Driving Experience

The hubby got to mark one item off his bucket list this past weekend in Vegas.  I made him an appointment with Exotics Racing.  We customized a track experience for him that included driving 5 laps in a Lamborghini Murcielago, driving 5 laps in a Nissan GT-R, riding along on 2 "discovery" laps in a Porsche Cayenne GTS, and 2 laps riding along in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS.  What an awesome experience this was!  I was able to do the ride-along in the Cayenne as well.  It's supposed to be used as an introduction to the course, to get you familiar with the turns, and a chance to get some instruction from a professional driver.  Let me tell you, if you're ready to drive that course after just the discovery laps, then you're already a pro.  They go by so quickly, and there's so much to take in!!  I had the camera rolling for some of it, so watch the video below and tell me if you got it all!  Haha.



The crazy thing about this course is that there are lots of cars on the track at the same time.  Each car has a professional in the passenger seat, assisting the drivers, but that still made me nervous thinking about so many inexperienced drivers of $200K+ cars on the track together!  Here's a clip of some of the fancy schmancy cars that were being driven that day:



Here's the first car Meezy drove, a Nissan GT-R:

And then the badass Lamborghini Murcielago:

I mean, its doors flip up.  How can that not be considered awesome?  Meezy said he was a fairly crazy driver with the GT-R (Lol), but improved by the time he got to the Lambo.  I have to tell you, it was pretty neat to see him behind the wheel of those cars.  I love seeing him do something he enjoys.  Not sure it's in the cards for us to ever own one of those, mainly just because you have to be short to sit comfortably in it.  ;)

    Crazy driver Rudy

After he finished his driving laps, he went on the ride along in the Porsche 911.  The sole purpose of that experience is to see what it's like to go balls to the wall at full speed with a professional driver.  The track is 1.1 miles long, with 11 turns, and Rudy, the driver, covered 2 full laps in under 2 minutes.  With that many turns, you would think that wasn't possible!  I shot some video of them taking off from the garage:



Too fast for me!  I felt queasy just after the instructional ride along in the Cayenne, and I don't even think we were going very fast!  All in all, it was an awesome experience, and I'm so glad he did it.  I'm a firm believer in living my life to the fullest, and I want the same for my hubby.

Side note: Love this pic.

Warrior Dash 2011

This year's warrior dash was much more successful than last year's, in so much that Meezy and I didn't get injured!  Lol.  We had a blast with a bunch of friends and got really muddy!  It's been 5 months since I broke my kneecap, and I definitely felt the pain through most of the obstacles, but I powered through.  The furthest I had run in the last 5 months was 1 mile, so pushing that up to 3.2 miles was quite an ambitious undertaking!  I stayed with my group of friends, though, so I was proud of myself for that. The next day my knee was super sore, but that was to be expected. 

This year's obstacles included trudging through a swamp, climbing over cars, hurdling ourselves over barricades, scaling a large wooden wall, climbing through nets and over hay bales, rolling over submerged logs, leaping over fire, and crawling through the mud while being almost completely submerged.  In other words, it was awesome.  Enjoy these pics of me and some of my friends!

Warrior Dash Tips

I know a lot of folks will be doing the Warrior Dash for the first time this year, so I thought I'd offer some tips from my experience of running it last year.

1) Either wear tennis shoes that you don't mind donating, or wear an older pair that you don't mind getting seriously messed up.  Either way, bring an extra pair of shoes to change into.  Last year, there weren't facilities available to change clothes afterwards, but you might bring an extra shirt and shorts anyways, in case you can find a place to change.

2) Bring towels and maybe even wet wipes to help you clean off after the race.  The "shower" that was available last year was like a fire hose sprayed at you from a distance, and you only got a couple of seconds in front of it.  No doubt you'll still be dirty afterwards, so bring a towel.

3) Lay down towels or garbage bags in your car for the ride home.  You're still going to be dirty.

4) Bring your ID and some money for food and activities.  I'd recommend bringing a backpack or other small bag to keep all your belongings in during the race.  You'll be able to check it in and pick it up after you finish your wave.

5) Wear sunscreen.  You're going to be spending a lot of time outside.

6) Plan to arrive AT LEAST an hour early.  You never know how bad parking will be, or how long the shuttle will take.  Carpool if you can since parking costs $10 a car, and it might be hard to meet up with your friends otherwise.

7) Make sure your bib is attached well and in the correct place.  They'll be taking tons of pictures along the course and it will be fun to look at them afterwards, but you have to make sure you can be identified in them.

Let me know if you have any questions about topics not covered above and I'll do my best to answer them!