YAKIMA VALLEY Marathon?

Yes, I'm posting this in Yakima Washington. You wonder why I am here? Jayni and Annie gave me this trip to me for a Christmas present! To run a marathon in Yakima Valley! What a fun present, expecially after Jayni drove the coarse today. It looks like the coarse is 95% uphill. Oh well, I hope I don't die! The valley we are running through is absolutely gorgeous however, but I thought Sedona was gorgeous as well. I think I'm in trouble! Elly and Toby are doing good through the long hours sitting in the car. You see Jayni thought I could use a buddy pass to get to Spokane, then drive down for one night in Yakima. However, the flights were all full to Spokane, so I had to catch a plane to the tri-cities. We stayed one night in Kennewick at a Red Lion Hotel. I had the best sleep of my life. The bed was a king size bed that we all shared. It was so soft and the pillows were so fluffy! I felt like a princess. We took the kids to a park on the Columbia river. It was a darling castle park. The play equipment was awesome. Then we went down by the river and let the kids throw rocks in. They loved it. We then went to "Horton Hears a Who". Elly loved it! She giggled through the whole movie. I slept like a baby , except for Elly kicking me a couple of times. Anyway we woke up and traveled through a little city called Sunnyville, where we took the Dairygold cheese tour. They gave out free cheese like Gossner's and Elly had a bubblegum ice cream cone. The cheese was yummy, but did it stink of cow manure, 10 times worse than Farr West. I've picked up my race packet and now we've checked into our hotel (Howard Johnson's) in a very graffiti filled area of town, which by the way isn't as nice as the Red Lion. I've just eaten my last supper before the big race tomorrow. Get this it's cloudy, raining, and very windy. Just my luck! I hope it will be better tomorrow, but I'm prepared! So yes this whole Yakima Christmas present is turning out to be better than I thought, so far?! I'll keep you posted.