marathon blog post #5 - Houston Cook Off!

Last post of the day I promise!  I'm sure all this Rodeo talk sounds so strange to non-Texans but I'm just going to go ahead and write this post as if you all understand.  

This year Devin was invited to be on a Cook Off team.  I basically didn't see him for an entire week and he smelled like brisket for days but I'm pretty sure it was totally worth it to him.  Most of our friends and fam got to come out, the food was amazing, and it's just a fun time in general.  Devin's team was "Fire in the Hole Cookers" and some of what went down in that tent has been burned into my brain forever.  Just imagine well over middle-aged women having wayyy too much to drink, getting up on the bar and shaking it like their still 18...  It is something everyone should witness at least once in their lives. 

The whole Hotzel fam made it out on Saturday night.

Future sister-in-laws, Katie and Morgan! hallelujah! 

Devin was an actual cooker so he was basically up for 72 hours straight cooking BBQ for the team.  Not sure how he survived it but he lives for stuff like this.

 Notice the water in my hand, not alcohol.  I had the bright idea to sign up for the Rodeo 10k the next morning, not realizing what all Cook Off entailed as far as time commitment and the abundance of free alcohol. (Y'all, I am so not a drinker in any way shape or form but I also have the tolerance of a two year old so no matter what I'm always in bad shape the next morning)  Alas, I ran the next morning on about 4 hours of sleep and an ever-so-slight hangover, and basically wanted to die the whole time.  I finished in something like 1:04:12 which is a good 8 minutes off my pace!  haha, ooooh well! That was my first and last Rodeo 10k, that is for sure. 

 Chris, one of Dev's good friends was also on the cooking team with him.  And it should be apparent by now that we basically don't go anywhere with out Ashley and Eddie.

 When you're on the team you get tons of free wrist bands into the tent so mostly everyone got to take a turn coming.  My pretty mom and I. 

Even though committing to Cook Off is a long, time consuming, tiring ordeal, if I know Devin at all he will be doing this year after year and that's fine with me because it's an absolute blast.

Yeehaw! Marathon blog posting complete!