Back from California

I just got back from California tonight.  On Friday, my wife and I flew out to Palm Springs to attend the 3-day Stagecoach Country Music Festival in nearby Indio. We stayed in the Marriott Resort in Palm Desert.  The festival started at noon each day and was over at midnight.  There was a mix of old and new country singers, including Willie Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Shania Twain, Kenny Chesney, Cody Johnson from Huntsville and a bunch of others.  I was really impressed with the Jerry Lee Lewis performance.  While watching, I look over and Prescilla Presley and Tom Jones were standing in the audience a few feet from me.  Anyway, the festival was quite an experience, but there were there was a lot of walking involved.  It was about a mile from the shuttle bus to the festival, which itself covered at least a square mile.  Someone said there were 80,000 attendees.  Incidently, I won the all expenses-paid trip.

More importantly, here is my running report:  The Texas 10 Series Sienna (Houston) was on Sunday.  It was the first one I missed in the series since I started the series in 2013.  That was a bummer.  However, I ran it virtually this morning in Palm Desert.  For some purposes, I will get credit for it.  The sidewalk around the perimeter of the Marriott Resort we stayed in was 3.8 miles, including the driveway to and from the front door.  I got in shorter runs on the sidewalk on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  This morning, I ran the 3.8-mile loop twice and an out and back to get in 10 miles.  The challenge was getting enough water for the dry and hot weather.  I carried water with me for the first loop and the doorman gave me a couple bottles of water for my second loop.  They were out of water at the door after my second loop.  I gutted it out for my out and back.  I finished in 2:23:56, about 10 minutes slower than usual for 10 miles.

After the 10 miles, we had a late breakfast in Palm Desert and then headed to Palm Springs for a 1:20 flight this afternoon.  It was an over-booked United flight and they were offering $1,000 for volunteers to get off the flight.  I was tempted.