My New Running Philosphy

I think I have finally found the trick to doing well in races and enjoying them at the same time. It goes a little something like this...

1- Don't train
2- Don't set a goal time
3- Eat some sugar
4- Get very little sleep
5- Don't worry

Apparently this NEEDS to be my new philosophy to running races. I usually train my guts out when I have a race coming up, I don't eat sugar, I go to sleep unusually early and I set a lofty goal time for myself.

In preparation for this race, I have run a little here and there, but not intensely and not massive amounts of miles. I ate a nice banana split and a yummy mint chocolate cupcake the night before the run, I got up at 2:30 to drive down to Moab (getting only four hours of sleep) and I didn't have any major expectations in regards to my time. It paid off!! I felt great!! Not just okay, but great. I kept a good pace and I didn't slow down as I got to mile four and five. I was able to keep the same pace and smile while I was doing it. My friend Ryan gave me some important advice the night before the race. He said... "When you get tired and want to slow down... don't." I was happy to report to him that I took his advice.

Here are the four other friends who ran with me before we headed up the canyon to the starting line. We are doing our "running pose."



We all had to be bused up the canyon near the Colorado River to the starting line. This picture proves that they wanted to assure us that the buses were not "school" buses. It gave us quite a laugh...



Four friends went down with us who were not running. They camped out at about mile 3 to cheer us on. From my stance in the photo, you can see why my friend Mark yelled out that I was having way too much fun. He was right!



Morgan and Jen felt really left out by the fact that they weren't running, so they decided to join us... Oh wait, we were just running so fast, they were catching up to try to get a photo! Ha ha...



The coolest part is that all five of us placed! There were 739 total runners. Jim took 4th overall, Dave took 15th, Jake took 17th, I took 52nd and Kari took 78th. Plus, Jake, Jim and I all took first in our age group, so we got a sweet Kokopeli trophy. Dave took 2nd in his age group and Kari took 3rd in her age group, which means we all went home with either a trophy or a medal. Talk about exciting! Here is a photo afterward with our awards.





The fun of the day didn't end here however. We spent the remainder of the day hiking and exploring Canyonlands. For those of you who know me well, you know that the southwest and the Colorado Plateau brings me extreme joy! I love the West and I love Utah's National Parks. The day was amazing and there isn't much that could have made it any better. Here are some additional photos in no apparent order...










This trip definitely made my top 5 list in regards to adventure trips. Good friends, good food, good times.