Run with The Horses Marathon - August 20, 2016 - Green River Wyoming

What do you do when a dear friend and mentor asks you on a road trip?  Why you go!
I was raised in WY, going to run a marathon there, with no time limit meant I could actually get WY
checked without another DNF.

Run with the Horses Marathon, in Green River, WY  is a very small marathon, maybe 35 participants.  

Road Trip!  Chrissy & me

The day before race day we played our hand at being tourists and seeing the sights.  There is always something to see even in small town WY.

Sight Seeing Before The Race The Next Day

This is the the "rock" on which the petroglyphs are carved.

Google "Petrroglyphs near Rock Springs WY" to find out how to get to this place

Its hard to imagine how the natives put these hand prints in the rock. 

Of course we had to climb to the top! 

There are so many views of the carvings.  Unfortunately some modern day yahoos decided to leave their mark too.

This is a view from on top of the big "rock". 

Race Morning, you can see the rock formations in the background. 

 It was a little chilly race morning, probably in the 40's if I remember right.  It didn't last long.  When the sun came out we had temperatures in the 70's all day.  These are the windswept high plains desserts of WY.  We were fortunate that we didn't have much wind that day.  The breeze did pick up when I was at about mile 16 or so.  It wasn't too terribly bad though.

The race starts at 6100 ft elevation and climbs to 7600 ft elevation.  It is a very good hill workout!

Knowing it was mostly exposed, no shade, so wearing a long sleeved shirt was in order.  It worked out well.

The first 5 miles are mostly all uphill.  Two miles pavement than gravel roads.

The course goes through wild horse country.  I saw three.

This little race really has it going on.  They had a water stop every two miles, a bit of food too. 

Turn around for the marathon on this out and back course.

In essence we ran from Green River to Rock Springs above the freeway on county dirt roads.  This is Rock Springs, WY

What goes up does come down.

 There were long stretches of road where no other runner was in sight.  Like I said this is a very small marathon.

More downhill for the last 5 miles.

Second in my age group!  woohoo!  

The race recommended adding an hour to your average marathon time to get your expected race time.  My best marathon, last December, was 5:20.  I finished this in 6:29, that is right on target.  I'm happy with that.  

The next day it was back to being a tourist.  We thought a ghost town would be kind of cool.  The local ghost town isn't an old west type, it is a mining town.
We wanted to check out these formations first before we took off for our daily adventure.

These rock formations were near the hotel in which we stayed.

I love the formations and the blue, blue sky!

Superior WY 

Union Hall back in the days of coal mining in Superior, WY

Chrissy makes a friend!

Chrissy at the abandoned mine shaft

Superior Wy abandoned coal mine

Todd & Norma Clark - lifelong friends 

 Would I recommend this race to a friend?  You bet I would!  If someone wants to get Wyoming checked off their last this would be the one to do it.
Generous time to finish a hard race.  Well organized.  Well marked.  Lots of aid.  Very friendly volunteers.  Yes, I recommend this race.