drivetofive

Odometer (ILX):  16,666

26.2 miles doesn’t sound very far to go.  It’s a feat that my 1994 Acura Legend has completed nearly 20,000 times.  But when you’re on foot, it’s a whole different story!  This past weekend’s adventure was a trip to my hometown in St. George, Utah where I participated in the St. George Marathon.  I ran this one last year as well.

The race runs down State Route 18 in Washington and Iron counties.  It’s one of the most scenic races in the world – and one of the fastest, thanks to its largely downhill terrain.  The highway parallels Snow Canyon which has always been a favorite automotive photo-op background, like this photo set from February 2005 when my car had 155,000 miles on it.  At the time, I had a McCulloch 8000K HID kit for the headlights, and Catz XLO foglights.

It was also here that I filmed this June 2007 video of my 1994 Acura Legend when it had about 290,000 miles on it and was wearing my 19″ Racing Hart C2 wheels.

Here’s how my adventure started last Thursday night.  After work, I departed for the 5 hour drive to Las Vegas, Nevada from Scottsdale, Arizona.  I picked up my friend Jeff who’d flown in from Calgary, Alberta.

Our drive to St. George from there was just 100 miles and took about 90 minutes.  I admit, it took a high-volume concert of Psy’s song “Gangnam Style” to keep me awake until our 1 a.m. local time arrival.  The following morning, Jeff and I indulged in the best breakfast in town with my mom, courtesy of Bear Paw Cafe on Main Street.  I highly recommend the French toast!  The fresh squeezed OJ hit the spot, too.

Mom’s 2003 Lexus GS430 has recently completed its first 100,000 miles.  Still looking good!  The silver cars posed for a quick photo-op after breakfast.

Jeff and I made a quick pit-stop at my brother’s workplace.  He’s got an old Lincoln Towncar limousine out back that we’ve taken out on the town before.

Evening before the race.

3:30 came far too quickly the next morning.  Anxious to get the show on the road, we headed to the finish area where shuttle buses took us to the start line up the canyon.  Here I’m pictured with Jeff and with my step-mom, Tanya who also competed.

Temps were only in the 50’s up there so we huddled around bonfires with about 7,000 other participants until the race got underway.

Here’s the race course.

At 6:45 a.m., we were off!  My fast-paced music playlist got me motivated.  I snapped this picture with my phone while running.

Highlight of the race was definitely the crowd support.  My mom watched for me from mile 16, grandma and friend Matt at mile 24, and dad with sis-in-law Kali at mile 25!  It was great to see familiar faces to keep my mind off the task at hand.

Thanks to my buddy Rob for capturing this pic as I made the final stretch into the finish gate!

And a much-needed mist bath to cool off!

My average mile was 9 minutes, 29 seconds.  I ran 6.3 miles per hour.  This put me at a 4:08 finish time.

Meet-up with mom post-race.  There were 5,696 people who finished the race.

And getting shuttled back to the house in style, courtesy of my friend Matt’s 2012 Infiniti G37 convertible.  This car’s equipped with the “Infiniti Performance Line” (IPL) package, which includes both performance enhancements and some hot styling upgrades (red leather interior!).

Jeff wrapped his calves in tape to help ease some soreness.  Stylin’.

And as if we hadn’t had enough adventure for the day, we headed to Las Vegas for the evening.

The ILX made its way down the Strip to our hotel, Treasure Island.  Traffic was a mess but the ILX clutch is light and doesn’t give my (sore!) left leg as much of a workout as the old 516k Legend clutch does.

Walking about the town.

And the southbound view from our 32nd floor room at Treasure Island on Sunday morning.

Prior to going our separate ways, we dined at Denny’s.

New York, New York in the background.

Matt captured a few on-road pics on Highway 93 just north of Wickenburg, Arizona.

A great weekend of mile-making for both me and for the Acura ILX!  I was remarkably rested when I got home and that’s thanks in large part to the comfortable ride and spacious cabin in the car.  I look forward to getting to spend time behind the wheel.  Let’s see where it takes me next.

This entry was posted on October 8, 2012 at 8:43 pm and is filed under ILX, Running, Utah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.