Moab Half Marathon

Quote of the Day: “If you hear a voice within you saying ‘you cannot paint’, by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” Van Gogh

Last Saturday Rhonda and I ran in the Canyonlands Half Marathon in Moab. This was an incredible race!! Rhonda ran the race last year, but this was my first time.

We drove down Thursday morning to get a bike ride in on Thursday afternoon. We rode a trail called Klondike Bluffs, which goes into Arches National Park. I’ve ridden the trail before, but it was so fun to ride it with Rhonda. This was her first time on slick rock, and she did awesome! The scenery was incredible.

Rhonda and I on Klondike Bluffs trail

We read that there was dinosaur tracks along the trail. We think these must be those dino tracks.

Fiday morning we went up to Dead Horse Point, which is north of town on Island in the Sky. The view from the point is amazing. Everywhere we went there were a lot runners, which was fun to see. After seeing some sights we drove the half marathon route, which is so beautiful. We walked around town some more and just soaked up the sun. The weather was wonderful.

Dead Horse Point

Friday afternoon we met up with our neighbors who were running in the half marathon as well. We stayed in a really nice condo that had a pool and ping pong table, private hot tub, plasma tv, and other nice amenities. We cooked a nice spaghetti dinner to carbo load for the run, went out and had desert, sat in the hot tub, played pool and ping pong, and stayed up late playing board games.

Because of Rhonda’s experience last year, she prepared us really well for the cold early morning temperatures, but hot weather during the run. The run starts 13 miles north east of Moab, follows the Colorado River for the first 11 miles, and then the main highway into Moab for the last 2 miles. They shuttle all the runners from Moab up to the start line by bus starting early Saturday morning. With over 4500 runners, this is no small task. Because of this, the run doesn’t start until 10:00 AM. They start shuttling the runners quite early when the temperatures are still cold, and then all the runners, especially the first ones up the canyon, stand in the cold at the start line for a couple of hours. We waited until 8:00 or so to board the bus, but we still had to wait for well over an hour at the start line. We took some old fleece jackets to wear until the start of the run, but before we made it through the first mile we had taken them off and thrown them alongside the road (all clothing discarded along the run was donated to charity). Last year Rhonda wore a nicer jacket and had to tie it around her waist. I’m so glad she prepared us this year.

We both finished the run with Rhonda finishing over a minute in front of me. The park where we finished was crazy with people, so we didn’t hang out for the food and fun; we went right back to the condo, sat in the hot tub and had some good food. It was an incredible weekend!