Moab UT, Post Race

Well, Sunday came and went and I completed my first half marathon.  I didn’t set any land speed records, but at least I did it.  I spent a lot of time taking photos and video.  It was a great course and very beautiful.  I just wish there had been more shade.  The heat really sucked.  I told the people at Mile 10 aide station that they needed half naked firemen with a hose at this station hosing everyone down.  They thought it was funny, I was being serious.  I spent the rest of my vacation putting a video together.  It took forever to figure out how to get it out of Movie Maker and onto the web.  My best effort had me putting it on YouTube.  Hopefully I can share it from there.  Hopefully it will also inspire more people to do this race.  The course is amazing and I can’t even imagine running a race in the middle of a city.  This race is put on my Moab Half Marathon which hosts 4 races in a year.  The Other Half is actually their last half marathon they do.  That’s probably where they came up with the creative name.  The last race they do in December is called the Winter 10K.  It is Dec. 5th and I think Barb and I are going to come up for it also.  That is also the same time they do their city Christmas parade.  Then in March is the Canyonlands Half Marathon.  It is on a course the runs along the river in a Canyon area.  We won’t have to worry so much about the sun, but it will be March so that shouldn’t be a problem.  Then in June is the Thelma and Louise.  It runs along the area where we went on the Corona Arch hike.  It is a half marathon relay.  I will probably start the race.  The first runner has to finish their 6.55 miles within 1:15, which is about an 11:30 min mile.  Then the other runner, Barb, would retrace the course I just ran.  Barb will be shuttled to her staging area in a boat on the Colorado River.  When I am done, I will be shuttled back that same way to the finish line.  We drove the course today and it is very flat with no major hills.  It is also a gorgeous course also.  That should finish out all 4 races in 1 year.  So, since I have to save all my money and train, I will probably have no social life.  Looks like another year of being single. Here is the link to my race video. The Other Half Video

Monday, Barb and I spend the morning getting massages.  It was one of the best massages I have ever had.  The voodoo hippie wackados here can really work some magic on the ol body.  I was starting to notice a sharp pain in my foot that morning.  I am worried I got a stress fracture or pulled a tendon.  It didn’t help that during a hike Tuesday, I rolled it on a trail and probably jacked it up even more.  I guess we’ll see.  I have an appointment with my doctor when I get back Friday.  Monday afternoon we went up into Arches National Park to do a few short hikes.  We didn’t want to get to crazy, we did just run a half marathon after all.  The first hike we did was the Park Avenue Hike.  It was a short 1 mile on mostly slick rock.  The next stop was Double Arch. This was one thing I hated about being injured and sore, we had to take the short touristy hikes to see stuff.  Therefore, lots of people.  I have so many pics from this trip, I think I’m going to put a slide show together with all my pics.  Here are just a few of my favorites.  I spent so much time on the race video that I didn’t get to put a slideshow together yet.  I’ll try to blog when I get it all completed.

We were originally suppose to leave on Wednesday, but we decided to stay an extra day.  So, Tuesday we decided to do 2 longer hikes.  In the morning we did the Corona Arch and Bowtie Arch hike. It was about a 3 mile round trip hike.  Most of it was on slick rock.  There was one point on the trail where you had to  use a cable and some holes cut out in the rock to go up the rock.  Then we had to take a ladder up another short cliff.  Bowtie arch was what they call a pothole arch.  Corona Arch was more of what you think of when you think of arches in this area. The pic on the left is my favorite pic and it is Corona Arch.  The right one is Bowtie arch.  On the way back down the trail, I stepped on the rock wrong and rolled my ankle.  I have always been pretty lucky that I have flexible ankles.  All those years as a middle blocker and I never had a major ankle injury.  I was able to get up and walk around.  It was kind of painful, but I could walk on it so it couldn’t be too bad.  After lunch, we hit the Negro Bill trail. This led to Morning Glory Bridge.  I didn’t get many photos with my big camera because we went on a trail that took us to an area where we were climbing around.  Even with the sling, the camera was a pain.  So I stuffed it in my backpack.  Then it started raining on us.  It rained most of the hike up to the bridge.  I was able to get my cell phone out and take a few pics.  It was a 5 mile round trip hike.  It was done mostly in the rain and thru some poison ivy.  Luckily for Barb and I, neither of us seem to be allergic.

So, this morning, I woke up and my ankle was a mess.  I could barely walk on it. We went into town and had breakfast then I hobbled around picking up all kinds of touristy crap.  At least when we come out here the next 3 times, I won’t have to spend so much money on souvenirs.  It rained a lot while we were.  The rain would come in, then it would be sunny again.  Then clouds and rain real quick then more sun.  The weather is weird.  I decided to get Fiona out on the streets.  We went up into Arches National Park and I think I got a perfect pic with her and the scenery up there.  Then we drove the course for Canyonlands Half Marathon and Thelma and Louise.

We are headed back to Wichita tomorrow morning.

Getting Ready for Race Day

So, we made it into Moab Thursday night after a 14 hour car ride.  It is hard to travel when you are hydrating for a half marathon.  We made at least 6 potty stops.

Friday, Barb and I got up early and did a short walk.  We walked to the main street and got some coffee and went back home. After a yummy breakfast at Sweet Cravings Bakery and Bistro, we headed to Canyonlands National Park to check out some touristy sights.  I’m not a fan of the touristy stuff cuz I’d rather stay away from people when I travel, but we didn’t want any long hikes so we don’t get injured or tired.  We saw some really pretty places in the park.  It made me wish I had never sold my truck cuz there were some really great jeep roads that were mostly just off road roads, that the Tacoma could have handled.  It also gets you away from the crowds and down into the canyon to see things.  We mostly stayed up high and looked over the canyons which was really beautiful also.  You can see more photos at my public Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/lifeinfocus515.   We came back into town and got ready for dinner.  We went to this really fancy smancy place called Jeffery’s.  It is a steakhouse.  It kinda reminded me of the old Scotch and Sirloin before it moved into that big place on Kellogg.  It was a very small place.  I got a tenderloin steak which was perfect.  Of course, I got a dessert.  It was a chocolate cake that tasted like a mix between a chocolate brownie, home made hot chocolate, and chocolate mousse.  After dinner, we spent a little time walking around town before calling it a night.

Today, we went and had breakfast at the Jailhouse Café.  It is in the old courthouse and jail for the county.  Its been mostly cloudy today and it sprinkled a little bit at breakfast.  We decided to go check out the race course.  It is a little ways out of town.  They are shutting down the whole road for our race for 5 hours tomorrow.  The road is a curvy road that runs along the Colorado River.  It is going to be a beautiful run.  I may forget all about the fact that I’m injured and haven’t put in a lot of miles up to race day, cuz I’ll be distracted by the beautiful scenery.  I don’t have any cell service on the run, but I will be taking plenty of cell pics and video.  There is a 3 1/2 hour time limit on the course, so I’m gonna just give it my best shot. My hip is been bothering me all week so it doesn’t seem to be getting better with the fact that I’ve been resting it for a few days.  After we checked out the course, we went downtown to pick up our race day packets and check out the expo.  They had a lot of Other Half shirts on sale so I got  a lot of stuff for cheap.  So, I have my bib and race swag so I guess its official.  I am gonna put my phone on airplane mode tomorrow when I run so I can get as much battery out of it as I can for pics.  So, I won’t be able to get any text messages or anything while I run.  The rest of the day we are just being lazy.  We have the pasta dinner tonight with all the runners.

Day 3 - Hike and Raft

The day started off pretty early.  With the whole, missing money thing from yesterday, I couldn’t sleep. (for my non Facebook friends, couldn’t find my envelop with all my cash in it, made a report with the hotel, later that night remembered that I hid the cash from housekeeping and found said cash where I put it).  I’m an asshole.  Anyway, I didn’t get much sleep so I just decided to get up.  Found a little local breakfast joint on the way to my rafting adventure.  It was so good.  Breakfast is a big thing around here.  Lots of pancake houses everywhere.

Then I headed off to my hiking/rafting adventure for the day.  The directions to the rafting town took me on this very scenic road.  Luckily I was running ahead of schedule so I stopped and took some great panoramic shots.  The one above, of course, has Fiona in it.  She’s beautiful and so was the view.

My hike was up first.  I followed my guide, Amelia, just across the North Carolina border.  It was a good 5 mile out and back trail that lead to a nice little water fall.  I found out my guide just graduated from KSU and is was Lawrence, KS.  What a small world.  She said one of the rafting guides was also from Wichita and she would get me on her raft.  The hike was just perfect since I was still sore from Monday, and I had this new pain in my foot that made me think I may have broken it during one of my hikes.  It still hurts A LOT.  All my pics today were taken with my cell phone.  I didn’t know what the arrangement would be for the hike so I didn’t want to bring my good camera.

After the hike, I went back to base camp and got situated for my rafting trip.  Grimes party of 1.  They put me on a raft with a set a grandparents vacationing with their 2 young kids…yeah, kids.  They actually weren’t that bad.  Grandpa annoyed me more than the kids did.  Anyway, weight and strength to the front of the boat.  Yeah me.  So, the front of the raft also takes the brunt of the water coming over. So, it was a very wet and cold start.  There were about 4 class 4 rapids.  However, the class 4s in the eastern US are not like they are in Colorado.  I went thru class 3s in Colorado and Wyoming that were scarier than these class 4s.  It was a lot of fun and a great workout.  I got sunburned though cuz I’m too dumb for sunscreen.

Went back to the hotel and tried to take a nap.  That didn’t happen.  So, I got up, got cleaned up, and headed out for dinner.  Found a Mexican joint just around the corner.  I sat on the patio which was right on the little creek that runs thru here. There were little baby ducks in the water.  The pigeons and little birds would fly right up to your table.  Then I went to the Davey Crocket moonshine store.  I was stuffed after dinner so I just looked around.  They have lots of free samples, but I didn’t feel like drinking so I just bought a shirt and left.  I’ll probably go back for some moonshine later.  Not that I’d really drink the stuff, but I’m here and this is what they are famous for, so I should get some.  Then I went and got some chocolate covered strawberries and went back to my room.  I spend a few hours on my balcony till my neighbors came out and started smoking.  So much for my fresh air.

I’m trying to decide if I should stay one more night.  My room is available Friday night.  There is so much stuff I didn’t get to do.  Tomorrow I will probably spend just shopping around town.  I don’t know if my hip or foot can handle any more hiking, but the shopping will be hard enough with all the walking.

Day 1–Cades Cove

After a long 2 day drive in my beautiful new car, Fiona, I decided to take today to walk the Cades Cove Auto Tour route.

The auto tour route is an 11 mile loop road thru Cades Cove. There are several historic sights just off the trail.  I had read somewhere that walking the tour was a great way to see all the sights.  I thought, 11 miles doesn’t sound to bad.  And cove is what they call an open prairie area.  How bad can it be.  Its like Kansas with mountains around it, right.  Wrong.

My first Cheryl Strand moment came about .5 mile into the tour, all up hill in the sun.  What the hell was I thinking. I can just turn around and get my car.  But it would suck to have to drive and look around.  I got this.  The first sight on the tour was the John Oliver house.  He was the first white settler in the cove.  The house was .25 miles off the road.  OK, no biggie, hiking, I can do this.  When I got on the trail, I noticed a young couple in front of me appear to be stalking something.  As I got closer I noticed they were watching a deer.  The thing actually got pretty close to us before it wondered off.

I made it up to the house.  It was a small cabin made by very short people.  I had to duck thru the doorways and the ceiling was just barely off the top of my head.  But I’m a giant compared to 1800’s standards.

The next stop was the Primitive Baptist Church.  This was about a mile off the main road down a narrow dirt road that also seemed to be mostly uphill.  Its your basic old church with an old cemetery behind it that had several of the first families buried there.  The next church was a Methodist church.  While I was walking up to it, there was a major traffic jam.  I was walking faster than all the cars.  As I get closer, I ran into the couple from the Oliver house.  They said I missed a black bear and 2 cubs playing in one of the open fields.  This was the cause of the traffic jam.  I stopped and had lunch at the next church, the Missionary Baptist Church.

 

 

 

 

As I continued to walk along the road I had another Cheryl Strayed moment.  I felt like my big toe nail was falling off.  Then I remembered I didn’t buy my shoes from REI so I was just screwed.

Next as the Elijah Oliver house.  This is John Oliver’s son who came back to the Cove after the Civil War.  Another half of a mile off the trail. As I’m walking up this trail, a lady stopped me and said “you're the lady walking thru whole thing, that’s great, good luck”. Again I ran into the same couple.  I was like, you guys are getting as far as I am in your car.  I took a few pics of this little cabin, but I was starting to get pretty exhausted and photography was no longer interesting me.  I just wanted to get to the end at this point and I was pretty sure I was only about half way thru this adventure.  From there I was able to catch a back trail headed toward Abrams Falls.  It was about .6 miles to the area that catches up with the cars.  From there it was 2.5 miles back to the falls. I started walking it, but then decided, nope.  I found a place on the trail that was close to the creek that runs to the falls.  I walked down there to get my shoes off and put my feet in the water.  This brought my next Cheryl Strayed moment.  I remember watching the movie when she was sitting next to a cliff and took her shoes off and of course, one rolls down the cliff.  I was thinking why would she sit there and do that.  So, as I was sitting right next to this cold, fast rushing river trying to get my shoes on, that’s what I thought about.  What if I dropped my shoe in this water…I’d be screwed.

So, I walked back toward the parking lot and ran into a ranger who told me I looked tired.  I told him what I was up to and told him I needed to find the visitor's center, which was the next stop on the tour.  He pointed me to a secret ranger path (he said it’s a path not a trail, what’s the difference?) that leads to the visitor’s center and the rangers use it as a shortcut.  He said I’d be there in 15 min.  It was a small quite path with no screaming children.  Just me and some banjoes.

I got some water at the visitor’s center and used the facilities, then began the final 5 miles of the trail.  I eventually gave up taking photos.  I pretty much hurt from the waist down.  Every time a truck went by I wanted to jump in the bed and ride the last few miles out.  I finally got back to my car and talked to the ranger at the starting point of the loop.  I said the brochure makes it sound like everyone walks this thing.  He said “not really, that’s quite a feat”.  Then I went and had ice cream.

On the way back to the hotel I called the rafting company and told them I was going to reschedule my rafting/hike trip that was planned for tomorrow.  Now I’m not sure what I’ll do tomorrow, but I think I will definitely sleep in.

Even though it hurt to walk, I decided to venture out into the town and find food.  The closes steakhouse was .6 miles down the road.  That is a really long way, but I made it.  I had a great steak dinner.  Now I am gonna get to bed.

Hot Springs Spa Weekend–Day 2

I slept great.  I am pretty sure I slept for 10 hrs.  I got up at 9am for breakfast that was served in my dining room.  It was an apple turnover and bacon.  It was very tasty.  I got to talk to Vista a little more this morning. She was telling me about how this is a big horse racing community.  She says it is interesting to get to know the jockeys and trainers.  Best conversation of the day:  Vista: I see the jockeys at the grocery store. I used to think short men were creepy. ME: Hey, I’m 5’10”, I think short men are creepy.

Then at 10am, I had my first massage of the day.  She set up in my living room.  It wasn’t completely relaxing, but it was therapeutic, which can be painful.

After the massage I decided to head into town.  Vista gave me a secret back way and told me about a little known parking area.  I am sure it saved me tons of time figuring out where I can park. That’s another plus on the B&B side.  I only had about 2 hrs till my spa treatment at the Quapaw.  I walked down bathhouse row and read all the little historical signs.  It was also interesting to see some green trees lining the street.  I am not sure what they are, but it was nice for this time of year.  Most of the bathhouses, like in the picture, had a hedge of what looked like holly.

I walked about 2 blocks to get to the one place I really wanted to come to while I was here…Fat Bottomed Girls. It’s a cupcake place that I have heard was on the Food Network show, Cup Cake Wars. I got a pink Champagne cupcake. To be honest, I’ve eaten so much this weekend, I still haven’t tried it yet.  So, stay tuned.  I left there and walked back to bathhouse row and found a place called Bathhouse Soapery.  They have soaps, scrubs, and those bath bomb things.  They saw my bag from Fat Bottomed Girls and said I get a discount because I shopped there.  Awesome!  The stuff wasn’t cheap, but I bought some foaming body scrub.  It will come in handy if I keep getting these awesome spray tans.  And I bought a small bottle of bath salts called Melt. It is suppose to be relaxing.  Now all I need is time to take a bath.

I was getting closer to my spa time so I decided to head somewhere for lunch.  I had read about a place called the Ohio Club.  It is in a very historic building.  It still has its original name from the early 1900s.  It used to be an illegal gaming house that sold liquor during the prohibition.  I sat down at the bar and read about how it was still the original mahogany carved bar that was brought in from Chicago by horse drawn carriage. It honestly looked like something out of the old saloon days.  They had 2 TV’s in the bar area and they were on an Arkansas/Florida game.  Come 1pm, I thought I was going to have to wrestle some Razor backs, but they let me have a TV for the KU/KSU game.  The food was excellent.  I started with chips and salsa which came out in a humongous plate.  I could have easily just had that for lunch, but I had to get one of their famous burgers.  The burger was also very good and so were the fries.

Now it was time to head to my spa treatment.  I didn’t feel bad leaving the KSU/KU game cuz Kstate was sucking it up. I got to the Quapaw Bathhouse and got all checked in and into my robe and flip flops.  My first treatment was a therapeutic mineral water bath.  They don’t use the jets, they just shoot a bunch of little bubbles into the bath tub.  I’d have to say it was the first bath tub I’ve ever got into that I fit in.  It was relaxing.  It kind of felt like when you are in the lake and you get nibbled on by a school of minnows.  Once that was done, I head to my next treatment.  It is a mud wrap.  The lady smears super hot mud all over my body then wraps me in a sheet, plastic, then a mylar blanket, then more blankets.  I felt like a burrito.  Then I got a facial. This also included a neck, shoulder, and scalp massage.  After I was unwrapped, I got to take a shower.  The water was kind of cold but I’m sure that is because my body temp was so high due to my burrito experience.  Then my final stage was my 50 min massage.  I tired to have her make this more of a relaxing one, but I always have knots they want to work out.

So, after that I had every intention of going back to my B&B, cleaning up, and going to a nice steakhouse for dinner, but I think I relaxed myself into a coma.  I decided to find a pizza place where I can pick it up and bring it back here.  I chose Rod’s Pizza Cellar.  What was even better about this place is they had a pick up window.

All in all, a good day.  I still haven’t eaten my cup cake or opened my wine. I stayed up a little late texting with a friend back home. He doesn’t seem to understand how I can have fun vacationing by myself.  He asked if I was enjoying my vacation so far.  I am enjoying being away from home.  I like having someone cook breakfast for me and clean my room and make my bed.  I also get fresh cookies every day.  I like making my own decisions on what I want to do and I don’t have to play the whole “well what do you want to do” “I don’t care, what do you want to do” game.  I can drive fast down curvy road and no one bitches about my driving.   I think its hard for a lot of people to understand why anyone would want to travel by themselves.  Its easy for me.  I don’t have to wait around to find someone else who can afford it or who wants to do the same thing or go to the same place.  I go where I want to go and do what I want to do.  Would it be nice to share this time with someone, sure, but until I find that right person, I’ll just do it on my own.

So, today (I’m actually writing this on the AM of day 3) its raining.  It is suppose to clear up around 1pm, but who knows. I was going to spend today at the botanical garden.  If it stops raining that’s where I’ll be.  Not sure what it is going to be like in February, but I guess we’ll see.  Not sure what I’ll do about the Super Bowl tonight.  My DirectTV receiver in my room is acting up and all I seem to get are Christian channels and some old movie channels.  Vista said she will try to get it fixed while I’m out today so I can watch the game on the 19” TV in my room.

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Hot Springs Spa Vacation–Day 1

So, I decided since my life has been so crazy lately, that I would get out of town and take a spa vacation.  I did some research and found a spa package at a bed and breakfast in Hot Springs Arkansas called Bartee Meadow Bed and Breakfast.  It was called the Serenity Package for One.  It included 2 nights at a bed and breakfast and an in-room massage.  I went ahead and added an extra night to make the trip worth while.

Mom and dad loaned me their Chrysler 200 cuz they thought my old truck wouldn’t make the trip.  The 200 includes Sirius radio which came in handy in the “mountains” of Arkansas.  It also has a K-tag, which also works on the OK turnpikes.  So, I’m racking up a nice toll bill for them, but it saved tons of time and cash. Once I got into the more curvy roads of the Ozarks, I really appreciated the peppy little car.  The thing takes curves real nice at a good speed. Just don’t tell my dad.  I kept my self entertained by singing along to the old school country music.  Its all fun and games until Garth Brooks’ “If Tomorrow Never Comes” song comes on.  It got me really thinking about why I really needed to get out of town and reset myself.

So, I made it to my B&B.  I have never stayed at one before so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I met the lady who owns the place, Vista.  She showed me around.  I pretty much have a living room, 2 bedrooms, and a bathroom in their house. My room also has a patio and private hot tub.She informed me that she would be delivering me dinner around 6:30. 

I had realized I had forgot to bring a small camera bag for when I am in town.  So I ran to Best Buy (they don’t have a Target here).  I found a bag that will work (now I own like 4 camera bags).  Then I hit the liquor store for some Cupcake Moscato.  Came back and had my dinner delivered to my room.  I decided that picky people like myself probably shouldn’t go to bed and breakfasts.  It was some sort of salad.  I picked out the spinach and ate that.  The rest was stuff I wouldn’t eat.  Then the main dish was some kind of chicken noodle casserole.  It had celery and mushrooms in it so I had to pick thru it.  There was a cheese bread, that was yummy.  The dessert was an Italian Cream cake.  It had promise, then I crunched into some coconut.  I hate coconut.

I didn’t realize when I booked this trip that the Super Bowl is this weekend.  I have a 15” TV in my room here so if I have time to watch it, it will have to be at a bar somewhere.  If the weather is nice I’m going to the Botanical Gardens here.  Tomorrow is going to be a relaxing day that includes 2 massages, a mud wrap and a facial.

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