My mom and Tom signed up for the Bear Lake Trifecta weekend. They had some friends doing it, and thought it would be fun. It is a good way to run races in three states in one weekend. If racing in every state is a thing you are into. This race includes a marathon and half marathon on Thursday in Idaho, Friday in Wyoming, and Saturday in Utah. The thing is, I have actually ran marathons in all of those states already, lol. But the idea of racing back to back was intriguing. Mom and Tom were only doing the first two days. Tom was going to do the full marathon both days, which is just crazy. Mom and I signed up for the half marathons. I ended up staying in an airbnb with the ladies from Florida and they were all really nice. The first race was along Bear Lake on the rolling hills.
I trained as much as I could even though I was busy and traveling a lot. I also didn't really know how to train for back to back races. I tried to do long runs back to back but it didn't always happen. I didn't know what to expect. The hills on the first day were harder than I expected. I had anticipated feeling pretty good the whole race because I had ran 14 miles a few times. And I was thinking I had a chance at placing in my age group so I had my eyes on the ladies I could see in front of me. I leapfrogged a girl a little bit. And there was another one ahead of me for most of the race that I finally passed with only a few miles to go. It was an out-and-back course so you could see who was ahead of you. But it was also a bit of a rolling start you couldn't really be sure. The marathoners started before us. But they also didn't turn around where we did. By the last two miles I was BEAT. The hills had used up all my energy. I even walked a bit on this one last big hill. Finally I could see the end so I made myself push. I ended up finishing in 2:00:03. Finishing in under two hours is always nice. I would've expected to finish well under two hours but those hills messed that up. The other thing was there was another girl right behind me (I assume the one I passed a few miles before). I ended up placing 3rd overall for women, which was really cool. Had I not pushed at the end, that girl would've passed me and taken my spot.
The hills and elevation were hard for these Floridians!
We got dinner and I had the women watch The Cokeville Miracle with me since our race the next day was in Cokeville Wyoming! It's a good show.
The drive over to Cokeville was pretty! The sunrise on the lake is always beautiful. And the rest of the scenery was good too. Mom said they saw a moose.
Going into day 2 I had zero expectations. The way I raced the first day had me thinking of the "fly and die" strategy. You know you are going too hard and it's going to backfire but what the heck. So day 2 I just figured I would see how I felt. This course was a gradual uphill for the first half until the turn around, and then downhill obviously. I expected to be more tired, but I was actually feeling pretty good so I just cruised. I wasn't trying to push my pace, but I wasn't dying. As I got closer to the turn around and I could see the people in front of me, I only counted a few women and they weren't that far ahead of me. Of course I didn't know how far ahead of me they had started so it's hard to know if I would chip them. Once I got to the turn around, I sighed and said to myself, "I guess I'm racing..." and I took off. The downhill is nice and fun. I had some nutrition I had been taking. I felt pretty good. I passed a couple women. I figured I was maybe 3rd place, maybe not. I started doing math in my head and figured if I ran the last mile fast, I could even finish in under two hours.
The scenery was pretty good this day too!
My mom and her friends swept their age group again. Everyone did so good! The rest of the girls stayed and did the 3rd race the next day. I kind of wished I could stay and do it too because it would be a fun challenge. But I had things going on at home.
Tom finished both marathons! He's so amazing!
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