Run. Drive. Sleep? Repeat

We did it!  All our hard work paid off and Mind Over Mileage ROCKED the Ragnar Relay last weekend. 188 miles from Logan to Park City over the course of 30 hours.  Seriously, I couldn’t be more proud of our team.  We trained well and we finished strong.  I think everyone met or exceeded their expectations for this race.  And did I mention we had fun?  LOTS and LOTS of fun.  I wish there were words to express what a neat, inspiring, life-changing race this was.  I love my teammates, they inspire me to be my best, not only in running, but in life.  It was an honor to be a part of this team! I was runner #1 and it was so fun to be at the starting line.  I got to run 8 miles through beautiful Logan, and reminisce on all the fun memories we had while living there. I was having so much fun on my trip down memory lane, that I was shocked to see the “1 mile to go” sign! (which is a good thing). I’d been tailing this girl pretty close the whole way, and we traded leads a few times back and forth.  With about .75 miles to go, I gunned it and thought I left her in the dust.  But with about 100 meters to the finish line she came flying past me.  I yelled “NO” and started sprinting as fast as I could.  She beat me by about 2 seconds. DANG IT.  But, it made for an exciting finish.  My second leg was 8.4 miles straight down the canyon from Snow Basin.  My poor shins.  I ended with 5 miles near Heber. Did you add that up?  Yep, 21 miles. Whew.  I think the last run was my favorite.  It was at 6am, and we had to rush to get there because we initially went to the wrong place (after sleeping in a stinky high school gym and taking cold showers in the locker room). That had me flustered and not in the best mind set.  I was trying to justify to myself that I could go slow, it was my third run, I didn’t need to work that hard. But then I started running and the ENTIRE 5 miles was lined with red glow sticks in honor of Jeremy Kunz, a runner who was killed in the Las Vegas Ragnar last October. It was completely inspiring and motivating, and I though of how hard I trained to be there, and I owed it to myself to give my very best effort.  So I did.  And it was awesome, exhilarating, and liberating.

In true Tara form, I have a million pictures (ok 400 to be exact).  Here are some of my favorites:

 
Decorating our Vans at the Hampton Inn in Logan.  I could see our old townhouse on Penhurst Place from my hotel window. 

The ever lovely and energetic ladies from Van 1: Adrienne, Amy, Susan, Tara, Jarrie, and Natalie.

 
Did I mention how cool it was to run with my sister?

Van 2 gals: Carrie, Stephanie, Amy, Jen, Amber, and Sarah

Van 1, tired after completing their second runs.  But we got free chiropractic treatments.  Heaven.

Just completed my FINAL run.  Feeling STRONG. 

We did it!  The finish line was a huge mess (way disorganized and crowded), and we were all exhausted. Proud, but exhausted. 
     
Did I mention the real reason we ran this race?  SPA DAY!!  Here we are outside of the Zermatt in Midway.  We hung out by the pool and had spa treatments all day long.  Ahhh….much needed R&R. 

Rusty Turns 30

Yep—it’s official.  Rusty’s 20’s are behind him.  Read his thoughts here.  The kids and I threw him an awesome birthday party at a park near our house.  I baked about 100 cupcakes (no exaggeration) and we played kickball.  I think everyone had a fun time! 

Rust—we love you so much and know your 30’s will be even better than the 20’s!

       

Bolder Boulder

On Memorial Day Rusty and I ran in our very first Bolder Boulder 10K road race.  We now feel like we are officially adopted into the Colorado Family.  The Bolder Boulder is the largest road race in the country, so we competed against 54,000 other runners. Some of these runners included superman, wonder woman, and many a man dressed in drag. It was such a fun race, with slip and slides, sprinklers, and people offering you doughnuts and bacon all along the course.  Feeding off the energy of that many people is amazing.  I set a PR for a 10k race, and Rusty did pretty darn awesome as well.

Top: My good friends and fellow M.O.M.s, Amber and Jen
Below: Dan and Jen, Rusty and I, and Amber, Jeremy and Jamis

See the dinosaur man behind Rusty?  There was also a guy in a banana suit who was running close to me, and I was determined not to let a guy in a banana suit beat me! 

CBC Keynote speech

At the end of May Rusty had the awesome opportunity to be the keynote speaker at the Casual Bloggers Conference in SLC. His speech was awesome, and I couldn't be more proud. Read about it on his blog.

Some Really Cool M.O.Ms

Over the past 4 or 5 months I have had the opportunity to train for the Wasatch Back Relay race with 11 of the the coolest women I know. Our team name is “Mind over Mileage” or M.O.M. for short.  It has been so much fun running together and partying together.  (our hubbies say we’ve found way to many excuses to hold a party—kickoff to training, planning parties, get excited parties, etc)  I’ve found that it is way more fun and way more inspiring to run with friends than it is to do it by yourself.  You always have someone there pushing you to be better, and cheering you on when you reach your goals. Our team has trained and run all over the country—Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New York, we’ve run 10k races, 1/2 marathons, and marathons, and our collective shoes have probably logged 1000s of miles.  We are ready for this race! So….here are some of the highlights of our training season:

Amber, Jarrie, Carrie, Susan, Amy and I out for a long run on the Coal Creek Trail.  Amber and I did 14 miles that day.  My longest run to date.

  Tara, Susan, Carrie, Jarrie and Jen.  Here we are practicing for our night runs.  We had to wear reflective vests, head lamps, and tail lights.  We ran 5 miles at 10 pm.  And see how speedy we are?  Yes, that sign says 14mph :)

  Amber, Jen, and I after we ran the Bolder Boulder

Not only did we have to run a lot of miles, but we had to train to run multiple times a day.  So, this is the 2nd run of one of our 3-a-days.  We ran a total of 21 miles in 24 hours, which is exactly the length I’ll run in the race. 

Me finishing a run on the beach during our California trip