A few months ago I was at my friend Melissa's and I noticed a red postcard. In bold type the postcard said "Keep Calm and Carry On." I was very intrigued and initially thought that the saying on the card may be a church saying. Melissa gave me the full story.
The phrase "Keep Calm and Carry On" was originally created for use on motivational posters produced in England in 1939 (aka WWII). For some reason or another the posters were never used. In 2000 the posters were discovered in an attic. A bookstore hung one of the posters up in their window and the phrase quickly caught on. It has become even more popular with the recent economic downturn.
I have loved this phrase since I saw it. 'Keep Calm and Carry On" has become my mantra for 2010. I was down in Phoenix last weekend. I
returned to run the PF Chang Rock n Roll Half Marathon. My mantra for the weekend was "Keep Calm, Carry On, and Rock on."
It was one rocking weekend. I flew in Friday night. On Saturday I hung out at my Jeff's. Jeff is just starting a huge addition on his house. It will double his square footage. In the picture below I am enjoying the sun (rather than the smog of Salt Lake) and reading a book. We picked up our race packets and JB from the airport.
JB loves food. He had researched a couple of awesome restaurants. On Saturday night we went to La Piazza del Forno in Glendale. It turns out their was a street fair going on. There were huge hot air ballons in the streets and all sorts of vendors lined up.
This place was amazing. We ordered the lasagna, and the Italian Stallion and Mediterranean pizzas. All of the dishes were cooked in a wood burning pizza oven. Each pizza took just 4 minutes to cook. Seriously this place compared to my favorite pizza place in Pisa, Italy. I will definately visit the next time I am in Phoenix.
Originally just Jeff and I had planned to run the race. JB had decided to make the trip the week before so he hadn't registered. JB was a little bumbed to just be sitting on the sidelines. The night before the race we ran into one of Jeff's neighbors. She had stopped training and decided not to race. She was gracious enough to give JB her number. Which meant we all got to run the next day.
I have been training hard for the last 12 weeks. I have been following the Hal Higdon racing schedule and lifting weights. I was feeling very well prepared. Let's just say JB and Jeff were not quite as prepared (aka not at all prepared). We drove to the finish line and boarded a school bus that drove us to the start line. Well not quite the start line. The bus stopped and people started hopping off. Jeff and I hopped off and then the doors closed and the bus drove away with JB still on it. We ran after the bus for a couple of blocks but it did not stop. We ended up walking at least a mile to the start line where we met up with JB again.
My goal for this race was to not stop running and to beat my
Salt Lake Half Marathon time. I also wanted to look like I was enjoying the race. My official time was 1:52:45, which happens to be just 34 seconds faster than my Salt Lake time. I didn't stop running even though I wanted to so many times. I think I also looked like I was enjoying the race.
Here are a few of my other stats:
164 / 2224 Division Place
890 / 13490 Gender Place
2817 / 21462 Overall place
26:42 5 K time
1:25:12 10 mile time
Jeff stayed right behind me for the first 5 miles. His offical time was around 2 hours and 9 minutes. His racing chip apparently malfunctioned so we are not quite sure. He beat his time last year by six minutes. He also hurt a lot less than last year. I think all his trips up Camelback Mountain had paid off.
JB finished at around 2 hours and 48 minutes. Very impressive for not training at all. Jeff and I were happy to be at the finish line waiting for him. JB was very happy to be finished.
We celebrated running the race by doing a little roofing. We would not ordinarily have celebrated this way but a big storm was set to come in the next day. We were quite a sight up there on the roof. I wasn't too sore but JB and Jeff were a mess.
That night we drove to Gilbert to go to Joe's BBQ. The sunset was beautiful. I could seriously live in Arizona all winter.
I flew back to Salt Lake on Monday. We stopped at Carolina's on the way to the airport. I have to agree that their tortillas are the best. The were think and delicious. I filled my suitcase with them.
