Thursday, October 04, 2007

4 states in one day...

Day 1 - the travel day...

...started by waking up at 5:00am central time. We flew to Las Vegas via SLC on Delta, and had a pretty good couple of flights. We touched down in Las Vegas at 11:20am (1:20 Central time).

Getting our luggage and picking up our rental car took 2 hours! No kidding. Las Vegas moves in slow motion, I swear. We drove away on IH 15 north towards St. George at 1:30 local time (2:30 St.George (mountain) time). Our plan was to grab some kind of non-fast food lunch and make the 2 hour drive to St. George.

On the highway in Las Vegas we could not find any sort of normal restaurant. There were tons of 'gas station restaurants' which meant that the Subway or Pizza Hut was inside the unappetizing buildings of the gas stations. We did not find a normal restaurant until 4:30 pm.

The 2 hour drive was quite windy, but it was nice to be able to drive faster than 75 mph without worrying much about getting ticketed. It is the desert after all. The highlight of the drive was getting to drive through the NW corner of Arizona. The scenery immediately changed from desert drab to beautiful river canyons. We had a great time admiring the view for the last 30 minutes or so.

Once we arrived in St.George, we checked into the hotel and decided to drive the course before sunset. The course is still very fresh in my mind from when I ran it 2 years ago. I tried not to annoy Chad by talking about each and every mile as we were driving, but I think it did get to him a little. I think it was a good first look for him, though, and we will drive it again tomorrow.

Here is Chad at the start line. He is reading the sign that they post for everyone to read. It contains FAQ about the marathon.

Here I am with our super cool PT convertible. Behind it is the long lines of bonfire stacks that are ready to be lit to warm the runners before the race.

After a trip to the grocery and to Walgreens, we ate a pasta dinner at The Pasta Factory. It is good, plain pasta, which is exactly what a runner needs in the days leading up to the race.

We are tired and are looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

Texas, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah...check!

1 comment:

dr mel said...

Keep us posted, Sadie! Good luck, Chad! Have a GREAT RUN tomorrow morning!