HUNKA HUNKA HUMIDITY !!!
Headed out to Memphis early August 9th, day before the race. Kicked off the morning with my usual healthy breakfast at the airport consisting of a coney dog and chili fries. Nice easy and quick flight. Oh and by the way, my daughter, Kendall, tagged along on this race too. She decided last minute to run so I was thrilled to have her with me. Plus, she is officially 21 now so Beale Street was LOTS of fun. We landed and grabbed our rental car and headed to the Doubletree Hotel in Memphis to grab our race packets. Now I have to say, from the time we walked in to the lobby till the morning we flew home, the Southern hospitality was amazing. They are not kidding when they use this term. The ladies at the desk were so helpful, so excited that we came all the way from Detroit to run and couldn’t wait to see us in our costumes the next day. We grabbed our packets and headed to check into our hotel. We stayed at the Homewood Suites as usual. Love that chain, always kind, clean and have a great FREE supply of bacon at breakfast. Priorities, right? Time to get fancy and head down to explore the infamous Beale Street.
BEALE STREET , BLUES AND BBQ !
The drive to Beale Street was interesting when we realized that we missed the exit and ended up in Mississippi for a split second but figured it out. Parked quickly and got out and started to explore. We hit up a ton of souvenir shops, grabbed a nice frozen Fireball Lemonade slushie , and started our mission for the ultimate BBQ rib dinner. Well, we found it at Blues City Cafe. We both ordered a half a rack with beans, cole slaw, fries and about 20 napkins too. As the picture above shows, it was phenomenal. There was alot of moaning and grunting going on as we polished off every last piece of meat. Once we got all the BBQ sauce off our bodies we headed out to find some blues music to listen too. As we were walking down the street I could hear a blues version of “Tennessee Whiskey” coming out of their doors and knew this was the place. Parked ourselves at the bar and listened to her band play a few songs . Her last song was “Rollin” by Tina Turner and of course, Kendall and I couldn’t sit still! We were singing along at the top of our lungs bouncing around on our barstools. What a fun night hanging out . Headed back to hotel to lay out costume and hit the sack.
RACE DAY
Race outfit was my favorite so far. I figured everyone would be in the Elvis white jumpsuit so I wanted to be a bit more original. So my theme was Blue Hawaii Elvis. I bought a Blue Hawaii tshirt, grabbed a grass skirt and accented it with leis! Very festive I thought and was excited too because this race did have a costume contest!! Oh, did i mention the race takes part in front of Graceland on Elvis Presley Blvd. The route was a bit hilly but still amazing to run around this course. The temp was around 90 with 100% humidity! I was completely drenched at the finish line of course . My playlist was all Elvis music! The King of Rock and Roll was with me that day. Once we both finished we headed to the festivities to get our medal and post race food. Ok, the food was heavenly, we got chips and salsa, a Krispy Kreme donut and a beer… seriously?
Well now it was time for the costume contest…..drumroll please…… I came in 2nd place in the female category! BAM! I was geeked but better than that the winner ended up being a DOG! What a great race to experience!
We headed to our car, quickly changed and headed to Graceland . We toured the mansion and museum for the afternoon . Magical day so far. Once done we asked some locals the best place for fried chicken and they said to go to Uncle Lou’s Chicken down the street. Another huge hit! The chicken was soooooo good and againg grunting and moaning was happening at our table again.
Headed back to the hotel to shower and chill before our last evening there.
Grabbed a late dinner , some last minute shopping and back to get ready to head home in the morning. Hit up a Waffle House on the way to the airport for some breakfast and lst minute Southern Hospitality! Thank you Memphis for making my 12th state my favorite so far. Next stop…….. KENTUCKY!
