It was our 7th anniversary so I decided I wanted to do something special. I was on a running kick so when I stumbled across the Vacation Races website I found a great way to spend a weekend. There was a 5k on Friday night and a half marathon on Saturday morning. If you did both you got a medal for each race and a special Moose Double medal for running both of them. Now Jesse will say that I did not ask if he wanted to run both but I swear I did, maybe I just didn’t make it clear that we would be running 16.2 miles in about 12 hours. This event took place in Jackson Hole, WY a place I have wanted to visit. You would be running by Grand Teton National Park and the race was supposed to be beautiful. With a name like Vacation Races how could it be bad?
We left SLC pretty early to get to WY in time for the 5k. It was a beautiful drive through lots of mountains and farms. I really enjoyed it. The hotel I picked was the Anvil, a boutiquey one with small rooms that were decorated very nicely. There was a restaurant on site where we planned on having our anniversary dinner. After checking in and changing we headed to the site for the 5k and to pick up our race packet. There was some fun shopping and they had smores that you could make by a fire. I enjoyed myself, Jesse is used to arriving at a place and immediately going to get food and beer so he was a bit off by this change of plans. We did the 5k and had a nice time doing it. We then quickly went back to the hotel to change and find some dinner. There was this great mexican place where we had burritos and beers. Maybe not the best pre race meal but neither of us usually has any stomach issues when running. We went right to bed after dinner since we had to be up at an ungodly hour in the morning.
There was a shuttle that we had to catch at o’dark thirty to get to the start line. That was another reason I picked this hotel, the shuttle pick up and drop off was right across the street. No worries about race day parking so that was good. We were in a large field waiting for the start of the race. It was nice in that they had coffee and hot chocolate but it was dark, cold and foggy. The sun came up but the cold and fog was still there. We started running and it was still foggy. This was a road event which is something I have not done in a long time. I usually run on nice soft trails. Plus we were on the left side the whole time with a little bit of greenway running so the road had a slope to it as well. By mile 8 (when the fog finally cleared!) my hip was killing me and I was slowly running/walking along. At least I could finally see the Tetons. The view made the last few miles a bit more bearable. I am also used to ultra running aid stations so when I stopped at these water stops I was lucky if there was an orange. I wanted PB&J or a grilled cheese.
I finally made it to the finish line. It ended at a really nice golf and country club where I hobbled along with Jesse to a shuttle to take us back to our hotel. We cleaned up and went out to find food. The town square of Jackson Hole was only a few blocks away and we found the Roadhouse Pub. Jesse had duck wings which he enjoyed quite a bit and I had a burger. After all that activity and since we were up so early, we decided to take a nap at the hotel before we did anything else.
When we woke up we were hungry again so we went back into town to find what else we could eat. There was this lovely wine bar with small plates of food. We ended up ordering a big meatball, a salad and some mushroom dish that was awesome. The wine was very good also. After walking around town and doing some window shopping we went back to our room to put our feet up. My hip was hurting and I liked the idea of resting. We wanted to walk around Grand Teton National Park the next day.
After watching TV for a while, we decided we wanted more food so Jesse went and got a pizza from Pinky G’s Pizza. It was on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and the pizza was pretty good. He also picked up a bottle of wine from the wine bar we went to earlier. Eating pizza in bed was a great way to end the day.
The next day was June 2nd, our anniversary. We went to Grand Teton NP to check it out. Driving the main road took you to many of the most popular sights. The walk to Jenny Lake was easy and the view was beautiful. We walked a bit around there and then continued along the main road to see some more sights. Stopping at Jackson Lake Lodge proved to be exciting, there was a mama bear and cub hanging out in a grassy area between the lodge and parking lot. It was a bit too close for me but other people were creeping closer and at one point mama bear perked up her ears. Thankfully a ranger came and chased everyone away so the bears could go about their business. I decided I did not want to hike there after all. We continued to drive through the park until we made it to Colter Bay Village. All of these were so pretty and gave a different view of the mountains. Conveniently they had a restaurant called the Ranch House were we decided to have some lunch.
Since we had dinner reservations we headed back to the hotel to clean up and relax. Our anniversary dinner at Glorietta’s, the restaurant attached to the Anvil hotel. It was wonderful and we had a nice relaxing time. We walked around town one last time before heading back to the room to get some sleep.
After we checked out of the hotel we wandered around town for a little bit more before beginning the drive back to SLC. Since we had a few options as to what route to take we decided on a different way home than the way we got to Jackson Hole. It was still a beautiful drive and we made it home at a reasonable time.
It was a great trip and a very memorable anniversary. Not sure if I will ever run a road marathon again since my hip pain led to me having to see a PT and not run for months. But at least it was a wonderful time with my husband. He puts up with my crazy ideas and I love it and him.
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