Author: kosmond1

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After the race Paul wanted to go for a hike. I did NOT want to go. Neither did Eli. I pushed my sore feet into my hiking boots, packed some muffins, cheetos, bottled water and off we went.

We drove to Red Fleet Dinosaur Trackway Trailhead and started our 2 mile hike to the reservoir.

To mark the trail they painted dinosaur foot prints on the rocks. I told Eli they were real to motivate him to keep hiking to the next print. How else do you motivate a 7 year old to keep walking?

Those tracks kept him busy for the full 2 miles!

A few wild flowers along the way.

The cactus in this area was different. Little circle clumps.

Vernal is very beautiful.

Love the rocks.

Making our way to the reservoir.

If I had known it was going to be two miles of stair stepping, I would have kept my knee braces on. This trail was NOT flat. Lots of rocks and boulders. My knees were crying.

When we came to the reservoir we walked across a large flat rock that sloped into the water. We started searching for prints.

What to look for? We thought every little crack was a track and then we found one. Dilophosarus track!

And then many. Some were indented in the rock.

About six tracks walking toward the reservoir. When the sun went behind the clouds, the tracks illuminated and we saw many!

Look Eli! Dinosaur tracks!!

Look, Mommy! I’m on an Island!!

Little boys and water. It didn’t take him long before he lost interest in finding tracks and made his way into the water.

After running 13 miles and then hiking 4 more miles a few hours later was not fun. While searching for tracks and walking in the Mesozoic era just as the dinosaurs walked, I forgot about my feet and knees. It was pretty cool. I’m glad we did it.

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.