Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Phoenix Marathon - Post Race

Now that we got that little thing called the Phoenix Marathon out of the way, it was time to PARTY... Oh wait, the entire weekend was a PAR-TAY, who am I kidding?!

In case you missed my previous posts about THE WEEKEND OF THE YEAR, check them out below! [WARNING - They are long, but you won't want to miss a word, I promise ;)]

Phoenix Marathon - Pre Race
Phoenix Marathon Race Recap

And now that you are caught up we can chug right along!

The weather was looking a little iffy out after we finished (earlier in the week they were actually predicting rain for the race, so I am glad it stayed away), but we didn't want to chance it, so hubby and I made our way back to the hotel (that is, after his Starbucks stop, I mean it is a hard job spectating!).

We showered, got ready, and then just kept on going. We made our way over to Green for lunch. Ummmmmmm, HELLO DELISH VEGAN FOOD! (Ryan and I kept commenting on how many awesome veggie friendly places we stumbled upon - WAY TO GO PHOENIX!) We got our grub on (normally I can't really eat much after a race, but I was still able to put away my Wendy's Pickle Sandwich with a side of fruit) and enjoyed sitting still for a few minutes.


After we scarfed down our lunch, Ryan noticed there were a few thrift stores next door so OBVIOUSLY we had to hit them up. Other than my throw-away hoodie for race morning we didn't buy anything from the 4 or 5 thrift stores we stopped at. Maybe I wasn't in the digging through junk mood or maybe there just weren't that many hidden gems...

Using Ryan's Roadtripper's App we saw that there was a HOLE IN THE ROCK that we should check out... If only we could actually find the hill the said hole was in... We ended up going to 4 different parks, hiking up and around at least 5 different hills until we FINALLY found it.

At one of the Non-Hole in the Rock stops... This is me trying to tell Ryan he needs to get the jumping picture on the FIRST shot because I didn't have enough energy to do it 15 times like normal ;)

I think this was the fourth attempt and then we STOPPED!

Originally Ryan tried to get me to scale the side of the hill (which we attempted), but when we were told we couldn't get to the top from that route we ended up finding a much easier path to walk up. Seeing as we had been hiking around all afternoon to try and find this stinkin' hole you better believe we took a couple pictures. (And, yes, along the way we did see many other holes in rocks, but apparently this was the Mecca...)

It must be THE hole in THE rock, I mean, there was a sign!

That is the Phoenix Zoo through the hole

A look towards downtown 

Ryan and the hole

Exciting, huh?

The clouds kept the temperatures down and thankfully the rain stayed away...

Well, as you can see, there was some rain drops on the lens, so we tried to get to the car quickly after this.

After all of our morning/ afternoon activity we made our way back to the hotel only to change and head out the door again. That's right, the AMAZING folks from Pro Compression were hosting a celebration dinner for the ambassadors since so many of us were running in the weekend races, so we had to keep going.

For some reason, when we had originally heard about this dinner, I put it in my phone's calendar but APPARENTLY I put the WRONG restaurant location in the address... OOPS! We didn't realize this until we walked up (in the rain) to the wrong Oregano's. I told them we were with a large party for Pro Compression. The girl gave me attitude and said that they had a group of 12 and a group of 14 on the list at that point. I told her this would have been a reservation and we probably had about 25 folks. She sort of laughed in my face and said "We don't take reservations". Okay then... Back outside I texted with friends and realized we were still about 20 minutes away from the CORRECT location... On the road again!

Finally we made it to the PARTY! I have to brag a little... Okay, A LOT! This group of people is AMAZING! Like literally each and every one of them is a ROCKSTAR! And not only that, we are ambassadors for a FREAKIN' SWEET company! Pro Compression totally did NOT need to put together a dinner for us - but that is just how WONDERFUL they are (and, I mean, did you see our hats!?)!

The man, the myth, the legend - Eric, the CREATOR of Pro Compression
I am still a little hurt that my hubby met him before I did, AND that it took me this long to meet him seeing as the office is right next door to Ryan's, but I'll get over it ;)

Now, please excuse the dump of photos, but I just couldn't choose ;) Ryan likes grabbing some candid pictures (which I normally hate and just delete), but these are just too fun not to share!

Guess we were getting set up... Obviously Michael and I were on the same page for this one!

With so many cameras it was like we were famous or something ;) WHERE DO WE LOOK FIRST?! 

There I go with a crazy face, ruining the picture like normal...

That one I have a decent smile but Brian isn't looking...

Are we done yet?! 

I'm not sure what I am doing with my hands... Am I throwing up gang signs?!

Apparently Brian got the "let's be gansta" memo ;)

One more for good measure with the AMAZING Christina!

Don't ask... Ryan said "Point at his PC Gear" and this is the photo that came out...

OBVIOUSLY we had to #KeepItTight after the morning's race!

The pictures above were just of the ambassadors, but folk's significant others, kids, etc were invited as well. It was great getting a chance to catch up on everyone's races, meet the families, and break bread together (and by break bread I mean gorge ourselves on pizza and "non-pazookies" {which looked AMAZING, but I gave up sweets for Lent so couldn't partake})!

Obviously I had to get a couple pictures with the guys who have put up with my craziness during this round of training and were constantly there for support and encouragement! (Public Service Announcement - Training can be difficult. Having people in your corner that "get" you, that believe in you {at times more than you believe in yourself}, that are there to celebrate your triumphs, push you when you need it, and understand your "failures/ short comings" are PRICELESS!)

Michael - the one who believes I can actually qualify for Boston and was trying to make it happen!
And wait, is that Brian in the background trying to improve our picture?!

Brian, Thug Carlee and Michael (photo improving our shot)
Pavey is DA BOMB DOT COM!

Although it was only 8:30pm I was BEAT! I was out of bed before 3am, ran a marathon, hiked a couple mountains and hadn't really sat down all day. Oh yeah, AND a few of us were meeting up the following morning to run a 8K together... Ryan and I made our way back to the hotel and quickly passed out!

Next up, our Virtual 408K Race to the Row recap.

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

I love that you went hiking after a marathon, crazy girl! But totally worth it for the jumping shot.