Day 1 - 12/10/16 (Jingle Bell Run):
Sean caught a cold from me recently and got it worse than me for some reason. At 4:51am today, it was bugging him so much he got us both up. :( I was tired as hell but what can you do? So he took some meds, we did some work, and we got ready for this morning's race. A couple days ago, I'd had a post-op appointment for the surgery I'd had on my broken foot 4 or 5 weeks prior. The new x-rays they took showed my bone was aligned pretty well now and there was just a small gap between the bone fragments. The doc said the gap might close up a bit in time. The doc and other employees were pretty unhappy to see me walking around though.. Oh, if they'd seen me in Europe! The doc said I could keep walking on it if it felt okay but that I should at least do so in the $434 boot (covered by insurance, at least) they'd given me for it. Welllll....
This morning's 5k was the 2016 Jingle Bell Run. It started at 8:30am in Summerlin. They had a 10k and a 1k as well but Sean and I had chosen the 5k. It was dog friendly so we took our doggies, as did many of the participants, and drove over. The location:
Tivoli Village
440 S Rampart Blvd
Summerlin, NV 89145
Being a bit older and/or more out of shape now, our doggies were lacking some of the running skill they used to have. Accordingly, we had to carry Little Girl (our chihuahua) at least 2/3 of the way and walk pretty slowly so she could waddle the other 1/3 with us without falling too far behind. Baby (our pug mix) managed the whole race by herself but not exactly at her record pace and it didn't help that she got distracted by every other dog, person, or thing that came anywhere near us. Lol In the end, I think we reached the finish line in about 54 or 54 minutes. The price of bringing small doggies! Still, it was nice having some family time and was a really fun family outing.
At the finish, Sean and I got our medals and other cool freebies. They even had chocolate and plain milk at one table. Doggies happily lapped up some plain milk! Before the race, they'd given us festive, long sleeve race shirts and some bells to adorn ourselves with as well.
At home after the race, we finished getting most of the big Xmas decorations up so our house would be nice and festive for us when we got back. Then we packed a few essentials and got on the road to Arizona for tomorrow's race!
We stopped to check the deals at the 99 Cent Store in Boulder City, NV and got a handful of things before driving straight on to the QuikTrip that seemed the closest to the race location without being out of the way.
It was 7:21pm local time (6:21pm Vegas time) when we got to QuikTrip but we were already fairly tired from last night so we found our spot for the night, set up camp in the car, and watched some Little Britain til we'd wound down enough to try and sleep. Sean's cold had us tossing and turning a bit during the night but we got decent enough sleep to make it thought the next day.
Day 2 - 12/11/16 (Santa Hustle Race):
We were up at 6:05am today. As soon as we were ready enough, we drove to the race location:
Westgate Entertainment District
6751 N Sunset Blvd
Glendale, AZ 85305
This morning's race: the 2016 Santa Hustle! We'd found this race on LivingSocial and signed up quite awhile back, Sean in the half marathon and me in the 5k. They'd told us to anticipate long lines and to come early. I guess we over anticipated because we had no trouble getting a great parking spot maybe 45 minutes before the race and picking up our race packets without waiting in line. In our packets, we received the coolest hooded, long sleeve, Christmas running shirts! Just after 8am, Sean started his race. Though they had corrals for runners of varying paces, Sean decided to start at the back. I gave him a good luck kiss and he was off! Probably less than 15 minutes later, my 5k started. There were WAY more participants in the 5k but it was much less serious overall. Tons of walkers too. In the 1/2, runners were informed they'd need to maintain a 15 minute mile pace or better to stay in the race.
Not having run in so long, Sean and I were really under-prepared and didn't do too well in our races but considering it was the first time either of us had actually run a race since I'd broken my foot, that neither of us had trained or gone for a workout in 2 months, and the fact that it's Christmas time, we weren't completely disappointed. Just glad to be here!
Once I'd finished my 5k, I recovered and got some freebies before walking just over a mile back on the course to wait with some water for Sean. (There were water, Gatorade, candy, and cookie stations on the course but I knew he could use lots more water.) Then, I spotted him and jogged his last mile with him, getting him some drinks and treats on the way!
Once we both had our medals and plenty of snacks and drinks, I sat with Sean while he laid down for a bit to recover. He eventually got back up and it was time to take lots of pictures and get our beers ($0.01 with race entry). As for our results:
Me:
-overall place: 35 out of 830
-division (5-year age group) place: 5 out of 75
-gender place: 12 out of 609
-time: 26:07
-pace: 8:25
Sean:
-overall place: 27 out of 172
-division (5-year age group) place: 4 out of 9
-gender place: 19 out of 57
-time: 1:51:43
-pace: 8:32
We were STARVING then so we drove to Panda Express and split a 3-entree plate, using a coupon for a discount.
We had one last thing on the agenda left after food: Goodwill Clearance Center. We drove there to shop for Christmas gifts and other stuff. The cost had gone up from $1.19/pound to $1.29/per pound but still a good deal.
Done with shopping, we got gas and a 64oz drink refill each at QuikTrip down the street. Then we drove home where Marquee, Mike/Xero, Jesse, Avery, Avery's little brother Morgan, and Danny were hanging out. They were there for some speech thing Marquee needed to borrow our house for but they left shortly after Sean and I got back. That's okay. It was time for Sean and me to relax and undo our running with lots more calories anyway. :)
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