Friday afternoon found Arf and I in Salt Lake City with a long drive to Green River Wyoming. An area I knew little about except for zooming by on I-80 on a cross-country trip.
The E-mail from the race director said she wanted to get the packages to everyone Friday night, they could be picked up at the ?River Festival? until 8:00 PM and to call her if you would be late.
Road construction conspired against us and delayed our arrival, we left a message with the RD, and arrived at 8:30, The first booth we saw at the festival had a box that looked like typical race packages, we asked the person at the booth if this is where we pick up the packages,?blank stare?..packages for the race? The blank stared continued, then she asked what race? The marathon?. Blank stare. Finally she asked ?what?s your name? reached into the box and handed us our packages. I commented to her that it must have been a long day; she said, ?tomorrow would be longer? I?m sure it was a long weekend, and you have to love the volunteers for doing this.
Saturday Morning came WAY too early as we boarded the buses for the 5:15 departure, Due to some nagging IT band issues, Arf decided to run the ½ marathon. There were 3 luxurious buses with restrooms for the marathon runners. It was a little chilly in the morning and the buses stayed at the start until they said go. The ½ runners were on two cramped, crowded short buses. Arf was consigned to sitting on the floor, as she heard the people around her dissing anyone who would do all the training for a full marathon when they could run the ½ instead. She said she felt she was on the wrong bus; these people were not her type. The short buses got to the start and kicked everyone off to stand in the cold, dark Wyoming wilderness for 40 minutes.
Many of the 116 marathon finishers were attempting marathons in all 50 states , there aren?t a lot of choices for Wyoming marathons.
Aamos decided at the last minute to run this race, So the gun went off and I found myself running with Aamos and Murphy the wonder dog.
(this is not actually Murphy but this Sheba Inu looks much like him) His owner said the Race Director OK?ed the dog if he stayed on a leash, so here they were. The owner kept telling the dog slow down. He said if Murphy was off the leash the dog would have been in front of everyone.
Before mile 4, Amy and Murphy were gone, never to be seen again. Early in the race I spotted two herds of wild horses in the distance, one herd galloping along as the sun rose, the other herd was grazing.
The race was almost entirely run on county maintained dirt and gravel roads. Very rugged country, lots of sage, not a tree nor shade in sight, 7500? elevation and a high of about 85º made this a tough race. The 6:30 start meant many runners finished before it really started getting hot, still the thin air made for a slow race.
We really were running with the horses. Aid stations were every two miles. They all had water and sports drink. In addition to the marathon, there was an endurance horse race that ran in the opposite direction of the marathon, and a horse ?Poker run? that went out and back for several miles of the marathon course. As I arrived at one of the aid stations, a group of horse riders were getting a card from the volunteer (double duty aid stations)
The Green river area is the ?Trona? capitol of the world. The mineral is mined from around 1000? underground. It is used to make baking soda. (A box of baking soda was included in each of the goodie bags) Aamos, as first woman earned a huge chunk of this for a trophy
Arf, with an age group 3rd in the ½ won a horse shoe (If she gets three more, can she trade it in for the horse?) My 4:16 was good for 12 of 27 in my age group. I hope to do a lot better in a few weeks, we will see.
Overall, my legs didn?t feel like they had even done a long run, but the thin air made it a difficult race
Dave
(edited to fix a link)
http://This message has been edited by divechief (edited Aug-28-2007).
The E-mail from the race director said she wanted to get the packages to everyone Friday night, they could be picked up at the ?River Festival? until 8:00 PM and to call her if you would be late.
Road construction conspired against us and delayed our arrival, we left a message with the RD, and arrived at 8:30, The first booth we saw at the festival had a box that looked like typical race packages, we asked the person at the booth if this is where we pick up the packages,?blank stare?..packages for the race? The blank stared continued, then she asked what race? The marathon?. Blank stare. Finally she asked ?what?s your name? reached into the box and handed us our packages. I commented to her that it must have been a long day; she said, ?tomorrow would be longer? I?m sure it was a long weekend, and you have to love the volunteers for doing this.
Saturday Morning came WAY too early as we boarded the buses for the 5:15 departure, Due to some nagging IT band issues, Arf decided to run the ½ marathon. There were 3 luxurious buses with restrooms for the marathon runners. It was a little chilly in the morning and the buses stayed at the start until they said go. The ½ runners were on two cramped, crowded short buses. Arf was consigned to sitting on the floor, as she heard the people around her dissing anyone who would do all the training for a full marathon when they could run the ½ instead. She said she felt she was on the wrong bus; these people were not her type. The short buses got to the start and kicked everyone off to stand in the cold, dark Wyoming wilderness for 40 minutes.
Many of the 116 marathon finishers were attempting marathons in all 50 states , there aren?t a lot of choices for Wyoming marathons.
Aamos decided at the last minute to run this race, So the gun went off and I found myself running with Aamos and Murphy the wonder dog.
(this is not actually Murphy but this Sheba Inu looks much like him) His owner said the Race Director OK?ed the dog if he stayed on a leash, so here they were. The owner kept telling the dog slow down. He said if Murphy was off the leash the dog would have been in front of everyone.
Before mile 4, Amy and Murphy were gone, never to be seen again. Early in the race I spotted two herds of wild horses in the distance, one herd galloping along as the sun rose, the other herd was grazing.
The race was almost entirely run on county maintained dirt and gravel roads. Very rugged country, lots of sage, not a tree nor shade in sight, 7500? elevation and a high of about 85º made this a tough race. The 6:30 start meant many runners finished before it really started getting hot, still the thin air made for a slow race.
We really were running with the horses. Aid stations were every two miles. They all had water and sports drink. In addition to the marathon, there was an endurance horse race that ran in the opposite direction of the marathon, and a horse ?Poker run? that went out and back for several miles of the marathon course. As I arrived at one of the aid stations, a group of horse riders were getting a card from the volunteer (double duty aid stations)
The Green river area is the ?Trona? capitol of the world. The mineral is mined from around 1000? underground. It is used to make baking soda. (A box of baking soda was included in each of the goodie bags) Aamos, as first woman earned a huge chunk of this for a trophy
Arf, with an age group 3rd in the ½ won a horse shoe (If she gets three more, can she trade it in for the horse?) My 4:16 was good for 12 of 27 in my age group. I hope to do a lot better in a few weeks, we will see.
Overall, my legs didn?t feel like they had even done a long run, but the thin air made it a difficult race
Dave
(edited to fix a link)
http://This message has been edited by divechief (edited Aug-28-2007).
I wonder what the people on Arf's bus would have thought if they knew what Arf did for mileage?
and you?
