• December 29th 2017
• Glendale, Arizona
• Across The Years
• Sharon: 43.04 Miles in 18:00:40
• Tim: 29.39 Miles in 11:06:33

I wasn’t sure if me and Tim were going to make it to make it to the start line of Across The Years. Tim threw his back out a couple of days before the race and I was fighting a cold. At least we had our excuses lined up.

The closest hotel to the race was the Comfort Inn. By the time we booked our room the only thing left was a King Suite. Luckily for us a suite in Glendale costs about the same as a regular hotel in most places that we like to vacation – looking at you San Francisco. It was great to have a huge comfy bed, even if I did have to roll over twice to kiss Tim goodnight. The closest restaurant was a Denny’s, so we ate at Denny’s the night before our big race. They actually had a decent wild salmon but I could have eaten my broccoli with a straw.

We got up with Tim’s 5am alarm because apparently we needed 4 hours to be ready for our 9am start.

There was a little confusion at packet pickup the morning of the race. The volunteer forgot to give us belts for our race bibs and didn’t know where the tables were. I also tried to find out where to recharge my phone (the website said that they had charging stations) but she didn’t know that either. To be fair I think most people picked up their packets the night before and she was very sweet and looked tired (this is not meant as criticism but just an account of our experience. All volunteers are awesome and should be worshiped for all they do.) Tim found the tables and we carried one to a primo table spot only to find a note on the inside, saying that table was reserved. On the inside! If someone, for whatever reason, has a favorite table I’m fine with that but put your name on the outside. We carried the table back and got another. Just from walking back and forth from the car and then the table thing my FitBit had 3 miles on it before we even started.

I forgot how chilly AZ can be in the winter

While we were setting up we saw the Jester (Ed Ettinghausen) run by. We met him in 2015 at a Charlie Alewine race in Long Beach when Ed was doing his 100th 100 mile race. I was hoping for a chance to talk to him but he was moving faster th