Saturday April 3 2021
The long Easter weekend presented a great chance to get away for a race. This time it worked out as a trip with friends from work. Four of us flew into Phoenix on Good Friday, picked up the car & grabbed some Mexican for lunch, before checking in to our Air BnB in Peoria, just north of Phoenix. We ordered in some pizza whilst we watched the classic westerns channel, and got an early start the next morning for the Hippity Hop Half Marathon race.
We drove to the park for around 0645, did a quick warm up and got going at 0700. It was already hot, and there was very little shade to be found anywhere. This made the for a tough race, especially at the pace T & M wanted to run at, in order to break 1 hour 30 for their first time. We ran together for the first six miles but I started to stretch ahead a little at that point, trying to stay strong to grind out a finish. I ended up keeping a good pace, and came in at 1 hour 30 exactly, 10th overall, 3rd in my age group. I wore a new pair of VaporFly Next %s and used two Maurten gels, this time using a caffeine one for my second. I also made good use of every aid station, taking on small amounts of water and pouring the rest of the bottles on me to try and keep my core temperature down.
Before and after the race –
The boys coming in to the finish line –
We met a guy called Kevin from Indiana at the start line, and the same guy who had won my half at Hoover Dam, won this race, too. Again, in 1.17! This is my race data –
We left the race and headed back to the Air BnB to clean up and get on the road. We grabbed a Freddy’s for lunch on the way to the Grand Canyon, then headed to Las Vegas, where we stayed at the Venetian for two nights. We had fun, drank some nice cocktails, enjoyed the pool, and had two excellent dinners in the hotel – an Asian the first night and steak the second. Then on Monday we dropped the rental off and flew home to Charlotte.
Racing Americana 