My second time in Vegas

 

For the second time in 2020, and the second time in my life, I flew into Vegas.  This time we were only there a few hours, but we had a good time. 

After we got our pictures in front of the Vegas sign, we had lunch at Jack in the Box; a new fast food restaurant for mom to try.  Then we went to Camden's request for the trip...a thrill ride on top of the Stratosphere.  We had tried to do that the last time we were there, but they had not opened up yet.  But this time was a success!  I love thrill rides, but not ones 900 feet in the air!  Camden, however, has no fear.  We got our tickets to ride the elevator to the observation deck, which was scary enough for me, and then Camden got on the ride called Insanity.  

Views of Downtown Vegas

Camden kept putting his arms out as I was yelling at him to hold on!  One lady was yelling that she wanted her money back!  He said the ride was relaxing!

This ride really was insane!!

After Camden got his thrill ride, we went to see the Bellagio Fountain.  They were supposed to start their performance at 3 and go every thirty minutes, but after waiting for about 20 minutes after the start time, they never started.  We did, however, get to see the conservatory inside the Bellagio.  It had changed since I had been there in June, but it was still very pretty.

The fountains that never came on

We had a 4 hour drive to our hotel, so we left without waiting for the fountains to come on.  We did make some scenic view stops of course!  The first was to look at Lake Mead.  

A mosaic of the Hoover Dam...the dam that created Lake Mead.

More scenic views along the road to the Grand Canyon

We didn't make it to the hotel before it became dark.  And we had to pull over to figure out how to turn the lights on!  We stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner because we didn't know of any local places to eat and then drove without stopping to the hotel.  As we turned in the hotel, we saw some cool horse statues...that started to move!!  They were wild horses and they startled us.  Camden has fallen asleep and woke up to see a horse right beside his window.  He was really freaked out!

We checked into the Best Western Premier Grand Canyon Squire Inn.  It was a nice hotel with a bowling alley and an indoor pool.  But those would have to wait until the next night as it was late and we had an early morning planned for exploring the Grand Canyon!!!
 

  

State number 7 was the Lake Powell Half Marathon

 On my quest to run in all 50 states, I found the Lake Powell Half in Page, Arizona.  This seemed the perfect run for me as I am a Powell and I needed to run in Arizona.  And since my mom married a Powell and is Carol Powell, I figured she needed to go too!  And according to my Aunt, we are actually related to John Wesley Powell; the man whom Lake Powell is named after.  The vacation part of the run was truly awesome and a once in a lifetime trip, but that will be for other posts.

After running two other Vacation Races half marathons, I was excited to do a third.  This one was listed as easy, but then Covid!  Their original course ended in a national park area and that couldn't happen because of Covid stuff.  But VR saved the race and set the course on a trail called the Page Rim.  The start of the race was at the Page Amphitheater which is a natural amphitheater.  There was also a Navajo heritage center there with replica houses.

Everyone was excited at the beginning of the race!

My wave of runners started a little before 7 am

Page Rim is a sandy rock trail.  Mostly small up and down hills, even though those hills got hard and not as small near the end of the rim.  But the hardest part was getting on and off the rim.  This was where the real sand was!  Deep, dry, hard to run in sand.  And it was on the hill getting up to the rim!  Of all the half marathons I have run, this was definitely the hardest.  After the first mile of kind of hard running, the sand turned into a hill!  I tried running up the hill, but even running slowly was impossible for me and turned into barely moving up the hill.  I was in good company though because everyone else was walking too.  

After getting to the rim, I started feeling better about how I was doing and the views become amazing!  Sandstone rock mountains in the distance; Lake Powell below us; and only 11 miles to go.  Somewhere close to mile 9 or 10ish, it started getting hard again.  More sand and more hills.  They weren't huge hills, but they were tough ones.  At one aid station, you had to get off the trail and step off of a sidewalk.  Going back to the trail I was actually thankful for the sand as I tripped over the sidewalk and fell in the soft sand.  I didn't get hurt as it was soft deep sand.  Maybe that is why the hills had become so hard!      

Still smiling during the first half!

The views were more spectacular than the pictures show...but the pictures did stop after the first half....too tired to pull out my phone!

We crossed a road around mile 11.  Mom and Camden had stopped there to look for me and said everyone was struggling crossing that road!  (They had walked to the finish line from the hotel, but never saw me cross the road.)  A little way past the mile 11 sign, the course left the rim and went downhill.  Going downhill in deep sand was kind of fun and for some reason I thought I would be going downhill and then flat the rest of the way to the finish line.  But that did not happen!  At the bottom of the hill, I looked ahead and saw another uphill of deep sand!  I thought I was going to die...there was no way I could run up that hill.  And even though it wasn't really running, I kept moving.  Most of the way to the finish line, about the last mile, was really tough.  I usually am able to run through the finish line and smile and feel good, but this time I was huffing and puffing and barely moving.  But I did it!  I finished a tough course with the worst time ever, but was still thankful that I was able to run in AZ without it being canceled.  I would choose sand any day over the race being canceled.  Even though I don't think I ever want to run on a sand dune type trail ever again!!

There were at least three runners from SC...one I heard crossing the finish a little after the video ended.

Smiling again after the race was over!  But still needing to lean on the sign!

Some of the sand I collected in my shoes during the race.  And after washing my socks at home, I found more sand on the couch where I was folding clothes!

After the race, we spent time exploring the Lake Powell area.  It was cool seeing people who had also finished the race.   Several were first time half marathoners and were encouraged that the race was a hard one as they couldn't compare it to others.  And I was encouraged that I was not the only one who thought the race was hard!   

 

My treasured medal for a tough race!  And another state marked off of my list!!  No other half scheduled for me until April 2021.  Let's see if I can change that!