Moonlight Madness Half Marathon

A few months ago I signed up for the "Moonlight Madness Six Tunnels Half Marathon". It really seemed like a good idea at the time. I ran a half marathon last January and have a strong desire to run a marathon sometime this year or early next year. The Half Marathon started at 9:00 p.m. last night and passed through three different bike and/or walking trails along Lake Mead. I am told I finished 22nd overall. My time was really slow. It was 100 degrees outside. The course followed three out and back trails, two of which were gradual climbs and descents with the final trail being a not so gradual climb and descent. Running at night with a headlamp was interesting, but not much fun. There were a lot of complaints of dizziness after the 10 mile mark.

After I finished I loaded up on water. The course directors also had oranges available. I ate a few slices of an orange and it was the most disgusting orange I have ever tried. I don't know if it was the orange, too much water, or too much running, but when I got to my car to drive home I lost it and threw up in the parking lot. When I got home my abs and/or stomach ached and I could not sleep. I was up until about 5:30 a.m. and then fell asleep for an hour or so. I then went back to sleep around 9:30 a.m. until noon. Hopefully I will make it through the day and sleep VERY well tonight.

All in all it was a rewarding experience and I am glad I did it. Hopefully I will start feeling more like myself over the next few hours and bask in the accomplishment.

Camping in Pine Valley

Our family spent the second half of this week in Pine Valley. We camped in the South Juniper camp site. It was a pretty good set up. We rolled in Wednesday night and got set up at about 10:00 p.m. Thursday we got up and spent the day relaxing. I took my oldest fishing at the resevouir. The fishing was so so there, but down below the resevouir where it emptied in to the creek the fishing was AMAZING. There were two small pools at the base of the outlet that were both very hot. I would cast into one pool and get a strike, then cast into the next pool and get a strike. We were stricktly catch and release per Tiffany's orders.

Thursday night my oldest was attacked by mosquitos all night. She got over 40 bites!

Friday I ran 6.75 miles, which was no small feat given the altitude and the mountain roads I had to climb. Our family drove into a small town for supplies. We showered in a make shift structure of a tarp with some rope tied around three trees. Tiff set up a solar shower that got hot when left in the sun all day.

Friday evening a storm hit that dumped rain on us. Turns out our tent is pretty water tight so things were ok, but Tiff and I missed out on an evening in front of the fire that we were hoping for.

Saturday I did another 6.5 miles. We packed up and trucked back to Vegas.

Let's give this a try.

The Sampsons are finally part of the blog world! We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (commonly called Mormons). We live in Las Vegas where I work as an attorney and my wife cares for our children.

My wife, Tiffany, just finished our Church's Girls' Camp. She served as the Camp Director (she was responsible for a camp of 120 12-18 year old young ladies). It was a busy responsibilty for her but she got a lot of joy out of it.