Last Saturday I traveled to beautiful St. George (Washington) Utah and ran the Dogtown Half Marathon, twice. More on that in a minute, but first let me rewind to why I love this race so much and why I have ran it every year since it started.
I used to live in St George, and I have ALWAYS loved St. George. When I was applying for college (growing up in Salt Lake City) I only applied for Dixie. My parents told me to apply other places, but I knew I wanted to go there. I got 2 full ride scholarships and 2 half scholarships that paid for my housing and loved living there and getting my education from Dixie State College. Later my whole family relocated from Northern Utah to St. George and we also lived there for about 5 years. We loved every minute of it and still visit “home” very often.
While I was living there, my love for marathons and triathlons grew as I found many friends with the same interest and the year round training was amazing. I worked for the company that puts on this race and helped out a bit the first year it started. I have ran it every year since. I even ran it in when I was 20 weeks pregnant. My friend Mindy and I had the same due date and were both wanting to run so we made a “Baby on Board” shirt and wore them. It said, “A Half Marathon, Half Way to Baby”. We are so Cheesy! 
Finally, I felt an attachment to run the full marathon because I did it in 2012 when I had my first and only DNF at Utah Valley 3 weeks previously. (More on that race another time.) I couldn’t live with myself and wanted to run a full marathon to “Make-up” for it. So I ran the dog town half and then in reverse with two of my dear friends Liz and Ty. So now I wanted to do it again and in a “race” setting since I was the first to do the full course.
Now onto the Race Report! So if you’re wondering why I ran a full marathon when it says its a half, let me explain…..It was definitely a full marathon, but it was called the “Double Dog Dare” Challenge. (Obligatory Pre race out fit photo from my Instagram HERE)
The idea is to run the course from the finish line at Staheli Farm and run 13.1 to the top of the start in Coral Canyon at the correct time to start with the rest of the half marathoners. If you did not come in in enough time, you were not able to finish the course. Rachelle and Janice and I decided to all run together and have made it a girls trip with this awesome group every year.
We met up with my long time friend from St. George, Shannon who is training for an Ultra as well and ran a total of 40 miles that day! She’s a machine! I think there was around 20 of us that decided to do the full 26.2 and I think all of us made it and finished. My cute family was there to meet us at about mile 5 and mile 10.5. My mom, my aunt and my cousin were there with supplies and even spelled my name in water bottles and gatorade. They are the best!!
Our half time wasn’t that bad considering it was pretty much all uphill and all 3 of us were using this race as a training run. Rachelle is training for a 50 miler too, and Janice is training for a 100 miler. Incredible girls! This was a good endurance day for my STG Ironman 70.3 training.
The weather was PERFECT for running! And can we talk about this sunrise across the bridge here?! GORGEOUS!
13.1 + 13.1. Such a fun and different way to run a marathon! We knew our “official” times, (which mine was off from my watch because we crossed the line and chatted for a while before we started, whoops) but it wasn’t about the time, it was about completing the challenge.
At the halfway point we were feeling pretty good and had enough time to go to the 1Law Bus and grab some fuel and water. It was a fun perk of doing the full marathon.
We took tons of pictures and saw lots of good friends before getting ready to run again. I saw Trena, Brooke and Rebecca. All of them are 3 of my favorite people ever! It was such a fun day!
The second half of the race went pretty well considering how little sleep I had that week and the night before. I was happy with how I felt and I ran my best. Definitely fatigued and ready to be done by the last few miles, but overall I felt good.
Plus I didn’t train for a full marathon like I usually do. But I felt strong. Janice and I stayed together almost the entire time and finished the race together! So much fun to run with good friends and cross the finish line together! Nothing compares to that!
We finished at 3:59 and I am very happy with that! (Running time from our watches and my run keeper since it was a challenge and not a marathon “race” but still 26.2.) I remember training my little heart out years to go to get a sub 4 and killing myself. Today was still effort but I felt so much stronger at the end and still ran a good time. Proof that my training is paying off! That makes me so happy!
The course was beautiful, friendly but challenging, and well run as always. They also went cup less this year and gave everyone a reusable cup to use. That means we had to stop and fill up by ourselves at each aid station. That caused a bit of extra time but not a big deal to me that day. If you were racing the half, I could see how that would add some time. Not my favorite way to get water, but it was cleaner for sure not having to dodge paper cups left and right through the aid stations. Everything was so well done and organized! Overall an amazing race! Washington City always does an amazing job! And the medals were awesome this year! 
All of us “Double Dog Dareres” had a special awards ceremony and got 2 medals and a cool trucker hat. My kind of prize!! I’m such a hat lover.
It was such a fun morning and I love racing the double or half every year. I love to race and I love to run. I think you can see just how I feel from this picture. Running makes me happy!
xoxo- Heather
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