Running with the Devil Half Marathon 2021

Thursday 6/17
I had my annual eye exam. So to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, I took the car in to get the check engine light resolved. It would turn out to be a fuel tank vent valve leak. Luckily, that was covered under the extended warranty that I had bought when I purchased my car. It definitely put my mind at ease to know that that was fixed before I headed back out into the Las Vegas heat as well as an upcoming long road trip out to Sun Valley, Idaho.

Friday 6/18
Per the usual routine for another Calico race out in Vegas, I didn't hit the road until after eating lunch. Before hopping on the freeway, I stopped at the Chevron gas station to fill up the gas tank. The price of premium unleaded gas is now at $4.49 per gallon. The drive took just a little over 4 hours for me to reach my destination.

Getting gas to start the trip

For this trip, I stayed at the WorldMark Tropicana. I'm starting to like this property more. However, the one thing that I don't like about this location is exiting the parking lot. People drive like maniacs in Vegas and with the third lane coming right up to the curb, you have to be very careful when inching your car forward to see if it's clear to merge with traffic! After checking in and getting my room key, I stopped by the concierge to pick-up my wristband room key. Per the usual, the guy invites me to yet another "hour long" owner update in exchange for $100 AMEX gift card. At this point, I was pretty tired of saying no, so I agreed to attend it, planning to just sit there for an hour and leave. After providing him with my credit card to pay a $20 deposit for that update, I went over to my unit. I was assigned unit #4201.

After I got settled into my unit, I hopped back in my car to go pick-up dinner at the usual Chick-fil-A over on Flamingo Rd and Valley View Blvd. I ordered their lemon kale Caesar salad with grilled nuggets, fruit cup, and a frosted lemonade. I normally save the frosted lemonade for my post-race treat, but it's already pretty dang hot! Per the usual, I went through the drive-thru and brought the food back to my unit to enjoy. While eating, I enjoyed watching some 2020 US Olympics Team Trials.

2020 US Olympic Team Trails - Women's 5000m heat 1

Abbey Cooper running to get under the 15:10 standard

2020 US Olympic Team Trails - Women's 5000m heat 2

I then watched the Dodgers vs. D-Backs game while I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's half marathon. Trevor Bauer was pitching tonight. Dodgers were able to shut out the D-Backs winning 3-0 with a save by Kenley Jansen.

Flat runner

Dodgers vs. D-Backs

Saturday 6/19
I got ready and left my unit a few minutes before 6 am. The drive over to Lovell Canyon took about 30 minutes. Once I got there and parked my car, I picked up my race packet and got ready to watch the start of the race for those running a marathon or longer. Their race started at 7 am. A few of my friends were brave enough to tackle a marathon or more in that oppressive heat! One was using this race as her training run for the upcoming Badwater 135 ultramarathon!

Race packet pick-up

Experiment 626!

Race shirt

Back of race shirt

Swag part of race packet

Pre-race with Robert

Marathon+ start

Meili!

Robert!

Deo!

After all of the participants went through, It was time for me to get ready for the half marathon. I am so glad that I was only running the half marathon. This course is hard enough without the very hot weather!

Smiles before the race!

The half marathon started at 7:30 am. Within a few strides, the left Achilles was super sore. Normally, that would worry me with 13 miles to cover, but I was more than content to jog at a slower pace! That Achilles felt okay with a slower pace. I covered that first mile in 10:40 and that would be my fastest mile for the race. The temperature at the start was 88F and it would only get warmer. I mostly power-walked the uphill portions and tried to run or jog the downhills. My slowest mile, roughly 16 mins, was that stretch up to the top of that dreaded hill at around mile 9. Even though I knew that the final 4 miles would be mostly downhill, it was still quite difficult to cover in that heat!

The look of discomfort at about mile 10

Finish: 2:58:02
Click here for my Garmin data.

Boy was I glad to cross that finish line upright and in one piece! I figured that it would take me about 3 hours to finish and that was pretty much what I did. I don't think that I would ever attempt a marathon on that course and in that heat!

Finish

I received my finisher medal and also my Calico Slam award from Joyce, the race director. I had forgotten to pick that up after finishing the Labor of Love half marathon. I then picked up some post-race snacks and drink before heading over to my car. I chatted a little bit with the people in the car next to me. They had crossed the finish line just ahead of me. They were waiting for their family member to finish the marathon. Unfortunately, I couldn't hang out too long after the race as I had to head back to attend that owner update that was scheduled for 12 pm.

Finisher medal

Calico slam, forgot to pick up after Labor of Love

Post race snacks and drink

When I got back to my unit, I set down my racing stuff and hopped into the shower to get cleaned up before heading over to my owner update in building 10. After I was given my $100 AMEX gift card, I was introduced to the guy that was assigned to me. His name was JD (John-David). He was much better at explaining to me, how to better use my ownership. He took me up to a room to use a whiteboard to explain a few things to me as he saw me as a numbers guy. I'm sure it's well documented on my account that I'll only purchase more credits when it's financially sound. His math was a bit fuzzy, but it makes sense so long as Extra Holidays is brought back for owners to sell back unused credits. To get him and everyone else off of my back, I decided to buy another small chunk of credits even though I still haven't paid off one of my loans. He assured me that I do not need to be attending any more of these updates unless I wanted to purchase more credits. He gave me his business card, so I will be keeping in touch with him. The whole process took way longer than the usual 1 hour. It took nearly 3 hours to complete the update as well as the sales process. They had to record the sales transaction, pretty much so I can't renege. With COVID, that process was done virtually over a video meeting.

I was pretty famished after that ordeal, so I hopped in the car and headed over to Chick-fil-A to pick up a very late lunch. I ordered a cobb salad with nuggets and a frosted lemonade. Just like a couple of weekends ago in Sand Hollow, I was really looking forward to this treat while suffering in the heat! When I got back to my unit, I noticed that my salad had the regular breaded nuggets instead of the grilled nuggets. Looks like my brain wasn't functioning at full capacity yet! I prefer grilled nuggets over breaded nuggets.

Cobb salad with nuggets and frosted lemonade

After finishing my meal, I proceeded to veg out while watching some TV. I ended up watching The Godfather. Such a good, but violent movie! "It's not personal. It's strictly, business."

The Godfather

After that, I watched the Dodgers vs. D-Backs game. This time it was Walker Buehler pitching for the Dodgers. The Dodgers had more offense tonight and would go on to win with a score of 9-3.

Walker Buehler, Dodgers vs D-Backs

For dinner, I waited until after 8 pm before heading back to Chick-fil-A to pick up dinner. I ordered the spicy Southwest salad with grilled nuggets and to change things up, I got a peach milkshake to go with it. When I got back to my unit, I noticed that my salad had grilled filet instead of nuggets. Oh well, chicken is chicken regardless of the form or shape. While I do love their peach milkshake, I still prefer their frosted lemonade. However, I thought having 3 of them on one trip was too much! Variety is the spice of life, right?

Spicy Southwest salad and peach milkshake

Sunday 6/20
I got ready, packed up, and checked out of my unit at a little after 7 am. I stopped by the Chevron gas station just around the corner on Decatur Blvd to fill up the tank before hopping on the freeway for the drive home.

Getting gas before heading home

About 33 miles North of Baker, one of the road side brushes was on fire on the Southbound side of the 15 freeway. I'm guessing that was started by someone throwing a lit cigarette out of the window. Besides that brushfire, the drive went pretty well taking about 3.5 hours.

Sand Hollow Marathon 2021

Prior to my trip, I had checked the weather forecast for the race and it was looking to be quite hot! I'm definitely going to get plenty of heat training for my upcoming Running with the Devil race!

Weather forecast

Friday 6/4
Since my last race was pretty local, my car still had enough gas in the tank for the drive out to Las Vegas. After resting about an hour after my usual morning walk, I hopped in my car to start my trip at about 8:30 am. I rolled into the Vegas area at about a quarter to noon where I would take my regularly scheduled pit stop. I first got gas at the usual Chevron gas station on Eastern and then headed over to the nearby Chick-fil-A to get lunch. I ordered the lemon kale Caesar salad with grilled nuggets and because it was so dang hot, I also got a frosted lemonade. Once again, I drove over to the nearby Sunset Park to eat my lunch and to use the park restroom before resuming my road trip.

Pit stop in Las Vegas

Frosted lemonade

Lemon kale Caesar salad

Originally I had booked a couple of nights at the Super 8 in St George, but about a month out, I was able to secure a reservation at the WorldMark St George while waiting on the waitlist. Always better to use my ownership credits than spending money out of pocket. I arrived at the property at about 3:30 pm local time. Utah was ahead by an hour. Thankfully, one of the ladies at the front desk was able to check me in about half an hour early. She gave me my unit assignment (F140), a couple of room keys, as well as a wristband to open my unit. As I was leaving, the concierge called me over. At first, I thought it was going to be an invitation to yet another owner update. He just wanted to give me a wristband key. I told him that she had already given me one. I asked if that was it. Sometimes they'll also give me a parking pass. Turns out, that was it. Maybe they finally marked my account to not bother me with those incessant owner updates especially when that information can be conveyed in an email.

Before going inside my unit, I decided to drive over to the Hurricane Rec Center to pick up my race packet thinking that it opened at 4 pm. It would turn out that they were scheduled to open at 5 pm. I suppose that I could just pick it up on race morning, but I decided to wait since my friends were on their way. I sat on the bench outside. It was nice and warm, but not too bad in the shade. They arrived at about 5 pm.

Sat on a bench waiting for packet pick-up to open

Swag

Race shirt

Back of race shirt

After getting our race packets, we headed our separate ways. I went to the nearest Chick-fil-A to pick up dinner. I ordered on the mobile app before heading over. I opted to pick up my order inside the restaurant. Having come from Southern California, it was quite strange to see practically no one wearing masks inside. Besides myself, only a few of the employees were wearing masks. While waiting, my friends messaged me, asking if I wanted to join them for dinner at Pier 49 Pizza.

So after I got my food, I drove over to Pier 49 Pizza to meet up with my friends. Along the way there, I intended on eating my food from Chick-fil-A. However when I got there, I decided to save my food for later and eat a pizza with them. I thought it was interesting that they were a San Francisco themed pizza restaurant. I believe that this was 1 out of 7 locations in Utah. After looking over their pizza menu on the wall, I ordered their personal sized (8 inches) Trolley pizza and a drink. It was pretty decent for a meat-lover pizza. I don't drink soda anymore, but they did have Apple Beer as one of the options on their soda fountain machine. Apparently, it's alcohol-free, caffeine-free, and gluten-free. It's also made with pure cane sugar and no preservatives. That's good enough for me to give it a try. It was okay, but I think I'd stick to good ol' water.

Personal sized Trolley pizza

After we were done with our food, we went our separate ways again. I was finally able to get settled into my unit. I went through the race packet and then ended up plopping myself down in front of the TV, watching some WWE Friday Night SmackDown! While doing so, I ate my second dinner that I had picked up at Chick-fil-A. It wasn't too heavy as it was only a Spicy Southwest salad with grilled nuggets and a fruit cup.

Spicy Southwest salad with grilled nuggets and fruit cup

WWE Friday Night SmackDown!

I laid out my flat runner before calling it a night. I had packed my cooling scarf and arm coolers. The weather forecast had called for triple digits tomorrow, so I'll need everything that I have to deal with the heat.

Flat runner

Saturday 6/5
I got ready and left my unit at about 5:15 am. The drive over to the race took just under 30 minutes. I parked my car in the small parking lot just to the South of the Hurricane Rec Center. It was nice that we could use the restrooms inside the rec center so we don't have to use the portapotty outside. I had arrived about 15 minutes after some of the participants took an early start at 5:30 am. The regular start time for the marathon was at 6:30 am with the half marathon at 7 am. A few of us, Marathon Maniacs, gathered for the obligatory pre-race photo.

Start line

Pre-race Marathon Maniacs photo

The weather at the start was in the low 70's. I covered the first mile in 8:30ish. Normally, that's an indicator that I'm holding back since I tend to run sub 8's early on. I knew that I had to be extra conservative with my pacing today, so I kept pulling back until I was hovering around the mid 9's and low 10's. I also stuck to the strategy of talking a walk break at every mile. My goal was to just survive the heat and finish in around 5:30.

Around mile 4

Around 10k, I see Robert

I reached the turnaround point at about mile 7 in 1:08:36. It was a gradual uphill climb to the turnaround so it was nice to have a stretch of downhill heading back in the other direction.

I reached the halfway turnaround in 2:16:43. The half marathon loop measured about a quarter mile too short. I supposed the hot weather more than makes up for the shortage in distance! From about mile 15 on, I switched to walking only as I was really beginning to struggle and didn't want to have my legs cramp up.

Around mile 16ish, I ended up walking and jogging a bit with a guy named, Walt. We ended up chatting about anything and everything. He shared stories about his service in the military and aviation. He told me a story about how he had to load balance a plane and the Hawaiian passengers really made it harder to make the calculations as they tend to be heavier so he couldn't just use the standard average weight per passenger.

Around mile 18

Amador carrying Old Glory

Almost caught up to Karen

We reached the final turnaround point at about mile 20 in 3:58:37. Walt hung out a bit at the aid station. He said that he wanted to take pictures with the volunteers, so I went ahead thinking that he would just catch up to me right away. I wouldn't see him again until a few blocks from the finish line where he passed me!

Around mile 20, Deo not too far behind me

At around mile 22, I finally caught up to Karen. Robert had finished his race and drove the car back to encourage her along the course. She wasn't doing so well for me to have caught her. Normally, I can't keep up with her walking pace! She walked with me for a little bit, but eventually I went on ahead. The last 10k was difficult as the heat continued to increase. Also, most of the volunteers had abandoned the aid stations. I don't blame them one bit! At each aid station, I continued to pour lukewarm water on my arm coolers. Hey, they really do work! The power of evaporation!

From Robert at around mile 24

When Walt had passed me, I really had nothing left to run it in with him. Eventually as the finish line grew closer, I mustered up enough strength and will to run it in.

Finish

Finish: 5:32:10
Click here for my Garmin data.
Click here for my finish line video. Walt was bib #531.

Man, that was a beautiful rural course. However, the roads were open and some of those cars didn't care that you were running at the side of the road! After receiving my finisher medal, I started my mission of looking for something cold to drink! I went inside to the rec center to use the restroom, clean up my face a bit, and eventually I found a cold can of Sprite! I don't drink soda anymore, but this was a good time to make an exception!

Finisher medal

Post-race Sprite

I then hung out with Robert and Joyce in the shade as we waited for our friends to finish. Once the gang was all there, we traded the usual race stories and cheered on the final finishers. Eventually, we all felt good enough to start heading out on our own separate ways.

Deo

Karen

Marathon Maniacs post-race photo

From Deo... boys and girls have separate conversations

I tried to get into my car to head back to my unit, but the seat burned my thighs! Fortunately for me, I remembered to wear my longer cargo shorts over my running shorts when I came to the race this morning. I had to put those on. Nearing the end of the race, all I was craving was a frosted lemonade from Chick-fil-A. So I placed my order on the mobile app and drove right on over. I went inside to pick up my order as my legs always felt better to walk around a bit after running a race. I think I was really tried, but I didn't care to wear my face mask as the place was crowded and pretty much no one was wearing a mask. However, if I so much heard a mouse sneeze, I was going to put on my mask. Once again, I got their lemon kale Caesar salad with grilled nuggets to go with that ever-so-refreshing frosted lemonade. I've noticed that eating a salad post-race really helps. Must be all of the water in the lettuce to help with the dehydration!

Lemon kale Caesar salad

I watched some episodes of The Office while eating my late lunch. It took me a while before I dragged my butt into the shower to get cleaned up. I then totally vegged out. Eventually, I turned on the 153rd running of the Belmont Stakes. I've never been interested in betting on the ponies, but there's so much pageantry that goes on at this event! Essential Quality was the race favorite and would go on to win the race.

The Office

153rd Belmont Stakes

Essential Quality wins the 153rd Belmont States

As evening rolled around, I had to summon the will to go out and pick up dinner. During my drive to get dinner, I noticed that the check engine light was on. The onboard computer showed that all systems were okay, so that sort of put my mind at ease. The car drove fine, but in the back of my mind, I begged the car to hold it together for the trip home. The last thing that I would want, to be stranded at the side of a desert highway! I was hoping when the weather was cooler in the morning, perhaps that indicator light would go away. Once again, I drove over to Chick-fil-A for dinner. This time however, I opted to get my food via the drive-thru. I haven't been vaccinated yet for COVID, so I really don't need to take any unnecessary chances here! For this meal, I got their Chick-fil-A deluxe sandwich with American cheese, fruit cup, and an unsweetened iced tea.

While eating my dinner, I turned on the TV to see what was on. Lo and behold, The Wedding Planner was on yet again. I seriously think they show this movie every weekend! After that, I had the unfortunate displeasure of finally watching Wonder Woman 1984. My goodness, that was a terrible movie! Who actually approved this god-awful script? Was it just me or did Gal Gadot sound like she just learned English yesterday? I don't remember her sounding this terrible in the first Wonder Woman movie.

The Wedding Planner... again!

Dear lord, that was a horrible movie!

Sunday 6/6
I got ready and checked out of my unit at just before 7:30 am. This was rather an early start since I would be crossing back into another time zone where I would gain an hour. I first drove to the nearby Chevron gas station just off of the Southern Parkway exit to fill up the gas tank. The price of gas continues to trend upwards, but it's always nice to still pay under $4 per gallon for premium unleaded gasoline.

Gas in St George

I rolled into the Las Vegas area at about 8:15 am local time. I drove to the usual Chevron gas station on Eastern to fill up the gas tank one last time before the last leg home.

Gas in Las Vegas

After getting gas, I drove over to the nearby Jollibee to see if I could order something off of their breakfast menu. When I pulled up, I couldn't tell if they were open. Eventually, I pulled on the door and they were open. I inquired if they served breakfast. Unfortunately, she informed me that they did not. I didn't ask and she didn't say why, but I'm guessing it had something to do with COVID. Hopefully, it will eventually return. I ended up ordering a palabok fiesta with pineapple juice. Kind of weird eating this in the morning.

Palabok fiesta with pineapple juice

After I was done with my meal, I hit the road and was on my way home. I made pretty good time and got home right before 12:30 pm.