Sarah Lavender Smith, 40, is a trail runner, writer and mother of two from Piedmont, California (a small town in the San Francisco Bay Area). A longtime marathoner, she has earned several age-group and overall wins in trail and road races ranging from 5K to 50K. She and her husband, who's also a runner, are traveling around the world with their children during the 2009-10 school year and participating in many running events along the way. Sarah blogs about family travel at away-together.com and also has a running blog.
What has been your favourite race so far?
Probably the Golden Hills Trail Marathon, which traverses a greenbelt in the East Bay Regional Park District of the Bay Area. The very hilly race starts near the city of Berkeley and ends at Lake Chabot, just south of the city of Oakland. To be able to run 26 miles on trail in the middle of a sprawling urban area -- through dense redwood forests and over mountain ridges that reveal the Bay Area's stunning views -- is truly a gift. I also consider this race my favorite because it's the only one in which I hold the course record! The Golden Hills Marathon is actually an offshoot of the Dick Collins 50 Miler, which is run on the same course (out and back) on the same day, and my hope is to graduate to the 50-miler. A close runner-up for my favorite race is the Salomon K42 Adventure Marathon in the Patagonia town of Villa La Angostura, Argentina. My husband and I ran it last November during travels through Argentina, and the scenery of the lakes nestled in the Andes range was unforgettable.
What race would you like to run?
I would love to run the Gortex Trans Rockies run through Colorado, a five-day staged race for teams of two. I have a lot of personal connections to Colorado and can think of nothing better than to spend several days running through the Rockies. The only problem is that it's held in late August, which coincides with my kids' back-to-school season, so it has not been feasible to travel then; plus, I haven't found someone to partner with on it. I'd also like to do any race that takes me back to the Andes.
City road or remote trail?
You might be able to guess from the replies above that my answer is "remote trail"! I have done a fair number of big-city road marathons and 10Ks, but I'm less interested in them these days. For example, I ran the Boston Marathon last April and was so underwhelmed by the experience that I wrote a blog post titled "Boston: The World's Most Overrated Marathon" -- which generated unfavorable comments from Boston Marathon fans who took me to task for criticizing this revered road race.
Crowded major events or quiet local ones?
I'm inclined to say "quiet local ones" -- I love trail events with 200 or fewer people, because of the camaraderie during and after the race. For road marathons, I like medium-sized with a few thousand people, such as the Napa Valley, Big Sur or Buenos Aires marathons. I really do not like huge marathons such as Los Angeles or Chicago.
One more reason to go running?
Running inspires and enhances travel. I can think of no better way to get to know a stretch of countryside or city than running through it, or better yet, participating in a race at a destination. When I think of trips I took over the past year or so with my family, I always visualize what I saw during my runs. As I travel around the world with my family this year, we are shaping our itinerary around running events; we did a couple in Argentina, and now we're headed to the West Coast of New Zealand for a remote trail event. In Australia, we're taking a detour outside of Melbourne for a trail 10K at a "dirt fest," and now I'm researching marathons around the Mediterranean for March through June. I'm grateful to RunAbroad.com for providing so much information to races around the globe, and I hope to travel more in years to come to run some of those events.
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