SweetH20 Sweetheart Half Marathon 2013

“Run often and run long, but never outrun your joy of running.”

-Julie Isphording, retired American long distance runner

Every year a group of absolutely crazy people get together and decide to run an extremely challenging 13.1 miles in the freezing cold on the trails of Sweetwater Creek State Park in a race put on by the Douglas County Rogue Runners (yay, running family!).  “Oh, I run at Sweetwater!” you may say…  (in fact, I say that… I run there all the time!), but until you’ve been to Top of the World, you’ve never experienced what those who face the SweetH20 Sweetheart 1/2 Marathon face each year!  And, well…  I’ve never been there, so I can’t really talk.  🙂  I just do my little  5 mile loop (sometimes 2x) and call it a day.  But ONE DAY, I will face Top of the World!  One day…  Until then, I’ll just pat myself on the back because I can SOMETIMES make it up Jack’s Hill.  🙂

“What is she talking about???”  Well, next year come on out and join us and you’ll see!  It’s an absolutely fantastic race put on by a group of people who honestly, in their bones, really LOVE running.  The photos below only give a glimpse…  I was helping with an aid station (really, I was just taking pictures while my friends did all the work) and I saw the runners as they came through at mile 2 and around mile 10.  There’s so much of the course that I wish you could see, but I didn’t capture it.  It was less than 3oF, I was holding on to hand-warmers for all I was worth, and, amazingly, the runners were having a great time (for the most part)!  Toward the end, some were bloody, others were covered in mud, they all were tired… and everyone was proud of what they’d accomplished.  And then came the sweepers…  and they’re just crazy!  🙂

I hope you enjoy the photos… I hope they inspire you to try out the race next year, or even just the trails at Sweetwater some Saturday morning.  Get out there, enjoy God’s amazing creation, breathe the fresh air, and help your body become stronger than it was yesterday!

To view all the race photos from Saturday, including several shots of each runner, visit my online gallery.

For more information about the Douglas County Rogue Runners, how to become a member of this fantastic group or to just join them on a weekly run, and the other races they host each year (including a 50K on the trails at Sweetwater), visit their website.

And now…  enjoy the seriousness, enjoy the silliness, enjoy the race!