Race Day

It was race day: so Sparky and I got up early and drove to Salt Lake to watch Wart and Leslie run the Salt Lake 1/2 Marathon.

Bert & Ernie had been up there with their tribe since Thursday. Worried about being able to get to the Hilton where they were staying we dutifully tuned the radio to 1300 AM to listen for marathon traffic updates. Unfortunately, the powers-to-be did a better job of promoting the station on the I-15 traffic signs than they did with transmission power and we could barely hear a voice above the static. With the radio off, we flew by the seat of our pants. Luckily the traffic was minimal, early-Saturday-morning traffic. We drove right to the Hilton and parked in the underground parking.

We called Nic again, announced our arrival, and sat down in the lobby to wait for the tribe to come down. Shortly thereafter, Nic brought Frank down, dropped him off with grandma and went back up the gather the remaining tribal members.

10 minutes later we were all gathered and walking the six blocks to The Gateway and the race finish line to await Wart and Leslie. We stood in the cool morning breeze and helped cheer the runners as they made their last, one-block effort to improve their time.

After a while Sparky decided to check her phone and saw she had missed a call from Wart announcing she was already finished and was waiting for us at the north end of the shopping center. So we walked up and found her and Leslie, who apparently had just finished the race while we were walking to get Wart. So we missed both of them.

Dr. Z had apparently run by our earlier race-watch-position just prior to our arrival and then Leslie went by without our seeing her. Bummers all around!

We then walked back to the hotel for a quick potty break and then we walked another 3 blocks to a local diner for breakfast -- good simple cooking. I was surprised how well the kids did walking and nary a complaint from them -- surprising for today's youth to have to walk that far, probably 2 miles by now. (Good for you mom & dad.)

Next it was back to the hotel where we split up; the tribe went home, and we worked our way around the marathon boundaries and up the U to drop off Dr. Z and Leslie.

Next, Sparky and I decided to drive to Park City for some shopping at the outlets. Unfortunately, we had only started shopping when the power went out. So it was off to downtown Park City where we parked the car and walked the street, window peeking and people watching (my favorite pastime).

A fun day even though not everything happened the way we had wanted it.