70 miles of MOAB!

During the winter, when I was clearly not in the right frame of mind and probably suffering from a sever case of SAD, I agreed to a 70 mile relay race with some of my running gals.

Here is why...

• You only have to run 2 legs.
• It was through the beautiful, scenic and WARM Moab Utah.
• We would be gone for an entire weekend. No kids, no hubbies just some awesome gal pals and our sweet running shoes.
• Oh yeah and it is WARM!

Well after months of running in the cold, never ending winter of SLC it was time for Moab! As I drug my suite case across the street I kind of felt like I was running away from home. That quickly dissipated when we began our road trip. It was such a great weekend. I had some much needed girl time and experienced something I never thought possible. It is something I would highly recommend any runner do!

A pre-race dinner at a YUMMY Mexican restaurant.

Kellee and Jill pose as we head off to the races at the early hour of 5:30am!

"CAUTION runners on the road"

Some of the beautiful scenery we ran through.

My first leg was only 5.5 miles and it was GORGEOUS. It was along the Green River through the canyon. If I could run on that every day I would! So beautiful!
This is what I was running next to. So peaceful.

My next leg was nearly 6 hours later and it was 8 miles in the heat of the afternoon. At times I was sure I was going to die, like when I had to run through a heard of cows. My grandpa used to run a feedlot and would stick me in the cow pen and I always hated it. To this day I have an ity-bitty fear of cattle. Those are some massive, smelly animals. Lets just say that by the end of that leg I was more than happy to pass of the bracelet!

What did I do for the 6 hours in between legs? Well, you follow your team of runners, you cheer them on, wet them down talk a lot, rest a little, watch in awe of the other teams and some incredible speedsters! Mostly you just enjoy it and think to yourself, "I am really doing this."

Look closely and you can see the road go WAAAAYYYY back. We ran this entire distance! This was only about halfway through the course.
We all made it to the end and ran across the finish line as team. What an accomplishment! I never in a million years thought I would do something like that.

What I learned from this weekend is that it is so great to have such good friends and better to make more new friends. I learned that you can do hard things and your body can be pushed farther than you think. I learned that it is a must to set goals and accomplish them and that all the stress and anxiety I have had over the last few months was for nothing because it was great FUN and I can't wait to lace up my shoes and join my running gals again next year!