noBOLOGNA

Lucky Town Brewery – Grand Opening (Jackson, MS)

Good morning!  How are y’all doing so far this week?  My week has been good, but I’m definitely looking forward to the weekend already!  I won’t be traveling to Starkville this time, and originally I thought I had a restful weekend ahead, but home girl just went and signed up for a 5K only later to realize that the temps are supposed to be below freezing.  What was I thinking?!  We also have a tailgate party to watch the Alabama vs. Mississippi State University game with a bunch of small groups from my church.  Other than that though, relaxing!

lucky-town-brew-tour

This past weekend I attended a fun Grand Opening event for Lucky Town Brewery!  Nick wasn’t able to drive down so I took a co-worker and we had a blast.  The event had a tour, live music, and food trucks.  I was excited to find out about the event and started researching Lucky Town Brewery.  The brew master originally started  by hosting brew tastings at his house.  Getting good beer in Mississippi hasn’t always been easy, so once he was onto something, he knew he wanted to make this a public affair – Lucky Town Brewery was born!  I’m always excited to see new & exciting things in the heart of Mississippi.

So when we arrived to the event, you stood in line to pay your admission fee for a beer card and the card came with 6 half pours or you could choose two half pours for a full glass.  The glass was yours to keep.

lucky-town-brew-glass

lucky-town-brew-punch-card

Drink Mississippibly y’all!

It took me a minute to understand the saying haha, but I believe it means to drink Mississippi (support local!) and drink Responsibly (duh!) – makes perfect sense to me!  Once we got our beer glasses, we got in line to try our first beer.  I went with the Pub Ale which was their lightest beer on tap.  It was absolutely wonderful.  I did half glasses throughout the night (being Mississippibly Winking smile) We ran into another guy from work, so we spent the first part of the night hanging out with him and his friend.  They’re both MSU grads, so that gave us something to talk about!  We were suppose to have a tour of the brewery, but we couldn’t quite figure out how that worked.  I never heard them announce it and I never saw tour groups going around.  I believe they have tours all the time though, so I’ll try to snag one of those eventually!  Overall, it just seemed like a large party – drinks, food, music, & community!

They had some food trucks setup outside.  I was ecstatic about this because I don’t believe I’ve purchased from a food truck before.   We had 3 different options (2 were food trucks, one was a stand) – Burgers, Mexican, and Hotdogs.

lucky-town-food-trucks

lucky-town-food-trucks-2

We decided to check out the burger joint first, Lurnydsgrille, and see what options they had.  It was simple, you can get a beef burger or a black bean burger and then you had options to top it off.  I went with the Classic burger (cheese, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions) while Rachel chose the Kimchi Burger.  I don’t remember what all it included and it’s not showing up on their website right now, but it had this delicious chili sauce (no meat, I asked!).  I tried a bite of Rachel’s burger and it was so flavorful.  They were both delicious!  The black bean patty was home made (no morning star or boca) and it was the perfect size and texture.  Towards the end, it fell apart some, but I asked for a fork and scooped the rest right into my mouth.  Next time I’ll have to be more adventurous than a Classic Burger and try some of their unique toppings!

lucky-town-black-bean-burgers

Our friendly food trucker was really excited when I asked her if I could take a selfie for my first Food Truck Experience!

lucky-town-food-truck-selfie

Once we finished up our burgers (I’m still craving another one y’all!) then we found ourselves at the live band – good music, good friends, good drinks!

lucky-town-brew-band

The other two beers we enjoyed throughout the night were Hop Fiasco & Flare Incident.  I’d say overall my favorite was the Pub Ale that I had my first 2 rounds, but the other two beers were great too.  It took a few sips before I felt comfortable with the taste of it, but once I did, I really enjoyed it.  The Flare Incident smelled like coffee and had a very strong & unique taste.  I really enjoyed the coffee feel to it, definitely a good winter beer in my opinion.  The Hop Fiasco was probably our least favorite.  Again, it took me a few sips to get use to the taste, but once I did then I enjoyed the brew.  I wasn’t able to finish my whole glass of that though, I almost did, but made it to the front of the line before finishing, so they refilled me with Flair Incident.  Rachel wasn’t a fan of the Hop Fiasco at all – she had maybe 4 sips total, she preferred the Pub Ale all around.  Clearly we’re both light beer drinkers since we loved the Pub Ale option for the night!

lucky-town-beer

I’ve been somewhat of a homebody lately so it was nice to get out of the house for a fun event located in Jackson supporting a local business & brewery.  One of my favorite things about local events are the people you run into!  I was excited to see some friends who attended as well.  You might recognize Mary Lindsey in the bottom picture because I talked about her a lot during the 28 day Health Starts Here Challenge, she’s the Healthy Eating Specialist there!  We actually chatted a good bit about the various diets that circulate and I enjoyed hearing her opinion on them.

lucky-town-brew-friends-2

lucky-town-brew-friends

I’d like to thank Lucky Town Brewery for an awesome event and I look forward to many more!  Congrats on your Grand Opening, I’d say you the turnout was a success!

If you’re a local Mississippian and interested in trying a Lucky Town Brew, then view their EVENTS & their TAP LOCATIONS.  You can also check out their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

  • Have you attended a Brewery Grand Opening?
  • Do you prefer a light or dark brew?
  • What’s the best food truck experience you’ve had?

From Workout to Work

Good Morning friends!  I went to Java Jog this morning for the second time in a row and it’s quickly becoming a highlight of my week!  I love the burst of energy I get from a good morning run, running with others keeps me motivated to push myself farther than I would if I ran alone, and the cup of free coffee afterwards is just the cherry on top!

I have to be at work at 7:30am each morning and the jog is at 6:30am.  As you can imagine, that doesn’t give me much time to freshen up before work and when I live on the other side of town, well there is no hope for a shower.  I’ve compiled various items that are absolutely necessary when going from a workout to work.  It’s proven to work for myself and I remain fresh throughout the day even though I’m unable to get a good shower after being gross & sweaty.  Luckily, my work is fairly close to the run, so I get to work a few minutes before everyone else and I can change & freshen up in the bathroom.

workout-to-work-gym-bag

1 // Deodorant

2 // Body Wipes

3 // Razor, just in case (not a necessity)

4 // bobby pins (I don’t typically wear my hair down on this day, bobby pins help tame the mess)

5 // Face Wipes

6 // Baby Powder (helps absorb the sweat quicker & gives you a fresh feeling)

7 // Dry Shampoo (helps eliminate the appearance of greasy/sweaty hair)

8 // Make Up Bag

9 // Body Mist

gym-bag-essentials

I was quickly able to wipe off, throw some dry shampoo in my hair and toss it in a bun, change into my dress for the day, apply some lotion & a touch of makeup and be on my way.  I may not want to workout before work and get ready in the bathroom every day, but this routine makes it easy to do a couple times a week if necessary.  The coffee at Sneaky Beans was extremely hot when I got it to.  By the time I was dressed and at my desk to start work, it was the perfect temperature for drinking!  I’m looking forward to this being a weekly part of my schedule!

sneaky-beans-runners

sneaky-beans

Questions of the Day:

  • Do you have any morning group runs in your area that you participate in?
  • What are your gym bag essentials?  What did I leave off that you use on the regular?

What you all have been waiting for….

The re-cap of my Triathlon!
Man, what a great experience this was!  I’m so glad that I decided to challenge myself to do this triathlon and I was blessed to have some wonderful people to do it with and wonderful people to support me as I did it (y’all included!)
I got there SUPER early because I’m a worrier and it made me nervous having to set up with a ton of people already there, so I made sure to get there early.  I arrived at 5:30 a.m. and was able to get a great spot near the girls I was doing it with!  I was a little fidgety as I set up my towel and all my necessary equipment for the race, but I finally got everything together and organized.
I then had about an hour or so to kill, so mingled a little, applied the necessary sunscreen, did a little stretching, and just observed.  Right before the race started I dipped my feet in the water to get a feel for how cold it was and it really wasn’t so bad!
We all got started in our swim lines (now, you all should know that the swimming was the scariest part for me, so I was a little bit of a nervous wreck before we started).  I positioned myself in the “slow” swim line, of course!
Waiting in line, ready to go!
They then started off the swimmer – Experienced group, 10-14 year olds, fast, medium, and lastly, the slow group.  I ran into the water and started off ok for about .5 seconds haha.  I then realized that my usually technique was NOT going to work because I’m use to swimming in a lap pool where I can follow a line and I could hardly see through this lake water, so I might have had some anxiety and panic attacks while swimming.  Now, I couldn’t watch myself outside of my body, but I picture it going a little something like this…. arms flailing, sheer panic look on my face, head mostly above water (except for the times I would randomly dip it in the water because I felt like I was suppose to, because well that’s how you swim), but never breathing out under the water, only taking huge gaps of air in as I was above the water.  I did some back stroking to calm myself, which took me a little off course at one point.  Basically, the swim was a huge fail in my opinion.  I made it through though, thank goodness, but I literally had only taken breaths in and barely breathed out the entire time so by the time I got out of the water, I just felt ill and gross and walked my happy (because I’m finally done with the swim) butt to transition!  All i could hear as I was making my way there was Trey cheering me on and then yelling over and over, GRAB YOUR HELMET, HEATHER, PUT YOUR HELMET ON, HEATHER, DON’T FORGET YOUR HELMET!  Because obviously, that’s the most important part of the bike!  So my helmet was the first thing to go on, then my sunglasses, then my race belt, then my shoes.  I tried putting on my shoes standing up, that was taking forever, so I finally just sat in the grass and quickly put my shoes on.  I expected to dry my feet off well, but at that point I didn’t care, I already felt behind because my swim was so horrible and I WALKED to transition!  I unmounted my bike from the rack and continued to walk to the next start area.  I felt pretty good on the bike.  The first few miles were a little dizzy and unsettling because of how awful the swim was and how little oxygen probably made it to my brain, but eventually I caught my breath and settled down and got down to business!  The course was a lot hillier than I anticipated (I’m pretty sure everyone lied to the racers on purpose, jerks!) But I made it through and by the time I made it back to transition for my run, I was feeling great!
Getting back to transition to start my run
I actually ran my bike back to my station and quickly grabbed my visor and ran my way out of transition.  The run was good.  I was pretty exhausted at this point, so once I got on the course, I walked a few seconds just to catch my breath from all the excitement.  I decided it was time to find my rhythm and I did.  There were a few hills that I decided to walk, but I never walked more than 30 seconds at a time.  I decided I would walk at the aid station so I could get my cup of water in because I didn’t have any water during the entire race (that’s another story), but I enjoyed that cup of water and ran the last mile back – again, walking for a few seconds on a few hills), but near the end I started booking it!
It was such a great feeling to get my first triathlon under my belt!
I finished 39th overall in female (which I originally though was overall… how silly! haha) and I got 3rd place in my age group (20-24).  If you remember, a few weeks back, I did a run through at my gym and I did it in 1:17, but that included changing out of my swim suit and into bike and running clothes and I did a little more walking on my run, so my personal goal was to finish in 1:05 at least!  I wouldn’t have been upset if I didn’t because my true goal was to just finish, but I finished the race in 1:03:45!!
It’s hard to see: 3:36 swim, 33:31 bike, 24:02 run
So I was super pumped!  I got a 3rd place medal and I intend on getting that sucker engraved with my name, the race, date, and my time!  I’m proud of what I accomplished even if I’m slightly beating myself up over the hideous swim I know I had.  I also intend to put this on my resume, it’s a great conversation piece, especially if I’m being interviewed by other triathletes or runners or maybe wanna be triathletes!  I told myself before hand that if I placed, it was going on my resume!
2 of the greatest people I know, I loved doing this race with them!
Always there to support! 🙂
My 3rd place medal! – Gonna get it engraved
She also got 3rd place in her age division!
What I learned at my first triathlon:
*It pays to get there early – you can relax, set up your stuff, get a good spot
*Practice your swim in open water before your race so you don’t panic when you realize you can’t see anything!
*Don’t worry about drying your feet off as much as long as you have some wick socks (I had no discomfort)
*You really just need one towel, not two
*Use plenty of sunscreen, even if it starts off cloudy on the race.  I was thankful to have done this because I got a good tan line and I wasn’t miserably burnt!
*Remind yourself during your bike that you still have to use your legs for the run, so don’t push it too hard!
*Try to use your arm strength as much as possible on the swim because of how much you use your legs on the next 2 sports
*If it’s your first, have a good support team there because it can be overwhelming to do alone
*Take plenty of pictures, because you’ll want to remember this!
*Don’t let a bad swim (or bike, or run) keeping you from trying again!  I plan on redeeming my swim at my next race in August!
*HAVE FUN!  It’s not about being the best (yet, anyways!) just have a good time with the people you’re racing with!

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The views and statements expressed on No Bologna are my own. You are reading No Bologna at your own risk and I am not providing any type of professional advice. Unless otherwise noted, all material on No Bologna may not be used, reprinted, or published without my consent. I do occasionally have affiliated links on my blog - this does not raise the price of the product, I simply get a very small commission from the regular retail price if something is purchased using an affiliated link on my site. I appreciate any support by you in regards to affiliated links.