Just Plodding Along

After work today D & I struck out on a road trip to Sedona which is about a 3&1/2 hour drive from Tucson. On the way there we stopped at the most beautiful rest stop I have ever seen about an hour outside Sedona and had a photo shoot. When we got into to town we headed straight over to packet pickup. The pick up area was in the Tlaquepaque shopping village . Really easy to find with big banners leading the way to the pick-up area and plenty of parking.  Tlaquepaque shopping village Tlaquepaque shopping village Tlaquepaque shopping village Packet pick-up Number secured- ready to race After grabbing the race packet we wandered around the shopping area.... and I found my spirit animal No silly, not this THIS! The mighty swine, the original plodder! His name is "Eat More Beef" and I love him. I tried to convince D that we could fit him in the back of the car but it was a no go. Pesky voice of reason. ...

Tomorrow I head down to Sedona for the Half Marathon so it is time to figure out the A, B & C goals. That be a lot of hills.......at altitude  Sedona = 4500ft     Tucson = 2389ft so I see a lot of heavy breathing and walking in my future. Plus my left leg has been acting kind of wonky (technical term). Calf and shin pain out of nowhere. And I want to take pictures on the route I mean look at this: So with those disclaimers/ excuses: A Goal: finish between 2:15 & 2:30 B Goal: finish between 2:30 & 2:40 C Goal: finish & obtain medal That'll do.

After waking up bright and early A and I grabbed our free breakfast at the hotel, packed the car and were on the road to the Carlsbad Marathon  to cheer and check out the expo and see the ocean (which I made annoyingly clear was a priority when I kept clapping my hands and saying "we are gonna see the ocean, we are gonna see the ocean" it would appear that living in Tucson Arizona which is devoid of all water makes me super excited to see any body of water but especially THE OCEAN). After about a 45 minute drive we arrived at.. Westfield Shopping Center in Carlsbad: location of race start/finish and tons'o parking and found a place to park and headed towards the finish line. We arrived in time to see the top marathon finishers coming in as well as some of the top half marathon finishers. We clapped and cheered them on for awhile. And then I saw..... SkinnyRunner  the author of a blog I follow and kinda freaked out.  Conversation in my head: Oh my god OH...