Race #8: August - TriathaMOM

I was not confident about this next race.  I hadn't trained like I wanted to or felt I needed to.  It's month 8 of the year and I'm feeling a bit tired of training.  Especially for a race that I'm not really excited to participate in.  I almost didn't go.  The morning of the race, I rolled over, snuggled up to my hubby, and said, "I could just stay here and sleep all morning."  He promised me I would be glad that I went to the race.  So, I got out of bed and headed to Riverton.

The TriathaMOM transition area opened at 5:30am and I had never participated in a triathlon before, so I was there by 5:30am.  SO early.  But I had time to set all my stuff up, eat a banana, and visit the honey bucket multiple times. 

The wonderful woman and friend to convinced me to register after we both got our stuff set up.

Getting ready for the swim.

This is everyone gathered before the swim to receive last minute instructions from the organizers.  There were a more women here to race than I thought there would be.

Just before I got into the pool.

Running to my first exchange.

My first exchange was a long one.  I took a long time to dry off.  I took a long time to get my tank top, my shoes, and everything else on.  Next time I do a tri, I will spend less time in this transition.

There I go.  Off on the bike ride.  I used a mountain bike because that was what I had and it worked out just fine.  I would, however, recommend riding your bike before the day of the race.  I spent all my training time in the gym and none out on the road with my bike.  So, one mile in, I realized that my seat was a bit too low.  I dealt with it and finished just fine.

 Transition #2!  This time I was ready.  I only spent seconds in the transition area this time.

 Heading out for the run.  And I'm still smiling.  It truly amazing what seeing your cheerleaders will do for you when racing.

I made it!  I got to the magical flying balloons and I really am glad that I got up that morning and came to the race.

This is a family friendly race.  So, there were bounce houses,

and face painting for the kids.

We did it.  We made it to the end.  Our tired selves after accomplishing this fun triathaMOM.

My kids made a sign for me and wanted to pose on the little podium. This was a great race.  If you want to get into triathalons and are a little nervous.  This one is a great way to do that.  There is absolutely no pressure and everyone is cheering everyone else on.  I would definitely do this one again. 

Oh, and the "medal" was a necklace. 

Running Waterton Lakes National Park: Bertha Falls

My second day of training on vacation consisted of a hike up to Bertha Falls.  I had never done a solo hike before.  I was a bit nervous hiking alone in bear country, but it turned out to be one of my favorite things I did this past trip.

Distance: 6 kilometers round trip (roughly 4 miles)

Estimated Time: 1-2 hours

Who: Anyone able to handle significant inclines and rough terrain.  If your kids are used to hiking then they will be fine.  My kids would have wanted to be carried long before the half way point.

Here is the trailhead to Bertha. This trailhead is located just off of Evergreen Avenue.  There is a decent sized parking lot here, but you could walk here from anywhere in town.

I had seen a few maps and they all said that Bertha Falls was 1K.  So, I was thinking that I could do this while my family was napping.  Nope.  This is a lie.  Or they just don't tell you where the kilometer starts.  It surely doesn't start here.  From here you have 3Ks to get to the falls.  Trust me.  It's 3 kilometers one way.

The beautiful view as you climb.

This was a lookout at 1.5K mark.  (there was a sign.  I just forgot to take a picture of it.  It also said that I had 1.5K to go.)  The view into Glacier National Park, USA.  This is a perfect place to eat a snack and drink some water.  There is a bench to sit on too.  I could have sat here all day long.  So peaceful.

Somewhere between half way and the falls, I climbed down to the river.  There was a pool that you could wade in or little kids could swim in. There was a couple of ladies there that were testing out their water filter.  The one that works like a straw.  It was pretty cool.  So, if you have one of those filters, then you could get yourself a drink.
 

This is Bertha Falls.  It's a good turn around spot if you're not going up to Bertha Lake, which I was not.  You will know you are here when you hit a wooden bridge and another wooden bench to sit on.  I'm pretty sure there was a sign too.

Next time I'm thinking I will train run this one.  It's a good distance of 6K round trip, not too steep, and oh so beautiful. But I'll wait another year or two to take the kids.

Running Waterton Lakes National Park: Prince of Whales Hotel

One of my favorite places to run while on vacation is in Waterton National Park, Canada.  The first day is always rough because my lungs need to adjust to the altitude and temperature.



So, the first day, I always to a short easy run.  Usually from where I am staying up to the Prince of Whales Hotel.  It's about 2-3 miles from where we normally stay.  So, distance will depend on where you start.

Running to the Hotel is up a small hill.  There is a beautiful view at the top.   

It's completely worth it and you will still have plenty of energy for the rest of your day's activities.

Running in Raymond, Alberta, Canada

There are plenty of people who like to sleep in while on vacation, but I have to rise with the sun.  I love running while on vacation. I get up early, smell the fresh air (something we lack here in Utah), enjoy the crisp breeze, and head off to explore a new area.  I don't take my music when running on vacation because I want to enjoy nature and be completely aware of my unfamiliar surroundings.

This summer, I was able to run in Alberta, Canada.  I was there for the July 1st celebrations.  I was staying in Raymond because they have the best parade.  Each morning I was there, I went running.  On the first morning I found a running trail on the south side of town and followed it past the edge of town. Here was the scene of my run:

The next day I didn't get a picture.  This was because my heart was racing and in panic mode for most of my run.  I got chased down the street by a huge dog.  I survived.  It's okay.

The next morning was Canada Day.  It was cloudy and looked like rain was coming, but I got to enjoy the parade route and it's decorations without the crowds of people.

I noticed that many people in town seemed to be heading out on their runs when I was finishing up.  So,  if you have a chance to visit Raymond and you want to run with people, then I would recommend going later in the morning.  Anytime after 6:30am.

Race #7: July - FroYo 10k

My goal this year has been, as you know, to run a race every month.  But July came and I had not registered for any race.  Signing up for a race this late in the game is pretty expensive.  And just not what I am able to do right now.  So, I had to accept that there would be no race for me this month.  But then, on Friday, my Hubby called home from work.  He had a co-worker who had an extra entry to the FroYo 10k race in Salt Lake City, and he wanted to know if I wanted to run it.  For Free!!  I jumped at the chance.

The FroYo Run was held at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City.  This is a beautiful park.  The run is 4 loops around the park.  I parked in the regular parking area.  I got there later than I had planned and usually like because I forgot to set my alarm, but it looked as though this race also had Zumba as their pre-race warm-up.

I met up with my Hubby's co-worker and her friends.  We all lined up in our respective areas.  I have never seen a timed race go out in waves, but I liked it.  This gave all the faster/want-to-win people the opportunity to run their race without having to dodge all the slower runners.  Especially at the beginning.  I am not one of those faster runners, so I was comfortably back near the 10 min/mile people.

The Start:

We headed out and I was feeling pretty good.  The first 5k was awesome, but I haven't actually run a 10k distance in 4 months.  This means, I started out way too fast and spent the second 5k dying.  We walked a couple of times.  I didn't think that running a loop would be so hard, but looking at the same thing over and over again didn't help with my dying lungs.

I finished this race in 1 hr, 6 min, and 35 sec.  This placed me 81st overall.  I'm feeling good about that.  Especially since I didn't train for this one.

After the race we were given water and our very own FroYo from Yogurtland.  The tartness from this dessert was PERFECT after a race. 

Our packet was also filled with great goodies:

AND we got a medal:

I'm thinking this race is one I will have to run again.  It was a low key race, no pressure, organized, and lots of swag.  Totally worth it. 

Race #6: June - Dirty Dash & Piglet Plunge

The Dirty Dash.  My first obstacle race. This race is a team challenge.  We registered early.   We were the Mud Pies.  This really became a family affair with a couple of adoptive additions.  I'm so glad I registered for this race.  We had a later start time because a handful of us were running the Piglet Plunge with our kids afterwards.  This meant we didn't have to get us at the crack of dawn to be up at Soldier Hollow.  Thank God.

We gathered in the parking lot where we took pictures and then headed out to the start.

The Start:

Our team had tentatively decided on doing the 5k.  However, when we finished the 5k, we decided we had enough time to do the whole 10k and be back for the piglet plunge.  This was a good idea, because all the best obstacles were on the second half of the course.

There was so much mud.  Mud to wade through, climb over, and slip across.  I was running this race with a tiny sprain.  Probably not the smartest idea, but I made it without breaking my ankle.  I did have to go a bit slower, but saving my body is always worth sacrificing time.

In the course, close to the end, there is a HUGE slide.  It looked awesome.  Some people were sliding down fine, others were having a bit more trouble.  I didn't want to slide completely out of control, so I decided against the running start.   I stood and jumped down the slide.  I wouldn't have needed the running start.  I shot down that slide.  So fast.  I thought there was going to be a whole ton of mud at the end.  You know, to help me slow down.  NOPE.  There was a tarp at the end, which meant that my extreme speed sent me flying off the end of the massive slide onto a watery mud covered tarp that would continue to hurl me down the mountain.  At the end of the tarp was a 1-2 foot drop.  I catapulted off it and landed on my bum so hard it rocked my back a good one.  My hubby even ran out to me to see if I was okay.  We couldn't take any recovery time though because there was a very large man coming at me at very high speeds.  We jumped out of the way just in time.  He would have broken us.  This slide was fun, but hurt.  So, it was the best and worst part of the race.

I really enjoyed the finish.  It was a huge pit of mud with cross sections of mud we had to climb over.  Very fun.  And great for picture opportunities.

We hurried to finish, skipped the pictures, and went right into the piglet plunge.

The Piglet Plunge was more than I expected.  I thought there was going to be a mud section that our kids could run through maybe 1/4 mile long.  I was so wrong.  The Piglet Plunge was at least a mile long with a crazy uphill mud climb, at least 3 obstacles (the HUGE slide was one of them; we skipped that), and the awesome mud pit at the end.  Completely worth the $20 for the kids.  My Sweet Pea LOVED it.  She wanted to keep going down the slide.  My little Green Bean wanted nothing to do with the mud.  Oh well, he'll get in on the fun next year.

There was not medal for this race.  Always sad when there's not, but it's okay.  We posed for pictures at the end, received food and water, and took a FREEZING shower.  We threw away our kids shoes, but my Hubby and I kept ours.  Stripping down is a must at the showers.  There is just too much mud.  EVERYWHERE.  You will discover crevasses that you never knew you had.

There were hot showers that you could pay for, but we did not pay the extra.  We headed back to a relatives home to clean up.  It was great to have them close and they were wonderful to let us destroy their bathroom with dirt.

This race is worth every penny.  I loved it and would definitely do it again.

Race #5: May - Color Me Rad 5K

I was so excited to run Color Me Rad.  I thought it would be fun to get all colorful for a nice easy run.  This day was a bit different than I expected. . .

The week had been a cold dreary week with lots of rain.  And race day was looking to be more of the same.  A couple of friends and I carpooled up the the Utah Fair Grounds for our race.  It was a cooler day, but not freezing.  Parking is an extra fee for this race because it's at the fair grounds.  We happened to arrive before the person that was supposed to be collecting money, so we didn't have to pay for parking.  YAY!!  We had plenty of time to pick up our packets, go drop our stuff off at the car, and head back for pre-race warm up. 

Pre-race:

The warm up was ZUMBA!  I was so excited.  If you haven't heard yet (even though I'm sure you have)  I LOVE Zumba.  They even had a decent teacher there with simple to follow dance moves.  Very fun. 

It was getting close to start time and we were ready, but there was a HUGE line of people still trying to pick up their packets.  I'm never a fan of packet pick up on the same day as the race.  However, Color Me Rad was sure that their new check-in would be fast and painless.  Well, it didn't work that way for everyone who showed up within an hour from the start time. 

This was an un-timed race.  We all lined up and they sent us out in waves.  The course was super muddy from the past week of rain, and the color was really far apart.  I pictured a ton of color stations, but there were only a few.  I had seen a new color dump station on their website and in some of their ads, but it seemed to have been forgotten. 

I know they say to wear white for the color races, but I wore black.  (It's all I had) I figured that the powdered color would show up on black more vibrant than on white.  And it did, for a while.  It seemed to blend in quickly.  And if I got hit by someone shooting colored goo, then all color was lost.  The goo showed NOTHING on my black tank top and washed all the powder off.  I spent most of the race avoiding the goo shooters.  Moral of the story... wear white.  Just like they tell you to.

There was more color at the end of the race than at the beginning.  This made the end fun and me colorful enough for pictures.  

 We were handed water and granola bars at the end of the race.  No finisher medals for this one, but there was a pair of Color Me Rad socks in our packet.  I figure that was a decent trade for a medal.

There was a mass color throw during the "after party."  It looked cool from the outside.

Overall, I had fun.  I was there with great friends and we got to get colorful.  I felt this race was more hype than anything else though.  I would have to get an awesome deal or be going with another great group of friends to be convinced to do it again.  I would rather spend on a different race.