The Weekend in Bright Colors

My next race after the Shamrock Half Marathon was to be the Salt Lake City Marathon. Last Saturday was supposed to be my last 20+ mile run before starting a taper this week. All this changed last Wednesday.

I slowed down at the end of the race
to finish with my sister.

My sister called me and asked if I would pace her for the Riverton Half Marathon coming up 3 days later. She was hoping to beat her time from last year, but wanted someone to push her along. She offered to pay my entry fee if I'd just stick with her the whole time at her pace instead of my own. Since I have three weeks to the Marathon, I agreed to run with her.

The course has a few steep hills but for the most part, it is a relatively fast course. Our pace was slow compared to what I am used to, but she enjoyed the opportunity to shower with me with awe and praise pepper me with questions about training. I went into the race trying to bring the essence of Bob and Jillian from The Biggest Loser into my encouragement to her as we ran. I wonder if the other runners in the race wondered why this guy kept yelling "Come on...bring it...last chance workout" and "1 more mile! Just give me one more MILE!"

We finished the race in 2:49:47 which was about a minute short of her time from last year, but she was happy with her finish though. It was fun to run the whole course with her and to add another medal to my board.

I think I may be missing
a little orange

Nephew with oldest daughter

Following the race, the wife and I decided to take the kids to the Festival of Colors which was happening at the Hari Krishna temple about 20 minutes from our house. Because there was an expected crowd of 30,000 people, we had to park a few miles away. It was either walk to the event or ride the bus. We opted to walk to the event which was a nice way to keep my legs loose.