Hiking Yosemite

Today we went on a hike to the falls, two different falls actually. The first one was Vernal Falls and the second one was Nevada Falls. One is above the other. We went up a very long way. Our total distance was around 7 miles (didn't have the GPS on to know for sure).

Hubby and I at the end of the hike. It felt very good to sit down! Me, again just about the very end. These photos will be out of sequence due to Bloggers user unfriendly way of handling photos.

To get to the first falls, we had to climb over 600 stairs. So you know it was a steep climb. The stairs were much worse than those in this picture.

By the top of the falls.

The top of the falls. It was bigger than what it looks although there is less water this time of year. Yosemite does sport the highest falls in the country (Yosemite Falls) and 5th (if I recall correctly) highest in the world.

Me and Hubby, taken just as we began to come back down from the Nevada Falls.

I forgot where this was but it is pretty, eh?

Ditto . . .

Looking up at Nevada Falls as we were descending.

After leaving Vernal Falls, and starting to head towards the higher Nevada Falls, we had to cross a bridge to get on the other side of Vernal Falls.

Me, taken at Vernal Falls.

Top of Vernal Falls, an area shot.

Another pretty shot that I can no longer say for certain where it was taken.

From the top of Nevada Falls, looking down (obviously, duh!).

Vernal Falls.

The stairs (again, over 600 of them). When we left the upper falls to descend, we decided to take the full loop. It was a mile longer but there were few stairs (less steep)

In the morning we're headed out, towards home. We'll stay the night in Mesquite and be home on Thursday evening.

Yosemite

We drove to Yosemite today. It's very beautiful here, very Autumn like. The weather is good, in the lower 60's. Here we are in front of Yosemite Falls. Me, in front of a fallen tree, taken on the way to the falls.

We had reservations to stay at the lodge but when we got there to check in, they said they were over booked. (I thought for a minute we were at the airport.) Anyway, we did get an upgrade to first glass, so to speak. They said since they were over booked that as people came to check in they were being offered an upgrade to the 4 star Ahwahnee Hotel for $50 more. So we did it.

They said that the normal rate was $500 a night so we were getting a huge savings. I was quite excited, wondering what the room would look like since I'd never stayed at a 4-star $500 a night hotel. Would it have an in room jacuzzi? What amenities would it include? My imagination worked over time. (Meanwhile, my reasonable mind should have reminded me it was a historic building, built in the early 1900's, so lower my expectations.)

I was let down (altough it is a beautiful building). It wasn't such a much, at least it didn't even come close to my imagination. So in case you're wondering what $500 a night in a national park, in a historic building, will get you, (although we checked and in the right season it is only $275), here are the photos:

It doesn't look like it in the photo, but this actually is a king sized bed.

The furniture is comfortable in the sitting area, and the view is fantastic (I forgot to load the picture onto blogger but there's a big picture window and a spectacular view of Yosemite).

The bathroom reflects the time period of the building with its simple fixtures. And hold onto your hats ladies but this 4-star $500 a night hotel had a shower curtain liner that was so badly mildewed at the bottom of it that I could smell it and had to have them change it.

There are robes in the closet and a rubber duckie on the tub. Maybe $500 comes easier to most people than it does to me. I mean, it's a decent room, in a lovely istoric building, but that is a lot of money!

This last photo was taken on the road as we were driving here. I thought it was interesting. At least it answers the question, "Is this light EVER going to change?" (Our wait was under 10 minutes.

Ta-ta for now!

Official Results

My official results from yesterday's race are:

TIME: 2:10:33

Pace: 9:58

Division: 18th out of 97 in my age division

Fresno Rocks (and so did I)

Today was the long awaited race day. It started out rather cool but it was perfect running weather. We got to the start line and had about 20 minutes to wait for the start of the race. The first thing I noticed was that there were a zillion porta potties and literally no lines. I assumed this meant most people were staying nearby and able to "take care of business" before leaving their hotels.

There was a staggered start with 4 different corrals. Of course, that didn't stop some leisure walkers from starting in the very first corral - Grrrrr! I wonder why they do that since it really is hazardous to have everyone need to move around them at the start of the race. But this was minimal and not worth complaining about.

The race started on time. My concern was that I was wearing brand new sox, never worn, never tested, never even washed. That is against all conventional wisdom for a race but I thought it was worth the gamble because I have had such a bad problem with the toe seams cutting into my toes. I could feel my feel slide around in my shoes and hoped it wouldn't create a problem (and it didn't).

The course was nice, a little bit of an incline, very gentle, then as much of a descent. There were only a couple hills and they didn't phase me at all since I run so many hills.

OK, I'm kept my humility in check long enough . . . I just gotta say it . . . I was awesome! I can say that because I am 53 years old and I am very proud of how I ran this race. I ran the entire thing very strong and never felt weary. I am very happy with my run.

Speaking of happy, I am very happy with this race. Fresno rocks when it comes to this race. It is well put together, lots of "stuff" and they treat their runners really well. I got some photos, but being Blogger, they are out of order. And again, with Blogger, it's futile to try and move them around, so here they are in Blogger's weird random order:

This first one is after the race, showing the finisher's sweatshirt and the runners eating their breakfast (eggs, sausage, potatoes, bagel, and fruit). It is a VERY nice sweatshirt too! I was impressed that we got the finisher's sweatshirt in addition to the long sleeved tech race shirt. I mean, who does that? More of the same. As you can see, they were handling the large number of runners really well and it was in a secure area so the nonparticipants couldn't eat all the food up before the slower folks finished.

This is me coming into the finish line. I never did pull down my running sleeves but like I said, the weather was perfect for running.

Me wearing warm ups before the race started.

Hubby in his warm ups. Since the sun hadn't come up yet it really was quite chilly.

Me & hubby after race, with medals.

And yes we did get ice cream Sundae's after the race. They made them with brownies, topped with ice cream, chocolate syrup, whip cream, and topped with a cherry. Again, who does that?

They also had live entertainment at the finish area.

Hubby enjoying his 2 free beers at the finish area. Free beers, who does that?

The finish medal is really nice. Not sure if it shows here, but it's a large one too. Again, I was impressed.

So all in all, it was a great race. Fresno really did itself proud on this one. It might be the best race we've ever run (although our hometown race still has the best course). It was fun running past the street lined with palm trees, especially when I reminded myself it was November. And as I said, I am very pleased with how I ran it. I don't know my official time yet but my GPS time (which is off by about 10 paces because I turned it off at the first mat only to find a second mat right on the finish line) is 2:10 and change. I'll post my official time when I get it.

I wouldn't be surprised to find us at this race again next year. Now tomorrow, we're off to Yosemite where I believe we will not have a WIFI connection. So until next time . . .

Life Underground

Today we just hung out, getting rested from all the driving, and getting psyched for tomorrow. We went to this place, and I won't tell you the name of it because the family does not want photos splashed all over the Internet. I figure if I don't say the name, no one will Google it and come to my blog to copy the photos.

Anyway, as the story goes, this guy moved to this area from Italy and could not get used to how hot it was. Knowing that it is cooler under the surface, he started digging a cellar so he could go there for relief from the hot weather. It must have worked because he decided to add another room, then another and ended up digging tunnels and rooms to fill 10 acres. He did it all by himself.

The family still retains about 2 acres of these underground rooms and tunnels and we toured it today. The rooms are not dark because the man put in lots and lots of sun lights. He loved the sun and wanted the brightness.

The man also loved growing things and he grew many fruit trees, grapes, herbs, etc. in his underground dwelling. This is the entrance. The tree grows up through a sun light in the roof of the tunnel. A tunnel that connects various rooms. He had something like 50 different rooms.

Looking into his sanctuary.

This is his bathroom. It has another huge sun light in the ceiling.

A bedroom.

Going from a sun lit room into a connecting tunnel.

Several sun lit rooms, connected. No darkness here!

Sun lit room leading into connecting tunnel. I should mention that these connecting tunnels (hall ways) are big enough that you don't have to stoop to walk through them. This was all done with hand tools too.

It slopes down. Some places were intentionally sloped to divert water.

There are actually 3 different levels, all underground. Notice the fruit trees. He experimented with the fruit trees and had one tree that actually grew 7 different types of fruit on it.

It was really interesting to go through this underground world. Now we're just killing some time before going out for our traditional pancake pre-race supper.

In Fresno

I have WIFI! We're in Fresno now. It seems like it took forever to get here and my butt is in no hurry to sit in the car again for any reason whatsoever! We spent last night in Reno and got a good deal at a hotel/casino (cheap plus free drinks). We had a good time and left a very minimal amount in the casino (less than $10).

We picked up our race packets today. The shirt is a long sleeved tech shirt and is women's sizing!!! I love races that offer women's sizing. It is "my issue". So here's a picture of me in my shirt. It isn't a fancy shirt but I really like it. We got a hat too, here's what it looks like:

I took this shot at the expo. It was bigger than I expected. There's only about 5,000 runners so I thought it would be a smaller expo. I was pleasantly surprised.

This picture was supposed to be at the top but you know how it is with trying to move photos on blogger!

We have a suite at the Marriott. We'll be here until Monday morning which is when we leave for Yosemite.

It looks nicer than the photo but because of lighting and the fact I shot the picture with my cell phone (and not the camera), I could only get this one angle.

We're just hanging loose tomorrow and then Sunday is race day! I'll have my cell phone at the race so I'll get some pics.

Excitement Continues

Hubby pointed out to me this morning that our hotel is just 3 blocks from the start line on Sunday's race. This means I won't have to stand around in the cold waiting for the race to start! This is a lot different than the other races we've done this year where you get hauled up the mountain to stand around for an hour or more before the race starts. Of course, the trade off is that the course won't be nearly as scenic. But it will be a nice change for once.

I checked the weather for race day and it looks about perfect. This is the 5th half marathon we've done this year. We usually try to do 6 so I'm not sure what happened there. Next year, we're starting off earlier with a half marathon in January and we're toying with the idea of doing a second one the following weekend as we drive home (it's right on the way in terms of miles and timing). It's one of those "wait until last minute and see what the weather does" sort of things. We're already registered for the Phoenix race.

We're also just a couple weeks away from the Elton John & Billy Joel concert. We've had the tickets forever so it hardly seems like it is FINALLY getting close to the actual concert. I'm quite excited for it because it should be a concert of a lifetime.

On the dieting/food front, I have to confess that the left over Halloween candy has been interfering with my desires and goals (haunting me). Oh wait, I guess it isn't the candy doing it, it's ME doing it! I'd like to get rid of it but hubby wanted to eat it. And I haven't protested too loudly. Luckily there isn't much left. Besides, I haven't been as bad as I have been in the past so there is a SLIGHT improvement.

We're leaving in the morning. I will have my Acer with me so I will update when I can. We'll probably have WIFI everywhere except Yosemite. I assume my next post will be tomorrow evening sometime from Reno. Until then . . .


Comment to Jinx: I could tell from your post that you are indeed excited for your race. I hope that your hubby gets "hooked" from this experience and is interested in another one in the future. It is a lot easier to train when your spouse does it with you. I think you should be able to finish in your desired time. You have probably figured out by now that it is hard to walk that far. I'm not sure why that is, maybe just the amount of time it takes is great enough that it tires out the body more. But if hubby likes it (and if they're giving out medals I bet he does), maybe he'll consider working up to running the next one! Good luck to you girl and most of all HAVE FUN!!