Anyway... On the last day of their vacation, Slammin' Sarah, her dad, and Grandma and Grandpa were up at 0500 hours. The temperature outside was a cool 46 degrees. At 0530, the running troupe headed north into the Phoenix desert. At 0600 hours, the sun popped over the horizon. At 0700 hours, the temperature shot up to 70 degrees and when the starting gun went off at 0800, it was a bright, cloudless 85 degrees!

Bag pipers, a cheering comedian with a bull horn, and a crowd of well-wishers hooted and hollered as the 300+ runners took to the streets. Sarah and her dad would run their second race together a little different then their first one. They paced themselves a little slower hoping to have an energy burst at the end to beat Sarah's personal best of 29:27 by 2-1/2 minutes.

At mile #1 their time was about 8:30. Team NY were cruising at a super pace when they turned a bend to see... the hill. "Oh, no," murmured Slamin' S.

At the top of the hill, after the Jogging LaBellas maintained a strong pace upward, they crossed the mile #2 marker at about 17:00. What a pace. They may not make 27:00 at the finish line... but they were movin'! Then the unpredictable happened. Slammin Sarah's energy spiked and she took off like her Nike's were on fire! Her dad could barely keep up with her.

As they gradually dropped in elevation, the Scooting LaBellas zipped passed others who hadn't faired so well on the killer hill. Then they cruised passed a few more runners... and then scurried in and around some others. The Daughter/Father team from NY were zoomin'! At about 2.7 miles, the Dueling Joggers dropped back on their pace to either avoid bursting into flames from exhaustion... or throwing up.

As they neared the finish line, Sarah's dad looked ahead to the finish line clock: 26:00. "Sarah," he shouted, "we can beat your goal of 27:00 but we have to sprint!"

And with that... the Jogging LaBellas jammed into high gear as they watched the seconds click towards 27:00. Unbelievably, gun times clocked them crossing the finish line at exactly 27:00. But, their race chips reveal times of 26:44 and 26:46. Who do you think crossed the finish line first? We at G-WeB won't tell!

PS... and it just goes to show... runners do make better backpackers!