Hot Hot Hot in Moab Utah

To escape the crappy weather that is a typical Montana spring I headed to Moab Utah this past weekend to run in the Canyonlands 1/2 marathon. You see, I use to be a runner. In my before child world I entered 4 or 5 races a year. Heck I have even completed TWO marathons and the Bridger Ridge Run (20 miles of mountain running) back in the day. But in the post-child (lets call it PC) years I have struggled to get my running mojo back or even get off the couch.

Not that I am a good runner, mind you. Oh no, I am the happy to finish kind of runner. I have even been last in more than one race. BUT I finished.  I actually enjoy the trail running, but road running is just something I do to get in shape and earn the privilege to eat dessert. So I had the dubiously "brilliant" idea of entering a early spring race to kick off my return to being fit year in 2012. And found a couple of friends dumb (err I mean game) enough to agree to the idea.

This is a very popular race so you have to enter a lottery in order to get into the race. I entered my friends wwwaayy back in December. And I think we were all secretly hoping not to get in but well guess what...

Anyway, to make a long story short I finished. And I managed to beat 99 other people (out of 3500). This put me in the bottom 3% of those who finished. Needless to say I did alot of walking. Oh well, I am feeling motivated to keep up the training through the summer. Stay tuned to find out if I can get to the point where I do a full marathon this year (my pie in the sky goal).

Arches NP

In addition to the race we spent a couple of days doing touristy stuff. And we had incredible weather. It was sunny and in the 80's the whole time we where there. Plus we beat a huge spring snowstorm home by hours.  We visited Arches National Park and Jasmine got to see her first real desert.

And amazing arches of course!

All in all it was a most excellent first road trip for Jasmine and a good spring break getaway for us. Of course 4 days way no where near enough time to enjoy the area. So I am already planning a longer trip back in the next year or so to do some real desert hiking and camping.