Thursday, March 25, 2010

Moab

This past weekend we headed down to Moab with my siblings for a weekend of good food, lots of condo time (due to the FREEZING temperatures), golf for the boys, a mini-hike and a 13.2 mile jaunt down the canyon. Several months ago, against my better judgement, I allowed my sisters to talk me into running the Moab half marathon. I spent most of the winter postponing my training and dreading the middle of March.
March 19th found us in Moab, driving the course so we knew what to expect. It seemed a lot more uphill than down to me and I found myself more and more nervous as we drove! Jackson drove it with us and kept telling us that this was going to take us all day. . . I think he had no idea until that point just how far his mom runs. I also think he decided I'm plum crazy.
Morning of: it was a beautiful, clear day. At least that's what I thought until Nate informed us that it was currently 28 degrees. Despite the freezing temperatures, I started to get excited. This is why I do this to myself: the excitement of 4,000 people all freezing their trash off in the shade of a beautiful red-rocked canyon, huddled around the start line, with a similar goal in mind. I decided that I could do this thing.
I had so much fun starting with Tierra, Chelsea and Marcus. We had fun passing the time by critiquing all the different running styles, talking about anything that comes to mind, and weaving our way through those 4,000 runners as we made our way down the canyon. Chel and I ran together till about mile 9 when her knees started killing her and she dropped back just a bit.
Then it was me and my iPod. The last 2 miles are always the hardest 17 minutes of my life but I passed that finish line, one hour and fifty-eight minutes after that oh-so-cold start, so relieved that it was over! So happy that my sisters talked me into it and that we were able to accomplish this thing together.

6 comments:

Chelsea said...

Cute post--you got some cute pics of your kids. I bet you're already back to running too, aren't you? I still can't move my legs :) Hope Lola is starting to feel better!

Amy said...

Wow Katie. You are the woman! Way to go. I could never run that far!

Stacie said...

you rock! I will live vicariously through you, although I won't get in better shape that way! haha

Tierra said...

Cute Kate. And those pictures of your fam in the rocks turned out cute. You and Chel are making me feel like a slacker for not writing about the whole experience...

Tierra said...

HAH--I just looked at this again and remember how Marcus insisted on wearing his neon green shirt?!? Too bad he forgot how cool the matching hat was...

JLJ said...

Congratulations! What a fun place for a race. I love that picture of Miles doing gang signs with his hands. Who taught him that?

Since this is way after the fact, I'm sure Lola is long recovered from her surgery, but I will still hope things are well with her.