The Brass Challenge - October 10, 2009

The "Zoey" rock..weird huh? See the head, ear and muzzle?

A natural arch

Aaron and Zoey slept all the way home

On Saturday, Todd, Aaron and I woke up at 4:45 a.m. to get ready to go to the Brass Challenge. That is a cycling/running race put on by Metro police. Todd has done it a few other years but has always done the cycling part of the race. This year he accepted an invitation to be on a running team. His leg of the race was 5.1 miles and uphill. He was on the Leads Exhausted team and there were ten of them in all. The race was out at the Valley of Fire about 45 minutes north of Las Vegas. It is a beautiful place, I really love the unique scenery out there. It was quite cold as the race began. Todd had the third leg of the race. He did an excellent job. I was very impressed. It was a tough course. I followed along side of him in the car a lot of the way and took some video and photos. I am sure I threw off his groove a few times with my "cheer leading." He finished in 44 minutes. A most impressive time for the the uphill climb he did. We stopped for a few minutes and climbed on some beautiful red rocks. As we were walking along trying to find some climbing rocks, I found a giant "Zoey" rock. I could not believe how much the rock looked like the profile of a miniature schnauzer...I know I am pathetic. I was unable to enjoy climbing on the rocks because in a moment of brilliance, I chose to wear flip flops to the Valley of Fire. We walked up about 1,649 stairs to see some petroglyphs that were 4,000 years old. That was really cool. When the race was over, we met at a park in Overton and had a picnic. We were starving and the food was really good. We had a great time, though we wished Ariel and Megan could have been with us. Oh and by the way...Todd's team came in first place out of the "mixed teams" a team made up of boys and girls.