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.

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.