Thelma and Louise Half Marathon

Barb and I are back in Moab for another half marathon. This time we did it as a relay.  I started the relay at 0630 hrs.  It started near the trailhead for Corona Arch.  This is the arch we hiked last year.  The race ran alone the Colorado river.  It was nice and shady for me since it was in a canyon and the sun was still behind the canyon walls.  It was still hot though.  Once the sun hit me and was pretty exhausted.  Barb and I had watched Thelma and Louise the night before the race.  During the race they had a Brad Pitt stop, with a bunch of “hot” locals.  They had a tanker truck sitting along the route along with an unoccupied Sheriff car (in the movie it was a trooper, but who beside other LEO’s knows that).  They did have some firemen hosing the runners off.  If only they could have thrown in some hot firemen (they were way too young) that would have been nice. My cut off to get to my finish and catch the boat back down the Colorado River was 1:15.  I passed Barb around my 6 mile mark.  She said they recorded her start time and just sent her at without me being there.  When I got finished (official time 1:33:42) the boat had already left.  So they told me to wait for the van that was sweeping runners that weren’t making the time limit for the half marathon.  I saw the van head my way, then turn around.  The people at the turn around station were cleaning up so I decided to help.  They gave me a ride back on their truck with a trailer, but they had to pick up cones and mile signs on the way.  So, I pitched in an helped.  There was no phone service and the volunteers didn’t carry radios so Bard had no idea where I was.  She was freaked cuz I didn’t get off the boat or the sweep van.  I eventually showed up and was able to take our baton across the finish line for a official time of 3:38:42.  We both finished and got metals.  That’s all that matters really to us.

After the race, Barb and I went back to the house and took a 2 hr nap.  Then we got up and went to Susie’s Branding Iron.  I had steak and shrimp.  I was so hungry.  Then we decided to hit the Canyonlands Rodeo.

After that, I took a midnight hike to a creek.  It was a warm night and when I got within 5 ft of the creek, the temp dropped at least 10 deg.  The best thing was there were so many stars in the sky.  I can’t even tell you the last time I saw the Milky Way.  It was so beautiful  I was able to lay there and see several shooting starts.  It was so quiet and the air was so breathable.  If it weren’t so damn hot and housing wasn’t an issue, I’d move here in a heartbeat.

So, today we both got massages.  Now we are talking about going to the same place I went last night but in the daylight.