Been there, ran that...

In honor of my little retreat to the St George hills this weekend I've decided to share my experience in the form of a Top Ten list

1. best running partner on the planet

seriously- she doesn't read my blog so I can gush all I want about her and she won't be embarrassed. She is THE best. Through thick and thin, this girl is amazing. I aspire to be half the woman/mom/wife/friend she is. Thank you Hydee- for being my "sole"mate.

2. decent participant shirt- yes! If I'm going to put the effort to train and run your race. I want a cute shirt. Sorry, I am that vain. Good job St. George.

3. extra decent medal. -Love the ribbon co-ordination with the shirt color and the polished canyon rock. Very nice.

4. Hills. This year they seemed to be much shorter. Maybe all that 4am Taft training paid off.

5. Red Rock scenery. Photo speaks for itself.

6. No walls- not for me this year. Someone joked before that they had moved them to mile 27. My body must have believed them. Aside from the altitude adjustment at first, I felt really great. (or maybe it was the overpriced EFX magic bracelet Hydee and I were convinced to buy at the expo- desperate times call for desperate measures)

7. Aid station mile 24- after gallons of Gatorade and water- to what did my wondering eyes appear???

COKES and POPSICLES!!! What genius thought of that!!? Brilliant.

8. Having enough left- to sprint in and race a tall muscle- clad man across the finish (I won :-)

9. Ice-rub downs- sounds awful doesn't it? ....to tantrum throwing quads it's total heaven.

10. Dr. Pepper after the Race- no more Gatorade... hooray!!

I never thought a drink I don't really enjoy could taste so great. I would have preferred diet, but after 26.2 miles- I think the calories were okay- Hydee bought it anyway.

Thanks St George for a great run. You really are better the second time around. At least for me anyway. Don't know if I'm up for number three, my quads are still doing quite a bit of complaining, ... but..... maybe?