Labor Day

On Labor Day I joined Kelly and her friends for the Jerome Hill Climb. The Jerome Hill Climb is a 4.6 mile run in the town of Jerome, Arizona. Jerome is known as the Arizona Ghost Town. The town is built on the side of a mountain about 30 miles south of Sedona and about 100 miles north of Phoenix. The town used to be a huge mining town. Copper, Silver and Gold were lifeblood of the mines. Most of the mines closed in the mid 1900’s and the town went from 15,000 people to less than 50. That’s how the town got it’s Ghost town designation. In recent times, the town has become a big artist area. There are a ton of shops and restaurants. There are also Haunted Mine tours. Kelly and I would like to go back when we have more time.

After touring the town and all the shops on Sunday, we got ready for the “run” on Monday. The town is 5200 feet in elevation. That’s right, over a mile above sea level. The temperature was great for a run (70’s -80’s) but we found out that the run was straight up the mountain behind the town. To start the race we had to walk over a mile downhill to the starting area. From there, it would be 4.6 miles straight up. Kelly is nursing a bad ankle and I’m not in running shape, so we decided to just “power walk” the course. The mountain the town is built on is 7700 feet tall. I’m guessing we climbed somewhere above 7,000 feet. When the race started everyone but Kelly and I took off running. We just kept our pace (about 4 miles and hour), and we eventually started passing people. We made to the finish line in 1 hour and 12 minutes. Kelly and I crossed the finish line at the same time, but somehow she fished about 20 seconds ahead of me when the race results were posted. The winner of the race was from Africa. He finished in 29 minutes!

The views going up the mountain were amazing! When we got to the top we found out we were going to have to walk back down. Ughhh! Yep that adds up to over 10 miles. We started to walk about down. About half a mile down a truck beeps at us and invites us to ride down. The couple in the truck stayed in the hotel room next to our group. We had talked to them earlier in the morning. They remembered us, so invited us to ride back down. It pays to be nice to people. While we were driving back down, we found out that man driving they truck proposed to his fiancé as she crossed the finish line.

I brought Kelly’s camera with me (here’s is better than mine). Here are some photos of Jerome and the “run” errrrr walk up the mountain.