26.2 Grandma: Rock N Roll Arizona

I have been looking forward to running a Rock 'n' Roll event ever since I heard about them. Having live music along the course sounded fun. I started talking about it early, and it ended up being a family affair which made it even more special.

To start off the adventure Cyndie and I drove to Arizona together. Because of the mild winter temperatures we were experiencing we were able to take what I call the scenic route, going though the beautiful mountain town of Flagstaff. When we arrived in Surprise Cyndie dropped me off at Alicia's house and she drove on to see her parents who were vacationing in AZ.

I got some rest time in after the long drive before Alicia and the grand-kids arrived home that evening. It was fun spending time with Violet, Marley and Zeke. That evening we went for some Chinese take-out for dinner. I loaded up my container with lots of delicious food.

Violet gave up her bed for me to sleep in, she had it all nice and cozy with a cute tent around it. She was sweet and slept on the couch.

The next day was packet pickup day. Parking in downtown Phoenix is not real fun. And we were on a limited time budget because Alicia had to be at work. Even though our time at the expo was short I had a good time. While we were there Neal showed up to pick up his and Aspen's packets.

After the expo Violet and I dropped off and then we went to lunch and shopping together for the afternoon. Our first stop was Subway, where we got a sandwich. I found out that her favorite sub sandwich is the meatball one. After lunch we headed to the mall for some shoe shopping. We had a good time together.

Before leaving the shopping center we bought 3 smoothies and headed to pick up Alicia from work.

Fast forward and soon it is time for me to spend a little time with Neal and more grand-kids! How cool is that. We loaded up Alicia's family and drove to Gilbert AZ to Neal's apartment. I was sure enjoying the nice Arizona winter temperature. We needed groceries to feed this big group so Grandma Monson watched the grandchildren while Neal and Alicia went shopping and to do some errands. That was a lot of kids for me in a small area.....I had to get out my patience-o-meter but they all did great. It was fun to see them play together.

We had some nice sandwiches, chips, and cookies for lunch. And for dinner that evening we made some spaghetti and french bread. Gotta get those carb's in for race day. Our bonus of the evening was having Mark and Brittiany arrive from Florida to run with us. All my kids running a half marathon with me. I would have never guessed years ago that we would ever do something like this together. Especially since none of us were runners.

Ready to run 13.1

So here are the stats for this family half marathon:

First Half Marathon, 13.1 miles: Neal, Aspen, Mark & Brittiany

Second Half Marathon: Alicia

13th Half Marathon: Me at 56 years old

So the recap, this was going to be a special day for me. First, running with all my kids. Second, running with my granddaughter Aspen. Third, all of us running to support Alicia. And finally, running with 3 generations. How very amazing is that. Yes, it was one of those moments for me.....

Race day dawns early, and this one was no exception. We had a bit of a drive to get to the start line and we were concerned about parking and also finding Alicia before the race. Everything turned out great, we had plenty of time to get to the race start area and find our corral. We stowed some gear at the UPS truck drop (very cool). We went towards the back because we knew we'd be slow. We didn't realize we'd put ourselves back with the walkers. Oh well, it gave us lots of people to pass.

One of the fun things I like about races is dressing up to run in them. Not sure where that comes from but something about running needs to be fun, right? So I'd put a lot of planning into what I was going to wear to this Rock 'n' Roll run. I decided to go with a 50's diner look with a puffy skirt, white shirt and matching scarf around my neck. I bought a costume at Costume Craze and then modified it to run in. It worked great, no wardrobe malfunctions.

Running the half together went slow and pretty steady. We had a few extra walk breaks but not very many. Alicia was having some issues with her new seizure medication, getting it to be regulated during exercise. Since the hardware in her ankle is now out things are better, but her foot was still falling asleep. Brittiany was recovering from a broken foot. Aspen was bouncing around and having fun and got a side ache, but she worked through that. We were blessed with overcast weather, so no sun beating down on us.

Finally the moment we've all been running for, the finish line!!! Here we are all running across it together, glad to finally be done.