Rock n Roll Marathon AZ

On January 12th, Michele and I traveled to Arizona so that Michele could run in the PF Chang's Rock n Roll marathon. This was the first time either of us had been to Arizona, and man was it worth the trip. What an extraordinary time we had. Over the next couple of days I will be posting some photos from that trip.

I liked the architecture of this building in downtown Tempe, and hoped to capture it with a photo. Unfortunately, my picture doesn't convey very well that this particular side angles back about 10 degrees or so. Michele as usual looks absolutely beautiful.

I was drawn to the architectural style of this church, but unfortunately could not get the angle I wanted due to massive construction that was taking place across the street.

Michele and I were surprised by the tropical look of Phoenix, Tempe and Scottsdale, with all the palm trees everywhere. I'm not sure what we expected, but we found the cities to be very pleasant visually.

The half marathon ended right in front of Arizona State University's, Sun Devil Stadium. It was a cloudless, but cold day. So cold in fact, that it broke 20 year old records. It was 27 degrees when the race started. There were numerous runners taken to the hospital for hypothermia, including last year's female marathon winner.

These are the first place (Morten Bostrom) and second place (Kyle Goklish) winners of the half marathon.

That's Michele about a quarter mile out from the finish. She's the one with the green sweatshirt tied around her waist.

Here is Michele as she dashes the last 100 yards. I almost killed myself running after her to get this shot.

This is the vast ocean of runners as they work their way through the final maze towards the exit.

Luckily, Michele spotted me. I was standing on top of a dumpster so that I could get a better look at the 37,000 plus runners. Had she not found me, we may still be looking for each other. With that many runners and all of the viewing public, it was extremely crowded.



This is the scene that awaited the runners outside of the Runner's Exit. It was a mob scene, with spectators trying to find runners, and runners trying to push their way out.

Michele poses with her medal. She had her best half marathon finish yet with a time of 2:10:56

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this pick up. Believe it or not, the back end is not dragging on the ground. Strangely, I think this is the look the driver was actually looking for.

A final shot of Michele amongst some palm trees. This was taken a couple blocks from PF Chang's where we went to enjoy some Chinese Bistro after the race. As usual, it was delicious.