The one, the only, the original. The race that started it all. Think of it as a 192-mile party with 12 best friends. Teams of 12 will rock out to live bands, enjoy the wacky participant costumes, and make life-long friends with teammates and competitors. Teams will party (aka run their butts off) along the backside of the beautiful Wasatch Mountains from Logan (85 miles north of Salt Lake City) to Park City, Utah (15 miles east of Salt Lake City).
For some reason I was a bit nervous to do this race. First off, I had the longest runs of the team: 21 miles - the longest I've ever ran before. I had been training a ton at CrossFit, but hadn't been really "running". Justin had the 2ND longest runs with 19 miles. We both had long downhill runs and they killed our knees! I felt espeically bad for Justin because he had a really steep uphill run and you could tell it was brutal, but he's amazing and pulled it off - such a rockstar!
My first run was easy. I was so excited, adrenaline pumped, and ready to go at 5:00 AM. Yes, you heard me right. Let me give a little background. We arrived at the hotel in Logan around midnight and had to wake at 3:30 to be to the start line by 4:00 for our 5:00 start. I was so exhausted but as soon as I turned on my music got into my zone and got to the start line, the excitement took over and I made really good time on my first 7 mile run.
My 2ND run was a little more challenging, but fun. I ran 8.3 miles down the canyon. I really liked the downhill running, but it was horrible on my knees and unfortunately, I didn't recover in time for my 3rd run,
I really was looking forward to my last one. An easy breezy flat 5 miles. I was hoping to kill that one, but I ended up walking most of it because I was in a lot of pain from my 2ND run. I feel like I let the team down on that one, but I did my best and know what I need to train on for the next race. Got to stretch out that IT band!
Overall, we had a great time. There were a few difficulties I noticed in this race that I didn't experience in my first two. One: I was doing
Paleo. In the past races I'd carb load and during this race, I did not have any carbs and relied on protein. This may explain why I felt more depleted and exhausted after my runs. 2ND: I had a little tummy bug :(. But that is nothing and I am not complaining. My amazing friend, and teammate ran this race 6 months pregnant! I was happy to once again run with some seriously cool people. We sure do get a long well. You really build a relationship being with a person in a car for 24 hours together. They support you and you support them. It was a lot of fun and we were so happy to cross the finish line with an amazing team.
Our team, the "Plundering Pavement Pounders", were noticed right away by the media and the local newspaper did an article on us and put our pictures in the paper! HOW COOL IS THAT!? We felt like celebrities. You can read all about our awesomeness
here. Justin and I love doing these races and our medal collection is piling up! Next up? Napa! Can't wait to run over the Golden Gate Bridge!
My friend Steph introduced me to a race that sounded super fun, the Kiss Me Dirty 5K fun mud run. So I grabbed some beautiful women, mostly from CrossFit and the Momadonnas, and became team leader for a group of 17 awesome ladies. What a great time we had! The race benefited gynecological cancer and it was a mud run. YES, another mud run. We had some down and dirty fun running in the mud while our supportive spouses and kids ran along the sidelines. Together as a team we helped each other over obstacles like hay barrels, walls, tires, etc. The best part was doing it all together with such a great group of special women. Can't wait to do it again next year!
What is 
After dinner, the group headed to one of our favorite martini bars, The 
Saturday morning the guys headed out golfing and my mom and mother-in-law and I drove into town for the Farmer's Market. It is such a fun place. Much more lively and diverse than the one here in Utah. In addition to local meats, cheeses, veggies and such, the Farmer's Market hosts many of the local wineries! Guess what that means? Free wine tastings while you cruise the market! Us ladies loaded up on breads, cheeses, tapinade, seriously divine lavender almond white chocolate, WINE, and fruits. Then we headed back to the hotel and the three of us set up a picnic and enjoyed each others company until it was time to get ready for the wine taste that evening.
Stan and Inge Young hosted their farewell wine tasting. They featured local Idaho wines and a huge dinner spread. They will be sorely missed and we all agreed we will miss them, and the Idaho experience, and begged to allow us to continue to come visit them ;).
I had a relaxing wonderful time with my hunny. Hope to do it again soon!
