Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Canyonlands Half Marathon

We had so much fun running the Canyonlands half marathon with my sister Jennifer, and her husband, Jake. My mom watched the kids and we spent a few days in Moab eating out, sight-seeing, oh, and running 13.1 miles. This first picture is of Dead Horse Point, which is one of the most beautiful sights in Utah I think. (p.s. it's National Parks week and you can enter all National Parks for FREE this week! For info, click here http://www.nps.gov/npweek/) I wasn't as well trained for this race as I wanted to be. The longest run I had done before this one was 10 miles, and it was pretty slow. So I decided in order to get through the race, I would just enjoy the immense beauty all around. As I started to run, I was totally overwhelmed at the glorious creations around me. I was pondering about Christ and so many of His miracles, when I looked up at the rock formations and "saw" Him. Can you see Him?
The naturally occuring rock formations looked to me like Christ talking to a little girl sitting on a rock. It looked best from far away, but here's one a little closer.
Isn't that miraculous? So the race was absolutely stunning to me. The course took us winding around this gorgeous canyon with red cliff walls and the Colorado River. They had a drum circle close to the mouth of the canyon and the beat echoed up the canyon for miles. It was motivating to hear myself getting closer and closer, and then I was there! Oh, but I still had 3 more miles... and I made it. And only 6 minutes slower than my last race. And only 10 minutes behind my hubby. Not too bad!
Me with everyone who beat me. Thanks for a great time guys!

5 comments:

A.Jean said...

Kudos to the entire foursome. Curious, did you run on roads? If so, I'm thinking I perfer seeing the scenery via my window/s or while I stepped out of a vehicle, lol. Yup, I do see "Him and the little girl." When I first looked I thought you were pullin' my leg. Again, great job and nice family activity to share.

Chelsea said...

Oh man, that is so awesome Marisa! I just can't get over it - that you guys can run like 13 miles! It's crazy and so awesome. And I love what you said about the beauty, and that rock formation is amazing! It looks just like Christ.

Anyway, congrats! Someday we will be like you guys.

Foote Family said...

Great job!!! One of these days I will do one myself. I've been running a six miler on saturday for the last month, so I think I'd be okay. Some ladies in the ward are running one at Myrtle Beach in October, but it is on a sunday. I'm not so sure I want to do a sunday one. You've motivated me to start looking for another race.:)

Peggy said...

Awesome. You are all heroes. And I too, see the formation you are pointing out. Amazing.

HegstromPrattFamily said...

You are amazing! I think it is so cool that you did this--really impressive.