To finish off 2017 I decided on Arizona. I used to live in Prescott, AZ when I was younger so knew the chances of it being warm in December were good. I am a creature of warmth. Which is funny because I typically post better times when I run in cold weather…but I still don’t like it.

I found a race called The Phoenician Half in Scottsdale. It was the inaugural race and run partially on the resort. Of course it sounded beautiful. And it was…for the first three miles. The next 8 or so were run along the Arizona Canal Trail. Basically a dirt packed road. It was clogged with runners who weren’t a part of the race and at one point I passed a port o potty that was so disgusting I literally gagged on the flies circling it. Blech. Protein? Gross, can’t believe I just thought that. I channeled Dodgeball. Dodge, duck, dip, dive, dodge. If anyone saw me I’m sure it looked like I was having a seizure of some sort.

I was still hurting from Route 66 but decided to go for it anyways and push myself because I knew it was my last race for a while for many reasons. To name a few:

1. Christmas cookies
2. It was cold in Oklahoma
3. Christmas cookies
4. There were no more flight sales on Southwest
5. Christmas cookies

The race was fairly non-eventful. I did decent considering my body wasn’t listening to my mind. I kept trying to distract myself with stories so that I wouldn’t feel the pain. The mind can go to some weird places when you have that much alone time. When that stopped working I reminded myself that a champagne brunch was awaiting me at the finish line. Although at one point I truly thought about swimming across the canal as a short cut. Luckily the smell was a strong deterrent to keep running. Today was not the day to compete in an aquathlon. (Full disclosure, I had to google that word. I put duathlon and turns out that only applies to biking and running combos).

Once I crossed the finish line I was greeted with a 4 inch medal (sweet!) and tables and tables of brunch food (sweeter!). But the really cool part was my Mom was there and had come to watch me. We were both staying with my Aunt and it was fun to have some people there to cheer me on.

For Christmas I got a 50 States chalkboard so I could start tracking my progress visually. And basically I spent Christmas break planning some of the states I would do in 2018. So far I’m signed up for Arkansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and Minnesota. I’m definitely going to add more though. 2017 was a good year though. I ran 6 states so “only” 44 more to go!