it for a long time. But then when we were running and you're like, check out this license plate. I was like, ⁓ I wonder what, like trying to play it off. But yeah, I'm just so happy that the surprise actually worked and that like, was just so nice to see you guys together.

Ptara (1:03:11)
Yeah.

Yeah, it was great. then ⁓ we actually paused the game and ate the lasagna, all of us, which was nice. But I was secretly stressing out because I was like, OK, I can't look at my phone because I hope nobody texts me to tell me what's going on with the game. I'm a diehard Boston sports fan. I love the Bruins and the Red Sox and the Patriots, Celtics, probably number four. those three teams I watch religiously and I get notifications from CBS Sports when they

Erika (1:03:19)
Yup.

Ugh.

Ptara (1:03:43)
start the game, they score all this. So was like, phone down. yeah, so yeah. So but as everyone knows, it was a great game. Well, it wasn't a great game. don't think it was great, but we won. That was great. yeah. So and what is Eric? ⁓ What did you say? Eric posted a reel. I didn't see this reel.

Erika (1:03:46)
Don't touch, don't touch. It's ding in here and there.

But they won't!

Super Bowl!

so we were talking about it in one of our last episodes and he was asking like if because Bo Nix was out if it was like a lock for the the paths to win because they have their backup quarterback and I was like, I don't know. But it was just such a sloppy game. Like, no, it was not. once the snow happened. Yeah, everybody was slipping ball. Well, they couldn't even hit like they were missing the frickin field goals like that was just.

Ptara (1:04:14)
Okay.

yeah, just the fourth quarter. When it was like snowmageddon, like nobody could do anything. Yeah.

Erika (1:04:32)
Not their best, not their best day, but it turned out for the best. Glad it happened. Can't wait for the Superbowl. It's going to be awesome.

Ptara (1:04:40)
Yes. And you

bought something.

Erika (1:04:43)
Yes. All right. So I got to make sure like, am I going to be too loud? So Brandon doesn't know. I bought a Jersey of my current favorite player and I kind of want to make this ⁓ like a giveaway. All right. If Eric, so clip this Eric, if anybody can guess my favorite current Pats player, I will send you some stickers.

So, so go ahead and go ahead and take some guesses. I mean, if you know me, you can probably figure it out pretty easily. I hopefully the jersey will come.

Ptara (1:05:15)
And

when you get the jersey, you're going to open it a blind opening because she bought it off a sketch website.

Erika (1:05:21)
Well, it

was Poshmark, so that's like kind of legit, I think. But ⁓ I just don't know. I had looked for this jersey myself. Couldn't find anything. It's like a custom jersey. And I'm probably giving it away. But I mean, I don't know. It was basically like you can get a Drake made jersey and everybody else you had to custom make it. So I had to I would have had to custom make it. But also.

Ptara (1:05:27)
Yeah.

I was going say, he just eliminated a bunch of players.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

Erika (1:05:49)
I can get away with wearing a child size jersey, but it's like a child size XL. I, so it was like, ⁓ I actually found this on this website and I'm going to see what happens. So this could be $60 well spent or completely thrown down the train. Saturday. So yes, I will, I will take a video and just hopefully, hopefully it works out. Yes.

Ptara (1:06:05)
Yes. When is it supposed to get to you? okay.

Even if you just share it with me, just want to I just can't wait to see

it. So. Yes.

Erika (1:06:17)
send it in like the group chat, but if it works

out Saturday, so this will probably drop what like Friday, I think, I think that we're aiming to have this drop Friday. So you guys can get your guesses in and then either Saturday or Sunday or something. I'll do that video, I'll post it online and then whoever gets it right, I'll send you some stickers.

Ptara (1:06:25)
Yeah, I think Friday.

Perfect.

I am ineligible for this contest.

Erika (1:06:42)
Hey, you know you can get stickers whenever you want, my god.

Ptara (1:06:44)
True, true, true. yeah, so that was a fun

surprise. ⁓ We watched, think I stayed up until halftime of the second game and I was just like pooped. So I went to bed. Yeah, I went to bed, which brought on Monday, which Monday we were supposed to fly home. ⁓ But again, so another thing, too, they totally could have hosted that race. The weather did not do what it.

Erika (1:06:53)
Honestly, I didn't stay up much later than that either.

Yup.

Ptara (1:07:13)
was supposed to do. It was just cold. ⁓ I will say though that when Holly picked me up on Sunday, your father's car was covered in ice. They did get freezing rain, but Holly said the roads were fine. ⁓

Erika (1:07:14)
It shifted north. Yeah.

my gosh.

Okay. Yeah. The

reason they canceled, they were more worried about, ⁓ all of the Carolinas and the people who were traveling to the race and not being able to get out after the race. So I totally, I got to give him credit for just thinking like bigger picture, but I it did suck for us, but we made the most of it anyways. Like, so Patrick, Patrick. Yeah.

Ptara (1:07:48)
Yeah, and shout out to do you remember his name? Is it Patrick? Yeah, Patrick, the race director.

His communication was like amazing. I have ran hundreds of races and some race directors are terrible and like they don't even get back to you. This guy was awesome. He sent us emails every single day the week leading up, letting us know this potential storm was coming. And it was just he was awesome. He sent the email out that canceled the race.

Erika (1:07:56)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ptara (1:08:15)
And he's like, just respond here. So I replied immediately and said that I can't make the makeup date. And he responded right back to me. So great job. I know it's stressful job and there's a lot. Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. So I was a little bummed, but I was whatever we made the best of it. So.

Erika (1:08:19)
Mm-hmm.

God, that's the worst call you have to make as a race director is like canceling, but safety is paramount. Really.

And

honestly, like, so I wound up getting a refund too, just because I like, I'm not going to be able to come down in two weeks, but I would absolutely consider going back another year. Cause this like that, a paved ultra come on. This is like my, my jam a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Well, pick a, we'll pick a year, some year we can do it.

Ptara (1:08:47)
Yeah, it's definitely on my list to do again, because I want to do it. really do. hopefully. Yeah, I

mean, we get free room and board. We don't have to rent a car. Home cooked meals. Sign me up. Sign me up. Ma. So one thing that we got specially made were peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while we were running our ⁓ pretend 50K.

Erika (1:09:00)
Exactly. Yup. Ma, the meatloaf.

Yes.

Ptara (1:09:14)
And we were joking because

we were like, do you think your mom will make us a sandwich? We're like, we can just make our own sandwich. We were like, Linda, the meatloaf.

Erika (1:09:19)
Literally,

I walked in the house going to ask my mom for one and then I'm like, why am I asking you? I can just make one right now. So I made us a sandwich. We split one and then if we had wanted another one, we could have texted her and she would have brought one out. But she was ready. She was ready to help us with anything we needed. And we just wanted to make it a little easier on her.

Ptara (1:09:31)
Yes, delicious.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah, it was great. so yeah, so Monday rolls around. ⁓ We were waiting actually Sunday night, we were waiting for KJ to upload your weekly schedule because I was like, what do you have on your like, what do got to do tomorrow? And then finally, she uploaded it and you had a three mile easy run. So I was like, sweet, I'll join you.

Erika (1:09:46)
Monday! Ugh.

that's right.

Yup. Yup.

KJ's so good. She's always like, all right, how you feeling? And I'm like, I feel fine. So she, she, ⁓ she gave me a run and I'm like, all right, let's bust this out before we have to leave and go back to the cold, stupid weather in New Hampshire. So.

Ptara (1:10:07)
Yeah.

Yeah, and I actually

I knew the weather was coming. So I brought my work computer with me and I gave my boss a heads up. But I was able to work a whole day on Monday, which was great. So I didn't lose any vacation time. But we kept watching our flights and our flight. we had our first flight was from Myrtle to Chicago and then Chicago to Manchester. And Erica, she came in and she's like, they delayed it a half an hour. They delayed it an hour. The Chicago to Manchester. And she's like, now it's two hours.

Erika (1:10:25)
Good.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ptara (1:10:44)
And both her and I were on the same page in that we were not going to be sleeping in the airport in Chicago. So, my God, I would have been you probably would have not wanted to travel with me after that because I would have been so miserable. ⁓ yeah, we would have. Yeah.

Erika (1:10:49)
That would have been miserable.

We would have made it work. It would have been fine with the two of us, but like,

can you just imagine like, so if I can't sleep on a plane, what makes you think I could sleep in an airport?

Ptara (1:11:07)
I know I probably like would have tried to get really drunk and just pass out or something. But ⁓ so yeah, so we decided that we were going to change our flight and they actually had like a reasonable one that came home Tuesday. ⁓ It left at what, eight in the morning, seven fifty five. So we ended up switching our flight. So we had another whole 24 hours in Myrtle. So what did we do after that? We went, you're I think your dad had a couple appointments to go to. So we were kind of like doing our own thing, hanging at the house.

Erika (1:11:10)
god,

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, we just like hung out

for the afternoon. So there's this really good sub place that they like down there. It's called Dagwood's and he was going to take us there for lunch and he's like, we can just go there for dinner now. And I was all about that because those they have freaking delicious sandwiches. And we also made it for happy hour. I was 250 but like. ⁓

Ptara (1:11:53)
Yeah, you and your mom are the only two drinking.

Erika (1:11:55)
Yeah, I can't turn out a 250. Well,

it was a Bud Light, so it should only be 250, but it's the only time I'll get a Bud Light. But we, it was. Ugh, those were delicious.

Ptara (1:12:01)
Right. That place was so good, though. I ordered fried pickles, too, because I am obsessed with fried pickles.

They were so good. Erica's like, are these hot? And I'm like, no, no. And then she took a bite and she's like, I was like, sorry. Sorry, I'm just hungry. Yeah.

Erika (1:12:15)
You when you go, like you have to make that noise.

Eating it, eating it, doesn't matter. But before we even went to dinner, we got to go to the beach. We took a little detour.

Ptara (1:12:24)
I was just hungry and I was like, need this pickle now. But yes, the pickles were piping hot.

Yes. Yeah,

we were there for maybe five minutes because it was it was cold. ⁓ Monday, Sunday and Monday were cold. Yeah.

Erika (1:12:39)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. it was fine on the beach. But once

you got to where the parking lot was, we're like, holy shit, where did this wind come from?

Ptara (1:12:49)
Yeah, I had to borrow a jacket because I didn't bring no winter. Well, not winter, just a jacket in general. ⁓ But yeah, I had that was another good thing is, you know, obviously it's Eric's parents house. So she had a lot of extra clothing down there. So.

Erika (1:12:54)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ I

have left a little bit of everything there. I've got like a pair of running shoes, a pair of regular sneakers. got flip flops and then I've got like a puffy coat, like a regular jacket. got a vest. So I'm like, Tarek, please read all the shit that I have left at my parents'

Ptara (1:13:14)
Yeah, it

was great. So great. yeah, so then we met Gloria and Dick, some of the neighbors met us for dinner, had a great dinner with them. And then we invited them back to the house to play swoop. So this was like the big night. And then we invited a couple other neighbors, Tino and Kathy. They came over. So we had is that eight, eight of us playing swoop.

Erika (1:13:20)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Yup. Yup.

Yeah, there were eight. It was

fricking chaos. You try playing this like, I mean, it's a turn-based game, so everybody has their turn, but like, if you're not paying attention and you're in a conversation, you're just like, hey, hey, hey, it's your turn. Start snapping like, ah, over here. It was chaos.

Ptara (1:13:50)
Right.

Yes, I think the one I

don't know if it's good or bad, but the thing about that game is that like you don't have to be reactive like nobody like with asshole. Like if you're not paying attention, someone can throw cards down and skip you. And so with this game, you can literally like just talk to everybody and then someone nudges you like, hey, it's your turn. You're like, oh, OK. But yeah, we were we were oh, my God, we were laughing. We were talking and I am. Oh, yeah.

Erika (1:14:01)
Mm-hmm.

Exactly. Yup. Fuck around.

There were so many little snipes at people. Like, if you weren't paying attention,

like, somebody would make a comment and somebody else would hear it and we'd just be like, making little...

Ptara (1:14:22)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was it was so funny because it's like typical,

like the guys are talking, the ladies are talking and Erica and I were like feeding into it. And there's a little bit of a little bit of drama in the hood. ⁓ So.

Erika (1:14:32)
Yep.

Ugh, you can't avoid it.

mean, you could be in your 60s and drama just is, it exists. I want to live the drama-free life. Yeah.

Ptara (1:14:41)
yeah. It just made me laugh because I know, right. But I was

just like, my God, I'm like, these people are all retired and like you think life would get easier and like things would not be stressful. Right. But there's like neighborhood drama. I'm like, spill the tea. I'm like, who is this and what are they doing? It's like all into it. Yeah. Yeah. And I will I will say like I was like, like when I left, I'm like, OK, I need to like really.

Erika (1:14:48)
Mm-hmm.

That's how it's supposed to be.

I don't know any of these people, but we're like, ooh, we're invested.

Ptara (1:15:08)
start focusing on my retirement and where I'm going because your mom and her friends have this group of 17 women and they're going line dancing on Sunday. And I'm like, I want this life. Like this life is so cool. And they like have neighbor they have parties in the neighborhood. Like when it's nice out people open it like the garages are open. And if people are there, you can just walk in have some beers. ⁓ It was just like, I'm like, this is like a little compound and like you really don't need to leave. And there's so many like

Erika (1:15:19)
Goals, it's goals.

Mm-hmm.

Exactly.

Ptara (1:15:38)
You know, everybody they have so many friends there and it's so nice. So.

Erika (1:15:41)
And

this is why it's one of the reasons why, I, when my parents first moved, I was so sad that they were just being so far away. But now I know that they've got this community and I feel so much better about not, not being close because they have so many people to take care of them and just to live their lives, have fun. And they are enjoying their retirement. They really are.

Ptara (1:15:58)
yeah.

Yeah,

and everybody that we met, they were great. and you can really tell that they care about each other. And, you know, I was talking about so Don and Betty, the couple that I know, ⁓ Don is having a surgery. And I had asked the question about, well, someone like because Betty's older and she's, you know, walking with a cane. I'm like, well, somebody come to the house. And your mom was like, no, no. The whole neighborhood will take care. We'll do meal trains. We'll do that. And I was just like, ⁓ I'm like, that's really nice. So it really is a great place.

Erika (1:16:05)
Mm-hmm.

Exactly.

Yep. And this is a really new neighborhood

too. Like it's, my parents were one of the first like houses in there. And so all of these people are, are like new. They had to make the new community. And I just love that, that it came together like that. Cause you could totally just be like, I'm just going to sit here by myself and blah, blah, blah, blah. But no, you want to have the fun. You want to make the friends and I'm glad that's what happened. For real. Yep.

Ptara (1:16:43)
Yeah.

Yeah, these are the golden years. You got to live them out and live them up. they're doing it. Your parents

are doing it right. so yeah, so that was. Oh, yeah, it was was phenomenal. It was so great. I am like super grateful for that trip, and I can't wait to go back.

Erika (1:17:00)
Man well they they took care of us while we were out there this whole this whole trip

I

know. So it's only a matter of time. ⁓ But yeah, so we have to just give you a little update on our Tuesday trip home with Southwest being... So they recently got rid of the open seating and...

Ptara (1:17:14)
Yeah.

⁓

Yeah.

And so here's the thing. So we moved our flight like 20 hours beforehand. So they assigned seats, which I was so I didn't even know Southwest was doing this. You were the one that told me because I'm like, why do I have a signed seat? I'm on. First day, that first day was the day that we flew home on Tuesday, January 27th. That was the first day that they rolled out the assigned seats. Erica and I did not sit together because they just gave us a seat.

Erika (1:17:37)
Mm-hmm.

Because it was brand new, yeah. First day.

Mm-hmm.

Ptara (1:18:01)
We were saying that like if this was a trip that we were planning in six months, we probably could just book at the same time and be like, okay, I'm in A5, you pick A6.

Erika (1:18:09)
mean,

it would be like any other airline at that point, because nobody else did the open seating thing.

Ptara (1:18:13)
Yeah. Right.

mean, I don't like whatever it was. I think it was just because it was last minute and like we couldn't sit together and I had and I had a window seat on the first flight. had the middle seat, the second flight, which I hate the middle seat, but whatever. It was fine. But they like they were struggling because the flight from Baltimore to Manchester, the the screens weren't working. So you didn't know.

Erika (1:18:18)
Yeah.

Yeah, just a change.

Ptara (1:18:41)
what zone you were in or what zone they were loading. you just had to it was it was wild. It was all over the place. But we got a little goodie bag in Myrtle because we were on the first Southwest flight out of Myrtle Beach that had a sign seating. So we made history.

Erika (1:18:56)
Do you know what I heard too? So the flight out of Manchester at like five whatever in the morning that they usually do to Baltimore, that was the first ever Southwest flight. I think that was like the first flight, but we weren't on that one, but we got the first one out of Myrtle, which was still pretty cool. I forget what we got in those goodie bags. Do you remember? Uh-huh.

Ptara (1:19:07)
⁓

Yeah.

So we got a chapstick. ⁓

We got a pen.

Erika (1:19:22)
⁓ see, I only looked at a couple of things and then I put it in my backpack and then I forgot to take it out of my backpack. So I haven't even looked. So God. ⁓

Ptara (1:19:27)
⁓ and we got a car freshener

and what are they called pop sockets that you put on your phone? Yeah. Yeah. yeah, yeah. So, ⁓ yeah, I'm like, here's the chapstick. I got the chapstick and the pen at my desk. So. Yeah, so so, we got into Manchester like just before noon and another shout out to Matt. Matt came and picked us up. Matt.

Erika (1:19:35)
Yeah, I have one. It's like the little poppity pops. Oh, fun. Oh, that's cool. Very nice. I will take it out of that bag eventually.

He's my hero.

Ptara (1:19:57)
Matt cleaned my whole entire driveway. He cleaned off Erica's car. He cleaned off my car. Freaking I owe that man some stuff. ⁓

Erika (1:20:07)
Well, I still owe you

because you saved me probably a good hundred something bucks from not parking in the garage at MHT.

Ptara (1:20:13)
yeah, no, no, no, no, we made it work. We're good.

So, ⁓ but yeah, that was the end of the trip. ⁓ I unfortunately had, I don't want say, I guess maybe it was bad timing because I had planned a Bruins game on Tuesday, the day that we got home with my mom, because her birthday is on Sunday, turning the big seven, shout out Trish. So I take her to a Bruins game. Happy birthday, mommy. ⁓ She would have no idea how to even listen to a podcast, so she will never hear that. But ⁓

Erika (1:20:33)
Yeah, happy birthday Trish! Woo!

That's okay. That's

okay.

Ptara (1:20:42)
I take her to

a Bruins game every year for her birthday and that was the game that she picked. it just, I got home at 12.15 and I left at 2.45 for Boston. So Tuesday was a very long day. I didn't get home until midnight. Yeah. So yeah, they won an overtime. It was great. I was like, I'm like, of course this is fucking going into overtime because this day couldn't get any longer. But my boy, David Posterdark.

Erika (1:20:53)
What the day,

Holy shit. Did they win? Did they win for you? For fantastic.

Ptara (1:21:10)
scored 15 seconds in. So I was pumped. have his jersey. He's like him and I have the same birthday. So that's why I love him. ⁓ Yeah, he's like he's just a few years younger than me. ⁓ No, he's 30 something. I think he's barely 30. But yeah. But yeah, so that was great. But yeah, the trip was amazing. Huge shout out to Don and Linda Hamill. You guys took me in like I was one of your own super

Erika (1:21:13)
Beautiful.

How old is he? Like 20 something? 30? Oh, well that's better. That's fine. Oh. Meh.

You are now. You're

a hamill. You're in. Perfect.

Ptara (1:21:39)
I know, I think I'm in. I am Tara Hamel Watt. That sounds

weird. Or wait, would it be Watt Hamel? Probably Watt Hamel. Yeah, we'll figure it out. ⁓ But they were just great. your dad, I'm like, every time I'm like trying to pay for something, like they bought dinner and I'm like throwing money on the table and they wouldn't take it. So I'm going to send them something. Yeah.

Erika (1:21:49)
to you.

Yup, such is life.

They rarely let me pay for things, but then sometimes I'm like, dude, just fucking let me pay for dinner. And he'll be like, fine. So I got one dinner in to pay for. And I know I usually try to make it up to them too, but

Ptara (1:22:10)
Yeah, right. I know.

haha

Yeah, they were great.

Erika (1:22:20)
What an adventure.

Ptara (1:22:20)
So.

Erika (1:22:21)
That was definitely so much fun. I'm so glad you came down. I couldn't picture anybody else doing this with me. This was such a fun trip all around, and I'm so glad you came, and I'm glad we're going back. I can't wait for that. And for fuck's sake, if that weather is not nice down there, I'm going to rage. I'm going to have a conniption.

Ptara (1:22:33)
Yeah.

⁓ my god. Right, I know. You would be, I'm

a little nervous because it's March and I feel like it's gonna be warm and I do not do well in the warm, but like it is what it is. But you thrive in it, so yeah.

Erika (1:22:49)
You're gonna get like happy Erica. I could be like

90 degrees like dying in the sun and I'll be like more please

Ptara (1:22:56)
I love the sun. I will take the sun over the cold, but I just don't really swell in it. Yeah, I immediately swell up. ⁓ just can't. Anything over 60 degrees. Yeah, but it does start at 630 in the morning, which is awesome for me. Not so great for you. Yes, and Holly's running it with us too.

Erika (1:23:01)
Not to run in it, yeah. I get that.

don't get me wrong, I didn't say I'd be fast. I will just be enjoying it. I will probably be sweaty and gross, but.

I will suck it up. I will. As long as we get beers after. Yeah,

yeah. So I'm just glad that she's going to be there because you guys will both be running the half and you'll be finished before me. So you can hang out, have some beers, chill until I get there. And then I will have some beer too.

Ptara (1:23:35)
Yes. Absolutely. We'll come back on the course and find you if it's

easy to do. But I think we run the first half together, OK. ⁓ So we'll all run together. So perfect. Yes.

Erika (1:23:44)
Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah, we'll make it work. I'm so proud. I'm so happy.

But I think we should move into our final segment of the evening, the Ask Me Anything section.

Ptara (1:23:56)
Yeah, did we get some good

traction on that?

Erika (1:24:00)
We got some. Eric wound up sending me a whole list, but ⁓ I actually had some of these written down. So the first question was actually for me. Would you travel with Tara again? And I think I answered this already. Absolutely. I would like you are just like so much fun and you bring the good vibes. So yes, absolutely.

Ptara (1:24:22)
If

you had asked her this question, the minute we got on the plane, it'd probably be a hard no after my wallet incident. ⁓

Erika (1:24:28)
That's not true. I just

felt bad. was like, I don't know what to do.

Ptara (1:24:32)
I know you did.

I was like, oh my god, Erica feels so bad for me right now, but I'm just an idiot. So yes, I know.

Erika (1:24:36)
We were going to take care of you either way. So, and we would have figured out how to

get you home. But the second question, ⁓ how do you feel about the newest sign seating on Southwest? I got to give it a thumbs down. I liked their system before.

Ptara (1:24:52)
Yeah, I don't I'm not like that's what made them different. So I don't know. Yeah.

Erika (1:24:53)
Ain't broke, don't fix it. Yeah, yeah. Now what? Maybe they could

just make their seats or their tickets a little cheaper and I'll keep using them. We'll see. right. ⁓ this one is for both. This is a weird question. Whose feet look to the worst?

Ptara (1:25:03)
Exactly. Yep.

I had some issues with one toenail, ⁓ but I just don't have good toenails in general. And you have paint on yours. So I'm going go with mine because mine are I'm raw dogging the toenails right now. And I got a couple of purple. I got blue. I got I got yellow. It's not cute. Not cute.

Erika (1:25:12)
⁓

Mm. Yes. I have some faux nails.

shit. ⁓

Mine are,

well, let's just say for an ultra, they look way better than they usually do because I tend to get heat rash, which is god awful. But today or this past weekend, I only had like some minor blisters on the outside of my toes. But I, it was because I changed the socks and the tape ripped off that I put on them and then I never put any new ones on. So I think it just kind of made it worse. But so I think we're both in the same boat, not.

Ptara (1:25:41)
Ugh.

⁓ yeah.

Erika (1:26:00)
Not great feet, but not terrible feet. Could be worse. Ooh, somebody asked us, when are you holding your next official race? Should we do this? Make this a thing, the Kapalua Looper, second annual sometime next year? But we got to come up with a punny name. We need something punny and fun.

Ptara (1:26:09)
Well,

my God, we should do one here.

We totally

can find a mile loop in Manchester or Nashua and do another pretend 50K.

Erika (1:26:30)
Honestly,

my neighborhood, it actually has a little bit of elevation after a while. But ⁓ if you do my loop, like the main road in my neighborhood, that's a half mile. So we would have to do a fuck ton of loud. That's too many. So yes, we'll workshop this. ⁓ coming soon, the soon to be named looper.

Ptara (1:26:42)
Yeah. yeah, we'd have to do 60 of those. Yeah.

Yes, yes.

When the race committee gets together, we will add this to the agenda.

Erika (1:26:59)
I freaking love that. So question for you, Tara. Did you ever want to quit the 50K?

Ptara (1:27:06)
Nope, not even when I thought I was going to shit my pants 10 times. Yeah, like I said, I get something in my head and I do it. Like it might always look pretty, but I just have that mental. I have that piece and it's just been in my head since I was a kid. So, I mean, I actually and like you said, I didn't do much training and I felt I felt fine. Like I felt great. So.

Erika (1:27:10)
She's a trooper, We had this down.

Mm-hmm.

proud of you.

Walking intervals. Intervals are key, A lot of people shit on them. It is so good to do intervals, no matter what the interval is. We just made it like a mile. But it was great. All right, our next question. What made you pick the route you ran? It looks like you could have easily ran in a circle. Like I said, we were just trying to mimic the race course. So that was a 1.1 mile, and we found just about a 1.1 mile.

Ptara (1:27:37)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, right? Yep. Right, exactly. Yeah.

Erika (1:28:04)
And plus I was less loop, so we had to do. Next question. ⁓ What did the neighbors think of you two running a 50k? Any weird looks?

Ptara (1:28:08)
Yep, it was perfect.

We got lot of cheers and stuff. I think the only people that really interacted with us a ton were those construction workers. And I think that they were giving us, I don't know, I think they were like, hey ladies, more than they were like, what are you doing? So we were trying not to engage with them because that's what they wanted.

Erika (1:28:18)
Mm-hmm.

True.

you

I can think of...

I can

think of one though. ⁓ We were on our beer lap and God, we were like doing snot rockets and burping and just like talking about, yeah. And some lady passed us. She was like speed walking and she significantly increased her walking pace when we were like neck and neck with each other. Cause we didn't quite know she was there and here we are like ripping burps and yeah.

Ptara (1:28:46)
We were talking about chafing. Yep.

Yeah, she was on a mission.

No. Right. She

Erika (1:29:05)
Did not go quiet.

Ptara (1:29:05)
came up quick behind us. I didn't know she was there.

Erika (1:29:09)
It was a little embarrassing to be honest. was like, no, I don't know who this woman is. Cause I did get to meet like a bunch of the neighbors and she just wasn't one of them. And I was like, they're not going to think the nicest things of us. But another question, ⁓ did mom and dad cheer and did any of the neighbors cheer? Yes. So we had the random neighbors walking their dogs. My mom's walking friends went out for a lap and we found them.

Ptara (1:29:17)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's okay.

Erika (1:29:36)
Super encouraging. And that's what I love to see. Like everybody, he did. So he was like, do you want me to get like a video of you or anything? I was like, sure. Which I haven't even done any, I forgot about that. So I'll have to go back and look at the footage, but he just had me start recording. He held it in his hand, rode his bike behind us and just got us running. So yes, everybody was super supportive except for maybe that one lady.

Ptara (1:29:38)
Yeah. Didn't your dad come out on the bike too?

Yeah.

Yeah, it was great.

Yes.

Erika (1:30:06)
⁓ Next question, ⁓ did Erica fart on the plane? No, I wanted to fall asleep at one point, but it just wasn't gonna happen. This was, this is on the way home. I'm like, I might take a nap. I was sandwiched in the middle of the plane. Like I had middle seat both ways. So there would be no, there would be no sleeping. There would be no farting. So I got away with it. But ⁓ the other one, ⁓ does Tara snore? I don't know.

Ptara (1:30:11)
Nope.

No farting.

There.

No,

yeah, we had our own bedrooms. It was great. But I do not snore for those of you or whoever asked that question.

Erika (1:30:39)
Perfect.

Perfect. Let's see. so will you go back for the next month? So no, we are not going to, but we have the Myrtle Beach Marathon instead at the beginning of March. So that's going to be total blast. ⁓

Ptara (1:30:52)
Yes. If anybody else wants

to come, I do have two beds in my room.

Erika (1:31:00)
We're offering it up to Jen first, your friend Jen. And if that doesn't work out, ⁓ I don't know, maybe I'll see if Rachel wants to come down and then you can have the big bed and then I'll share those a little bit. So we'll let Jen have her option first. And then here's another one. what was the actual weather and could you have raced? ⁓ could the race you traveled for have been held? So again, yes, but no.

Ptara (1:31:04)
yeah, Jen.

yeah, there you go.

Yeah

Yeah.

Yeah.

Erika (1:31:27)
Safety. Yeah, it was a little iffy.

Ptara (1:31:28)
Right. Yeah. And it was it was in the I think it was in the 40s all day that we ran. It might have like dipped into the feel like high 30s with the wind.

Erika (1:31:36)
It would have been

very hamster wheel esque at night. Like it was frosty. Like you said, it rained a little, when Holly picked you up and there was some ice here and there, like that, that would have been kind of miserable, but we wouldn't have stayed that late anyways. And so, but there were people, I guess there were people who had some big goals and Patrick, the race director was saying like, if anybody can beat my record of.

Ptara (1:31:39)
Yeah. Yep.

Yeah.

Right, wouldn't have affected us.

Erika (1:32:03)
was like 108 miles in the 24 hours, you get a sticker. It's just like, beat my time. But there were some people who had some really big goals and I'm kind of bummed that this didn't happen for them, but I am totally hoping that they get better weather for the second go around and that they can just hammer out some miles. It's just so impressive seeing people who can just kind of put it on autopilot and just keep moving the entire 24 hours.

Ptara (1:32:07)
Yeah, I'm like, ooh, a sticker, ooh.

Yeah.

Right? Yeah. No. Nope. I like the brakes. Yeah.

Erika (1:32:32)
I'm not one of those people. Me too, me too.

Yeah. But that was it for our AMA section. Thank you for everybody who submitted some questions. was kind of fun to relive this fun experience that we had down in Myrtle Beach. And yeah, we appreciate the engagement. It was a lot of fun.

Ptara (1:32:52)
Yeah, yeah,

I know. And yeah, we made a bunch of reels and stuff and you guys were awesome on that, giving us lots of

Erika (1:32:59)
Yeah, check out the recaps.

⁓ Yeah, they are, I almost called them the recaps. The little recap reels that I posted on my slash on the runs ⁓ social accounts. So yeah, go check them out and see what it was really like while we were out there. Yeah.

Ptara (1:33:12)
Yeah.

Yeah it was great. know you

gotta love a friend that can make the most of something and we had a blast. All weekend was awesome.

Erika (1:33:20)
Yes.

See, I know you're down for pretty much whatever too. Maybe we'll cap it at the 50k, but hell, if you need me for anything more.

Ptara (1:33:24)
Yes. Yeah, I don't know if I have more.

I could probably have done more, like in that environment and stuff, like I was just in my head, I'm like 50K and then we're calling it. So if we were an actual race, I probably would have banged out a couple more. But that's what it is. Yeah.

Erika (1:33:36)
Yeah, I was the same way. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I was the same way.

You get really bored and then you're like, why? I don't have to do this. Yeah, race environment's totally different.

Ptara (1:33:48)
Right exactly. yeah that's our

2026 Kapalua Looper Ultra recap.

Erika (1:33:56)
I hope you guys enjoyed reliving it as much as we did. We had an absolute blast. Tara, any extra things to add? Did we miss anything? Do we hit everything?

Ptara (1:34:06)
Yeah, I think we got it all. ⁓ It was a good time. So book the flight, sign up for the race, do it. So it was great. And thanks for being such a fun friend. And I would travel anywhere with you.

Erika (1:34:15)
It's gonna be a blast.

Yay.

Well, I am so happy you did because you, I feel the same way about you. And I guess before we wrap it up, we should probably say, give us a follow, give us a like, all of that social media stuff. Join our Patreon, find us on YouTube, just like and share. yeah, we like doing this. So we hope you guys like seeing it and ⁓ you want to do our sign off now, shall we? All right.

Ptara (1:34:44)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So thanks

guys for listening. Don't trust a fart, especially 23 miles in.

Erika (1:34:53)
I'll do the Eric part. Don't fear the code Brown and don't forget to stretch.