PF Chang's Part Deux

One thing that made it easier to leave family on the east coast after the Christmas visits was knowing that J & A would be coming out in less than a week. We picked them up at the airport on Friday, January 11th a good two hours later than expected. After we fed them a late night dinner prepared by Chef Keeper, we all went to bed.

Saturday morning we hit up a farmer's market at Road Runner Park and bought wild-caught salmon, salsa, jelly, etc. Then we checked out REI's sale (unimpressed, we left with only some GU and Clif Shots). We headed downtown to the Convention Center for the Race Expo. A and I got our race numbers, chips, t-shirts/goody bags and decided the Expo was mayhem and opted to eat lunch instead of shop. We went down to Tempe to Keeper and I's favorite lunch spot: Dilly Deli (thank you Bronders, for introducing this place to me exactly 2 years ago, the day before my debut marathon!) After lunch, J and I claimed the couch and passed out (picture to come later) before moving the nap party to my room. It is nice to have someone to be lazy with!

Sunday morning: Race Day!!! A and I were up early, eating breakfast and getting dressed (i e finding nasty, old long-sleeve t-shirts to throw away after the race started) . Keeper drove us down to the start village and we saw the marathoners take off. I can't tell you how great it felt to "only" be running the 1/2. We wandered around and found water and bagels, stood in line for nasty port-o-pots and jumped in our start corral. We ran the first 5k together then I realized A's pace was a little too much for me and I decided to slow down and lost him in the masses. It was really cool to run the race as a citizen of Phoenix, because I knew exactly where I was at all points during the race. I thought my 8:30+ pace for the first five miles might be a bit too ambitious, so I slowed to around 9:00 miles the next 5 miles and, feeling great at mile 10 (a first!), I decided to push it the last 5k. My last two splits were exactly 8:30s. I finished strong with a PR (I hadn't PR'd in almost 3 years!!!) of 1:56:14. This was a full 6 minutes faster than the 1/2 marathon I ran at the end of October....feels great! I met up with the fam at the "Y" section of the "Family Reunion Area" and found out A had finished 4 minutes in front of me. Great Race! We happily sucked our popsicles and headed to the car, passing by mile 25 of the marathon to cheer on the finishers. After showers and ice baths (which although torturous, help tremendously) we headed to Pei Wei for a post-race feast. Once again, J and I passed out on the couch after being well-fed and the rest of the day was spent lounging. J & A left Monday morning and it really was a great visit, although much too short. I was hoping the snowstorm back east would've been a little bigger and they could be "stuck" here for an extra day. No luck. We are already planning a March rendezvous, place: TBA.