Canyonlands 5-miler

Canyonlands is a little more than a normal race weekend.   We hit the road on Thursday morning; surprisingly we actually made it out the door right about the time I wanted! The drive out there was pretty uneventfully.  We decided to take a slightly different route into town, we went down the Colorado River instead of going I-70 to US-191.  It took a little bit longer but not enough to make any difference.  We got to our hotel and there was one person working the desk and three people wanting to check in, so it took a little while, but she was very friendly and very helpful.  Since it was about dinner time, we took a peek into our room and then went and got dinner at Zax. I was excited when I found out they have veggie burgers! Food was good.  We then hit “the town”!  After a little wondering we called it a night.  WAIT! We hit the pool and then called it a night!!! Friday morning We had breakfast at Pancake Haus. Again, there was only one person working the floor so service was slow.  We could tell the poor guy was moving as fast as he could.  He was very apologetic about everything, but the food was good (they had egg whites!!!!).  Again, we slowly hit the town.  I decided to check my bank account and noticed I was a lot lower than I should have been!!! EXCUSE ME???? We had two reservations, one at Best Western Plus Greenwell Inn and Best Western Plus Canyonlands Inn. I had cancelled my reservations at the Canyonlands Inn, but I still got charged!!!! I called Best Western, and they told me I would get my money back but it wouldn’t be until the beginning the week, at the earliest.  That was NOT going to work (that was my food money)! So I called my bank.  I love them, I love them, I love them!  I explained the situation and the nice lady said she could release the funds back to my account if blah, blah, blah. So we walked over to the Canyonlands Inn (the nice bank lady was on the phone with me while I walked the whole block to get to the hotel).  I went into the front desk and I am SO glad I cancelled that reservation, talk about RUDE!  I need to contact Best Western and let them know about how bad the service was.  Anyway, long story short (after about a half hour of dealing with these people) the nice bank lady was able to release the funds back to my account and all was good again. We did some more wondering and it was lunch time.   We went to Pasta Jay’s for lunch.  Luckily we avoided the rush, that place can get PACKED! We enjoyed a nice lunch outside, then it was time for packet pick-up.  It is a quaint little set-up, works great!  Because of my knee and back I had to down grade from the half marathon to the 5-miler.  Once I got my bib and goodie bag I checked out the comings and goings. After a little while it was back to the hotel and more pool time. We had an awesome parking spot at the hotel so I wasn’t really fond of the idea of moving the truck to drive around such a small town.  We called Moab Brewery and placed an order for dinner.  It was about a mile away so we walked to pick it up (we knew everywhere would be a zoo so we weren’t going to dine in).  We get there, pick up the food, pay the standard 18% gratuity on pick-up orders (I say that is a bunch of bull), and head back to the hotel.  We get back and my dinner is not there!  I call them up and let them know we have food missing.  So we get in the truck and drive back there to pick it up.  Back at the hotel the chili we had ordered was burned, my food was greasy and on the gross side.  We had eaten there the first time we went to Moab, but I don’t remember it being that bad.  Not a place we will be returning.    Waiting for the start Saturday morning was race morning! I got up nice and early, busses started at 7:30 so I was up at around 6:30.  I wore my White Paisley Capri Skirt from Running Skirts, a nice emerald green long sleeve shirt (that came off by Mile 1) and a black shirt over the top. I had plenty of green on!  Left the hotel at around 7:00 and slowly walked to the bus.  I realized about half way there I forgot my gum, but I did have my inhaler.  Oh and for breakfast I had a Luna Bar.  Got to the busses and I was on the first one up the canyon.  It was a little chilly up in the canyon, but then again I had plenty of layers on so I really had nothing to worry about.  At about 9:00/9:15 we started heading to the start line.  The gun went off a little early, but we began down the road with no issues.  I ended up walking most of it because I could not get my breathing under control (I need to talk to my doctor about that).  It was still a nice outing.   View from the start line The views are amazing! I still wish I could have done the half, but my back and knee were very grateful I did the 5-miler.  Crossed the finish line, checked out the finish area activities.  We headed back to the hotel so I could wash off and get cleaned up.  I took a while getting organized before we headed out by the time we were out we were hungry! We figured we would stop by Slick Rock Café, we were seated quickly, yea, after being ignored for a while, we finally got water.  A while longer we had our order taken 20 minutes after that we still had not received our drinks let alone our food.  There was a table next to us who were in the same boat so we upped and left! We wondered a little bit more and returned to Zax for lunch.  Service was amazing! Food was great, they were insanely busy, but you couldn’t tell that by the time it took to get stuff. We did some more wondering and then back to the hotel for more pool time. Sunday morning was entertaining.  I woke up before everyone else.  I tried turning the light on next to me, but it wouldn’t go on.  Ok, maybe I was just being stupid.  Tried turning the TV on, that wasn’t working.  We had a few lights on, so I figured I was just being slow.  I realized that most of the issues were on the same wall, so I went down to the office (in my jammies) to ask about the possibility of blowing a fuse.  Turned out the power was low all over town.  I went back to our room and everyone started showering.  Yea, power went completely out! Luckily I was not the one in the shower at the time!!!!! The power finally came back on, we finished getting everything out of the room and into the truck.  Across the street to Zax for breakfast, made a few last purchases, checked out of the hotel and hit the road.  The weather back was not as pleasant.  Actually we really didn’t want to stop because nasty weather was right on our heels and I did not want to be driving through the mountains in crappy weather.  We made it home picked up the babies and called it a weekend!