Lost Dutchman Marathon

Sunday was Valentine's Day so SO and I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and drove out to picturesque Apache Junction, Arizona. The fabled Lost Dutchman Mine is rumored to be located around Apache Junction. We were not heading to Apache Junction to pan for gold, but rather to walk in the 8K (4.98 mile) Lost Dutchman trail run/walk to benefit the Arizona Lost Boys Center. There was also a marathon, half marathon, 10K run and 2K fun run. Our time was 1:19:11, which is about 16 minutes per mile. Not bad for walking on a trail. At the beginning we picked out a group of four 80+ seniors that we wanted to beat and we were pretty confident until one of them began running and never looked back (to be honest she looked like she was in much better shape than me!). We blistered the remaining three super-seniors.

Two of our attorneys are very involved with the Arizona Lost Boys (and Girls) Center and the Fennemore Craig Foundation supports the Lost Boys activities. One of the Lost Boys works for the firm. Since the mid-1980s, there has been a terrible civil war in Sudan (in East Africa). Thousands of children fled into the jungle and began walking to Ethiopia. They stayed in refugee camps in Ethiopia. In 1991, they were forced to leave Ethiopia and they began another long walk—this time to a United Nations refugee camp in Kenya. In 2001, the United States government resettled 4,000 of these, now, young men in America. 550 “Lost Boys” settled in Arizona and have made it their new home. The Arizona Lost Boys (and Girls) Center is a safe haven for Lost Boys to gather socially, learn important life skills, and receive assistance in many areas including education, employment, crisis intervention, and emotional health support. Many Lost Boys receive scholarships to attend technical schools, colleges, and universities in the Phoenix area.

In the afternoon I watched the end of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am tournament. How can you not love golf after seeing Pebble Beach Golf Links in high definition! The 14th hole is a bear. It may be the hardest par-5 on the PGA Tour. It is not often that you see three tour professional make 9 on a hole within 45 minutes. Alex Prugh, Bryce Molder and Paul Goydos, the tournament leader at the time, each made quadruple bogeys on the hole. It was great to see David Duval on the leaderboard. When he was at the top of his game in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he was not well-liked because of his dour demeanor, but after his golf game fell off the end of the earth for 9 years due to injuries, vertigo, etc. he is the comeback kid and although he still does not show much emotion on the course I was rooting for him. He has a beautiful golf swing and great putting stroke. He shot four rounds in the 60s and lost by one stroke to Dustin Johnson, who has now won this tournament back-to-back. The U.S. Open will be played at Pebble Beach this summer and although the golf course will be set up to U.S. Open difficulty standards, Dustin Johnson should have a lot of confidence.