Antarctica is a beautiful, glorious, gargantuan place. By a landslide it is my favorite desert so far and I have only been here one day. Today we raced across King George’s Island via a 14km circuit. First of all, we were told this would be one of the less scenic days of the race and I am amazed at how it is possible that we will be seeing even greater views over the next six days. The skies are all shades of blue against the pure white snow…yes blinding pure white snow and in fact if you do not wear proper sunglasses that block out the rays you can literally go blind aka snow blindness…anyways, the snow…no animal pee staining it yellow or brown slushy mud…its incredible. We really lucked out, too, because we had this gorgeous hot…yes very warm actually…day. So much in fact that most of us were actually shedding most of our layers instead of putting more on. And if you don’t believe me…you will eventually see a picture of my face and I guarantee you will believe me then…ohhh dear oh dear Tara, what have you done hahaha. Frobey, lets just say I am really praying for no cold zipper feelings tonight or this girl is in a heap of trouble for the remainder of the race. Uh huh huh huh…insert shoulder shrug sad face emoji..hehe hoho. What I learned, after it was too late, that the sun actually reflects off the snow and hits you smack in the face plus there is no ozone layer down here sooo welp that’s how you get this wonderful reddish brown awkward color all over your face painted around the sunglasses and head gear…so really just these ugly stripes and patterns of burning skin. Nailed it. 

Anywho, so today was a 14 hour day and you basically just had to get around the circuit as many times as you could. We left the ship on little inflatable boats called Zodiacs and then stepped onto land for the first time in four days….NEWSFLASH; sea sickness is not just on the boat but actually moreso named for how you feel when you get off the boat. Big talker Tara who wasn’t sick the whole boat ride was nootttt feeling so stable on land. Jokes on me now I guess for acting like I was born with the sea legs of Jack Sparrow. It was crazy and the strangest feeling. You would be running or walking and then out of nowhere it felt like the ground was moving up and down below you…sort of as if you were the picture in an etch-a-sketch and someone was furiously shaking it up and down trying to erase you. And then you stop and try to regain a sense of balance and all seems fine…until you stare at the snow below your feet for too long and start to ask yourself…is that snow really melting and swirling around in hypnotic circle patterns or have my eyes gone crazy. Ahhh thank youuuu cerebellum for that. So then you look up to the sky for guidance and instead get smacked in the face with now swirling clouds that are moving really really really fast. All in all, quite unpleasant. Overall today was a very nice day despite it being long, full of many steep unforgiving climbs…that we had to do over and over again….and very slushy messy snow due to melting and all of us runners smashing it all up, making it very hard to run or walk comfortably. Jimmy was feeling a bit under the weather still, so after two circuits on my own I decided to hang back and stick with him. Okkkkk you caught me…I probably wasn’t going to move at a much faster pace by the end of the day anyways haha. So clearly I took full advantage of his ailing state and obviously will continue to say that I was just being a very protective and loving big sis. Mmmhmmmmmm. Totally. Tooo-tall-yyyyy. Time actually went by really fast when we strolled along together. many jokes and games were played…duh…and then we started the very elite ad exclusive 4 LAPS CLUB. Basically half way through the day we decided that four laps would be satisfactory for us aka 56km. after all, it is only the first day and jimmy wasn’t at his best so no reason to push it…in the end our goal is to finish this race and complete the Grand Slam, together, and that is what we are going to do. Anyways in order to be a member of our exclusive club you have to be willing to take very baby steps in the event that you start to go faster than the desired pace to complete 4 circuits….see this had to be timed perfectly so that we arrived around 8pm..the approx. cut off time…otherwise we would likely have to keep going for another round….clearly not in the cards for us today to be on our feet any longer than necessary. It was great though…totally took the pressure off and we had a really great time I must say. We even recruited a third member into our club…his name shall remain anonymous but he was an easy catch. Lets see, we also saw penguins today…soo freaking cute…I want one…they slide around on theirbellies…ahh adorable. In fact, I was totally kidding about us choosing to only do 4 laps…the truth is we totalllyyyyy tried to get a fifth lap in, but then all these penguins decided to cross over our trail and the rule here in Antarctica is…animals have the right away since it is their home. Thus we had no choice but to stop and let them pass…unfortunately their crossing took a full two hours…bummer…no time for a fifth lap. Drat. Oh and Dad joined us for half a circuit which was pretty cool, so he got to experience a taste of racing across the Antarctic continent….mom, it coulda been you also out there with us, full family affair…bummers. Ok well I have to be getting myself ready for bed. We have another early start and long day tomorrow…brutal city, but I guess its best to get all the long days over with in the beginning….riggghhhhtt….if I keep saying that maybe I will start to believe it haha. Anyways off to use the Jacuzzi and get a massage from the ship masseuse before bed….wink wink….but seriously….nahh im kidding im kidding…no but really, its gonna beawesome…kiddinnnngg…..

No time to see comments yet but keep em coming and I will respond tomorrow because hopefully we will be getting in a bit earlier…hopefully. Peace and love

72 hours later...I finally arrive in Ushuaia and I can't even explain how...good...it...feels!!  I left the United States on Sunday night and arrived in Buenos Aires on Monday...managed to get through a 17 hour layover with lots of cafe con leche, croissants, and empanadas (which I must say were really phenomenal)...and then stood exhausted in line at 3am for my 4:45am flight only to find out the local transportation system was on strike so no flights would be operating...GREAT!!!  After suffering a minor panic attack (I don't think I have ever known such fear before in my life...the thought of missing the boat just drained all the blood from my body..thankful it all ended up working out!!) and many phone calls home to..yep...good ol' Steph (aka the Mom), I managed to get a ticket on a flight leaving the next day at noon, still giving me a full day before the boat was to leave for Antarctica...assuming the strike was going to end by tomorrow.  A huge huge shout out and thank you to Sam for getting all of us RTP "refugees" in contact with each other so we could meet up in Buenos Aires. After a nice long shower and rest at a hotel real close to the airport, it actually turned out to be a lovely little evening. 7 of us met up at a NYTimes rated steakhouse on the water and enjoyed some delicious meats, bread, veggies, potatoes, wine, the works!! I think we were all a bit at ease at this point since we were with Mary (CEO/Prez of RTP) and figured the boat wasn't going to leave without her, so as long as we stuck with her, we were good!! Plus, it was great to share stories of our race history and compare how they differed in terms of temperature, terrain, special little treats (aka the giant water holes in Atacama 2012 and Halloween celebration Sahara 2012--overall, 2012 domination yeeheee).  The meal induced a very much needed food coma and put me right to bed before we got up the next morning for an early start in line at the airport to ensure we were getting on that plane. And let's just say there was no way we weren't getting on that plane. It would have been an RTP riot foo shooo.  In the end everything worked out fine...despite the flight being delayed another 2 hours...and one of those hours was spent sitting on the plane...with no air conditioning...I along with most others sweat through all layers of clothing. It was the worst. You just tried not to move otherwise the stickyness consumed you. So gross (but hey...I've had worse...cough cough Atacama, Gobi, Sahara days 4-7 haha).
 
So now the good stuff...The last 30 minutes of the flight were amazing!! I lucked out with a window seat and as we were coming down it was as if we were shoulder to shoulder with these gorgeous snowcapped mountains. What was also so amazing was that the clouds were so low..these huge puffy marshmellow type things that almost seemed animated, or drawn into the sky. I have flown through clouds plenty of times before but this was much different. Really breathtaking (although I might have been biased because of the huge release of endorphines being released knowing I was finally going to get to Ushuaia haha just kidding..they really were incredible!).  Within ten minutes I was at the hotel and in the company of Jimmy and my Dad (our guest and cheerleader for the week. Mom: where you at gurrlllll????? we miss you) who had arrived with no problems and been in Ushuaia since Monday.  Such a relief to finally all be together! Oh, and the weather---not horribly cold, but definitely windy. I can see how the wind is what makes it so chilly. Brrr. I forgot how much I love the cold. Oh wait...NOPE! Worth it for the penguins though!  Anyways, Jimmy and Dad found this delicious crab restaurant that they saved for when I arrived (arent they the sweetest), so that was a fantastic way to end a long, tiring three days of traveling. I ordered a king crab that I got to pick out of a tank and hold. It was 3.35lbs and I ate dat thing upppppp!! Of course the waiter was shocked that between the three of us we were ordering fried squid, seabass, and two king crabs...but do you think we had any trouble finishing...I think uhhh noooot. Can't wait to explore Ushuaia a little more tomorrow morning and then we head out around 4PM on the boat for Antarctica!!! Ahhh!! So pumped!!!