January 08, 2013

Ragnar Relay Florida Keys, part 3

On Sunday morning, I actually woke up pretty early—7:00. Considering I was up until 2, that’s early! I blogged for a little while before heading to breakfast with the team. We went to a little cafĂ© called The Six-Toed Cat. There were about 20 of us there (teammates and spouses), and our server was fantastic. We had such bad service everywhere we went, and we were so grateful to have such an awesome server.

I got an English muffin and a scrambled egg—pretty basic stuff, but it was SO good. The English muffin was obviously made from scratch, and it was amazing. After brunch, some of the team had to head back to Miami—Ada, Jen S., Jen R., and Carly—so we said good-bye. It was hard saying bye to everyone! I keep saying this, but I dearly love my team.
Jerry and I headed back to the hotel, and then we walked down to the beach to meet up with my brother. We sat on the beach for a little while and chatted with him and Becky, his girlfriend. He also had a woman named Megan on his team, who works for Ragnar. She want to interview me for some Ragnar publicity stuff (just fun Facebook page-type stuff).

We agreed to meet the rest of the team at a bar called Rick’s at 4:00, for the Ragnar awards ceremony, so we walked down the road for that. It was pretty packed when we got there, and we couldn’t see or hear much, so we just started chatting with other teams. We met an ultra team (an “ultra” team means they only have six runners, and they each run six legs, instead of running three). They were dressed as superheros, amazingly good-looking and fit, and also gay ;)


One of them, Tyler, had a boyfriend who was extremely flirtatious and fun to chat with. He looked a lot like Ryan Gosling (at least he did in person, not so much in photos), and his name was Brien—so we started calling him Brien Gosling. He told us about a “Tea Dance” at one of the hotels, which I then learned was a gay dance party in the afternoon—John wanted to go, so I said I’d go along, and Jerry came with us. It turned out to be a blast! Jerry absolutely LOVES dancing at weddings, and that’s pretty much what this was like. There was a DJ, a dance floor, and a bar, and even though I don’t dance, I had a good time. 

John was totally embarrassing me by pulling up my before and after picture on his phone and showing it to everyone, pointing at me and saying, “Look! This is HER—isn’t she amazing?!” and I have to admit, it was nice being told that I look “fabulous” and “gorgeous”, hahaha. Gay men are so great at making me feel good about myself, that’s for sure!

After the dance party, we met up with the rest of the team for dinner at our hotel. It was extremely expensive, but that was going to be our splurge meal, so I got blackened Mahi Mahi with mango salsa, wild rice, and asparagus. I also got a Key Lime Pie martini. I loved the martini, but the food was just so-so. Thankfully, our service there was good.


From there, we walked down Duval Street to find a bar. There are 150 bars on Duval Street, which is only a mile long! A lot of them open wide into the street, so it’s easy to hop from bar to bar. We stopped for a drink at a gay bar, and got into conversation with these men that were so friendly—one of them looked just like Eric Estrada, and I wanted to get a picture with him. (I have an inside joke with my friends about Eric Estrada).


They were very interested in our team, and very impressed with our weight loss, so we chatted about that for a while. Then who should show up, but Brien Gosling ;)  One word I could use to describe him is “conceited”—he was super nice and fun, but definitely thought he was the best-looking guy around. He even said, “I bet she wants her picture with me,” referring to ME. I humored him, and he lifted me up (no doubt to show off his muscles, haha).



It’s funny, I’m at goal weight, but I still cringed when he picked me up, because I was worried he could feel my fat. I still have that image in my head of what I look like and feel like, and I have a hard time pushing those thoughts aside. I was worried I was too heavy, which I know was ridiculous; Jerry proved it, because he let Brien pick HIM up as well!

Then we had to say good-bye to John, which was hard. He was going to be leaving in the morning. I absolutely love John, and had a blast with him for the couple of short days that we were there.


What was left of our team (and the spouses) before John left

We left there and walked a couple doors down to a mellow wine bar. It was a really nice atmosphere, and I had a glass of cabernet (yes, just one--surprised?!). We sat and chatted for a couple of hours before we called it a night. I think I had maybe two drinks the whole day? I had a lot on Saturday night, so I decided to tone it down for the rest of the trip to save my PointsPlus. I still had a blast.
 
(will continue tomorrow...)

10 comments:

  1. Yay I love gay men!! Haha that sounds like so much fun!
    Umm the first thing that popped in my head when I saw the picture of Brien Gosling was "whoa! That looks like Lewis[my boyfriend]!!" But it's weird because my boyfriend looks nothing like Ryan Gosling in real life. He is still dang handsome though :)
    Can't wait for part 4!

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  2. Sounds like you guys are having a blast! I always say a girl should have a good gay guy friend.. they're so much fun and always full of compliments :) My boyfriend and i met a gay couple in mexico last winter and has a blast with them!

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  3. Sounds like so much fun - I'm so bummed that I missed it all! Sounds like my kind of good time :-)

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  4. As much as Katie says she loves me, I return that tenfold. This lady is so sweet, so authentic, and so nice. She's exactly what you hope she will be when you read along with her blogs. I heart me some Katie!

    (And her husband, Jerry, is the perfect complement to her. They both are crazy wonderful and I adore them!)

    John (Runner 12)

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  5. Ragnar Megan from New York? We went to the same college. I didn't know she was going to be down. I guess I missed a lot even though I was there! We just needed some alone time since we haven't been away in 7+ years.

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  6. LoveAnAnimalJanuary 08, 2013

    Happy for you and the entire team! Thanks for the great pics!

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  7. The atmosphere and the people of Key West are absolutely intoxicating!

    Glad you are having a great time post-race!

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  8. I love that the street name is Duval! That's hilarious.

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  9. I really wish I had more time to spend with the runners in Van 1 and now wished I had stayed in KW instead of heading to Miami :( Sounds l ike y'all had a blast!

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