The question posed in this week’s Monday Brain Exchange was:
Name your top 3 favorite events to date. When were they and why are they your favorite?

All of my races are my favorites… even the ones that don’t go over that well! But I do admit, there are a few that hold a special place in my heart. They are:

PF Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona
Why this one, when it’s the home of my infamous DNF? Well, it’s also the home of my very first marathon completion too. And that far outweighs doing a faceplant in the middle of the road that requires stitches. One of the anonymous questions posed to me from my “Ask Me Anything” post was if I would ever return to Arizona. And the answer to that is undoubtedly YES! I would love to do the race again. I would return to do the half as well. But it would be hard for me to want to return if my mom wasn’t going with me, since we have gone together in previous years and made the trips into fun girls weekends.

Race for the Cure
The Las Vegas Race for the Cure is one that I do every year (also with my mom), but I think that any Race for the Cure event would be on this list. The cause means a lot to me, the organization is usually spot on and the energy/emotion at the event is so strong. I thoroughly enjoyed doing the Global Race for the Cure in DC last year and would return to that race every year if I thought I could afford the travel. In fact, it would be an awesome experience if I could travel the country doing as many Race for the Cure events as possible.

Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll
It’s my hometown race… gotta give it props! But truthfully, there is something really cool about running up and down The Strip. And now that Rock ‘n’ Roll has taken over the race, the half marathon course is mainly on The Strip, which is a HUGE improvement over the past course. And it’s fun to run along and listen to how many runners are complaining about over-partying in the days before the race. Apparently many people cannot set foot in Vegas without immediately starting to indulge… and I fully encourage that behavior here because it is how our economy survives.

I very nearly included the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon on this list, because it’s such a beautiful area. And I love the annual turkey trot that I do, just because that seems like such a perfect way to start that day of gratitude. Oh, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole atmosphere of running in the middle of the night through the desert for the Extraterrestrial Full Moon Midnight Half Marathon and would do that one again if I had a group of pals to run with (it just doesn’t appeal to me to do that one alone). It’s really hard to narrow my races down to a top 3!

I need to branch out and do more races though. Clearly a marathon that is not part of the Rock ‘n’ Roll series should make it on my to-do list someday. Running in more states would be a great way to travel, except my husband wouldn’t necessarily enjoy having to wait for me at the finish line of a race on all of our trips. But I definitely hope to expand the list of races that I have to choose from