This week’s Wednesday Word linkup with Debbie is annoying. No, not the link up. The word annoying is our topic this week. Click the button below to check out others linking up and join in, too.

We were actually joking about this one this past weekend during our Ragnar Trail Relay in West Virginia, and I think I will share that joke with you.

Debbie likes to take a lot of pictures and when I came back absolutely covered in mud after my first leg of the relay she had to document it. I teased her that I would be writing this week’s Wednesday Word about her. But I really do love that she takes so many pictures! How else would I end up with gems like this one?

The full story on how I ended up looking like that, and the significance of that camera in my hands, is coming at you in the near future. The tale of this very muddy journey will begin on Friday.

What does the word ‘annoying’ mean to you?

I’m a day late on this, but you’ll see why towards the end.

This weekend was full of lots of new things. It centered around one main event: Ragnar Trail Relay in West Virginia. It was really something! I’m going to be recapping it, but it was full of mud, torrential downpours, beautiful trails, mud, exhaustion, oh and mud. But it was fun, too, and I got to meet a lot of great people. Naturally I am going to be recapping the entire experience, but that’s going to take me awhile to sort out. In the meantime, here are a few photos:

After the events of Ragnar, which spanned Friday morning through Saturday evening, I crashed at my Dad’s house. Conveniently, Sunday was Father’s Day and I got to spend it with my dad, his girlfriend, and my little sister. My dad also happened to get tickets to go up in the Washington Monument for this weekend, before he knew I was even going to be there. They’ve only recently started allowing people to go back up in it. It was a really neat experience and the views were amazing!

After the Washington Monument we spent a little bit more time walking around DC. We checked out the World War II Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial, where flowers had been laid out by family members for Father’s Day.

On Sunday afternoon I headed home and finally got back around 9:00 PM. I was completely exhausted from being up for 42 hours straight Friday through Saturday and from all of the traveling. Unfortunately, this is where the bad started happening. Shortly after I got home Hank had a crisis. He is doing okay now, but is not quite out of the woods yet. Large dogs are prone to bloat and that’s what happened to Hank. When it happens, it is a life threatening situation and you have to get them to the vet immediately. That’s exactly what we did. It was the longest drive ever (about 25 minutes) and it was terrifying. He was crying the whole way and I thought we were going to lose him.

We got to the vet and they tried to pass a tube to his stomach to get the gas out. But his stomach was twisted and they ended up having to do emergency surgery. During the surgery there was a complication. They found that his spleen had blood blisters on it and it started bleeding. They ended up removing his spleen in addition to repairing his stomach. He is now recovering and is doing alright, but is still very lethargic. We haven’t been to see him, because we don’t want him to get confused/upset when he can’t leave with us. But they sent us this picture. Hopefully he can come home this evening.

During all of this poor Scout has been having a very tough time without him. She is mopey and cries when we leave and just lays around staring blankly. She wants her Hank home, too. Send us some thoughts and prayers for our big guy.

Did you have any firsts this past weekend?
Have you ever been up in the Washington Monument?

Last night after work I hit the road to travel up to the DC area. Ragnar Trail Appalachians is finally here!

Debbie invited me to join her group. Although I have a few reservations about running in the woods in the dark at night, I am really excited. I have really grown to love trails over the past year and am always up for a new trail-related adventure. Not to mention I’ll have a buddy to run with, and I’m always a little braver when I have company.

The relay is made of up three loops that all start and end at the Ragnar Village. Team members alternate legs, so that when it’s all said and done each runner runs each of the three legs. In total, we will cover roughly 120 miles. From the Ragnar website:

From 5,000 acres of pristine trail running, we carefully selected 15.7 miles of Appalachian badassery for you and your team. This trail running Mecca provides you with some of the most exciting and challenging trails on the east coast.

Trail running Mecca? Count me in! I crashed at Debbie’s house last night and we will be carpooling with a couple other teammates to West Virginia this morning. Our team will be starting at 12:30 PM today and should wrap up before Noon tomorrow. No vans this time around. Instead our team of 8 will be camping at Big Bear Lake Camplands (the word ‘bear’ being in the name better not be some kind of sign….). Time to run, camp, sleep (maybe), and then repeat!

Have you ever done a trail relay?
When was the last time you went camping? We went camping last weekend. As for tent camping… well, it’s been awhile!

It’s Wednesday and that means it’s time for another Wednesday Word, a linkup hosted by Debbie. This week’s word is fortitude.

Merriam-Webster has this to say about fortitude: mental strength and courage that allows someone to face danger, pain, etc. So to have fortitude you have to be mentally strong as you encounter hardship, or some other type of adversity, while being unafraid. Personally, I think patience and fortitude kind of go hand in hand. How can you face something without a little diligence. A bit of stubbornness helps, too.

It’s ironic that this week’s word is fortitude, because I’m having the kind of week that requires a lot of it. I don’t usually talk about work on my blog, but yesterday I spent nearly 8 hours total driving round trip for a two hour meeting. Today is going to be a long, 12+ hour work day that will also be mentally tough. After all that I will be headed up to the DC area tomorrow night and then over to West “by God” Virginia Friday for the Ragnar Trail Relay.

I’m really excited about Ragnar, after having a blast at the DC Ragnar Relay last fall. However, it also means that once again I’m having to face my fear of the dark – this time while running through the woods. I will definitely need to find some inner strength, some fortitude, to push through!

What does ‘having fortitude’ mean to you?

We spent this past weekend in Tazewell for the Varmint Half Marathon. As we have for the past three years, we stayed at a campground in the area. It’s fun to explore new places, but there’s also something to be said for returning to a place you’re familiar with where you already know the routine. The main reason we stay there is for the race, but the park is really nice.

Barry and I have been running the Varmint since 2012. This year I chose to just cheer Barry on instead of running the race myself. I had fun being a cheerleader.

I also got to fulfill my dream volunteer job! When we went to packet pickup Friday night the race director said she was short on volunteers, so I got to hand out finisher’s medals to every half marathon finisher! I was the sole volunteer handing out medals, so I stayed pretty busy.

I loved getting to give Barry his medal when he crossed the finish line! He ran a great race and finished in 1:46 and change. It was super humid and very hot out, and he still ran so well. Despite coming in 20th overall (men and women) he was still sixth in his age group. He’s in such a competitive age group!

Overall, I spent nearly 3 hours handing out medals and I was as tired as if I had run the race. Barry’s parents came up to cheer him on and spend the day with us. So after he was done running and I was done volunteering we grabbed some lunch at the general store in Burke’s Garden. Lunch was delicious and I came home with a strawberry pie. Yum! The store is run by an Amish family and there is a large Amish community in Burkes Garden. It’s neat to see them and talk to them.

After lunch we headed back to the camper to hang out with Barry’s parents for the afternoon. It was great to see them and spend some time with them. We had a good time playing cards for a bit before they had to head home. Barry and I continued to play cards, and spent a lot of time playing gin rummy, as we often do when camping.

The dogs were with us and did what they often (okay, always) do when camping.

Yesterday we had a lazy morning before packing up the camper and heading home. After unpacking at home, we watched the USA vs. Sweden Women’s World Cup game. The game took place Friday night and was aired on Fox. I had hoped we could pick it up at the campground, but we couldn’t. Luckily I managed not to find out the results before watching the recorded game at home yesterday, largely due to not having internet at the campground. The rest of the day was spent doing laundry and sneaking in a short trail run just before sundown.

What did you do this past weekend?
What would be your volunteer dream job?
Are you following the Women’s World Cup?