Day 9: Las Vegas, NV, to Hurricane, UT (Monday, June 23)
Distance traveled: 143 miles
Personal distance run today: 10 (+1 in Zion!) = 11
Total personal miles to-date: 71
Today’s dedications: Maggie Dunstan and Kirsten Polewski
My running buddy: Hannah
Weather: Hot, dry, upper 90s/lower 100s
Another hot day in the southwest! This morning our alarms went off the earliest they have gone off yet: 3:45 a.m. Las Vegas was ridiculously hot, even in the early morning or late evening hours, so we knew we had to get a move on.
Last night, we had our first team pow wow. This is a time for our team to sit together, reflect on highs and lows of the trip so far, plus compliment their fellow teammates. I think it was a great time to have this pow wow, and it seemed like everyone was in such an awesome mood afterward. Naturally, after something like that, nobody wanted to go to sleep, so the wake-up was especially hard.
However, after we circled up and headed out of the fire station, we spent another day where we ran all our miles together as a team. We were all supposed to get 13 miles in today. Some of our teammates did, others did not because of the extreme heat. But today proved to be a bit of a challenge in terms of our route…
Our vans entered into the Lake Mead National Recreation Area around 6:30 a.m. to wait for our runners. However, when some runners arrived after 7 a.m., there was a park ranger there who was trying to charge them admission just to run in, even though our vans were already in. Long story short, park ranger Ginny was not too happy with us. We had no choice but to drive through the park and leave to find a difference place to do our miles. However, we luckily got to drive through some pretty beautiful sights along the way.
Distance traveled: 143 miles
Personal distance run today: 10 (+1 in Zion!) = 11
Total personal miles to-date: 71
Today’s dedications: Maggie Dunstan and Kirsten Polewski
My running buddy: Hannah
Weather: Hot, dry, upper 90s/lower 100s
Another hot day in the southwest! This morning our alarms went off the earliest they have gone off yet: 3:45 a.m. Las Vegas was ridiculously hot, even in the early morning or late evening hours, so we knew we had to get a move on.
Last night, we had our first team pow wow. This is a time for our team to sit together, reflect on highs and lows of the trip so far, plus compliment their fellow teammates. I think it was a great time to have this pow wow, and it seemed like everyone was in such an awesome mood afterward. Naturally, after something like that, nobody wanted to go to sleep, so the wake-up was especially hard.
However, after we circled up and headed out of the fire station, we spent another day where we ran all our miles together as a team. We were all supposed to get 13 miles in today. Some of our teammates did, others did not because of the extreme heat. But today proved to be a bit of a challenge in terms of our route…
Our vans entered into the Lake Mead National Recreation Area around 6:30 a.m. to wait for our runners. However, when some runners arrived after 7 a.m., there was a park ranger there who was trying to charge them admission just to run in, even though our vans were already in. Long story short, park ranger Ginny was not too happy with us. We had no choice but to drive through the park and leave to find a difference place to do our miles. However, we luckily got to drive through some pretty beautiful sights along the way.
Once we had passed through, the day was already heating up. We knew we had to move quickly, so we started sending large groups of runners out and back to conquer more miles quickly. I got in 10 miles during the morning before I started to feel sick from the heat, so I decided to call it quits early rather than risk any sort of heat-related or dehydration issues.
The team handled today so incredibly well. Considering the frustration with our route, the extreme dry heat and the long distance, we had so many runners power through as many miles as they could. Each day has been a success for us!
After we got our miles in, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at McDonalds of side salads, apple slices and water…and of course I treated myself to a chocolate shake before we headed out. We began our caravan to Hurricane, Utah. Along the way, we got to pass through Arizona! We stopped to celebrate being out of Nevada (which was way too hot for our liking).
The team handled today so incredibly well. Considering the frustration with our route, the extreme dry heat and the long distance, we had so many runners power through as many miles as they could. Each day has been a success for us!
After we got our miles in, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at McDonalds of side salads, apple slices and water…and of course I treated myself to a chocolate shake before we headed out. We began our caravan to Hurricane, Utah. Along the way, we got to pass through Arizona! We stopped to celebrate being out of Nevada (which was way too hot for our liking).
We were only in Arizona for about 20 minutes before we had already gotten to Utah. We also switched into the mountain time zone, so we’re one time zone closer to Baltimore now! The scenery is so much more gorgeous here…or at least it seems like it is after spending several days in the barren desert!
We arrived at our host, the Hurricane Community Center, around 4:30, and we had pizza for dinner. Our host Bryce was awesome; he gave us all free chapstick with SPF and cell phone screen cleaners and sunglasses croakies from the Hurricane Community Center! These are all items that runners can definitely use, so we were extremely appreciative.
Afterward, a group of 13 of us girls headed to Zion National Park, something I had been looking forward to as soon as I saw we were going to stay in Hurricane for a night. Zion was breathtakingly gorgeous. I couldn’t help but snap tons of pictures. I really feel so lucky to be on this 4K journey for a ton of reasons, but one of those being that I get to see the country in such a unique way and I get to visit so many phenomenal places I’ve never been before. Zion was definitely not a disappointment, especially since we went towards sunset.
Afterward, a group of 13 of us girls headed to Zion National Park, something I had been looking forward to as soon as I saw we were going to stay in Hurricane for a night. Zion was breathtakingly gorgeous. I couldn’t help but snap tons of pictures. I really feel so lucky to be on this 4K journey for a ton of reasons, but one of those being that I get to see the country in such a unique way and I get to visit so many phenomenal places I’ve never been before. Zion was definitely not a disappointment, especially since we went towards sunset.
It was absolutely worth it to skip a shower tonight to hit up Zion; I have no regrets, and I even sort of showered in a sink…don’t worry, it worked out somehow. After Zion, we came back to the church to get preparations made for tomorrow. We are all VERY excited for tomorrow because we get to sleep in until 5 a.m. and we only have to run 8 miles each!!! It’s going to be an excellent day, despite more intense heat. We will run to Beaver, Utah, tomorrow, where we are actually camping out at a campsite! I can’t wait to sleep out in nature with 25 of my favorite people. But for now, I’ve got to get some rest so we can power through the heat again tomorrow.
Run happy,
Natalie
P.S. I would like to wish a special happy 25th wedding anniversary to my parents today! They celebrated early by coming out to San Francisco with me for the send off, and I am so thankful for their love and support every step of the way on this journey ever since it started way back in November. Love you, Mommy and Daddy!
Run happy,
Natalie
P.S. I would like to wish a special happy 25th wedding anniversary to my parents today! They celebrated early by coming out to San Francisco with me for the send off, and I am so thankful for their love and support every step of the way on this journey ever since it started way back in November. Love you, Mommy and Daddy!