Sarah F.'s profile

   

Drove the 6 hrs from Boulder to run this race. I stayed at the Red Cliffs Lodge which was out of the way from the crowds in downtown Moab and only 4 miles from the start line and they had their own shuttle to the start and one at the finish! Very convenient. The race started on a downhill and wound its way through the red canyons, adjacent to Arches Nat'l Park and the Colorado River. The first 11 miles in the canyon were awesome, then came the tough part - 2.1 miles alongside a busy highway on into downtown. The canyon provided shade and then the last 2 miles were in the sun and very hot. The last aid station was at mile 10, but it should have been at mile 11, just before you leave the shade. The last two miles are dusty, dry, hot and traffic-y. Not how I would have ended a race that was so wonderful - just 11 miles before. The finish was at a park and was well organized - good healthy food options like oranges, bagels, etc with an added bonus of ice cold chocolate milk (YUM!) and some easter candy chocolates (double YUM!). I think that if the race started at 7 or 8am (not the 10am we had this time) maybe the heat would not have been such a problem on miles 11-13. I will do this race again or maybe just The Other Half, which begins 26 miles up the canyon from Moab and starts and ends within the shade of the canyon and doesn't mess around with the downtown scene.

   

I did the marathon relay this year and had one of my best races ever. This is my third year doing this race and every year the weather is completely different! For 2009 there was overcast skies, temperature in the 50-60F range with a very strong headwind. I ran Leg 1, which started the race and is primarily in a redwood forest for about 5 miles. I was very happy with the start organization. The quicker runners were asked to line up nearest the start and the slower were asked to go back and line up near people holding 'pace' signs such a 5:00 and 5:30 completion times. This is great to help minimize getting trampled by fast runners. There were two sweat drops - one near the chaotic porta potties and one uphill of the start which was much less crowded. Relay teams were also given disposable timing chips this year for their shoes - a very nice touch that made time spent at the finish line only used on food, beer and sweat pickup. The shuttle buses were on time, though leaving at 4:15 for leg 1 is tough, but I had too much adrenaline to sleep anyways (and promptly crashed at the hotel room for 3 hours post-race!).Scenery can't be beat! Can't wait to do a new leg next year!