What happens in Vegas....

.... sometimes gets put on the blog!!!

Especially when the weekend is as great as this:

We decided to run our trail race in Las Vegas this year (a change up from Moab!) and more importantly, decided to make it an adults-only trip!  What a great idea..... not only was it nice for the 9 of us to spend four days together uninterrupted (between all of us we left 9 boys ages 4-18 back at home!!!) but it was so fun to really relax and enjoy the poolside bar, the strip, the desert, the race, and even a nice night out for dinner & a show!

all 9 of us - poolside lunch on the first day!

The race was particularly meaningful because we all felt especially supportive of our friend Kris and her journey with breast cancer and chemotherapy.... she was signed up to run the half-marathon and used the race as a goal for her to stay active and strong! Her perseverance in training for the race (and still teaching full-time!) helped us all feel motivated to run a little farther and feel grateful for the time we had together. Between the nine of us, we ran 125 miles through the Red Rock Canyon/Cottonwood Valley area just SW of Las Vegas. But it was evidently not about the race for there was little talk about speed or distance. It was clearly more about the experience as talk centered around views and trail conditions and people met along the way!  It was a gorgeous day for running, laughing, and celebrating - and we made sure to arrive & depart the finish line in real Vegas style:
stretch limo for 9!!!!

The weekend in Vegas was a great reminder of just how good life is:
the chance to go somewhere, to run a trail and to drink mimosas by the pool in the sunshine with my favorite people!