Zion National Park experience

A few weeks before we left for Las Vegas, I did a little research on other things to do. Brittney and I aren't gamblers. We love the outdoors. I found a blog that described a trip getting a rental car and driving 2 and a half hours from Vegas to Zion National Park in southern Utah.

 http://andystravelblog.boardingarea.com/2016/08/10/day-trip-zion-national-park/#comment-165624

We followed his lead. We rented an Audi A4 from Silvercar. Picked up the car at 6:30am and dropped it off at 10pm. Total cost was $99 for the day. Came with Sirius XM and GPS. Picked up some on the go breakfast and drove through the desert mountains. Amazing views!

 Wide open roads with 75 mph speed limits! Everything was going great until we hit a traffic jam??? We could see ahead of us. Traffic was directed off the highway down an exit ramp then back onto the highway up the entrance ramp.I couldn't see any vehicles wrecked but the cops had the highway shutdown here. Once we got going up the entrance ramp is where we saw the shoe. Then the insides of a person spread out over the roadway. I blame my profession for my ,"Whoa! Lets take a picture!" response.

see the black shoe on the road? just ahead of it is the insides of a person

Never saw a head or arms, but I knew what happened. Just a few yards up, the police were talking to the semi driver. The bumper was missing. The news later reported a suspected burglar had been struck on the highway. Gruesome! Crazy way to end it. Wild way to start our adventure.

Driving through the mountains was incredibly fun. The views were just amazing. We passed through Nevada into Arizona and then into Utah. The drive was easy. The time change was weird and messed with our heads a little. Flying from Dayton to Las Vegas changes the time 3 hours back. Then crossing into Utah the time jumped back up an hour. One great thing about this adventure was we weren't in any hurry. We had no time limits or appointments. We were incredibly close to the park when we found the Majestic View restaurant. This was our first view of Zion National Park.

We almost got hit by a truck because we were mesmerized by the views.
 we ate at the center table

We met a couple from Canada who were raving about British Columbia and the scenery there. Good to know since that's where our next adventure takes us in July 2018! Lunch was tasty, but we were dying to get outside!

We drove through this little mountain town and had to park out in town because the "in the park" parking was full.

We walked into the park and found the shuttle. The shuttle takes people to 9 different stops in the park. The shuttle speakers said the Angel's Landing trail was "strenuous" and has had deaths. This may have worried Brittney a little. We got off the shuttle at The Grotto.

We started up the path towards Angel's Landing. This trail gains 1500 ft of elevation in about 2.5 miles. There's some steep inclines going up this trail. Brittney admitted she didn't look over the info I had sent her. This was not what she thought we were getting into. To be honest, I didn't realize this was as tough as it was. I'm glad I didn't research this more or we may not have tried it. I certainly would not suggest this hike 2 days before a marathon! But here we were. My child hood dream of getting to explore was beaming into real life!
 just starting up the trail


 the high cliff on left is where we were headed

Up the trail and out we went. The views were just incredible. Seeing a tree growing on the side of the mountain was unique. Watching the river get smaller as higher up we went.



 there were steep parts
Then we hit The Wiggles.

(not my picture: but accurate)

I liked The Wiggles!

You just keep winding your way up The Wiggles. Path was wide enough for 2 people. There were all kinds of people on this path. Some people going fast, some taking their time. This was fun. I was smiling from ear to ear. Heart rate was up, calves were feeling the incline. The trail consisted of sand, dirt, and concrete. I was having a blast. Once up The Wiggles, we wound around to Scout's Landing. There was a lot of people taking in the breath taking views, relaxing or reading.

Rock squirrels were friendly and cute.


This was a great rest stop. This is also a decision point for a lot of people. The question asked is, "Should I go forward or just go back?" Brittney and I called the next portion, "The chains".

Because here is the start of risky danger fun. The park has bolted thick chains into the rock to hold

onto. The rock is uneven and steep.

last hiker to fall to his death here was March 2017!


















You have to watch every step you take. No step is like the step before. You are working to get up this part. One chain may be vertical and the next is horizontal.

most of the time we were about 2 feet from the edge










I snuck a tool out of my endurance training..a mantra...I said out loud repeatedly.."I am a mountain goat." I could focus on my mantra and continuing forward without getting overly nervous. As we were working over this part, Brittney unfortunately made a mistake that anyone with a fear of heights shouldn't make here... she looked DOWN. She realized how high up we were and the side of the cliff is within feet of you. There's a few sections where you have no room for error. We got to a section where you could sit on the rock. Brittney suffered a mild panic attack. She started crying as she was almost paralyzed from fear. I calmed her down and assured her she didn't have to go any further. I also promised I could get her back down ALIVE. People were coming and going past us. One guy and 2 girls decided to take a break at the same spot we were in. The guy admitted he had, in his words, "chickened out" his first 2 trips to Angel's Landing. After a short talk, I asked if they would stay with Brittney so I could see the next landing point. Others told us there was a great viewpoint just a few feet up. The others said they'd stay with Britt while I checked out the next spot. I continued up and found this view..

Another guy tried to talk me into going all the way up to Angel's Landing. The path becomes more dangerous and as I've since learned, is called the "death zone". The trail goes down and then curls up to get to Angel's Landing.

the path continued toward the tree closest here, then UP! Angel's Landing is the TOP of this peak

This section wasn't overly long, but takes a while to cover due to terrain and possibility of falling over either side of the cliff. . This is the place where hikers have fallen to their death. There were plenty of people going all the way up the day we were there. I wanted to keep going, I was so close. I also knew that leaving Brittney where she was for too long was a bad idea. The view I got here was great enough. I made my way back down and made sure Brittney was in the right mindset to get down. She told me that some jerk had said, "6 people a year die right here in this very spot." She was scared, but I was so proud of her. She stared FEAR in the EYE and conquered it. She listened to me as I explained which steps I was taking and where to hold the chain. We took our time and let people pass by us.




















I took a pic of Britt as she was almost down from "the chains."

She breathed a huge sigh of relief once on solid flatter ground. Brittney was upset with herself but I assured her it was an adventure I was thrilled to enjoy with her. About an hour or so later, what she accomplished finally set in and she accepted the fact that it took more courage for her to make it where she did and get down then it does for most people. This was a trip some people will never get the chance to see. Going up "the chains" is a choice some can't make. We love a challenge, and this challenge was one we never prepared for. We aren't seasoned hikers. We just went for adventure, and boy did we find it! Getting all the way up to Angel's Landing is now on my bucket list. Brittney will have to decide later if it's a goal for her to go farther or not. I will make it there, maybe not this year or next, but I will get there. This just gives us a reason to go back!

 going back down The Wiggles

 stunning views!

As we made our way back down the path, You would've thought I was a kid at Christmas. My brain was stimulated and I felt ALIVE. This was LIVING LIFE. We took some pics and just enjoyed the scenery. We were almost back to the trailhead when another hiker gave us the "quiet" signal 

maybe 10 feet off the trail, a deer was grazing on the trees.

Nature is gorgeous. After almost 5 miles of hiking, we decide we have enough energy left in the tank to go see the Emerald Pools. It was a mile away. Back over rocks

and through sand we went.

 We saw all 3 "pools." In my opinion, 2 of the "pools" weren't very impressive. Almost large puddles. There was natural water running along the rock that was pretty. Then we found the bigger pool.

 In the middle of all this canyon, this was neat. I went around and over the bigger rocks just to get a different view. I slipped and almost busted my butt. We took an extended break here. Just enjoyed God's grace and beauty. Simply amazing. We made our way back and joined a brother and sister team who were out hiking as well. We all talked on the way back and before we knew it, we were back to the shuttle stop.

We were exhausted. But the run streak doesn't care if you are exhausted, or if you hiked around 8 miles. It only cares if you ran at least a mile that day. So back to the car where I changed shoes. Brittney ran with me. We went out a half mile, encountered 2 deer, then ran back to our car. My first mile ran in Utah! We left the park and stopped at


Excellent ribs and service! I normally don't drink anything but water. I had a 3 hour drive to make and it was dark out! I drank more Mountain Dew at dinner than I've had in a year. We Facetimed our daughters and back to Vegas we went. Stopped at a store and a local ice cream place in the outer neighborhood of Vegas. Returned our car and got an Uber back to our hotel.

This was my absolute favorite part of our trip. Just to be away from cell phones and work. To discover, touch, and be apart of nature filled my soul with joy. To watch my beautiful wife fight her fear and trust me to help her. This is a trip we will never forget. I highly recommend going to Zion! Whether you take Angel's Landing trail or a different trail. Whether you decide to tackle "the chains" or stop at Scout's Landing...go see what this beautiful country has to offer. It's truly amazing.

Angel's Landing...be ready...I'm coming for you

Rock n Roll Las Vegas Marathon

I will start this one out by stating this was my experience. My opinion. I am not judging the entire Rock n Roll company on this 1 race. I have raced in lots of races. Been to many places and ran road, trail, big races like NYC marathon, raced in Xenia marathon where I felt alone at times. I have certain expectations now. I had read some negative reviews about this race but I always give the event the chance to impress me. I'm always willing to listen to others opinions whether you agree or disagree with my opinion.

Short background on how we decided to run this race. Brittney and I took a weekend in Vegas in January 2003 as our honeymoon. I was in police academy when we got married. We stayed at The Mirage and saw Siegfried and Roy's Tiger show. In 2016, we saw a special price for the Las Vegas Marathon. Brittney and I agreed for our 15th anniversary, we would take another long weekend in Vegas. Brittney asked that I ran with her at her pace to cover the distance. The couple who runs together..gets stronger together! We saw the marathon ended at The Mirage. PERFECT! What better hotel to stay in?! So we booked our hotel, registered for the race, and waited to go.

The flight in to Vegas was smooth. Friday we hiked Zion National Park. We took a strenuous trail which is not recommended 2 days before a marathon. But we were going to have fun in the marathon, not try to run our fastest race.Saturday we saw a few hotels and smoky casinos. We do not like smoky casinos. Smells gross! We went to the expo and had fun there. I loved the Brooks porta potties changing rooms!

We then went back to the hotel and took a 3 hour nap. Apparently a flight that changes 3 time zones then hiking all day wears you out. We made our way to SLS Las Vegas. This is the north end of the strip. I thought the 5k started at 6:30 and was pretty chill. Until Brittney saw a sign stating 5k started at 6! It was 5:48 when she saw that! Oops! I busted a move to get to start line. I made it into my corral before the National Anthem! I shook 2 LVMPD Officer's hands and off we went. The route was basically a mile and a half out and back down a back street of Vegas. There was a DJ with huge lighting system and music could be heard most of the way. There was a few good costumes on runners. I knew I had to run a marathon the next day and didn't want to completely smoke my legs. I also wanted to stretch my legs a little. I've been feeling slow since Ironman Louisville. So I ran strong the first mile but didn't overdo it. I felt good so I stayed on pace.The 3rd mile I was having a blast and saw a KISS cover band who was rocking out which energized me. Then I saw this huge Brooks inflatable arch that I thought was the finish line. 

 I kicked it up a notch to discover I still had about .2 miles to run. Whoops but oh well. I finished at 23:12 official time. Always feels good to run fast! Legs didn't feel tired. I got a nice medal out of it


, covered my daily mile, and I knew I'd get the challenge medal the next day also.

Brittney's favorite band is the Goo Goo Dolls. I like their music as well. We were both super happy to find out Rock n Roll offered a free Goo Goo Dolls concert for runners and runner's families. This was held in same park 5k started/finished in. There was lots of police presence, but I still looked at all the windows of the surrounding hotels. I figured there were sniper teams covering all hotels, but I had to check the windows myself. The concert was great. I loved the outdoor venue. It was almost chilly out but we had a blast. After the concert, we made our way back to the monorail. In SLS, we saw a group of people who were in the running for an $85,000 BWM. We crashed back at our hotel. No staying up late partying for us.

Sunday morning we had breakfast at Paris hotel. Went through Cesar's Palace and back to The Mirage to rest. The thought of starting a marathon at 4:30 pm is just odd.How do you eat that day? You don't want to get hungry but you don't want to start a marathon on a full stomach. We decided to make our way close to New York New York hotel, where the start line was. We split a cheese pizza at 2 pm. We stayed off our feet at CPK. The runners at the next table talked to us. It was a father son team. Dad was running the half, the 27 year old son, Jeff, was running his first marathon. Jeff was excited and nervous. We then went out to scout out the lay of the land. Gear check was about a half mile from starting corrals. Once we were ready to check our bag, we located  the trucks tucked behind T Mobile arena. We walked to corrals and found everyone else in Vegas at the same place!
There was 1 gate to get into the corrals. ONE GATE. There were different colored corrals that each had 12 corrals per color. We were standing on top of each other and not moving. I was pretty sure that we would not be able to start on time because we weren't able to enter the corral for about 15 minutes. Then, somehow, like a salmon swimming up stream, we made our way to our corral. The start line did have pyrotechnics and rock music. I thought the trouble was behind us and all we had to do was run 26.2 miles. The first mile took us out past the
 
sign. We then ran past the field where the shooting victims had been. It was all fenced off. Still eerie. Very sad. We got to the turn around and there were 4 violinists. Their music was beautiful. Back towards the strip and we saw



The sun had went down. This sign wasn't as big or glamorous as the movies makes it out to be. Then we get into all the hotels and lights! Running the strip was awesome!
Elton John, (impersonator) was rocking a piano! Then KISS (impersonators) were rocking out in the middle of the strip! Buddy Holly (impersonator) was jamming at north end of the strip. We were about 5 miles in and I was pumped! This was fun!

Then we turned...and this is where I started to realize that we had already run the only part of Vegas worth running. We went past Stratosphere and started making our way back towards the strip. The marathon then turned right about 8 miles in where the half marathon continued towards the finish line. The back streets of Vegas were pretty dark. I told Brittney I was happy I was running with her, because I didn't feel all that safe in these neighborhoods. There was lots of police presence, but wow, this part was not fun. Then we hit the "Blue's Band". 12 miles into a run, I don't want to hear how you lost your dog and girlfriend. That was rough. We made our way out to The Pavilions.

This was our first "labyrinth". We got there just after mile 13. It had neon lights and a DJ rocking great music over speakers throughout the venue. I also saw runners running every which way in between cones. This was not good. I knew this would get old soon. After a few miles, YES ..MILES..running in between tents..we left towards an underpass. Its completely dark in the underpass. NO LIGHTS, barely tell where other runners are. Couldn't see street. So what next? That's right, we hit a turn around at mile 17 and go back under the underpass and to top it off...run BACK into tents! If I had hair, I would've pulled it out. at about 18.7 miles...we finally got to leave the tent maze.

Mind numbing! Feeling like a mouse trapped. Good lord was I happy to leave that part. I know you don't want negative thoughts to enter the mind during an endurance event. But that part sucked. 6 miles in 1 place was horrendous.We started back towards the strip. We had 7 miles to go. Brittney and I weren't fast, but we were steady. At around mile 21, we entered the field where the concert was. I then realized that RnR did it again..another LABYRINTH!!!

Forward, left, then right, back the way we started, through the field, follow the arrows. You think you're almost out and NOPE!  Back around you go! This was terrible. I've never seen a race do this. How they measured this out had to be insane. Mile 24 we got to leave. 3 miles in a small park. Mind numbing. Not enjoyable. Crazy. Then we ran past the marijuana dispensary. We joined back up with the half marathoners who had started later and were the back of that pack. Only to go out and back another half mile. Elvis impersonator was rocking! but all the out and backs, the mazes, I was ready to be finished with this. That's when I heard, "HEY! You guys were at CPK!" Our new friend Jeff had found us. He was hurting but looked ok. We talked and he agreed to hang with us for the last 1.5 miles. Back on the strip and bright lights got brighter. Music got louder! Lasers! FINISH LINE! Hand in hand, Brittney and I finished it! We were thrilled.


Happy to be done, proud of our efforts! Got our well earned FINISHER MEDALS


and made our way through the HALF MILE chute. We could've taken as many ROTTEN bananas as we wanted, because NO ONE wanted those. They offered a bottle of water, Gatorade and a protein bar. That was it. SAD! Why in the heck they made this chute so long was ridiculous. The set up was so long, it blocked runners paths back to The Mirage! You say The Mirage is host hotel and then block access back to it after the race??? Makes no sense to me. We had to go into traffic lanes at Cesar's Palace to figure out a way to our hotel. Usually after a marathon, I'm on a runner's high. I was thoroughly DISAPPOINTED in this race. I now understand the negative reviews I read. There was no bananas or oranges on the course. The mazes are horrible. RnR promises live bands every mile, not even close. Gear check was far away from corrals, corrals overcrowded. Route was ridiculous. Then today I read RnR ran out of medals. I know they gave FINISHER medals and jackets to people who were picked up by Sag wagons. People who did not run the entire distance were also given FINISHER times...times that look fast, but not EARNED! This irritates the crap out of me. I can't understand this. You are given a challenge, to run 26.2 miles to earn a finisher medal. If you fail, that's OK. But don't accept something you haven't earned. I feel very strong about this. Because I work my tail off to earn my medals.

I will say the medals and jacket were awesome.

 I got the ReMix Challenge guitar medal for running the 5k and marathon. But this hardly makes up for such a miserable race. If the opportunity to run again in Vegas, I would consider the half. Great changes would have to be made for me to ever consider the marathon in Vegas again. Again, this was just my experience. I have been told other RnR races were better ran. This was my first RnR race and I'm not in any hurry to do another. I'm always happy to discuss if you have any questions or want other details.