Hip-Hip-Hooray for Angi Christiansen, who came in 2^nd of the women in the Flagstaff Marathon 10K! Angi represented us well in her new Bookmans racing jersey. Her time was 53:36, not great for her (if you can believe it) but the course was really rough.

Here are Angi’s notes:

The race was about a half an hour toward the Grand Canyon from town, in the aspens, at a bit over 8000 feet.  It was absolutely beautiful! It was a gorgeous morning, and didn't feel a bit like autumn, just sunny with a tiny chill which the sun drove away before the race was over.

The course was, by far, the most difficult 10k that I have ever run.  There were places where there was no path or track, just forest floor.  They marked the course with arrows on wires driven into the ground - there were a lot of those!  We were hopping over broken aspen branches and rocks and, of course, uneven ground.  I love to trail run, and this was quite the adventure.  The course meandered up a slow incline, with a few small downs and flats where you could catch your breath and attempt to make up time, for the first 5 miles.  Then it was a fast downward swoop to the finish line, where I had to yell, "where do I go?!"  "Follow the path" was the reply, but at that point, there wasn't a path!

It was so much fun to run with my brother. (Josh Zollinger finished 7^th, and did the run in 47:29.)  It is very inspiring to have a sibling that can travel from Tucson to Flagstaff the night before a race, and do so well, on trails, and at this altitude! Doing this race inspired both of us to start training for the Sedona Marathon (full for Josh, half for me) in February 2010.

They did a kids kilo that was super cute: a guy gathered up all the kids that were interested, then had them start with some stretches. The age range was 20 months to maybe 13 years. Then the kids took off, following the guy on his bike.  One of my friend's little boys did it in his cowboy boots, which was too cute.  My girls ran it. Cass came in 3rd, in her converse in jeans, and Nat was around 5th.

I also feel like I should try to justify my time for this race, as 53.36 was my worst 10k ever.  This summer I did 2 other 10k's with times of 44.10 and 48.09. I felt slow, but thankfully, other people were a bit slower!

Proceeds from the Flagstaff Marathon, Half Marathon, and 10k race support North Country Healthcare, a community health center that provides quality care to patients regardless of their ability to pay.  North Country provides primary care, which emphasizes wellness and prevention.  This can keep people out of emergency rooms, resulting in tremendous cost savings within the healthcare system.