After a short stop at work, we were on our way to the airport - Vegas bound.  From Vegas we drove to Lake Havasu City to spend the night with Chad’s parents and toast in their new condo overlooking the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City,

Thursday, we headed to Palm Springs/Rancho Mirage with a side trip to the southern part of Joshua Tree National Park for a short jeep trip and desert run.

We met Grandma, Gary, and the Herzog family at Thunderbird Country Club for 2 days of Sue & Charlie’s wedding celebration.  We were able to get a great hill climb run in and enjoy the beautiful wedding and all the surroundings with plenty of time to catch up with friends and family.

Saturday morning after brunch and farewells, we headed to the northern part of Joshua Tree National Park (Black Box Canyon) with Mom and Dad’s jeep.  We had a hangover recovery suffer fest run in the heat and sand.

Sunday, we planned for a 30 miler in Red Rock Canyon west of Vegas.  The Red Rock area was beautiful.  In our first 16 mile loop, we ran out of water at mile 12 due to very warm temperatures (extreme heat for skiers).  We were not able to recover from the dehydration and gave in to the sun and sunburns after 20 miles.  After a recovery beer and burger, we were on our way to St. George.

Monday morning, we headed to the Kolob Canyon section of Zion National Park with hopes of cooler temperatures and shade for another 20 miler.  We started with an out and back 15 mile run to the Kolob Arch overlook.  This was a great running trail without too much sand and it had cool temperatures, shade, and 21 stream crossings each direction (42 total). 

Our second run was the Taylor Creek Trail up to the Double Arch Overlook.  This was an a very nice 5.1 mile out and back. 

After the last run, we were once again on the road and headed home.  Lots of driving, lots of running, lots of fun, and we definitely feel like we are more prepared for the upcoming race season.