Flatten the Curve Virtual Race

Because of Covid-19, basically all races have been cancelled or reinvented. St. George Races decided to reinvent their racing by putting on a Virtual Race Series.  For this series, you signed up to run at your own pace, own time, and own way. We raced to see how many miles we could do in one month and received pins and prizes for hitting different milestones up to 200 miles. This sounded like a good idea to me and it kept me motivated to push myself to run more miles.  I signed up for the running division for the month of May for the Flatten the Curve Virtual Race.

This race challenge definitely pushed me to run more than I ever have.  I typically try to run 100 miles a months which is about 20-25 miles a week. This is very doable for me. Originally I had just planned on doing my 100 miles because 200 miles seemed way out of reach. Then my friend, Trista, said she was going to try for the 200 and challenged me to do the same. So of course I had to try. 

I started the first day of the month with a 15 mile run so then I only had 185 to go!

I continued running more and more miles each day and planned longer and longer runs for each week. If I had a marathon in the future this would have been perfect because I basically did a marathon training schedule and more! But of course all races and marathons have been cancelled...

I also ran to some different places like the Logan Temple and around Logan rather than just Hyrum.  I ended up running double my average and did 50-60 miles a week.

Probably my favorite part of running is getting out early in the morning and enjoying the quiet of nature. There were many times I watched the sun rise over the town.  I also liked running up to the MC on the mountain to get away from everything and see the whole world from that point.

One morning I had Russell drive me up to Hardware Ranch and I ran home. It was the most perfect and peaceful morning for a run.  It had rained the night before so I was worried I would get caught in the rain on my run but it ended up being perfect. The foggy clouds on the mountains really contrasted with the greenery for an amazing view. And everything smelled so fresh after the rain. Perfect for 18 miles.

These are some more awesome views I witnessed on my morning runs.  We definitely live in a beautiful place.

Some mornings Emily would join me on my run. Her goal for the summer was to run a 5k so together we trained to work up her endurance.

Along with this Flatten the Curve race, I also did another challenge to help me get to 200 miles. I did the Yeti Ultra 24 hour Challenge. The challenge was to run 30 miles in 24 hours by running 5 miles every 4 hours. This was rough, (especially running at 1:00 am...) but I was able to do it! I decided to add one mile to the last run to make it an even 50k. This enabled me to add 31 miles in one day.

Finally here I am jumping for joy because I passed the 200 mile mark for the St George Flatten the Curve Virtual Race!! This was a major accomplishment because I have never ran this much in a month.  One thing about it though, 10 miles used to be a long run for me but now it is a usual run. It is amazing what your body can do if you push it. I am so grateful for my health!!

After hitting the 200 miles mark, I still had a couple of days left in the month of May so I kept adding miles. On the last day of the month I ran from our house to the Logan Temple. I had wanted to do something like this before but thought it was too far. Well, come to find out, it's only 10 miles! So I ran there and Russell picked me up. It was fun to run to the temple because like life, getting to the temple is our goal! 

At the end of the month, the results were in and I ended up running a total of 221 miles and earned 3rd place in my age group!! I thought that was pretty awesome for how hard I worked to reach this goal.  I don't know if I will continue to run 200 miles in a month because that was just really time consuming and hard to plan around but I am glad I was able to push myself to achieve this goal!

A few weeks later, my medals and prizes came in the mail. I was able to earn every pin for every milestone.  The cool thing about this medal is that it can be worn as a mask! This will definitely be a good reminder of the craziness we live with right now. This was a fun race challenge.