Post-race hijinks, Arizona style

On our way home from the race, we stopped at a local grocery store to get some ice for an ice bath. (I also took the opportunity to buy some Girl Scout cookies.) As I was wandering through the freezer section on the hunt for ice, I noticed that the frozen food section was also the random cement lawn statues section:

There was one that looked like Wally:

When we got back to the hotel, it was ice bath time. M got the honor of going first (finishing a marathon has it’s perks!)

It’s funny to watch other people’s ice bath process. Apparently, M’s involves crouching by the side of the tub while she works up the courage to get in.

In the interests of fairness, I let her take one of my rocking ice bath outfit.

After the ice baths, there was some nice lounging in the bed and eating junk food:

And I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the post-race detritus on the bed:

 

Soaking in the local culture

The day before a big race is always a little surreal. You’ve been planning for the race for a long time and it’s always been off in the distance. Then, suddenly, it’s tomorrow. TOMORROW! We kicked off our day with a trip to the Waffle House because a.) I’d never been to one, b.) J loved them and c.) because we could. I’d heard much about Waffle House and it did not disappoint.

Then we headed over to check out the race expo at the senior center. Just because. I’m very happy we did, because otherwise we would have missed seeing this fantastic sign:

Please note, we are at the SENIOR CENTER. The expo itself was pretty tiny, but fun. M & I scored some rad running shirts that seem like they are custom made for us:

(In case you can’t read it, it says “I run so I don’t kill people.”) So true…

We love us some kitsch, so we then went to check out a local tourist attraction called Goldmine Ghost Town (or something like that.) It was packed full of people, some of which were obviously there for the marathon. The walk from the parking lot was probably better than the actual ghost town. It had this handsome guy:

And this sign should have told us the kind of folks this place attracts:

The actual ghost town was sort of sad. It was like one of those shopping malls that’s going out of business or a ghetto carnival. That happened to be Wild Ol’ West themed. We wandered through and took a couple of pictures:

But we all agreed it was sad and left. Then it was off to Walmart, always a good time. I was tempted by the giant barrel of cheese balls (only $5.98!) but didn’t figure I could bring it home on the plane:

When we were unloading our stuff back at the hotel, M pointed out how many beverages we had in our little hotel mini-fridge:

(For those of you playing along at home, there are 12 different containers of beverage in there… ) But it’s important to hydrate, especially here.

Now, we’ve set our clothes and stuffed a ridiculous number of gels into fuel belts and soon it will be off to bed for the crazy early morning wake-up. It feels very surreal that I will get up tomorrow morning and run for a significant amount of time. I’m trying not to think about it. Whatever happens, I’m sure it will be an adventure and at least I get to spend some quality time in the sunshine.

Best Western indeed

Getting on a plane to Phoenix makes this view out of my window far less depressing.

Our flight from Seattle to Phoenix was uneventful but took forever with a stop-over in Salt Lake City. I managed to score the front row both flights, but didn’t get to sit with M & J. On the second flight, I landed an aisle seat and snapped this picture while people were being seated:

It’s fun to see all of the crazy instruments and what-not. (Even though I secretly believe that they are all for show… ) The guy next to me on this leg of the trip was an affable older man who slept most of the short flight, but as we were descending he noticed the running magazine I was reading and asked if I was a runner. I responded that I was and told him about the impending marathon. He asked me a few general questions about it  which I answered with my “I’m talking to normal people” responses. (Example: “Oh, is this your first marathon?” “Yes” vs. “Oh, is this your first marathon?” “Well, sort of. I did an Ironman and there was a marathon at the end of that, but that doesn’t really count because it’s totally different and so on… ” He then told me a “funny story” about how he’d inadvertently* run the Rim to Rim to Rim (which is from one side of the Grand Canyon and back in one day.)  Crazy talk.

After the usual 3 Stooges Car Rental routine we were on our way to the hotel. Marveling at the weird color of the sky (blue) and how warm and not wet the air was, we headed east to Gold Canyon. Stopping for a snack en route:

We were staying at a Best Western in the middle of no where, so I was expecting the usual small town motel experience. And I was not disappointed. In fact, the decorator really took it up a notch. This was the first thing I saw, handing on the stone mantle of the lobby fireplace:

The room had similarly delightful touches. Howdy, pardner! I’m a lamp…

And I don’t know what his counterpart is. Space alien? El chupacabra? Super racist Native American?

And then there was this mysterious object on top of the television:

Ummm…

Instead of the razor or vibrator we were joking about, it is in fact the TV remote control (ironically called the Clean Remote.) I can’t make this stuff up:

But my favorite part was opening the nightstand drawer and finding this. It’s the Holy Sampler:

Before we headed out to dinner, I had fun taking pictures of Southwestern kitsch in the upstairs lobby area. Enjoy!

(Why, yes, that is a wagon wheel chandelier… )

(And apparently Kokopelli enjoyed a round of golf with some friends… )

So far, this trip is off to an excellent start.

* They were originally going to run one direction but the shuttle back is 243 miles or something so they decided to just run back. I assume he was pulling my leg, but one never knows…

Random fancyness

I’ve been going to my ART (Active Release Therapy, for the non-tri folks out there… ) guy for the last few weeks of marathon training, trying to coax my achilles into behaving itself. They have a new girl on the team who seems like a nice person, until she starts working on you, then she’s pure evil. ;-P At the end of my session, she taped up my ankle with this fancy kinesio tape treatment and I couldn’t resist taking a picture before it got all manky looking:

The next morning, on my way to the office, I spied this fashionable gentleman:

I couldn’t resist snapping a surreptitious close-up at the crosswalk:

I’ve got to give Seattle credit, it’s always full of surprises…

My white whale

I’ve been wanting to do a blog post on some of my favorite creepy public art pieces for some time, but getting a picture of one of them has proved difficult. But today on my lunchtime run, I finally managed to get one. So without further ado, I bring you Pedophile Fountain!

The fountain streams are usually covering one of the figures, which is why it’s been hard to get a good picture in all of it’s creepy glory. But seriously, naked man staring at naked child in fountain form is just not okay. I’m sure there’s some fabulous hippie-artist explanation of man gazing on his inner-child or what-not, but give me a break…

Artsy

The main thing Susan wanted to do while she was in town was “go to that park that goes over the freeway.” She’s talked about this mythical park before and neither T nor I knew what she was talking about. Finally, she added that it had art in it and we realized that she was talking about the Sculpture Garden. (It does go over Western Avenue, not exactly the freeway… ) But at least we knew what she was talking about and it’s quite convenient to our house.

I run through this park quite often, but I never really take the time to take photos. So, I spent a little time “Hipstamatic-ing” the Calder sculpture:

Susan waited patiently for me to finish:

Not sure what was going on with this box, but photographing T & Susan interacting with it was really fun:

T was incensed by the many “Do Not Touch” signs in front of the giant rusted metal Richard Serra sculptures:

And he’s a rebel:

But all that aside, the pieces were pretty cool:

I love this metal tree. It took me a few visits to notice that it was made out of metal, which makes me love it more.

If you drive past the sculpture garden, you see this giant Claes Oldenburg typewriter eraser rolling down the hill, which I love. We couldn’t get right next to it, but here’s Susan posing with it in the background:

It was quite the cultural outing.

Very serious business

The day before the race is always filled with little errands, but I try as hard as I can to keep it low key. We needed to do a swim in the lake, mostly so I could make a final decision on whether or not to wear my sleeveless wetsuit and see what the race start looked like. M came along for a swim and general hijinks, since J had some work to finish up.

This year, because Banks Lake was all messed up, we were going to be swimming in Roosevelt lake – which was amazing. The water was super clear and lovely. It was like the Caribbean, only chillier. (Though for up here, the water was positively balmy!) The sleeveless turned out to be the right decision, as swimming in it felt like heaven.

Afterward, M took a spin on the merry-go-round. The little boy to the right of this image was playing on it before, but when the crazy grown-ups got there, he fled. (Smart kid!)

Especially once T got into the act… (I really wish I’d taken video of this, but I was laughing too hard.)

Preparations for the race were already in full swing…

We did a quick recon up the Almira grade at T’s request (and to show M how “awesome” it is) before heading home. After a little lunch and some rest, we headed back to the park for packet pick-up followed by a trip into town for a few last-minute supplies at the Safeway. While there, I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this aisle signage:

We also had to stop at the tee-pee drive in across the street:

After our milkshakes, we headed to T2 to check out the new set up:And see the dam we’d been hearing about. Last year, we’d never made it over to take a look because we’re just that lazy.

We had a few hours to hang back at the house before T and I had to head to the pre-race meeting and check in our bikes. I took this sweet shot of M & J hanging out in the living room:

Usually, I find the pre-race meetings boring. There’s nothing that’s really different from the info that I’ve read on the race website or in the packet that I picked up earlier that day. But especially with the new course and new race management, I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything. This time, the meeting was anything but boring. Unfortunately, what it was instead was confusing and disorganized. The folks running the meeting would answer questions only to contradict themselves a minute later.

For example: when asked about cut off times on the swim, a woman was told “Don’t worry, you have until midnight to finish.” only to hear a little later on that “they were there for the last finisher, regardless of how long past the cut-off it was.” What the WHAT? There was much more, but I won’t bore my tens of readers with my rants and I’ll save that for the email to the race organization. Suffice it to say, I left the meeting far less confident in the abilities in the folks running the race and much less sure I knew what was going on tomorrow morning. Sigh.

 

Orange is the new black

I think I should just start a new blog for “ridiculous things spotted while on Target shopping trips with M.” I swear we see something hilarious every time we go. And today’s trip was a particularly good one. Apparently, it’s that “Decorate Your Dorm Room” time of year. Or, more accurately, “Buy Your College-Age Child Stuff to Embarass Them and Provide Their Roommates With Things to Make Fun of” season. So, without further ado, allow me to preview the hottest accessories coming to a freshman’s dormitory near you.

First hot trend, pillows shaped like food:

Note the attention to detail on the back:

And a detail of the lovely pizza pillow:

And the second hot trend for fall, plastic dishes that have textures of their intended foods:

(From top to right, we have Doritos, pizza slice, whole pizza, mac & cheese and spaghetti & meatballs.) Please also note that all the hot foods this fall are orange…

I am a little sad not to have a college-bound kid in my life to embarrass with these things, but writing snarky blog posts about them works too!

 

 

So very fancy

Today was about getting ready for race day. We had to get checked in at the race site and our hotel. This was my first time doing a Rev3 event. I’ve heard great things about them and was excited to see if they lived up to the hype. I can honestly say, they definitely did. Despite it being the first year of this event with around 400-500 people, it reminded me of Ironman Canada – a race that’s over 25 years old with more than six times the number of participants. (Except for the part where picking up my packet involved standing in a two person line and took about fifteen minutes.)

Instead of the usual bars, they had super fancy “back wheel block” transition areas that I’ve only seen pro triathletes using on television. Here’s Slim, ready to rock and roll:

It even had my name on it:

There were a ton of pros racing and they had a really nice set up – cool banners in front of their spots, which I thought was rad:

After we checked Slim in, we wandered over to the athlete meeting/pre-race meeting. They’d scheduled a kid’s race at the same time, so we got to watch the kids take off which was fun. We also got to see what treats awaited us at the finish line:

For us Pacific Northwesters, the long sleeve tech-t shirt is a most useful prize:

Afterward, there was an Active Release Therapy tent that didn’t have a long wait. (For the unfamiliar, A.R.T. is basically a combo of stretching and massage.) I’d always been curious about it, so I decided to give it a try. The guy who worked on me turned out to be from Seattle and he did a lot of work on the calf/Achilles that had been giving me trouble. It felt a lot better when he finished with it, so I took his card and will definitely be keeping him in mind for the future.

We headed over to the Holiday Inn Express, where we’d spent an extra 11 dollars a night on the “King Size Jacuzzi Suite” because we’re fancy like that. And the jacuzzi was pretty sweet. (Please enjoy the towel folded like a swan… )

Except for it’s location. Two feet from the bed. Hmmm…

(Ah well, at least I could watch TV while I soaked in it.) We had a few hours to chill in the room before we headed out for dinner. T took a little nap while I organized my race stuff and checked out my race swag. Pretty nice haul, if I do say so myself…

And one last piece of coolness. The way they do race numbers in Rev3-land is with a temporary tattoo. So instead of a volunteer scrawling possibly illegible numbers on with a marker, you get this:

I didn’t realize how much it could be rinsed off, so mine was still a little tacky when I put a shirt on over it, so it got a little fuzzy. (But still looked a lot better than the marker numbers do.) I was feeling pretty good about the race in general and hoping that somehow, despite my uneven training, it would translate to a solid performance tomorrow.

Put a bird on it…

If you’ve watched Portlandia (or been on Facebook when it came out) you’ve probably seen the “Put a Bird on It” sketch. Like most comedy, there’s some truth mixed it with the silliness. So, when I saw this building on our bike ride, I just had to take a picture of it:

The cool thing about this building is that it looks out over a big nature preserve/wetlands, so it was actually really nice that they painted local birds all over it. But I still had that song in my head for the rest of the day…