Ever since I ran the NYC Marathon, I knew I wanted to use races as a way to see different places. I may or may not have rhymed on purpose. When Coach Alysha announced she would be running the Mesa Marathon, I jumped at the chance to book plane tickets to go cheer her on. Unfortunately she couldn't make it to the race because her family got sick, so of course I went back and forth for a week about whether or not we should cancel the trip.
We planned the trip to see her crush her marathon goal, but I was also holding onto the idea of cheering on all the runners (especially first time marathoners!) in person. Eventually we decided to go since everything was already set up, and I'm really glad we did. We also filmed pretty much every moment of the trip for YouTube, and I must say...Arizona is so cool! We were only there for one full day, but we crammed so much in. It was exhausting, but SO worth it. My favorite part of the marathon was seeing the overwhelming excitement that friends/families of the runners had when they saw them. They were so proud and I felt so proud of complete strangers, seeing them push through the exact same distance I struggled through a few months ago. I think that's one of the most unifying things about marathons. Everyone is running the exact same distance and you're running the same course as the fancy pros! Now we have to figure out where we'll be cheering next :)
