After the bees were taken care of, we jumped in the car and headed to Vernal!
When we arrived we were hungry and needed to find something that wasn’t too greasy. Not a lot of restaurants to choose from, we ended up at Denny’s. Salmon, mashed potatoes, and broccoli to go. We grabbed food and went to the hotel to check in and eat. Either I was starving, or we ended up with someone who cooked a great salmon. It was surprisingly very good. Paul was delightfully surprised with his dinner as well.
The next morning we were at the bus at 6:00am. On top of Dry Fork Canyon by 6:20am. We had an hour to freeze before the race started. I drank my peach smoothie Paul made for me. I wasn’t going to have him make it due to us being out of town, but I couldn’t risk not having it. I packed the nutriBullet and Paul blended my smoothie this morning at 5:30am.
Mile 1! Lots to go.
Mile 5. The missionaries were there handing out water and powerade. I choked down powerade at each station so I could ration my bottle of pedialyte/ gatorade mixture to make it to the end of the race.
Want a picture with these beautiful mountains? Yes, I need a rest…er, I mean, Yes. I would like a picture with this nice back drop. 🙂
Next water stop. The sister missionaries.
Can’t forget this sister 🙂
Our cheering section. Blurry, but on the left is Dad, Lulu, Mom, Paul, Gage, Rin, and Eli. Court left us long ago. He was waiting for us at the finish line for a while now 🙂
I was almost walking at this point. Mile 1o was brutal with another gradual hill and then the wind! I wanted to give in. Then Eagle Mountain guy (20 years older than me!) showed me up by passing me, and saying hello. I sped up just a little bit, but I didn’t have anything left to give. If I push it, I will not finish. Ferelyn encouraged me the whole way. If she wasn’t running with me, I would have stopped to walk miles ago. She said this is going to be her last year running. Now what am I going to do? I’m not strong enough to motivate myself during races.
I finished 2:20. I am very pleased with my time. This was a challenging race. Lots of rolling hills. Not many consecutive down hills. Again, this was another canyon that went up instead of down!!
This was a hard race to prepare for and I was NOT ready for it. You name it, it stopped me from running. It was either the snow, cold weather, ankle issues, sinus infections, vertigo, or insomnia. I’m thrilled to just make it to the finish line.
Almost time for the kids fun run to begin.
I asked Gage to stay with the two littles and he said, “No. I’m out to win it!”
This little boy in front of Eli was crying the whole race. Eli helped him during the race and now at the end. I felt like that little boy crying during my race, ha!
Finished! Gage took 3rd!
After the race we drove by our old house. The neighborhood has grown, but it’s still the cute, quite street I remember.
Crazy enough, I’m thinking of running this one again.