Awhile back, Sean and I were looking for a race to do and found the Howl At The Moon 5k, 10k, and half marathon virtual race. It was only $17 per person to register for whichever distance race you wanted to enter. After registering, runners could run at their location of choice for the agreed distance, enter their results on the race website (optional), and receive their finisher's medal and souvenir race bib in the mail soon thereafter. (Of course, people could just register, not run, and receive the medal anyway but the system's based on honesty and the assumption that people will generally attempt to earn their medals, not that it really hurts anyone else if they choose not to.)
Anyway, Sean and I decided to commit to the 10k so that we could get a decent workout, optionally do even more, but wouldn't feel compelled to do an entire half marathon. The location we chose to complete it at was Red Rock. I messaged one of the guys who pays for [innocent and clothed] photos of me to see if he'd want any of me at Red Rock and he paid me $36 for a small collection of photos of me in a few outfits there, pretty much making the race free for us, aside from the cost of gas to get there. (See a few of the photos at the bottom of this post.)
I had to have some pics of Sean too so I took a few of him just for me. :)
After the pics, Sean and I went to find a trail to run. We'd never done a trail in Red Rock before, or at least not completed one, but it was time to change that! We found one called First Creek Trail System. It was 3 miles round trip, rocky and sandy. It was dark out now so we lit the way with Sean's phone and jogged on! At the turnaround point, there was no real marker or significant feature to assure you you were there but the trail disappeared beyond that and our GPS things said we'd reached the turnaround so, after exploring for a couple of minutes, we jogged back.
We drove on a bit to Bonne Springs after that so we could jog the short route I'd done out there one night several years back. From the car where we parked to the Bonne Springs archway entrance and back was just over a mile round trip.
We drove back the way we'd come after Bonne Springs, stopping at Calico Hills (where our rock is) and doing a quick hike up the mountain where we took a break, had some sandwiches I'd made, and cuddled together while watching movies on my phone before hiking back down and driving home, about a mile total round trip.
The next day, we returned to Red Rock with the doggies and had them finish off our race with us (plus an extra mile or two!). We took drinks and snacks and parked at a lookout point a few minutes down the road from the turnoff for Calico Hills, jogging out over the uneven shrub and rock covered landscape, taking a couple of breaks when our fat dog Sammie fell behind a bit. When we finally turned around, we made our way over to the paved highway to jog our way back to the car on the road. The total round trip was about 2.6 miles, I believe. When we got back to the lookout point, we rewarded everyone's efforts with tasty snacks and drinks! Then we headed home, finally having earned our medals and more in the most roundabout way ever! Haha
Some of the gig pics of me at Red Rock:
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