TransMountain Half Marathon

The perfect thing to do one week after a full marathon is to run a half marathon that is seven miles uphill followed by five miles of screaming downhill. This will allow you to test your bodies rate of marathon recovery. If you only cry a little you are mostly recovered. Full sobs mean you need more time. I kid. I kid. The only reason to run a half marathon a week after a full is if you get to run it with these amazing people!
TransMountain training group. We know how to party.

The training group I coach has been training hard for months for this  half marathon and there was no way I was going to miss it. Plus it is the last year of this particular race for a few years so I also wanted to tackle it myself. The race starts on the west side of El Paso runs up and over on TransMountain through the Franklin Mountains and then down to the Northeast side of El Paso. Pretty much 7 up and 5 down followed by a stretch of slightly uphill/ flatish to the finish. I pretty much said a prayer to the running gods that my sore hamstrings and calves from Twin Cities would not crap out and went for it. The amazing energy of my training group really helped as well. These runners are fun and seeing them out there and crossing the finish (or at the finish waiting for the rest of us cause some of them can haul butt over a mountain) was super inspiring and motivating and helped me tremendously. 

Photo credit: Ed

The views of this race are fantastic and it so peaceful up there without the traffic. Up to mile 4 I was going at a pretty good clip. Miles 4 - 6 got a bit steep and there was a lot of heavy mouth breathing followed be some quick walk breaks to get to the top and stretch out the legs. The downhill was fun but the body took a beating on that. Overall I just tried to keep moving and crossed in 2:18:37. I will take that!
Photo credit: Ed

 Once I was at the finish I found a few of my runners who had already finished to congratulate them for being total bad-asses and then forced all my runners who I saw finish to give my disgustingly sweaty self a hug cause I was just so excited and proud of everyone. This was a pretty tough race and they all did amazing.
Two of my favorite people! Photo credit: Erik
 Once everyone had finished I headed home for a quick shower and then back out to brunch cause yay eating. While stuffing our faces we discussed future awesome running feats because you know runners high.
A whole table of my favorite people!
My friend Karen also presented me with an amazing photo book from our training group adventures. 


Cue the teary eyes. I absolutely love it. Our friend Ed had taken tons of photos over the months of the training group and it was awesome to see them all put together. 


They also signed the back which I couldn't read till I got home cause no one likes their coach tearing up over brunch. 


 It was an awesome race and a super fun day! The best part of my job is getting to run with some amazing people and seeing them do amazing things!


 I am already looking forward to my next training groups because these people keep me motivated and it is just so dang fun. But before that happens I have another marathon to tackle.......Marine Corp I'm coming for you.

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