2010 Spanish Fork Half Marathon

It's a very fun race held in Spanish Fork in September. The last two years I've run it they had it on the first weekend of September, but this year it was on the second Saturday: 09/11.

I don't recall why I ran this race the first year--I think I was encouraged to join with a bunch of running buddies. Yeah, that was it. And while the course itself, that first year, didn't really impress me; the good time I had with friends and the raffle afterward won me over and I've been back ever since.

Funny thing is, I've never actually had my number drawn in the raffle, but I did benefit from one of the awards the first year--a friend won something but had no use for it.

Back to the course. Last year the course grew on me some, and this year it did even more. It's a mostly flat course--the start is at 4600 feet and the high point at the half is 4800 feet--that runs from the center of town through the river bottoms and then through some farm country at the foot of the mountains south-west of Spanish Fork Canyon.

Like I said, I have really come to like the course and would rate this course above the Provo River Half and the Hobble Creek Half courses. And the organization for this one beats both of those as well. Of course, this is a smaller race (210 or so total Half participants, plus 74 in the 5k).

The technical shirts that come with the registration have always been pretty cool, but this years was probably one of the cooler race shirts I've gotten from any race. It had, on the left sleeve, an American flag with the date, 09/11/10, below it, in recognition of the events that took place 9 years ago. I thought it was very cool!

Here are some of the cool people I had the pleasure and priveledge or running with this year.