Warning - long post, written late at night. Rambling, typos, etc. provided at no extra charge...
I'm not sure when, how, or by who the seed was planted, but at some point over the past year a group of us decided that we would run each of Elite Racings musical marathons / half marathons and get a special medal. Over the course of the year the group dwindled down to three and the number of races for the top medal increased to five. This past Thursday
Joel,
Jilian, and I set out to run in the
P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon and 1/2 Marathon, the first of the five races on our way towards becoming
Rock Stars.
The adventure began at the airport when we encountered one of the dumbest blondes in history. The gate agent was boarding the plane by zones. Zones 1 and 2 were called out individually then the agent annaounced boarding for all zones. The dumb blonde was on the phone and told the person that she could continue talking - she was in zone 3 and they haden't called that one yet. I'm not sure how/when she finilly decided it was ok to board, but she did and kept Joel and Jilian quite entertained during the flight. In Atlanta we got in a quick training run as we sprinted from gate to gate and managed to make our connection despite delays in the Roanoke flight.
We arrived in Phoenix, loaded Jilian's luggage into the hatchback of Rob's & Kris's Mini and squeezed ourselves and the rest of our luggage into the car. We went to Kris's & Rob's house, unloaded the Mini and feasted on homemade quesadillas and guacamole. I really admired their house and loved the open layout and their choices of paint colors. However, my favorite feature was the tile flooring that they had installed. I was slightly jealous, as I've always wanted tile floors.
After eating and catching up for awhile we staked out our sleeping areas and called it a night. Friday was full of the usual racing expo visit, shopping with Jilian, eating, playing Frisbee (ask Jilian to see the pictures of Joel throwing a frisbee at her), etc. That night we had a great meal by an outdoor firepit and headed out to experience the Scottsdale nightlife. The first stop was a country music place, which Rob and Joel finally found after receiving revised directions from Jilian. It was quickly decided that $5 cover for a country bar wasn't going to fly, so we headed to a Irish pub that had been recommended by some patrons at the restaurant. Well, it looked like an Irish pub, but it had a $3 cover charge and blared dance music and videos. We went in and had a few drinks before finally deciding to try someplace a little more our style (but not before hearing the Kiss song "I Wanna Rock 'n' Roll All Night" for the 3rd time in one day). We found a great place next door with no cover. Kris and Rob decided to call it a night and left the 3 runners to fend for ourselves. We had a good time - how can you not have fun in a bar where one of the bartenders has two black eyes?!?
The only real disaster of the trip happened when we got back to Rob's & Kris's house and I was getting a glass of water. The glass slipped out of my hands and hit the tile floor. Broken glass everywhere and not a broom to be found anywhere. I/We got it cleaned up and called it a morning. Now I know why Karyn doesn't think we should have tile floors, and I thought it was because of the kids.
Saturday we had a great hike in the dessert/mountains, did a bit of shopping, and ate some more good food (though
IN-N-OUT Burger doesn't quite rival
Five Guys in the burger or fries departments). The runners called it an early night in preparation for race day.
The race was increadible. Great bands (4 of which cheered me by name), cheerleading squads (many that came up with cheers with my name), crowd support (one person even dubbed me Rob the Heartthrob), and fellow runners (a lady named Maria yelled out that I was her inspiration to finish the race). If you are ever thinking of running a marathon or half marathon, I would definitely recommend this one. There was even a beer stop around mile 23 with a band playing "You've got to fight for your right to party" excepte they changed the lyrics to "You've got to run a marathon to party". The best thing handed out along the course was some guy handing out Twizzlers towards the end. It was just the boost I needed (sorry Mom - I accepted candy from a stranger). We all had great races - I was glad just to have finished considering my lax training and Joel and Jilian both had personal bests. We also got to see Erin and her friend (another Macon grad!!!) before they headed off to the Grand Canyon.
Rob prepared a tremendous post race feast for us on the grill and we all napped the afternoon away. That night we headed to Tempe and found a much better Irish pub. However, none of us was quite up to much of a party and we headed home without closing the place down.
Monday we had a great southwestern style breakfast, then headed for a last stroll around the neighborhood to admire the cacti and palm trees. Well Jilian was taking pictures of some of her favorites when an old woman (I think she had a New England accent and was a character from a Stephen King book) came out of her house and asked Jilian why she was taking pictures of her house. Jilian tried to explain that she wasn't taking pictures of the house but of the beautiful cacti. The lady was having none of it and said that Jilian was trespassing (I wonder what the lady would do if she saw the satelite image of her house from Google Earth) and that she needed to delete the pictures. Jilian complied and we moved on.
We said our goodbyes to Kris and headed with Rob to the airport. Traffic ended up lighter than expected and we had plenty of time to shop at the airport before catching our flight to Atlanta. During the flight we got to see the movie
Dreamer. Jilian cried three times; I work out and have hobbies (Starsky and Hutch movie reference) so I didn't cry; Joel didn't watch it because his headphones were in his checked bag. In Atlanta Delta was looking for 4 volunteers to be bumped from the overbooked flight to Roanoke. Since it worked for us schedulewise and we'll need the $400 vouchers for some of the other races this year, we decided to volunteer. We also received $7 meal vouchers, so we wandered from terminal to terminal in search of a decent place to grab a beer and play cards. We found one, but the waitress ignored me (I had to resort to stealing Jilian's beer in order to get a drink) so we found another one. We definitely made the most of our layover playing cards and being silly. The flight back went by quickly and our bags were waiting for us at the Delta counter when we arrived. Joel and Jilian dropped me off at my house and drove away with Jilian continuing to sing the only line she knew from Gold Digger ("I ain't saying she's a gold digger, na-na-na-na").
It was a great trip with great friends. I can't wait until Nashville!!!
Kiss / Rock & Roll All Night
