Finally... a GREAT March Moab Trip!

After last year's March Moab trip disaster (and yes, it was probably the worst Moab trip EVER), I was determined to make this year's trip a good one. The hard part was I waited so long to book my hotel that we ended up having to stay in Price and drive to Moab the day of the race. Usually, we just camp in town, but I originally thought I was going alone and didn't think it'd be safe to camp by myself. So I chose Price and booked it.

Anyway, those of you who know me well know I LOVE going to Moab! Especially for the Half Marathon every March. I was super excited this year because I've been training for the race for so long. I invited my old roommate and good friend Amber (funny, huh) to come along because she'd never seen me race and she's training for the Legacy Midnight Half Marathon in July. She was excited to get away for the weekend and I was DEFINITELY ready to go after my trip to Indiana.

We left as soon as Amber was off work on Friday and headed to Price. We had our awesome Moab jams playing the whole way down. We got to Price, checked into the hotel and went to Subway for dinner. Not exactly my first choice for a pre-race dinner, but nothing else sounded good to either of us. We hit up the Price Walmart for a few things we had forgotten and a couple movies and went back to go to bed.

We both woke up about 4:45 Saturday morning so we could leave by 5 and get to Moab by 7 for my packet pickup. Despite the fact that no human being should be up that early, it was a pretty good drive. We got to Moab, picked up my packet, and went to the finish line area. Amber waited in the bus line with me and got pictures like a proud mom. We met a cute girl named Jennie who I sat by on the bus and ran the first few miles with. She was really talkative and friendly and made the first bit of the race fun. After a while, though, I lost her and didn't even see her at the end.

The race itself was kinda tough. There was a strong head wind the entire time that made me have tears streaming down my face the first 5 miles. It was still a great race though! I had a goal to get in under 1:50 and my official chip time was 1:47:01. YAYAH! I was mucho excited!

After the race, we hung around the expo for, oh, 5 minutes because there wasn't much that was interesting there. We headed to main street for a little shopping where a guy complained about how close I parked to him, then up to Arches National Park for a little (and I mean very little) hiking. We spent most of the time in the car looking around which was fine. I don't know that my legs could have handled a hike to Delicate Arch this year. Then, we went back to the park and took a nap in the car because we were both so exhausted. After dinner at Zax (apparently my restaurant of choice for Moab, although next time I think I'll go elsewhere) we headed back to Price for the night. Being so tired, we went to bed pretty quickly.

We woke up a little later Sunday morning and started home. It was a really short, but really fun trip with a great run! I'm planning on going back sometime this year and hopefully staying a little longer. Thanks to Amber for being a good sport and coming along!

That said... bring on the Ogden Marathon!