The thing I love the most about my triathlon girlfriends is that they are truly the most adventurous bunch of women I’ve ever met. Last weekend was a true testament to that fact as we road tripped to Utah for the Behind the Rocks 30k trail race! We got to spend loads of quality time together on the 10 hour drive and laughed our asses off as usual 🙂On Thursday night we loaded up the biggest Ram truck I have ever seen (a rental) with mountain bikes, running gear and a shopping cart full of crackers in every imaginable flavor, and drove to St. George, Utah. We arrived at about 3 am our time (4 am their time) and crashed out at a Marriott. Once we had gotten a few hours of sleep and LOTS of caffeine we headed out to hit the bike trails. We found a spot in Hurricane that Jen had ridden before and had an absolute blast enjoying the scenery and all the fun terrain that the area has to offer. 

After a few hours of mountain biking and an impromptu photo shoot in our matching 361 USA tanks (obviously!), we hit the road and drove the remaining 5 hours to Moab. By this point we were all dying for a beer and some “real” food, since two days of Cheez-it’s, Triscuits and Chex-Mix was getting old. Once we had done some serious refueling at a local brewery we headed to our “campsite” that would be home for 2 nights.

Our campsite, Moab Under Canvas was absolutely AMAZING and can’t really be classified as camping…its glamping 🙂 We booked the Safari tent which comes with 4 single beds covered in multiple blankets and comforters, so comfy and cozy! We got a decent nights sleep and headed to the starting line early Saturday morning. Honestly, none of us really trained very well for this race…so our expectations were pretty low on how we would perform. It was actually really nice to go out not feeling nervous or anxious and just wanting to enjoy the day. As soon as I got going my competitive side came out though and I decided to just go for it and see how long I could hold on for. If I blew up…oh well. I felt great for the first 13 miles and was picking off women one by one. Then my IT band predictably gave in and I was forced to walk/run the last 5 miles or so. Kelly also ran into some issues and got a HUGE blister on the ball of her foot. Luckily someone duct-taped her up at an aid station and she was able to keep going. Marjan did awesome and Jen was an amazing supporter on her mountain bike! All around it was a fun 18.7 miles of beautiful trails.Post race it was time to relax and enjoy Moab! We hung out at the campsite with a few of Kelly’s friends that were also there for the race. We ate pizza, made smores around the campfire and drank a few cocktails while trading race stories…perfect ending to a great day! 🙂

Can’t wait until the next adventure! We are already on the hunt for another trail race 😉

Anyone have any trail races to recommend?