Our first big stop was in Arizona where we stopped to look at "the London Bridge" in Lake Havasu (the actual London Bridge relocated from London brick by brick) and then we were on our way again further into the desert. I began to occupy my time looking for some good cacti where we could pull over to take a picture. We ventured off the highway onto a service road and a few miles down we found a lone cactus in the middle of nowhere, perfect for a picture. It wasn't until I was standing in front of the cactus that Cody decided to mention the hole at the base of the cactus might be home to some snakes, and with that I raced back to the safety of the car and off we went in search of the Arizona/Nevada border and the Hoover Dam. This part of the drive was really cool, I'm not sure if it was the landscape or the time of day but it felt like we were on another planet. In no time at all (with the speed limits here) we arrived at the Hoover Dam. By now it was sunset, we decided to pull off to go to the bridge lookout above the Dam, oh my were we high up, precisely 900 ft off the ground! It was quite the sight. Afterwards we drove down to the dam part and I took some pictures up towards the bridge.
Our hotel is maybe only a mile from the Dam. So we decided to check in and have a look at some dinner options. We weren't planning on leaving the hotel so our options were limited. There is a "steak house", but not the kind you might think as its attached to a truck stop cafe and all the food is cooked in the same kitchen so we opted not to pay $20+ a plate for less than mediocre food. I'm sad to say it was probably my worst pre race dinner quality wise, I didn't eat a lot but good news is I'm not too hungry and I brought my breakfast with me so I don't have to worry about eating more food here.
We headed back up to our room so I could set out all my gear for the morning with only a brief stop at the roulette table! As I was searching through the suitcase it suddenly donned on me that my running pants might be back in the closet in Palm Springs where I hung them after washing them the previous night. My searching through the suitcase became more frantic even though I knew at that point what I was looking for was over 280 miles away...
I had a choice: I could wear a thin pair of sweat pants that are pretty ratty and I normally wear them as pajamas or we could drive to Henderson and search for something open at 9:00pm. I opted for the drive as I think this run is going to be tougher than I thought and I don't need anymore issues. So 30 minutes later we were at Target and I searched through the racks and found a decent pair of Champion brand running tights.
So crisis averted and here we are back at the hotel. I have to be honest when I signed up for this race I didn't read much about the route or anything, for some reason I assumed it was flat. Well let me tell you, it's NOT going to be flat, I'm sure have more to say about that tomorrow. It is also very cold here, below zero cold in the desert? Also not something I totally wrapped my mind around leading up to this. Another thing to consider is that this will be the highest elevation I've ever run a race at, I'm not sure that it will have any affect on the race and if it did I'm not even sure I would recognize it.
Anyways after 300 miles of driving, crossing two time zones, and a last minute trip to target, off to bed I go, unsure but excited to attempt a PR hills and all!
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