Run With The Horses Half Marathon

Run With The Horses Half Marathon – A Wisp of Doubt

The Run with the Horses Half Marathon in Green River, Wyoming is iconic.  Set right on the Green River and run up into the hills to the north of the city, this race is a challenging race but worth the effort.  The views from the top are fantastic.  Now, getting to the top?  Thats a whole other story but more on that subject in just a minute.

The Three n’ Three Challenge

My wife is awesome.  She is so supportive of my life goal to run a half in all 50 states and this trip is a prime example of that support.  This “challenge” is an 11 day trip, with 2,940 miles of driving, covering seven states and will allow us to visit three national parks and also for me to run three half marathons in three new states.  The three new states are Wyoming, Montana and Idaho in that order and you can find the write-ups on all three listed below.

A Quick Stop at Zion National Park

Wow.  Simply wow.  I’ve been to Canyon Lands just outside Moab, UT and that is spectacular.  Zion is right up there.  The mountains are gorgeous and bigger than life.  Although we were there for only a day and a half and were only able to get a 2 mile hike in due to the heat, the images are still clearly etched in my mind.  Definitely want to go back someday but absolutely NOT during the summer, southern Utah is HOT!

A Wisp of Doubt & Where Are The Horses?

There is absolutely nothing worse than being GASSED early in a race.  But, being COMPLETELY gassed around the .3 mile mark?  Thats new.  I would be lying if I told you that there was not a hint, a WISP of doubt that entered my mind at that point.  The race was pretty much straight up, just shy of 2,000 vertical feet beginning around 6,000 feet of elevation (will get into this more in the paragraph below).  If I’m gassed in the flats?  At mile 0.3?  Well, this is likely going to be a long painful day.  Turned out to be okay but WOW, not the start I was hoping for and ABSOLUTELY the first time in a long time I thought about (albeit briefly) quitting before the one mile mark.
And, I won’t make a bit fuss about this one but right in the title of this race indicates some sorta’ “running with the horses”.  So, where in the heck were the horses?  I did run with a nice gentleman from Utah but not a single horse as far as the eye could see.
Run With The Horses Half Marathon Startline

The Race

This is a small race, in all three distances (10K, Half, Full) there must have been only 80 people in the starting area.  And, this is the type of race that I really love, way more character than the macro races.  As I mentioned earlier the race starts at 6,100 feet and heads straight up to the turnaround point at 7,500 feet or so.  The one gripe I have is that the turnaround point was not put in the right spot.  It was roughly at the 6.05 mark, not the 6.5 mark.  Decimals!  Doh!

So, unless I missed a section of the run, this race was not a 13.1 mile run.  As a result, I had to “make up for it” by running extra distance down towards the bottom.  A race worth running for sure in a small town with good people.  Although I doubt I’ll be back for this race again, it was well worth the visit.

Run With The Horses Half Marathon Race2 Run With The Horses Half Marathon Race1

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