Hurricane Half Marathon 4/30/11

It was time to leave Phoenix.  We drove as far as Hurricane, and spent the night at Rob and Connie's house.  Connie was awesome!  She had a spaghetti dinner ready for us when we got there.  She also had a yummy birthday cake for Dean.  She is so thoughtful!  We also got to play with Beth, Joe, Mills and Jane.  We love those guys!

 We had to be at the Hurricane Community Center at 5:30 a.m., so we could catch the bus to the start line.  It was so stinking cold!  And it was so windy!  Wind chill made it feel like 30 degrees.  With the winds around 20 mph, and with all the activities we had done during the week, we knew this wasn't going to be a very fast race for us, so we decided we were just going to run this one for fun.   Dean ran the whole way with me.  First race we have run together.  

 Here we are crossing the finish line together.

 Julie got a new outfit to run this race in.  As always, she looked great.  

 At this point, we were hungry and FREEZING!  

 Connie took care of both of those needs.  She had the great breakfast ready for us when we got to her house, 

 And she and Rob made sure we could go sit in the hot tub to try to get our body temps back where they should be.  They were so good to us. Thanks Connie and Rob!!!!

Of course we have to take the race picture with us in our race shirts.  After a yummy breakfast, a soak in the hot tub, and a shower, we start looking presentable again. 

Greenbelt, Scottsdale AZ

Remember in the last post I mentioned that we were supposed to be "tapering" since we are running a half marathon on Saturday morning?  Well for today's taper, we decided to do a 33 mile bike ride from Tempe to Scottsdale and back, along what is called the Greenbelt.  

Here, we are sitting outside the institute at ASU, waiting for Braden to get out of class to join us for our bike ride.

 We started at ASU campus, and headed up the Greenbelt to Scottsdale.  What an amazing ride!

 Dean loved these purple trees, whatever they are.

We are seeing all these amazing sites, and all Dean can think about is finding a McDonalds!  Once we got a McChicken in him, we could go back to seeing the sites.

  There were so many things to take pictures of.  Dean started getting a little annoyed at all my stops to get a picture, so I had to start snapping them without stopping.  I'm quite proud of my newly developed skill of taking pictures on the move!

 I did stop for this picture.  I found it quite funny that the ugliest spot along the path had this sign.  Really?  Ok, these two studs made for a "good viewing area."

Check out both kinds of "cranes" in this pictures.

 For some reason, I'm able to get grease all over my leg, on every bike ride I go on.  Don't ask me how I do it, I think it is just one of my super powers.

 Yep, this was taken while riding my bike, and just pointing the camera over my shoulder.

 Kind of a cool waterfall 

 Loved all the palm trees!

 Finished our bike.  33 miles.  Not sure that was the smartest thing to do 2 days before our race, especially since my legs are sore from yesterday's hike, and Tuesday's run!  So glad we are taking it easy this week, otherwise my legs would be really tired.....oh wait, they are really tired!  Good thing tomorrow we will be traveling back to Utah, that will force us to take the day off!

How would Oprah say it?

There is just so much explaining to do on this blog post!

I will explain the title a little later, if you can stand to make it through this post!

We are running a half marathon this Saturday.  We are supposed to "taper" the week before the race, so we decided we would head down to Phoenix, and just relax in the sunny weather.  We got here Monday night, and Tuesday morning we got up at 5 am to run.  We had to get up that early to beat the heat.  Dean and Braden ran 20 miles, I did just over 5.  (I'm no dummy, I know how to taper!)  We spent lots of time on Monday in the hot tub and the pool.

Dean and Braden both do this annoying thing where they squirt water at each other.  I thought a nice picture of this weird behavior would be nice to have so I can remember how great it is when they are not doing it.

This was how that picture was supposed to look.

 Next morning, we get up at 5:30 am so we can go on this little hike before it gets too hot, and Braden has to go to school.

Erika, Jared (Braden's roommate), Braden and Dean all head out for Flat Iron.

 The trail head to Siphon Draw.  The arrow below points to Flat Iron, which is our destination.  Here we go!

 This is Siphon Draw.  If we would have quit here, it would have been a lovely hike......but no!  We have to hike all the way to the top of Flat Iron. (that's Flat Iron in the background)

We hiked and hiked, and it seemed like we never made any progress to the top!

We decided this was the "stair-stepper from Hell!"  After leaving Siphon Draw, this was pretty much what the rest of the hike was like until you got up on top of Flat Iron.

 So just maybe, after hiking for a couple hours, Braden and Erika got a little "punchy".  Some how a conversation calling Jared a sherpa morphed into "how would Oprah say it".  For some reason, that was REALLY funny up on the mountain.  I promised Braden I would call this post "How would Oprah say it"....maybe you had to have been there.

There were some amazing rock formations

Finally, our goal was within reach!  The two little spots in the picture are Erika and Dean

We thought this lizard was pretty cool with his bright yellow feet.

 The view from the top was AWESOME!  So worth the climb.

Dean, Erika, Braden, and Jared

Another cool looking lizard.  The color on this guy was amazing.

 I couldn't just take a picture of the pretty flowers and the cool looking lizard, for some reason, Braden thought it would make a much better picture if his head was also in the picture.

 We did it!  (5 hours later) That was an awesome hike!

So far, this has not been a real relaxing vacation, tomorrow we are supposed to do a bike ride on the green belt trail.  I think Dean and I have different ideas of what a relaxing vacation is!  (I'm having a blast, but don't tell him!)