We got up and went for breakfasts outside of the hotel, then went to Camera Obscura and World of Illusions (https://www.camera-obscura.co.uk/) a neat tourist exhibit that is pretty much what it sounds like. Lots of neat illusions and effects, but the coolest was a lens in the tower of the building that used light to display a live image into the room, on a concave wooden "bowl". You could see the people walking around, who were actually walking around outside, it was pretty cool. This lens show has been used here in this tourist attraction since the mid-1850's!
The rest of it was some typical illusions you might see elsewhere, but it was pretty good.
It was a cold day, but sunny, today, so we were continually hopping into stores as we roamed around.
I bought a nice cashmere scarf, and Tracy got a kilt skirt.
We visited the cemetery we went to on the ghost tour two nights ago. Some of the graves date back to the 1600's.
Not too much else.
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Friday, October 26, 2018
Edinburgh, Day 2
We slept in a bit, had breakfast at the hotel, then walked downtown, not with really any plans.
We hit up a Barclay's ATM first in a mall, then went to a park that had a really tall monument of some sort, just outside of the mall. The monument ended up being a monument to Sir Walter Scott (https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/venue/scott-monument). I purchased a pass to go up to the top level for both of us, because it looked pretty cool.
There was 287 steps to the top, and it was all tight circular stairs, as you went up, the way got skinnier and skinnier, to the the point where if you were fat, you wouldn't even be able to get up. In fact, Tracy told me later she was concerned that she was going to get stuck at the top, because some fat person was going to get stuck in the stairwell.
It gave great views of the city all around.
We then walked along a park, and around and up to to the Edinburgh Castle, and old castle in the middle of Edinburgh, built on an old volcano. It was quite impressive. A lot of it is is now museums inside, mainly about the military history of Scotland. We spent a number of hours up there.
It was cool and windy today, with bits of sunshine. It was especially windy up at the top of the monument and high on the castle.
We had tickets for the Scotch Whisky Experience at 4:20pm, so we headed to a pizza joint and shared a pizza, then headed to the scotch place. It's not an actual distillery (you'd have to travel to the countryside to get an actual scotch distillery tour), but they partner with over 400 distilleries in Scotland to provide a scotch tasting and learning experience. I'm not a scotch fan, but Tracy is, but we got the "gold" pass, which included 5 scotch samples from all around Scotland. We learned about the 5 different areas around Scotland that produce scotch, and the flavour's typical of each region. And the difference between single malt and blended. The tour ended with a viewing of the largest whisky collection in the world, which is housed at the Scotch Whisky Experience, over 3300 of never-opened bottles of whisky (https://www.scotchwhiskyexperience.co.uk/the-collection). Very impressive.
In the tasting room, a younger couple up from London joined us at our table, and we sat and talked for probably 1.5 hours with them, till they kicked us out at 7:15.
Tracy and I went to a restaurant called Pibroche for supper. It's a restaurant she saw when we arrived, and we tried to go there yesterday, but it was closed. They serve typical Scottish food, Tracy had vegetarian haggis, I had a meat pie. I'm digging the meat pies here in the UK.
We headed back to the hotel about 9:00pm.
We hit up a Barclay's ATM first in a mall, then went to a park that had a really tall monument of some sort, just outside of the mall. The monument ended up being a monument to Sir Walter Scott (https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/venue/scott-monument). I purchased a pass to go up to the top level for both of us, because it looked pretty cool.
There was 287 steps to the top, and it was all tight circular stairs, as you went up, the way got skinnier and skinnier, to the the point where if you were fat, you wouldn't even be able to get up. In fact, Tracy told me later she was concerned that she was going to get stuck at the top, because some fat person was going to get stuck in the stairwell.
It gave great views of the city all around.
We then walked along a park, and around and up to to the Edinburgh Castle, and old castle in the middle of Edinburgh, built on an old volcano. It was quite impressive. A lot of it is is now museums inside, mainly about the military history of Scotland. We spent a number of hours up there.
It was cool and windy today, with bits of sunshine. It was especially windy up at the top of the monument and high on the castle.
We had tickets for the Scotch Whisky Experience at 4:20pm, so we headed to a pizza joint and shared a pizza, then headed to the scotch place. It's not an actual distillery (you'd have to travel to the countryside to get an actual scotch distillery tour), but they partner with over 400 distilleries in Scotland to provide a scotch tasting and learning experience. I'm not a scotch fan, but Tracy is, but we got the "gold" pass, which included 5 scotch samples from all around Scotland. We learned about the 5 different areas around Scotland that produce scotch, and the flavour's typical of each region. And the difference between single malt and blended. The tour ended with a viewing of the largest whisky collection in the world, which is housed at the Scotch Whisky Experience, over 3300 of never-opened bottles of whisky (https://www.scotchwhiskyexperience.co.uk/the-collection). Very impressive.
In the tasting room, a younger couple up from London joined us at our table, and we sat and talked for probably 1.5 hours with them, till they kicked us out at 7:15.
Tracy and I went to a restaurant called Pibroche for supper. It's a restaurant she saw when we arrived, and we tried to go there yesterday, but it was closed. They serve typical Scottish food, Tracy had vegetarian haggis, I had a meat pie. I'm digging the meat pies here in the UK.
We headed back to the hotel about 9:00pm.
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Edinburgh, Day 1
We got up early, 6:30, as we weren't sure how the Underground would be with the morning rush hour, so wanted to give ourselves lots of time to get from Earl's Court to King's Cross. It ended up not being busy at all, got there easily, plenty of time for breakfast at King's Cross station before our 9:00am train.
The train ride was uneventful. I used a speedometer app on my phone to calculate the speed of the train, it was going around 180 kph. It made a number of quick stops on the way, but was a great way to travel. Total time from London to Edinburgh, about 1h 20m. We arrived around 1:20.
Along the way, we cancelled the booking for the hostel, as the reviews on it were not good, and Tracy was grumbling. We actually got a good deal on a really nice hotel for 3 nights as we were approaching Edinburgh. We're staying at Ten Hll Place Hotel, a short 8 minute walk from downtown Edinburgh.
All I can say is Edinburgh is BEAUTIFUL. The old town completely escaped any damage from WW I or WW II, and is in virtually immaculate condition. We only saw part of it today, but it seems to go on for a long time.
We went for lunch/supper in the middle of the afternoon, and booked a "free" ghost tour for the evening and also booked a scotch tour for tomorrow late afternoon. We are Scotland, after all.
The weather was cool and cloudy, but it wasn't raining.
We headed back to the hotel room to bundle up and get our rain jackets, as it seemed to be threatening, before heading to the ghost tour. The ghost tour is free to buy, but then you can tip at the end if you liked it.
It was 1.5 hours of some of the history of Edinburgh, as we walked to a number of landmarks in downtown Edinburgh. Unfortunately, I can't really compare it to a paid tour, but it was interesting. I think some of the paid tours actually take you into buildings and dungeons and crypts and such, but not sure.
We went to the Frankenstein bar afterwards for a drink, then back to the hotel.
The train ride was uneventful. I used a speedometer app on my phone to calculate the speed of the train, it was going around 180 kph. It made a number of quick stops on the way, but was a great way to travel. Total time from London to Edinburgh, about 1h 20m. We arrived around 1:20.
Along the way, we cancelled the booking for the hostel, as the reviews on it were not good, and Tracy was grumbling. We actually got a good deal on a really nice hotel for 3 nights as we were approaching Edinburgh. We're staying at Ten Hll Place Hotel, a short 8 minute walk from downtown Edinburgh.
All I can say is Edinburgh is BEAUTIFUL. The old town completely escaped any damage from WW I or WW II, and is in virtually immaculate condition. We only saw part of it today, but it seems to go on for a long time.
We went for lunch/supper in the middle of the afternoon, and booked a "free" ghost tour for the evening and also booked a scotch tour for tomorrow late afternoon. We are Scotland, after all.
The weather was cool and cloudy, but it wasn't raining.
We headed back to the hotel room to bundle up and get our rain jackets, as it seemed to be threatening, before heading to the ghost tour. The ghost tour is free to buy, but then you can tip at the end if you liked it.
It was 1.5 hours of some of the history of Edinburgh, as we walked to a number of landmarks in downtown Edinburgh. Unfortunately, I can't really compare it to a paid tour, but it was interesting. I think some of the paid tours actually take you into buildings and dungeons and crypts and such, but not sure.
We went to the Frankenstein bar afterwards for a drink, then back to the hotel.
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
British Museum and the London Dungeon
We slept in a bit, got up around 8:30, walked down the street and had breakfast, then took the underground to the British Museum. I had in my journal from 2001 that it was really great.
It was really great, and huge. It's free to get in, and it mostly covers cultures from around the world. They have amazing exhibits on ancient Rome and ancient Greece and ancient Iran (Mesopotamia), but have exhibits on old American cultures and others as well. They have the Rosetta Stone there, and the also the sarcophagus of Cleopatra, with Cleopatra still inside. They have other sarcophagus's, all containing mummies as well. It was very cool, and we spent a number of hours there.
After that we headed down to near the London Eye and went to the London Dungeon. I did the London Dungeon in 2001 as well, and really enjoyed all the gruesome exhibits they had on torture, the plague, beheadings and all the other gruesome things in Britain's past.
This time around it was WAY different. It's a full on, fully interactive experience, with actors playing the parts of various characters, and take you on a tour through Britain's past, from being charged with treason in the middle ages, to getting the plague, and getting beheaded. It was AWESOME, so much fun, really spooky and lasted over two hours!
We went for supper in that area, then headed back to the hostel.
Since we've been here, there's been a fast food fried chicken outlet down the street that has had hundreds of people lining up, waiting to get in literally from open until close. The place is called Jollibee. I remember reading something about a Filipino chicken fast-food chain expanding globally earlier this year, so figured this was it. They are lined up down the block both ways, and around the block, hundreds upon hundreds of people all day, every day. It's hilarious. Who know that people could take fried chicken so seriously. https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/crowds-brave-london-chill-for-philippine-fast-food-giant-jollibees-british-debut
Tomorrow we're up early for a 9:00am train to Edinburgh.
It was really great, and huge. It's free to get in, and it mostly covers cultures from around the world. They have amazing exhibits on ancient Rome and ancient Greece and ancient Iran (Mesopotamia), but have exhibits on old American cultures and others as well. They have the Rosetta Stone there, and the also the sarcophagus of Cleopatra, with Cleopatra still inside. They have other sarcophagus's, all containing mummies as well. It was very cool, and we spent a number of hours there.
After that we headed down to near the London Eye and went to the London Dungeon. I did the London Dungeon in 2001 as well, and really enjoyed all the gruesome exhibits they had on torture, the plague, beheadings and all the other gruesome things in Britain's past.
This time around it was WAY different. It's a full on, fully interactive experience, with actors playing the parts of various characters, and take you on a tour through Britain's past, from being charged with treason in the middle ages, to getting the plague, and getting beheaded. It was AWESOME, so much fun, really spooky and lasted over two hours!
We went for supper in that area, then headed back to the hostel.
Since we've been here, there's been a fast food fried chicken outlet down the street that has had hundreds of people lining up, waiting to get in literally from open until close. The place is called Jollibee. I remember reading something about a Filipino chicken fast-food chain expanding globally earlier this year, so figured this was it. They are lined up down the block both ways, and around the block, hundreds upon hundreds of people all day, every day. It's hilarious. Who know that people could take fried chicken so seriously. https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/crowds-brave-london-chill-for-philippine-fast-food-giant-jollibees-british-debut
Tomorrow we're up early for a 9:00am train to Edinburgh.
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Tower of London
Tracy and I had a lot of very dirty clothes and a whole lot of extra (dirty) shoes we no longer needed to lug around, among other things, so we decided to take the morning to do laundry and ship stuff back to Canada. That was an exercise, but we managed it all done in the morning.
Before heading out for the day, we signed up for the free dinner the hostel provides each night (they also offer free breakfasts).
We headed to the area near the Tower of London, and had lunch down there, then spent over 2.5 hours touring the Tower of London. The crown jewels are kept here too. The Tower of London was founded in 1066, and has been expanded by kings and queens over the centuries. A lot of history here. After 2.5 hours, we still hadn't seen everything, but oh well.
We walked across the Tower Bridge, and walked along some of the riverfront, then stopped at a casual place for a drink before heading back to the hostel for the dinner at 8:00pm.
Dinner was very good (pasta), as we chatted with other backpackers from around the world.
Before heading out for the day, we signed up for the free dinner the hostel provides each night (they also offer free breakfasts).
We headed to the area near the Tower of London, and had lunch down there, then spent over 2.5 hours touring the Tower of London. The crown jewels are kept here too. The Tower of London was founded in 1066, and has been expanded by kings and queens over the centuries. A lot of history here. After 2.5 hours, we still hadn't seen everything, but oh well.
We walked across the Tower Bridge, and walked along some of the riverfront, then stopped at a casual place for a drink before heading back to the hostel for the dinner at 8:00pm.
Dinner was very good (pasta), as we chatted with other backpackers from around the world.
Monday, October 22, 2018
London
Tracy and I slept in. Our bodies are so sore. The tendons in the back of my knees are quite tender.
We checked out about 9:30, went for breakfast, then took the rental car back to Europcar in Romford. Walked to the train station, and caught the next train back to downtown London, got on the Underground to Earl's Court, and got to our hostel, St. James Backpackers. This is a hostel, a large common area, kitchen, tv, a really nice patio in the back, lots of backpackers. I obviously missed out the pricing, though, 89 pounds a night for a private double...I think I thought it was 89 CAD. Oh well.
After getting checked in, we wandered around, down to the Thames. St. Pauls Cathedral was very close so we checked it out. Normally you have to pay to get in, but they had a service going, so anyone could go in for free, but you couldn't walk through the whole church, just the back half, so we didn't get a chance to see the best parts of it. We walked around a bit more, and were getting a bit peckish, so headed to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese (via the Underground), one of the oldest pubs in London. It was rebuilt after the Great Fire of London in 1666...that's old. It's pretty neat, part of it is in the cramped basement of the building, little nooks and crannies that are hundreds of years old. We had dinner, then walked along the Thames in the area of Bankside. Very nice, lots of things to see, lots of new, fancy restaurants along side really old pubs in really old buildings. Saw a full-size replica of the ship Sir Francis Drake used to circumnavigate the earth back in 1577-1580. The ship was called the Golden Hind.
We found our way back to the hostel after 9:00pmish.
We checked out about 9:30, went for breakfast, then took the rental car back to Europcar in Romford. Walked to the train station, and caught the next train back to downtown London, got on the Underground to Earl's Court, and got to our hostel, St. James Backpackers. This is a hostel, a large common area, kitchen, tv, a really nice patio in the back, lots of backpackers. I obviously missed out the pricing, though, 89 pounds a night for a private double...I think I thought it was 89 CAD. Oh well.
After getting checked in, we wandered around, down to the Thames. St. Pauls Cathedral was very close so we checked it out. Normally you have to pay to get in, but they had a service going, so anyone could go in for free, but you couldn't walk through the whole church, just the back half, so we didn't get a chance to see the best parts of it. We walked around a bit more, and were getting a bit peckish, so headed to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese (via the Underground), one of the oldest pubs in London. It was rebuilt after the Great Fire of London in 1666...that's old. It's pretty neat, part of it is in the cramped basement of the building, little nooks and crannies that are hundreds of years old. We had dinner, then walked along the Thames in the area of Bankside. Very nice, lots of things to see, lots of new, fancy restaurants along side really old pubs in really old buildings. Saw a full-size replica of the ship Sir Francis Drake used to circumnavigate the earth back in 1577-1580. The ship was called the Golden Hind.
We found our way back to the hostel after 9:00pmish.
Sunday, October 21, 2018
OCR World Championships Day 3
Today was the team relay and the charity trust races.
A team consists of 3 people. I was originally going to be on a team with two others from Cor.Fit, but they backed out of the World Championships, so Tracy and I decided to do a team, and find a third. I put a post on the OCR World Championship Athletes Facebook group, and a lady from South Africa (who was born in France, and has lived in England and other places), took us up on our offer. Her name was Cyrie.
A funny story, I was typing a message to Cyrie on my phone, and I started it with "Hey Cyrie. ..." and hit send after the rest of the message. After it was sent, I looked at the message, and damn autocorrect changed her name to Cutie! I was partially horrified and partially laughing out loud. I followed up with another message apologizing for calling her Cutie. She laughed, said it happens often.
Me, Tracy, Mandy and Jon headed to the event about 9:15. Mike went earlier with Graham, as he's racing with Graham and Lucas at an earlier time. Our heat was at 11:00am.
The team event consists of four legs, a speed (running) leg, a strength leg, a technical leg (obstacles) and a team leg, where you have to work together as a team. Tracy was originally going to do the running leg, Cyrie the technical and me the strength, but Tracy didn't think she could run after yesterday, and Cyrie had destroyed her hands on the obstacles yesterday, so we totally switched everything. Cyrie did the run, Tracy did the strength and I did the technical.
It was a blast. Cyrie started, and did a 4km run, then tagged Tracy, who had to do a 2k run with a bunch of feats of strength to perform; carrying a 50 pound bag on the shoulders while going over and under huge logs, pulling a large, metal rocket on a rope out of the water, carrying two large bags of rocks (called a farmers carry), carrying a concrete block around, etc.), then she tagged me, and I did a short run with a bunch of (mostly) rig obstacles (monkey bar type of things, swinging from rings to ropes and other hand-holds, etc.), then I tagged the both of them, and the three of us had to carry two very heavy boulders on a platform around a short course, a rope climb, and then up and over a 10-foot wall. The catch is, you had to work as a team to do each of them, especially the 10-foot wall. For the wall, I climbed in Cyrie's shoulders, then grabbed the rope near the top of the wall, and pulled myself up and hung down from the wall while Tracy tried to grab my ankles and then climb over me to the top of the wall. She's pretty light, so it worked ok, with the help of Cyrie supporting her. Now with Tracy up, Cyrie had to try the same thing, and she would grab my ankes, and try to climb up my legs, then she would try to grab my shirt, but got my shorts instead, and pulled my shorts part way down. (This was happening to everyone, not just me....there were a lot of full moons during this.) She couldn't make it, would drop back down and try again, but no go. I was getting tired of hanging with a woman hanging from me, so I'd have to pull myself up periodically and give my arms a rest. We tried a few more times, but it wasn't working. Finally I dropped back down, and hoisted Cyrie up, while she hung on the top of the wall, and I ran up and grabbed her ankle. I was able to jump high enough to get her ankle, then get enough grip from my new shoes to propel myself to the rope at the top and grab a hold of it, and got up. With all three of us to the top, we climbed down the other side, and ran across the finish line. So much fun, I've never done a team relay before.
We ended up 63rd out of 84 that completed the team relay (i.e. all team members finished with their bands), so not great, but we all finished with our bands and got our medals. Last was the charity trust race, which is more of wind-down. No timing chips, no pressure, all the money goes to charity. Tracy, me, Mike, Mandy, Jon, Lucas and Graham (all Cor.Fit) just walked the whole course (7k). Jamie, another Cor.Fit'er also joined for a bit, but ran ahead as he has family waiting for him. I took my camera for this, and I didn't do many of the obstacles, instead took pictures of some of the obstacles while the others did the ones they wanted to do.
With that finished (I think it took maybe 2 hours to walk the 7k course), it was celebration time. The weather was even nicer today than yesterday, we sat in the outside event area, in the beautiful sun, had beers and pizza and brownies and celebrated our accomplishments.
All-in-all, I was successful in getting all four medals, with a "completed" status in all races (i.e. they didn't cut my band off for failing to do something). There were a lot of people complaining on Facebook about cheaters, people hiding their bands from the marshalls, putting it in their pockets or underneath long sleeve shirt, so they could keep their bands even when the couldn't complete an obstacle. That sucks, but what can you do. I'm happy in the knowledge that I didn't cheat and was successful, if not particularly speedy. (Did I mention I hate running?)
The other thing is, you can sure notice the difference between the runners that are trying to do OCR and the OCR'ers that are trying to run. Haha. It's amazing to see soooo many fit people (especially guys) that just can't do obstacles. So many of the rigs, guys will try 3, 4, 5 or more times to try and swing across rigs of various sorts, with different hand holds, and just can't do it. They stand around, blocking the lanes, I have to push through, and just pick a lane, ask them if I can go ahead and then fly through it. It actually kinda makes me feel good! Screw them and their muscles and six-packs. I can do obstacles and you can't, na-na-na-na-na-na.
Lucas decided to arrange a celebration supper in town at 6:00 for all of us, and also for his family (his parents and grandparents came over to cheer him on, along with Graham's dad). Funny thing, all of the restaurants in Brentwood all close down at about 5:00pm on Sunday's, so the only place to really get food is at your hotel. We were all staying at the same hotel (Premiere Inn), so that worked out well.
We ended up to bed around 10:00pm that night.
A team consists of 3 people. I was originally going to be on a team with two others from Cor.Fit, but they backed out of the World Championships, so Tracy and I decided to do a team, and find a third. I put a post on the OCR World Championship Athletes Facebook group, and a lady from South Africa (who was born in France, and has lived in England and other places), took us up on our offer. Her name was Cyrie.
A funny story, I was typing a message to Cyrie on my phone, and I started it with "Hey Cyrie. ..." and hit send after the rest of the message. After it was sent, I looked at the message, and damn autocorrect changed her name to Cutie! I was partially horrified and partially laughing out loud. I followed up with another message apologizing for calling her Cutie. She laughed, said it happens often.
Me, Tracy, Mandy and Jon headed to the event about 9:15. Mike went earlier with Graham, as he's racing with Graham and Lucas at an earlier time. Our heat was at 11:00am.
The team event consists of four legs, a speed (running) leg, a strength leg, a technical leg (obstacles) and a team leg, where you have to work together as a team. Tracy was originally going to do the running leg, Cyrie the technical and me the strength, but Tracy didn't think she could run after yesterday, and Cyrie had destroyed her hands on the obstacles yesterday, so we totally switched everything. Cyrie did the run, Tracy did the strength and I did the technical.
It was a blast. Cyrie started, and did a 4km run, then tagged Tracy, who had to do a 2k run with a bunch of feats of strength to perform; carrying a 50 pound bag on the shoulders while going over and under huge logs, pulling a large, metal rocket on a rope out of the water, carrying two large bags of rocks (called a farmers carry), carrying a concrete block around, etc.), then she tagged me, and I did a short run with a bunch of (mostly) rig obstacles (monkey bar type of things, swinging from rings to ropes and other hand-holds, etc.), then I tagged the both of them, and the three of us had to carry two very heavy boulders on a platform around a short course, a rope climb, and then up and over a 10-foot wall. The catch is, you had to work as a team to do each of them, especially the 10-foot wall. For the wall, I climbed in Cyrie's shoulders, then grabbed the rope near the top of the wall, and pulled myself up and hung down from the wall while Tracy tried to grab my ankles and then climb over me to the top of the wall. She's pretty light, so it worked ok, with the help of Cyrie supporting her. Now with Tracy up, Cyrie had to try the same thing, and she would grab my ankes, and try to climb up my legs, then she would try to grab my shirt, but got my shorts instead, and pulled my shorts part way down. (This was happening to everyone, not just me....there were a lot of full moons during this.) She couldn't make it, would drop back down and try again, but no go. I was getting tired of hanging with a woman hanging from me, so I'd have to pull myself up periodically and give my arms a rest. We tried a few more times, but it wasn't working. Finally I dropped back down, and hoisted Cyrie up, while she hung on the top of the wall, and I ran up and grabbed her ankle. I was able to jump high enough to get her ankle, then get enough grip from my new shoes to propel myself to the rope at the top and grab a hold of it, and got up. With all three of us to the top, we climbed down the other side, and ran across the finish line. So much fun, I've never done a team relay before.
We ended up 63rd out of 84 that completed the team relay (i.e. all team members finished with their bands), so not great, but we all finished with our bands and got our medals. Last was the charity trust race, which is more of wind-down. No timing chips, no pressure, all the money goes to charity. Tracy, me, Mike, Mandy, Jon, Lucas and Graham (all Cor.Fit) just walked the whole course (7k). Jamie, another Cor.Fit'er also joined for a bit, but ran ahead as he has family waiting for him. I took my camera for this, and I didn't do many of the obstacles, instead took pictures of some of the obstacles while the others did the ones they wanted to do.
With that finished (I think it took maybe 2 hours to walk the 7k course), it was celebration time. The weather was even nicer today than yesterday, we sat in the outside event area, in the beautiful sun, had beers and pizza and brownies and celebrated our accomplishments.
All-in-all, I was successful in getting all four medals, with a "completed" status in all races (i.e. they didn't cut my band off for failing to do something). There were a lot of people complaining on Facebook about cheaters, people hiding their bands from the marshalls, putting it in their pockets or underneath long sleeve shirt, so they could keep their bands even when the couldn't complete an obstacle. That sucks, but what can you do. I'm happy in the knowledge that I didn't cheat and was successful, if not particularly speedy. (Did I mention I hate running?)
The other thing is, you can sure notice the difference between the runners that are trying to do OCR and the OCR'ers that are trying to run. Haha. It's amazing to see soooo many fit people (especially guys) that just can't do obstacles. So many of the rigs, guys will try 3, 4, 5 or more times to try and swing across rigs of various sorts, with different hand holds, and just can't do it. They stand around, blocking the lanes, I have to push through, and just pick a lane, ask them if I can go ahead and then fly through it. It actually kinda makes me feel good! Screw them and their muscles and six-packs. I can do obstacles and you can't, na-na-na-na-na-na.
Lucas decided to arrange a celebration supper in town at 6:00 for all of us, and also for his family (his parents and grandparents came over to cheer him on, along with Graham's dad). Funny thing, all of the restaurants in Brentwood all close down at about 5:00pm on Sunday's, so the only place to really get food is at your hotel. We were all staying at the same hotel (Premiere Inn), so that worked out well.
We ended up to bed around 10:00pm that night.
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