Vegas Trip Report - Part 3 - Death Valley

So, I was thinking the other day, that I really have to do another post about our Vegas trip before Father time does a job on my memory.
After a day of recuperation from our adventure at The Grand Canyon, we decided to head over to The Golden State and visit Death Valley National Park.  It's only about a two hour drive from Vegas.
Death Valley National Park is HUGE!  We kept to the area of the park near Furnace Creek and Badwater.  I had a particular interest in traveling on the Badwater Road as I had recently watched a documentary on the Badwater 135 Ultramarathon. More on that later.

The first stop on the list was Dantes View, elevation 1669m (5475 ft). In the background, you can see the Valley floor, elevation -86m (-282 ft).

It was fairly chilly up here, and there was a stiff breeze blowing.  I think that is the Panamint Range in the background.

 Such an awesome view from up here.




Next stop was Zabriske Point.  A lot of geology going on here.  More than I care to elaborate on.  It was quite beautiful.  And a lot hotter than our last stop.

Decided to have a pit stop in the aptly named Furnace Creek area.  Had a look in the Visitor Center.

Picked up a few souvenirs at the gift shop. And an ice cream sandwich.  Had to eat it quick before it melted.  Mind you it was Death Valley and it was 'only' 92F (33C), BUT IT WAS MARCH!  Barely even spring.  It rarely gets this hot in mid-July here.

But it was a dry heat, LOL!

It definitely was not the stifling, oppressive humidity that I'm used to.  Something I never realized until I got home was that I had chapped lips while we were on vacation.  The arid air just sucked the water right out of me.  I think we went through a case of water this day.

So, here I am at Badwater Basin, lowest spot in North America.  It's March 30th.  33C.  It's friggin' HOT!

Fast forward 4 months. This is when the Badwater 135 ultramarathon takes place. It covers 135 miles (217km) non-stop from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the continental US.  Temps can reach 130F (55C!!).  The people who run this are machines!!

 So, I decided to stage MY version of the Badwater 135.

135 FEET, that is...

Yeah, that's right, I ran Badwater. I'm badass!

Also took a walk out onto the salt flats.  The valley floor stretches about 5 miles to the other side.  One can walk to the other side if they so desire. We didn't.

It looks like winter in the pic, but it's salt

Here's a nice little hike we took through Natural Bridge Canyon. 


My pictures never seem to do justice, but  here is someone who knows a lot more about how to take a great pic. Kind of neat.

Next on our tour was Artist's Palette.  It's on Artist's Drive, a nine-mile side road off the main road through Death Valley.

The colours were just amazing.  The colours are created from the oxidation of different metals. Red, pink and yellow are from iron salts, green is from decomposing tuff-derived mica, and manganese produces the purple.




By this time we were nearing the point of heat exhaustion (not really, but that heat just sucks the life right out of you) and we were getting hungry (yet another day of surviving on water and granola bars) so we headed back to Vegas.  It was a nice side trip and I was glad I took the time to see it.  In some spots, the terrain looked like what I would imagine it looks like on the moon.  Very little vegetation in spots and large boulders that have fallen from the surrounding mountains.  Yet, in some spots, living things have found a way to survive, like the Death Valley Pupfish.  A truly amazing spot.

Bluenose HM Report

I headed down to Halifax early Saturday am. Stopped at Suzie's Cupcakes and got  cupcake for after the race. It was called "Sweet & Salty".  I called it delicious!!

I stayed at Cambridge Suites which is really nice, and close to the start line.  Got there around 1pm, but the room wasn't ready yet, so I parked the car and headed out on foot.

First stop was race packet pick-up. It was fairly painless.  The expo was underwhelming.  Heard John Stanton (founder of Running room) speak, and picked up a few pointers.

Went to MEC to look at hydration packs for trail running. Didn't get one. Went to TAO. Got nothing.  My heel was acting up a bit so I went back to the hotel. My room was ready so I just relaxed in the room for the rest of the afternoon. Plus it rained.

Met Nancy, Paul, James and Angie for dinner at Boston Pizza. Had the chipotle bacon penne.  Was tasty. Spent some time afterwards hanging out.

Went to sleep at about midnight, which is normal for me.  There was some commotion happening in the hallway for a lot of the evening so I put in my ear plugs.  Had a good nights sleep. Up at 6am.  Had some coffee and breakfast. Evacuated...  The heel was feeling pretty good.

Met the gang at their hotel, The Prince George. It was really chilly this morning.  The forecast was calling for temps of 16C which is getting up there.  It wasn't anywhere near that, more like 6C.  Perfect.

Saw the guys off on their race, the 10K, then got lined up for mine.  Saw some fellow SWNDHA workers, so I wished them well.  The race started at 9:25am.  Marathoners went out at 9am, 10K started at 9:10, then the HM.  Last year was a bit different set up and I remember that there were a lot of walkers that we had to run around, but it didn't seem that bad this year. 

The race got bottle necked about 100m into the race so my pace was down for the first bit.  I didn't really have a plan, I decided that I would just run and see how I felt.  I was going for a 1:50 goal time, but really wanted to get a PB.  The heel was feeling great, no stiffness like during my training runs. 

About 4-5K I started getting a pain in my gut. Not like a "Oh great, I'm gonna be the guy who craps his pants" cramp, but different.  I focused more on my breathing and it resolved.  I think I was running a bit faster than I was supposed to. Around 7.5K, I could smell bacon! There were gals sitting out on the porch eating what appeared to be BLT's.   Made it to 8K in 40:00 and 10K in around 50:00.  5:00/km which is on pace for a 1:45:30 finish time.  At that point, I was quite sure I would get my 1:50 goal. Well, I might as well go for the PB right??

I'd say the first 11K of the race is a net downhill.  The first major climb is at around the 11.5-12K mark in Point Pleasant Park. I think it's called Serpentine Road.  It's where I lost my mojo last year.  I did lose some time in this part of the race.  At 12K my time was 1:00:35.

Honestly, at this point I could no longer do math in my head to see how I was for pacing.  For the next 5K, I just glanced at my Garmin and if the pace was 8:24/mile then I was good. (that's the pace needed for a 1:50 finish)  Miles? Huh?  Yeah, I train using miles.  Not sure if it's wise or not but it's a mental thing for me.  Ten miles seems like it's less than 16K.  I know, stupid right.

The next part of the course, from 13K to 18K is a very gradual uphill.

At 17K, I'm not exactly sure what my time was but I knew that if I added 20 minutes to the current time, then that would approximate my finish time.  I didn't worry too much about that pesky 0.1K at the end, I figured I'd run the last K faster anyway. 

My calves started feeling twingey around the 18K mark.  Gah!  Thankfully, they kept relatively quiet.  from 18K to 21K is mostly a gradual downhill, with the exception of on very large downhill.  And the last 0.1K is UPHILL!!! Ugh! 

I honestly don't remember much about the last kms of the race.  A guy came up beside me and said something like "not much further now" or something or other. I agreed. We ran beside one another for a bit. I guess I must have passed him.  He came up to me afterward and told me so.  I did pass a lot of people in that last couple of kms.  I guess that has always kind of been my strategy. Save a bit for the end. There were not a lot of km markers toward the end of the race. Well, I didn't see them anyway.  I knew my GPS was a bit off so it would have been nice to know how far there was left to go.  I think there was a marker at the 20K mark, but there didn't seem to be a lot between 13 and 20. I didn't take a lot of wa ter/gatorade at the aid stations. They get so back logged and people just come to a dead stop which is really annoying. I avoid them if I can.  It was quite cool today, so I wasn't sweating profusely. I'm not used to hydrating much during training runs anyway, and I didn't want to upset my stomach. Or lose too much time.

The crowds were AWESOME!! I gave some kid a high five, LOL!  Our bid numbers are personalized so people are screaming "GO IAN!!"  It was so cool!

Clock time was 1:46:09  Chip time was 1:45:46.  pace 5:02/K.  221st place.  A personal best.  Yay me!

Now it's time to eat that cupcake...

My splits.  They're a bit off. I think the Garmin was a bit off today.  It read 12.96 miles when I crossed the finish line...

Mile 1:  10:08
Mile 2:   7:43
Mile 3:   7:41
Mile 4:   8:01
Mile 5:   8:34
Mile 6:   8:00
Mile 7:   8:21
Mile 8:   7:54
Mile 9:   8:22
Mile 10: 8:19
Mile 11: 8:03
Mile 12: 7:42
Mile 13: 6:53

Vegas Trip Report - Part 2 - THE GRAND CANYON

The Grand Canyon is just that. Grand.

We started out on our journey at about 7:00am on Monday morning.  I knew it was going to be quite a lengthy drive, about 4.5 hours so I wanted to get an early start.  Luckily, we still hadn't adjusted to PST so it was really like 11:00am for us!!

We got there just before noon (had to make a couple of pit stops).

Got the car parked and headed to the Visitor Center.  Forecast high was 59F. About 15C.  Not bad, but not scorching either.  It was kind of windy as well.  DW asks "Do we need sunscreen?"  NAH!

Once we got our bearings, we headed to the Rim Trail.  I can't fully describe the feeling of seeing that first glimpse of the canyon.  It's AMAZING!!  I had dreamed of this moment for ages and it was finally here.

The pictures just don't do it justice

Still some snow on the ground in the canyon







The Rim Trail stretches 12 miles along the south rim.  Awesome vistas the entire way.  We walked most of it, nearly 10 miles.  Quite a distance but it was relatively flat.  The first few miles took a while to walk because I was stopping at every turn to take pictures.

Spectacular vistas at every turn!

Shadows starting to creep into the canyon.








As you can see from the pictures, there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  Hmmm maybe sunscreen wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Wow, I look so excited to be there.  I brought the GPS to grab a few virtual caches while here.  And oh, there's a cloud. I was mistaken.

We attempted to hike down into the canyon.  This is the Bright Angel Trail.  We hiked to the first tunnel (just left of centre, 2/10 mile from the rim).  It was kind of muddy, but not bad.  The further down we got, the icier it got.  A couple of hikers coming back up the trail told us that they had to put on their crampons, so we decided to turn back.

We even had a wildlife encounter!
I think these are caribou.  They couldn't have cared less that we were even there.

There were four all together.  We also saw 4 or 5 deer back at the bus depot later in the afternoon, but I was too exhausted to dig out my camera to take a picture.

My attempt at a panoramic pic.  Not bad, but not great.

Well, I guess there were a few clouds, but not enough to shade us.  We both got terrible sunburns.  My forehead was the worst.  It was so bad it actually blistered. Then it peeled. Then it peeled again. 

We did not think it was very warm at all. And the breeze was quite chilly.  Maybe it's due to the elevation? I mean we are well over a mile closer to the sun than we're used to...

Well, I look a bit more pleased in this pic.  DW was very nervous about me falling to my death, but I was careful.  

Apparently (and surprisingly...) very few people fall into the canyon.  Between 1990 and 2002, 13 people died from falling into the canyon.

Far more people die in the canyon from hiking and being unprepared.

There was a poster that I read that told the story of Boston Marathon finisher, Margaret Bradley, who died in the canyon.  She and her companion set out on July 9, 2004 for a 27-mile run. They had only two water bottles, some fruit, and three protein bars. 

While her companion made it out of the canyon, she was found dead, two days later. Sad.

We had a great afternoon at Grand Canyon.  We headed back to Vegas around 6pm.  I wish we had stayed around for the sunset, but I was a little bit nervous about driving all the way back to Vegas in the dark, and as I said, we still hadn't adjusted to PST, so it was already 10pm to us.  

The drive back was only about 4 hours (no pit stops).  The sky was pretty dark until we got about 50 miles from Vegas.  Then we could see the 'glow'.  Vegas is surrounded by mountains. When we just outside of the city, there was an incline that we had to drive up. Just as we came to the crest of the ridge, Vegas came into view and what a sight it was. Six hundred square miles of lights as far as the eye can see.  Wish I had thought to take a picture.

Made it back to the hotel without taking a wrong turn. Crashed into bed. Hard.

Vegas Trip Report - Part 2 - THE FOOD

Let me just start by saying that if the portion sizes in Vegas are any indication of what it's like in the rest of the US, it's not a wonder they are the fattest people in the developed world...  Don't get me wrong, the food was great, and there was a lot of it, but we just couldn't eat three meals a day. Most of the time, if we ate a big meal, that was the ONLY meal we ate.

Anyway, when we arrived, I wasn't in the mood to eat much of anything.  I'm not sure if I caught a bug or ate something I shouldn't have, but I the first thing I did when we got to our hotel, was vomit.  Then I went to bed.  Slept for 3 hours, then felt fine.  I've come to the realization that it's just not a vacation until I hurl.  Same thing happened in Disney. I don't remember what I ate (or if I ate) on that first day.

Sunday morning, we stumbled upon Jean Phillipe Patisserie.  It was the first of many stops I would make at JP in the coming week for coffee, gelato and these:

When I die and get to heaven, there had better be lots of these because it's all I'm going to eat.  I didn't try the sugar but did try the nutella. It didn't hold a flame to the dulce de leche.  Mmm mmm mmm TASTY!!!  I wonder if they deliver to Canada???

Sunday for lunch we stopped at a little deli called Greenberg's Deli in the New York, New York hotel.

They even had a sandwich named after the kids:

But, I went with the Italian Stallion, which was served with chips and a pickle:

DW went with the Beef 'n' cheddar  which was HUGE. Seriously, it could have fed both of us:

I mean c'mon, look at the size of that thing!!!

I don't remember what we ate for supper that night.  Probably nothing. There's no pictures, so it was obviously not memorable.

Monday we ate granola bars and drank water at the Grand Canyon. Stopped at Wendy's in Tusayan, AZ.

Tuesday probably was the best day, food wise.  I had borrowed a travel guide from a co-worker. In it there was a recommendation to eat at a place called Hash house a go go. It was a bit of a drive away from the strip and I was not real comfortable driving in Vegas at that point but we thought we would give it a try.  Getting there was actually pretty easy.  Once we sat down, we immediately knew that this was going to be quite the experience.  My jaw literally dropped when I saw some of the dishes that we coming to the tables.  There was so much to choose from but I ended up ordering this:

I forget what it was called exactly, Detroit House Hash or something like that.

It was the first time I had ever been served a meal in a cast iron frying pan. DW got a Farm Scramble with onion, swiss, bacon and avacado.  Needless to say, neither of us managed to clean our plates/frying pans.

This place was so cool, I bought the T-shirt.  We'll revisit this place later on in the post.  I want to try the french toast...

We ate an early supper at Rainforest Cafe at MGM.  DW was meeting up with a cousin she hadn't seen in about 25 years.  I had nachos which were smothered with a process cheese type goo.  They were just OK. DW ate the fish and chips. Shocking!  It's usually that or a quesadilla. We had a great dinner and chat.  Felt like I had known them my whole life. 

Wednesday was our trip to Death Valley.  Breakfast was courtesy of my good friend JP...

I had already eaten the brioche :)

We managed to sustain ourselves on a box of Fibre 1 bars and a flat of H20 for most of the day.  Dinner that night was at PF Chang's.

 Kung Pao Chicken. Spicy!!

Don't remember what this was called.  Almond Chicken, maybe?

It was quite a nice place. first time We had ever eaten there.  I'd describe it as a Chinese version of East Side Mario's.  It wasn't terribly expensive. We had tried to get a table on Saturday (or maybe it was Sunday?) night which was a total lost cause.  Wednesday nights are visibly less busy.  Glad I was able to try this place out.

Thursday we ate at Olive Garden.  This place is always on our list of places to go whenever we get to the US.  So delicious.  Brought two bottles of their Italian salad dressing back.  It never even dawned on me that I wouldn't be able to bring them in my carry on and that I'd have to put them in my checked luggage.  They made it home safely.

Friday, we made a return trip to HHAGG.  I had been dreaming of the French toast all week. Couldn't wait to get back.  Well as it turns out DW and I had a little bit of a misunderstanding. I thought we were going to go eat first and then go hiking in Red Rock Canyon.  She thought we were doing the opposite.  Turns out her plan made more sense.  So by the time we made it back into Vegas it was 1 pm.  Luckily they were still serving breakfast. And lunch.  Long story, short, I ended up getting this:

Mashed taters + biscuit + meatloaf + gravy of some sort + fried onions = TASTY!

Looking back, I wish I had got the French Toast like I had planned. I mean, it was good, but I'm not a real big fan of mashed potatoes.  I basically just wanted the meatloaf.  DW got a One Pound stuffed Burger with mushrooms and Swiss. It was huge! Even I couldn't get my mouth around it. She ended up taking one of the patties out of the burger completely.

Unfortunately, she forgot to tell them to cook it 'well done' and it was a touch too pink for her on the inside.  No big deal, she just ate the outside of the burger.

Even Man v. Food loves this place!

The second time back at HHAGG was a little bit less amazing, possibly because we knew what to expect.

That's it for the culinary highlights of the trip. Oh, on Saturday we ate supper at Wolfgang Puck Express in  the airport in Vegas. It was actually quite good. Big portions for the price. We had a 'personal' pizza and salad. Forgot to take pics.

Didn't gain a single pound.

Yay me!

Vegas Report - Post #1

Well, it's been almost 2 weeks since we returned from Las Vegas.  It was an amazing experience!  I think I have finally recovered, LOL!

Over the next few posts, I'll review each days activities and post a few pics. 

Today, I'll just briefly mention the hotel we stayed at, Vdara.  It was beautiful.  I posted a review on Trip Advisor Here

It seems like a very high percentage of the people visiting Vegas are smokers. Or maybe smokers tend to gather there because it's one of the only places that still allow smoking in public places?  The casino hotels still allow smoking, which keeps smokers in the casinos (which is kind of the point I guess) but I couldn't stand staying in them for any more than about 30 minutes. And of course all of the hotels are designed to make you walk through the large, smoke-filled casino in order to get anywhere, like the hotel lobby or hhe theatre entrances.  At any rate I was so glad that we stayed in a non smoking hotel. It was a welcome relief at the end of the day.  It smelled wonderful.

 Taken by DW while stopped at a red light. Heading somewhere. Outlet malls perhaps...

Kitchenette

Dining area

 Bathroom

 Sitting area. the blinds were remote controlled. Awesome!

AKA the comfiest bed ever. And huge! Hardly saw DW all week ;)

Next report: The FOOD!

Brrr River 5K Race Report

Well, it turned out to be a beautiful morning for a run.  There was very little wind and the sun was shining.  Not sure what the temperature was but it was around zero, give or take a few degrees.

Sign up was from 8-9am and the race was at 10am.  There was a bit of confusion about the start time. I guess it was advertised in the local paper to start at 9am.  Anyway, we all decided to meet halfway and we started at 9:30am. There weren't a whole lot of participants, maybe 10 runners and 10 walkers.

Right at the beginning of the race there was a fair size hill.  The roads were mostly snow covered still so I was slipping and sliding for a bit going up the hill. Other than that the snow didn't give me too much trouble.  Once at the top of that first hill it was pretty much downhill for the next km or so.  Just before the 1K mark, I took a wrong turn at a fork in the road.  Luckily I wasn't wearing any headphones so I could hear the gal behind me yelling "WRONG WAY!!"  In my defense, I was just following the kid in front of me...

From about 1.5K to 3K was pretty much uphill.  Ever been to Bear River? AKA The SWITZERLAND of Nova Scotia!!!  At one point I considered walking but that kid in front of me was in striking distance, so I kept at it.

Luckily, from 3K onward, it was downhill.  Gave as much as I could given the slippery conditions.

I didn't catch the kid in front of me :(

Ended up finishing 4th. How very Canadian of me! Official time was 27:10 which is a ways off from my PB but given the road conditions, hills and the fact that I've taken pretty much the entire winter off from running, I'm pleased with the result. I won a thermal cap!

This is the first Brrr River 5K run.  Overall, I think that the gal who organized it did a pretty good job.  I guess my only real complaint would be the inadequate route markers.  She used strips of fabric which weren't very effective.  It was probably OK for locals who knew the names o the roads we ran on.  She mentioned that she was organizing a 10K race to take place during the Cherry Carnival in July.  That should be challenging.