BEST HALF EVER! Sorry guys, this is a women's only race, but man was it a great one! A FLAT course, beautiful scenery a fun environment great organization, aid stations, finish line food, raffles. What isn't to love about a race like this?!? Out and back so you get one chance to cheer everyone on and you know how it all ends. I got to pace with Becca, which is a rare opportunity and I just loved every minute of it! It is an early start, but June in Moab you welcome a cool start! Up at 5:00 to get out by 5:30. Pop lines were long, but went fast enough. Lined up and with a literal shot we were off. It was crowded and slow at the start, but quickly thinned out. First aid station at mile one and the mile markers were right on with my garmin nearly the whole time (12 was the only one that was horribly off to my garmin beep...not that garmins are accurate, I'm just saying it is nice to have the splits in my garmin be the real splits :) ). About mile 3 or 4 they had a huge group drumming! It was SO neat! I heard it about a mile before echoing off the canyon walls, but assumed it was a plane or something. What an energy boost! Annie was with us pretty much from the beginning and was doing a fantastic job! About this point Tammi caught up to us as well and hung with us too. As we approached the turn around we saw Rachelle and her groupies. I was surprised to see that the race was so small they were in 5th and 6th place @ 1:40. They had a good group they were taking with them though. We passed the 2:00 pacers at the exact opposite spot we saw Rachelle at...nice pacing ladies! The way back we were met with the hardest obstacle. Seriously a FLAT course. I mean you follow the river on Potash road so it isn't really flat, but flat for Utah. A nice headwind decided to pick up. Didn't notice it the way out as a tail wind and at points it must've been cross winds, because I swear we had a little headwind on the way out too. Some of our folks started struggling and we started passing people. I hate that. Annie kept trying to fall back, but I kept talking to her and telling her she was fine. Becca and I shouldered up and created a draft for Tammi and Annie to make things easier too. Tammi turned on some music as well and we rocked that headwind! Just after the 10 miler Annie needed to hit the pop, but we had to keep going. I told her I'd be waiting :) Around mile 11 Tammi was cruising and we needed to slow down. We had about a 40 second lead. At 12 we kicked her out (25 sec lead) and I said "look, there are 4 people up there. Your job is to go pass those 4 people!" She was a good student! Took the challenge and did it. I thought she'd actually gotten 5, but afterward she said that she was close to the 5th and said to herself "I only had to do 4...I'm done" made me laugh. Becca and I finished chip time about 10 seconds early, but clock time was right on the 1:50 - that was fun! Annie finished just behind us around 1:53...she was shooting for 2:00!! The finish line had SO much good food and chocolate milk too. That is usually all I care about. I needed a baggie to take all my treats home :) We chatted and waited for Christine to finish at 2:15 and then we had to take off so we could shower, pack and get on the road to get Becca back for a graduation. We did all that PLUS got to partake of the yummy full, hot breakfast the hotel offered. I loved the accommodations! The drive home was filled with fun as well and I just had a great time. I'd do it again in a heartbeat! A quick trip and I would've loved to stay a little longer, but then again I could live in Moab, so that isn't saying much :) AP: 8:21 splits: 8:07, 8:02, 8:03 (little fast! Banked too much), 8:15, 8:26, 8:39, 8:25, 8:31, 8:37, 8:26 (glad we had time for the headwind and aid station walk through, made a difference!), 8:26, 8:02, 8:29, 9:00 (last .15 on the garmin).
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