Moab #5

 

On March 20, 2010, I ran my 5th half marathon. All five races have been in Moab at the Canyonlands Half Marathon. I started my long running races way back in 2003 when my roommate Annie inspired me to start running. I ran cross country in high school, but those are 3 mile races and even in training I had never run more than 7 miles at once. Annie convinced me that I could do it...and I did. At that point, I got a little bit hooked and I have run that same race 4 more times (2006, 2007, 2008, 2010). All the races have been pretty good, but 2010 was exceptionally fun. No, I didn't have my best time, the weather wasn't all that great, and I got terribly sick during and after the race, but somehow I still had a blast. And I'm pretty sure I owe it to this girl--Traci Garff! (picture below)

Here we are just before leaving Provo on Friday afternoon. Traci is holding a picture that I tore out of a magazine as my training inspiration. It's a picture of a very lean athletic girl out running. I figured if I trained hard enough, I would look just like her. Ok, so not really, but it was a fun inspiration anyway.

Traci was my running buddy and training partner for all the training leading up to the big race. We ran all our Saturday long runs together. Long runs can be, well long, but when you put two wacky girls together who start in North Orem and run to South Provo, you get quite the spectacle and enjoyable time. In training, we would save all our stories from the week to share with each other and of course stories would be interrupted by random bursts of singing that led to more endorphins and good times. Some of our favorites were: Empire State of Mind (Traci is actually from NY), Bon Jovi, Eye of the Tiger, and random Disney selections.

Training runs prepared us for the big day and we made it--13.1 MILES!!! And don't worry, we kept the singing and story telling alive all throughout the race and I think as we inspired each other, we may have even inspired a few others along the way.

2010 marks the end of Moab Half Marathons for me....But here's a sneak preview of my next big racing adventure.....

That's right, I'm putting all those half marathons to use and finally running a full marathon--26.2 miles. Saturday November 13, 2010 in Richmond, VA.