Salt Lake City

Spent the weekend in snowy Salt Lake City for the Sundance Film Fest. Had troubles getting back. I wanted to get in a last minute vacation before a big change this weekend.

I'm an ultra marathoner!!

I am now officially an ultra marathoner :) I completed a 50K trail race today. It was super, super hard. Very grueling terrain like climbing up a mountain, plus we had to run in 8 miles of sand, just like running on the beach and 4 miles were uphill, so imagine running uphill on a beach. It was insane. Plus, we had to go over all this loose rock straight downhill and through gravel ankle deep. The terrain just kept changing. Plus, for the first 13.5 miles, there was one aid station. Then mile 19-31 had no liquids. I thought I was going to pass out from dehydration. How could they do this to us??? It is the desert! It is so hot, even in January.

But I finished :)

First Race Report of 2011

I finished my first race of the year and it went...well, not so much fun. It was my first full trail running race. I've done some trail triathlons, but not a full running race. It GPS'd at 12.6 miles and took me longer than it takes me to run 16.6. It was 6 miles of climbing up a trail over rocks and boulders. I couldn't even run a good portion of it. Plus, not many aid stations existed because it was out in the middle of nowhere Arizona. It took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to drive to the start line, literally out into the mountains of nowhere. If you looked for this place on a map, I don't think it would be there.

Well, not only was it hard, but I fell. I fell and sprained my wrist, twisted my ankle, bruised my hand until it turned blue, skinned my knee and elbow to the point it burned, and ended up with about two pounds of cactus needles in me, which I spent the race of the race pulling out as I plugged along. It can only go uphill from here right? I managed to finish covered in blood and cried my way to the aid station. I was crying like a baby to the man trying to clean up my dirt and blood-soaked body. Poor man.

Happy New Year!

May 2011 bring everyone health, happiness and a better economy. I added some photos to flickr:
flickr.com/jenniferpurdie

New Year's Resolutions

I set the following new year's resolutions for 2010. How did I do?

1. Run three marathons--I ran 3 full and 8 halfs
2. At least two of them have to be international ones--three were international races
3. Better my biking time by .5 mph in a triathlon--bettered time by .5 in a May triathlon
4. Write the draft of my book--92,000 words done!
5. Go out for New Year's Eve--going out with three friends

Highlights of 2010:
1. Accomplishing my goal of running a marathon on every continent
2. Getting a lot of press for it. I am even on the cover of a magazine.
3. Going brunette--I do miss being blonde though...
4. Running in China, Peru, South Africa
5. Running my new favorite half marathon in Santa Barbara, CA.

Goals for 2011:
1. Doing an ultra marathon
2. Bettering my bike time by another .5 mph in one triathlon
3. Completing my book--almost done :)
4. GANJ (This is cryptic for personal reasons)
5. Letting go of something personal that needs to be let go

Thanks!

This has been a great few months for me. I've been getting so many nice emails from people on the press that has come out about me running marathons on 7 continents. Strangers have been emailing me with amazing stories on their weight loss goals and wanting to do races overseas now! I've also been asked to do some public speaking engagements. I am one lucky chick.

I also had a photo session with Elvis Castillo Photography and he wrote many nice things about me on his blog posted on December 20th, 2010. He is very talented and super nice to work with--check out his site.

Happy Holidays!

12Ks of Christmas

Just as in the 12 Days of Christmas, I did a race of the 12Ks of Christmas. It started at the "North Pole" aka Gilbert, Arizona. We were all given Santa hats to wear along with special Christmas socks. Most everyone dressed up. I found a red technical t-shirt to get into the spirit of the race. Dogs were colorful with wreaths around their necks and red and green leg warmers on their four little legs. One man was a human wreath; one girl dressed up as the Grinch and dyed her hair green; some just colored themselves all red and green. One guy dressed up as Scrooge and wore a top hat and a full suit. Along the route were choral groups including a children's bell group and a choir dressed to the nines in Victorian fashions. I loved it. Santa was there with his reindeer (dogs with antlers). However, there was a police officer who stopped all the runners to allow traffic to cross. I was stopped for 2 minutes by a cop who held out his hand and let cars go by...say what?? There goes my pace. It was a timed event and the race directors paid money for that road to be stopped. But the police officers decided that cars were more important than runners. I appreciate the volunteers (in this race they were called "Santa's Helpers") and the cops who make races possible, but come on...we were in a timed event and held off running.