YMCA Famous Idaho Potato Half Marathon
Finishers: 1,490
May 15, 2014
Again, one of the best parts about running these races is getting to go visit people! Cooper had moved to Denver a few months back for work and since I had to fly out west regardless for my next race, and since he was coming with me, I decided to fly out to Denver for Thursday night. A huge plus of this was that we got to get dinner with one of my besties from when I worked in NYC who lives in Boulder, CO! I landed mid afternoon and Cooper picked me up at the airport and showed me around his new neck of the woods while we waited for Vanessa and her boyfriend Justin to get in town. Cooper is making me dizzy with all of his work relocation - Houston, Milwaukee, San Francisco and now Denver. We met Vanessa and Justin at a place nearby called the Populist. The thing I love about Vanessa is no matter how long we have been apart, things go right back to our goofy normal when we are together. It was nice enough to sit outside and enjoy the evening catching up. After our night with friends, it was time to get ready for our long day of travel ahead.
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| Vanessa and I at the Populist |
May 16, 2014
So Boise, Idaho is not the easiest place to get to which made for a long day. What caught me by surprise was while driving to the airport, Cooper decides to inform me that he didn't have a drivers license because he had lost it in Nashville. Excuse me? How the heck are you going to get on the plane!? He wasn't worried one bit and when we got to the airport told the security guy about his dilemma. Crazy small world, the security supervisor in DENVER ended up being from Mobile, AL where Cooper grew up as well. That being the case, Cooper actually ended up getting through security faster than I did as if he was some sort of VIP.
We had to fly through Salt Lake and then make a connection up to Boise. To be honest, I had no idea what to expect of Idaho when we landed. But after picking up the car and driving into downtown, it turns out the city was super hipster kind of town. A lot of natural food stores and organic restaurants and cute boutiques. We went to a super good sandwich shop for lunch called Bleubird and I am surprised I don't have a picture of my food. We wandered around for a bit downtown and then went over to Boise State to see what this blue field hype was all about.
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| Welcome to Idaho! |
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| Continuing my university tour! |
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| So Blue..... |
After we had our fair share of blue burning our eyeballs, we went to hunt down shirts to wear for the race at Sports Authority and then I had to go to the craft store to finish our shirt details. We were staying at the hotel where the expo and packet pickup would be so we headed back that way so Cooper could do some work and so I could craft. The expo had a few little events going on as well including the "Tater Trot" which was like a 100 foot race for little kids including crawling babies. It was so freaking precious (I have a video somewhere I need to dig up). We went back downtown for dinner at an Italian place to carb load and then me being the fat kid that I am, went across the street and got Ben and Jerry's and we wandered around the downtown - because when you walk and eat icecream at the same time you don't consume the calories (fact). We went back to the hotel and got all of our gear together so we could get up and go in the morning!
May 17, 2014
Race Day! It was a shuttle start which meant you parked at the finish and got bused to the start. We got there bright and early to get good parking and jumped on one of the first shuttles. The shuttle took us up into the Lucky Peak State Park and ran down along the river to the city and back into town. It was pretty chilly out in the open but the scenery was breath taking. We were surrounded by orange plateaus and right next to a reservoir. We took a bunch of pre-race pictures and in a race of about 1500 we all started at around the same time. Oh - now you can see what my craft was - I made Mr. and Mrs. Potato heads to pin to our shirts....you know, cus it's Idaho?
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| Oh hayyyyyy Homemade Potatoheads |
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| But just look at the scenery behind us! |
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| Mrs. Potatohead ready to rock n roll |
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| We have a habit of the "upside-down stretching selfie" |
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| Super fancy start line |
I don't know where my energy came from but I was excited and ready to run. Cooper and I stayed together for the first couple of miles but maybe it was the scenery or the slight downhill, but I was just ready to go and took off. We are both sort of the "run your own race" types.
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| Running and snapping pics...real efficient |
As I said, we ran along the river and could see the water for the majority of the first half of the race at least until Mile 6. We made a left turn and all of a sudden my phone started ringing so of course I answered it. Mom was immediately concerned about why I was so out of breath and had totally forgotten I had a race. My parents understandably have a hard time keeping up with "Where in the World is, Ashley Ahner". I told mom I was at Mile 6 and I would call her after.
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| Some serious running going on |
Mile 10 came and went and then I felt like the next mile marker would never come. At this point we were descending off a highway exit ramp and down into a park that had a trail not closed for the race so you were having to dodge mid morning walkers. Out of nowhere, the Mile 12 marker showed up and it made sense why Mile 10 was the longest ever. One more mile and I was still feeling strong! After crossing over a few park bridges it was the home stretch that started to fill up with spectators.
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| Sub 2 hour!!! |
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| Big Sub 2 day for Mr. and Mrs. Potatohead! |
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| Fully loaded Potato |
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| Official Race Pic - 26 states down, 24 more to go! #DREAMBIG |
Such a fun race! Definitely one to consider if you are interested in exploring!
26 states down, 24 more to go!
#DREAMBIG
