There and Back Again - A Week in the Midwest

Back at the beginning of May we made a weeklong return to the Midwest, with one or both of us spending time in Delphos, Louisville, and Cincinnati.  Going home we had a lot on the agenda, but never imagined how much of a whirlwind it would actually be.

Straightaway after arriving in Cincinnati Friday night, Susan and I parted ways.  Her parents picked her up to drive to Delphos for a family wedding and I grabbed a rental car and headed to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby.  On my end, Derby day was a fun time as usual despite the pretty terrible weather.  The post-race cookout was nice and I got to see a lot of family.

Sunday morning Susan came down to Louisville and got in town to visit with Kelley and Jason before they returned to St. Louis.  We also got to experience SuperChef’s Breakfast that my dad has been lauding for weeks.  It was excellent and Chef Darnell went out of his way to make it special by leaving the restaurant to get us the beignets which were sold out.

Monday I had to make an emergency work run to Cincinnati and we got back in Louisville just in time to meet our friends, the Tullbanes, for dinner at a hibachi restaurant…it was an exhausting day, but Susan got to spend some time hanging out with a Cincinnati friend (and meet their baby).

Tuesday was another busy workday (from the home office) then ended with meeting some more friends for dinner at Mellow Mushroom before meeting family across the street at BBC.  Tuesday night was our last night in Louisville.

Wednesday morning we moved camp to Cincinnati and I got some time in at the office through the rest of the week.  While I worked Wednesday, Susan was also busy house hunting.  She viewed around 10 houses or condos with more to come on Thursday.  Thursday night I was able to join in the Element Cycles evening group ride with some of my cycling team and afterwards Susan and I grabbed Thai dinner with some friends (who are also expecting).

Friday Susan and I revisited a couple of the most promising home options during my lunch break narrowing to one real option.  Then, once the workweek was finally over for me, we moved camp to Sharonville and the Coco Key Water Resort to meet Susan’s family who had come into town for her Saturday graduation.  However, we had just enough time to check in and change clothes before venturing back out to a Xavier Psych Department reception to celebrate the graduates.  Later Friday night we had a chance to catch up with Susan’s family.

Saturday morning brought a last look at our potential house option (we opted to not make an offer in the end) before meeting some of the other graduates and significant others at lunch in Rookwood.  From lunch we moved straight to Xavier’s campus for the ceremony where I met my parents who just arrived in town.  The graduation was fun and Susan is now a doctor!

Susan getting hooded
  
The three of us after the graduation    &    Dr. Baby

After graduation, we picked up our favorite local pizza, Dewey’s Pizza, and took it back to the hotel.  With all the kids in Susan’s family we figured dinner out would be a mess and Dewey’s is always a great takeout option.  We spent time hanging around the hotel with our families and Susan and I briefly toured the water park where I raced Darin on the water slides.  Then we headed out to Mt. Lookout to meet the other graduates and some friends from the program for drinks.

At the Water Park

Sunday morning brought Mother’s Day.  Luckily with the graduation Susan and I both had our mothers in town so had a brunch with everyone together.  Then we ran some errands and briefly visited the Hyde Park Farmer’s Market and grabbed some lunch at The Pub before making our way to the airport thoroughly exhausted (and out of clean clothes in my case).  With the time change our flight got us in to Salt Lake early enough to get settled back home in Logan a few hours before bed.

Mother’s Day with all the moms in Susan’s family

What a week!  Despite needing a couple weeks to recover from the excursion home we feel very lucky to have our friends and family (and jobs) to keep us so busy on our trip back.  It will be nice when we can visit with everyone on a more regular (and relaxed) basis once we move back to the area. 

For the time being though, we are soaking up what remains of the quiet Logan lifestyle.

Red, Hot, and Dry–A Memorial Day Weekend in Moab

Our trip home a few weeks back was so busy we are still trying to process the whole experience, so maybe we’ll revisit it with a blog entry later.  But now, some of our more recent activity…

Memorial Day weekend brought Susan and me another opportunity for travel and, as usual, we took full advantage.  Over the holidays we discussed meeting our friend Jenna in Moab since it sits about midway between us in Logan and her in Denver.  With our other distractions we didn’t develop the idea much until the last couple weeks.  Luckily Jenna was still available and we were able to pull something together.

Friday evening Susan, Derby and I packed up and hit the road southbound for Green River, Utah.  There is not much to say about Green River other than it has a Motel 6 and is less than an hour from Moab.  We could’ve completed the drive to Moab Friday night, but since Moab is a tourism hub for the nearby national parks it is VERY expensive on holiday weekends (i.e. $200/night for Motel 6 quality lodging).  We wanted to limit our exposure to the Moab costs so limited our stay in the city proper to just one night.  Our idea was not unique as Green River was also filled to capacity when we arrived.

Saturday morning I got a quick run in Green River done before we drove the rest of the way into Moab.  First order of business was dropping Derby at the local dog camp, Karen’s K-9 Campground.  National Parks have strict limitations on pets in the parks (understandably) so keeping Derby along would’ve limited our exploring abilities as well as our hotel options.  Karen was a very nice crazy dog lady so we knew Derby was in good hands.

Business complete, we met Jenna and her friend Bryan in town at the Love Muffin Café for breakfast.  The Café had a selection of muffins, burritos, sandwiches and coffee drinks along with some other breakfast standards.  Susan and I both opted for muffins and granola which were very good. 

After breakfast, we consolidated to one car and drove the ~3 miles from town to Arches National Park.  My annual pass got all of us into the park for free (we’re so proud of our pass) and even allowed us to bypass the long queue of cars waiting to pay for admission.  Once in the park, we drove to the northwest terminus of the scenic road and did some light hikes along the way to see Skyline Arch and Balanced Rock.  On the drive back out, we stopped for the Salt Valley Overlook and walked around the Double Arch area.

Views along the road

At Balanced Rock
   
Balanced Rock     &     Double Arch

We left the park around 1:30 and headed back to town to drop Jenna and Bryan off so they could hunt for a campsite.  Susan and I then noticed an art fair going on at the town park, so proceeded to check it out and cool down with some shaved ice before heading to the hotel to check in and put our feet up for a bit.  During our break, I did some exploring of the paved trail system in the area on my road bike.  Moab is known as a mountain bike haven, but there are plenty of good roads and trails for road riding.  Unfortunately I didn’t have time to explore them more thoroughly.

Around 6 pm, we realized we probably wouldn’t be meeting with Jenna and Bryan again that evening since they were off the grid at their campsite.  The temperatures finally start dropping so Susan and I ventured back out for a scenic drive along Castle Creek Road before coming back into town for dinner.  For as many tourists visit Moab, the well-rated (per Yelp) dinner options were limited, so we decided to dine at the Moab Grill near our hotel.  It was home-style American fare, and was fine though not exceptional.  After dinner, the sun was setting and it felt very pleasant outside so we decided to take a stroll along Main Street to end the day.

Sunday morning started early since Susan and I had planned to go back to Arches to complete the 3 mile round-trip hike to Delicate Arch.  The early start was to limit our exposure to heat, sun, and the crowds.  We got to the trailhead at about 7:45 and it took us until right about 9 to get to the Delicate Arch itself.  The hike is mostly uphill but not overly strenuous if done during the low sunlight times of the day.  The worst section is a stretch about .5 miles long that climbs a smooth rock face almost right in the middle of the trail.  You cannot see the famous Delicate Arch until the very end of the trail which is motivation to complete the hike.  The view at the top was impressive.  I had expected Delicate Arch to be worth seeing, but had no idea of the scale of the arch itself.  It is also one of the few truly freestanding arches we saw in the park.  We took in the view at the top and took a break.  Susan also wandered around the arch getting pictures from multiple angles (including beneath it).

At the start of our hike

Ready for the climb
    
Up, up, up!

The 1/2 mile climb up a rock face

We made it!
   
Susan under the arch     &     Susan next to the arch
Us with the arch

Cacti flowers

On the downhill trip back to the car, Susan and I were patting ourselves on the back for starting the hike early since the crowds moving opposite us had picked up substantially (as had the heat). 

After the hike, we drove back to town and checked out of the hotel before picking up Derby and regrouping with Jenna and Bryan.  From there we drove the 45 minutes to the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park.  Canyonlands is a HUGE park with 2 districts exclusively devoted to backcountry and off-road exploration.  Island in the Sky is the most accessible for traditional car sight-seeing and the only area we could take Derby into (although he couldn’t leave the main road).  Areas we explored as we drove through the park were the Upheaval Dome, the Green River overlook, and the Mesa Arch.  A couple of these involved short hikes, so all told we hiked over 5 miles on Sunday…not too bad for Susan being 24 weeks pregnant. 

Green River overlook
    
Upheaval Dome     &     Mesa Arch

Mesa Arch

Derby relaxing in the car

The Island in the Sky is a large mesa that offers panoramic views of large parts of the park.  The steep canyon walls and the winding Green and Colorado rivers provided dramatic scenery.  Leaving Canyonlands, I have now completed visiting all 5 Utah national parks (Susan still needs to get to Bryce Canyon).

Mid-afternoon we went back to town and Susan and I were ready for a break.  Jenna wanted to do some town exploring, so we split and Susan and I found shade and rested with the car before grabbing a snack.  Around 6, we reconvened to follow Jenna and Bryan out to their campsite where they cooked us dinner.  Once the sun ducked behind the canyon walls the evening was perfect for sitting by a campfire for dinner.  Since we had to navigate some tough roads and also find a place to stay for the night, Susan and I left around sunset to make our way out of town.  We stopped at a motel in the small town of Wellington.  This gave us just over 3 hours of driving left for Monday morning and had us home in Logan just after lunch (in time for me to get in a solid bike ride!).

We have less than 10 weeks remaining in the Utah chapter of our lives, but have a couple other places to explore before we are done.

A Saturday in the Cache Valley

In our down weekend between visits, vacations, marathons, and our trip home to Kentucky / Ohio, we were graced with a beautiful weekend in the Cache Valley…so took full advantage of it.

Saturday morning, I got back to running the trails for the first time since the fall.  My legs were still tender from the marathon so my pace was slow, but I was excited about being back on the trails so had to hold myself back from running for too long (to prolong recovery).

Back at home, Susan was just getting up so we made a quick turnaround and drove to the American West Heritage Center for baby animal days!

Bonus!: Susan with our Baby Animal – Halfway through the pregnancy bump.

Historic Farm w/ mountain backdrop (top left), baby ducks (top right), peafowl on a hill (bottom left), chicken coop (bottom right)

Jeff and bunny pounding it (top left), Susan stealing ducklings (top right), horse talk (bottom left), tiny goats! (bottom right)

After talking to the animals, we stopped by The Crepery (it was Susan’s first time) for lunch and I got a chance to try the syphon coffee…it was good, but I didn’t notice any flavor differences making it worth the trouble.

Back at the apartment, Susan took it easy while Derby and I suited up and prepared to walk up a mountain.  We hiked for about 2.7 miles in total with 1700 feet elevation gain in the first half (it was an out and back).  The mountain was steeper than I remembered so we didn’t make it to the peak, but still got some great views of the valley on a sunny day.

Derby ready to hike (top left), our starting view of the valley (top right), heading up (bottom left), looking across Green Canyon (bottom right)

Our turnaround view (top left), a Wellsvilles backdrop (top right), soaring over the valley (bottom left), and it’s been a tough winter (bottom right)

Early in the evening I recharged my batteries poolside while Derby crashed in the apartment (he’s out of shape).  Then Susan and I went out for a hibachi dinner at Kabuki before calling it a day.

Since Sunday was also great weather, I got up for a long bike ride to Hardware Ranch, but with it being spring the elk were all gone.  We head into another work week (finals week for Utah State) with only a few more days on the countdown before a week back home seeing family and friends.

Salt Lake City Marathon Race Report

Starting around the holidays, I launched into a marathon training program with a higher mileage approach than the ones I’ve done previously.  My goal was to qualify for the 2014 Boston Marathon at the 2013 Salt Lake City Marathon.  Well, my race was this past weekend and the following is the race report.

Super-short executive summary: I got a new PR, but did not BQ.

The Salt Lake City Marathon is part of a group of events that includes a half marathon, a full marathon, a 5k and a bike ride.  About 7000 people participate in one event or the other, but only around 900 were signed up for the full marathon.  I had expected the marathon to be fairly small (as compared to the Rock n’ Roll series for example), but 900 participants was even smaller than I imagined.  At least we had the 5000 or so half runners to keep us company for the first 8 miles (and the last 2).

Being in Utah, the marathon was held on a Saturday.  Susan, Derby, and I drove the hour and a half from Logan to SLC after she got off work on Friday to get to packet pickup.  It was seeing the long line waiting for half marathon shirts while I walked right up and grabbed my marathon shirt where I realized not many people would be with me for the full distance race.  At least being in the minority made packet pick-up quick and easy (not including the long walk to get there).

Checked in, we drove to the University of Utah campus area to scout out the race start and drove along the first few miles.  I had not had a chance to run on any portions of the course, so wanted to do some driving reconnaissance to feel a little more comfortable come race morning.  After covering the first 5 miles or so, we moved on to grab dinner at Chipotle (carb loading!) before heading to the hotel near downtown for the night.

Early Saturday morning, I was up and checking the weather forecast.  The prediction was a 40% chance for scattered showers through noon (I’d be done racing around 10:15am) with clearing in the afternoon.  This was a much rosier forecast than I had been looking at throughout the week.  It was only a few minutes later when I took Derby out to the bathroom that I realized the forecast was wrong.  It was very wet out and still drizzling…at least the 40 degree temps weren’t too uncomfortable.

Before heading to the tram station I got my racing outfit on and threw on the stylish “slim-fit” trash bag for pre-race warmth. 

Since the race was a point to point race, I rode public transport (the TRAX light rail) to the start line along with most of the other participants.  We packed our tram as much as possible and started climbing toward campus.  One stop before our destination everyone standing on the train had to file out to make room for a bomb sniffing dog to give us a quick run through…a new addition coming out of the Boston tragedy just 5 days earlier.  I thought it seemed excessive (along with the other additional security) for a race of this size, but I give kudos to the race director for going the extra mile to give the participants peace of mind.

At the start line, I had no bag to check, so only needed to make my last second “pit stop” and to warm-up.  I hit the port-o-potties before the rush and realized it was too early to start the warm-up routine.  I found cover under a tent and curled up in my trash bag to stay warm in the meantime.  With about 15 minutes to go before the start, I shed the bag, warmed up, and found my place near the 3:05 pacer in the starting chute.  It was time to run.

Just before the gun we had a moment of silence for Boston and then crossed the starting line to “Sweet Caroline.”  Many of the participants had shirts on recognizing Boston and they were handing out bracelets near the start.  I had blue and yellow ribbons pinned to my number. 

The first 5 miles were mostly downhill.  To keep my pace in check I ran with the pacer (who also went out a little too fast, but was working on controlling it) for this section.  It was nice to have the early company and we ticked off the miles at a good pace (around 6:50/mile) that felt easy. 

At mile 5, we were in Sugar Hill Park where Susan was posted.  I saw her coming out of an out and back section and gave a wave before heading out of the park and continuing south.  There were some false flats exiting the park and I didn’t feel comfortable keeping the uphill pace with the group, so fell back to my own pace while keeping them just ahead of me. 

Entering Sugar Hill Park with the Pace Group

Early Race – Feeling Good

We continued this way for the next mostly straight and flat few miles.  Around mile 8 we lost the half marathoners and suddenly the roads were much emptier.  The pace group had added to their lead over me and I realized that sub 7 minute pace was not going to be reasonable for me anymore.  Still I was feeling comfortable and just ticked off the miles.

Between miles 10 and 12, the roads became more rolling and trended uphill as we headed a little eastward toward the mountains (on Foothill Rd. no less).  My average pace fell below 7’s here and at times I felt like I was pushing harder than I wanted this early in the race.  It was also around this time it started a more consistent rain which had me thoroughly soaked.

I hit the half marker at 1:32:30 or so and knew sub 3:05 (and Boston) was probably off the table, but I focused on staying steady and pushing an even pace for a new PR.  To be honest I hadn’t checked to see that the BQ times had dropped from 3:10 to 3:05 for 2014 entry, so was unaware of this until after the race…but more on that later.

Miles 13 to 19 were pretty uneventful.  Flat roads, few spectators, very wet.  Somewhere around mile 17 I put in my headphones and turned on the iPod.  It took a few minutes for the water-logged earpieces to dry enough for the music to be audible.  During this time I also got frustrated with the lack of dexterity in my hands (to turn the iPod on) so finally ditched my gloves.

Between miles 19 and 20 I nearly ran off course, missing an out and back, and my right quad started to ache with every impact.  I wasn’t hitting a wall, but my motivation was low.  However, at mile 20 I reached the point where I could start looking forward to the finish, so onward I went.

The finishing miles were a struggle.  Both my quads were feeling the impact now; I may have exposed them to too much “crashing” in the early downhill sections.  I also was stiffening up and my strides were shortening with every mile, slowing me down.  I passed the time by doing math to see where I was in relation to the 3:10:59 time I thought was the BQ mark.  I realized after the race if I knew I was already out of contention I probably would have eased up and potentially missed a PR. 

Somewhere in the last mile I saw Susan again.  I had been looking for her along the roads for a while so it was a welcome sight.  Just past her I entered Liberty Park with the finish and navigated toward the finish line. I made a feeble attempt at a kick because I was confused about my time since some of the late race mile markers were off.  Crossing the line, the clock above me read something around 3:10:30. 

Down the Homestretch

As soon as I came to a stop, everything seized up and I got a rush of light-headedness that quickly dissipated.  However, my legs would not function properly for the remainder of the day.  I felt like Barney in “How I Met Your Mother.”

The official time was 3:10:21 and I’m satisfied with it.  I think a dry course would have been a little faster, but I don’t think I had 3:05 speed in me.  The training prepared me for the mileage, but less so for the pace.  Either way, another successful marathon is in the books…now to switch to Ironman training.