Day 249

• 12.3 miles
• 9 min/mile pace
• 0555
• Squaw Peak Area
• First of all let me sing the praises of what I formerly thought to be a somewhat silly idea -- The Staycation.   Turns out that, like almost everthing, life is different with kids...our "staycation" weekend at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort here in town was truly fantastic because it helped us entertain our kids for the entire weekend, while also enjoying ourselves.   Part of that enjoyment was actually this run too...I left the hotel, located just on the other side of Hwy 51 from Squaw Peak, headed for the Squaw Peak hiking area with the thought of running the trails I had heard about around the Peak itself -- I did not have the mental strength to try a pseudo running effort summit attempt.   After reaching the end of the paved road I kept going in that same basic direction (North and slightly east) onto trails circling around Squaw Peak itself.   I soon realized that there are many many miles of trails out there and some gorgeous cholla catcus as well...I was really impressed with the area.  To my surprise I even found a bit of "Trail 100" as made famous by the 2012 LMI...I never pushed the pace, which probably also contributed to the overall enjoyment.  So anyway, I ran for a while before feeling like I needed to return to catch back up with the family since the original "finish before they're fully awake" plan was scraped when Finn woke up around 4:30, resulting in he and I hanging out in the hotel lobby until we felt at least Becca had slept long enough.  

Day 242

• 15.23 miles
• 10:20/mile pace
• 0530
• South Mountain, AZ
• Ran the "National trail" from the end of San Juans road to the east end of South Mountain with Dean.  This run was absolutely fantastic, maybe my favorite trail in Phoenix...it was just really cool, well, except for the steep uphill stretch from mile 3 to 4 when I was pathetically reduced to walking/hiking.   The run across the top of the mountain was great though and worth it...as was the downhill, even though it seemed to take forever to get to it.   Overall another great long run with Dean, who likes point to point runs as much as I do, which, thanks to Kim was possible.   Very cool.  
• Carried 40 ounces of liquid (16 h2o, 24 Gatorade)
• Ate 3 Gu's.
• No issues experienced with relation to my issue, seems I have no excuses anymore, though that issue is not yet resolved.