We did. Here’s a short (or not) list and synopsis of each one I have run so far this year.

Color Me Rad (April) – was. awesome. once we figured out that you cannot breathe colored cornstarch and had to keep your mouth shut while going through color stations. I was pretty nervous about the schedule we’d laid out, as it was a lot of races. About a mile into this race, running side by side with my running buddies Colleen and Ana, I remembered that ‘hell, running is fun!’, and that it doesn’t matter if I run every race as fast as possible, but it matters if I enjoy every race as much as possible.

Running With Ed (May) – this is a fun, 5 person, ~45 mile relay race that raises $ for and visits each school in the Park City School District. I wore a bacon skirt, Chris wore a cape, it was all awesome. Plus, I ran extremely fast UP the Olympic Park hill (that’s hard, for those of you who don’t know it). During my second leg, the only guy to pass me during both my legs said ‘mmm, bacon’, and I swear I don’t know if he was hitting on me or my skirt.

Memorial Day 5K (May) – is not a 5k. Is much more like 3.5(+)? miles. I ran sub 9 minute miles the whole time, and was much closer to 8 minute miles. It’s a big loop around Park Meadows, starting and ending at the High School. I strive so hard to be one of the first few women in this race, but keep getting thwarted by former Olympians (oh, Park City).

St. Olaf Reunion 5K (June) – I had forgotten my freshman dorm actually has no sound proofing. Or, did I just not know? I may have been woken up at 3:00AM by my college classmates sneaking (yes, sneaking, as campus is dry, even for alumni) a cooler full of beer into the dorm. I expected to be really fast since I was running at about 300 feet elevation as compared to the ~7000 at which I live and train. But don’t you know that darn humidity erases all gain from the elevation loss. So, I came in at much faster than a 8 minute / mile pace (closer to 7:30?), I was the third female, and it was so much fun to run around the college, something I did only 3 or 4 times while I was there.

Ragnar Wasatch Back (June) – I had a really easy leg this year. I only ran about 14 miles, and since that was the case, I ran them pretty fast. My team had a great time with each other, as usual. One of the fun things was that we got our team registered for Ragnar Vegas the day before Ragnar Wasatch Back, so I got to see TWO Ragnars in my login page. I’m just saying, it was pretty exciting.

4th of July 5K (July) – someday I’m going to feel like I’ve conquered this course. But at this point, even though I train on it, train to run it, train to know how it’s going to kill me, it always does. Kill me. I came in very close to 24 minutes this year, which I consider a major triumph. But the course still beats me, every year. I can’t imagine all those people who come in from out of town to run it.

Canyon to Canyon Half Marathon (July) – this was really more of a training run for which I received a t-shirt and got to run with a whole mess of people on a measured course. Ana and I didn’t run for time, but just to finish a good, slow, training run on new terrain. The course was tough. It was mostly on a dirt road, with a lot of rolling hills, and it was absolutely beautiful running.

Legacy Midnight Half Marathon (July) – the one in which we all decide that we’re too old to run that far after our bedtimes. Next year, maybe the 5k or 10k. I love glow-in-the-dark accessories as much as anyone (no, really, I’m kind of obsessed), but I was a zombie by 11 o’clock. I ran with my running buddies through mile 7, and then decided to see how fast I could run a 10K. The answer was, fast. It was a great tempo training (6 fast miles at the end of 13). And, it was fun to run at night. But the Legacy Parkway smells funny, isn’t always pretty, and I just can’t see doing it again.

Park City Half Marathon (August) – I was training all summer for this run, basically. I knew I wanted a sub 2 hour half marathon at elevation (my only other sub 2 was in Tucson), and I knew I was ready for it. I ran just fast enough to not feel like I was working too hard for the first half of the course but was within my goal for time splits, and then let myself go as fast as I felt comfortable, coming in at a happy 1:52:57 (ish). I was superbly happy with that time. Also running were: Ana, Colleen, my nephew Donaven (his first half!), and my mother walked it (she’s amazing!)

Salt Lake City Half Marathon Relay (September) – the girls and I did the relay. It was great to run such short distances, yet feel like we accomplished so much. As we left our respective houses for the race, there was a hell of a thunder and lightening storm going on. All of us thinking ‘I don’t think we should run in this much lightening’. It was still raining as we left PC. But by the time we got to East Canyon, it was just a light drizzle, there was no lightening, no thunder, and you could tell the day was actually going to turn out perfect.

Miner Day 5K (September) – the quintessential Park City race. It was a brand new course this year (no running UP Park Ave at the end of 3 miles), and the course was a little short. But, it was fast, it was a great morning, and it was (as always) fun. I was trying to keep up with a woman from London, so my first mile actually came in at sub 7. Not really something I want or had planned for. I steadily slowed down through the next two miles (in my defense, they were uphill).

I actually have run one more race at this point, but it was just last weekend, and it deserves it’s own post. It was amazing – the best run race I’ve ever participated in, I think. So, peoples, Big Cottonwood Half Marathon is coming up next!