When I was a round-faced young girl, my family moved from St. Louis to beautiful western Colorado. My parents were captivated by the alluring outdoors and were determined to spend all of our weekends enjoying them with whatever activity the seasonal weather allowed.

In the wintertime, we skied. All day. And at that age, to get me to focus on one activity for an entire day meant either packing a lot of snacks or promising an ice cream cone on the way home if I made it through the day sans tantrums or pinching and/or biting a fellow preschooler in ski school.

In the summer, we hiked. Long, treacherous hills in the hot sun, surrounded by sage brush that smelled like boiled peas. My mom stood at the top of the inclines with a bag of M&Ms, waving the colorful pellets of goodness to get my butt up off the dirt and moving forward again.

And here began my love of the outdoors — and my love of a good, high-calorie bribe.
I ran the third grade 50-yard dash with gumdrops in my pocket, swam on the summer swim team with Hershey bars in my cooler, played high school volleyball with little chocolate doughnuts in my duffel bag, and now I run races with “aid stations.” Aid stations are the equivalent of Mom waiting just up ahead, treats in hand, shouting, “You can do it.”

One of my favorite half-marathons ran down the Roaring Fork Valley from Carbondale to Glenwood Springs. It was a Race for Literacy, and the fantastic volunteers were teachers, divided into aid station groups according to the grade and school at which they taught.

There were aid stations at every mile marker and a fierce competition among them for the Best Aid Station award. There were costumes, music, and one group even sprayed us with a hose — which on a warm summer day gave that particular station extra runner bonus points. And the food: Concentrating less on the typical Power Bar, Gatorade and energy gels, they turned the sustenance tables into a Sunday brunch buffet.

It was incredibly entertaining; the distraction of these crazy teachers made the miles fly by. Mile 8 had deviled eggs and slices of ham distributed by a bunch of Elvises; on to mile 9 where they offered homemade chocolate chip cookies and brownies; a quick douse of the hose and a piece of string cheese at mile 10. Unfortunately actually ingesting any of these delicious treats midrace would send most runners to the side of the road doubled over with stomach pain. But the effort was outstanding, and the sheer curiosity of what was coming up at the next stop made the race more enjoyable and took away a lot of the stress involved in pounding the pavement for 13.1 miles.

A good friend of mine had a wonderful speech prepared to convince me to do a marathon. A marathon. That’s four months of long-run training, discipline, diet “awareness,” stresses and strains, weekends consumed by running and sleeping.
“It’s a fantastic accomplishment,” she began. “The self-satisfaction and pride of overcoming a difficult challenge, fundraising for a worthy cause, we’ll meet new people … and it’s in Paris, and they have wine at the mile-18 aid station.”
Blah, blah, blah, blah … ooh, hello — Paris? Wine? Let’s do it.

And we did it. Flew to France, ran through the amazing city of Paris and enjoyed a plastic Dixie cup of wine under the Eiffel Tower. She was right; Paris was satisfying. Deliciously satisfying.

So if you’re looking to increase your mileage, tackle a longer race or just want to explore some different scenery, there are countless options for your ideal distraction: from the drum line during the Canyonlands Half Marathon, live bands at various “Rock and Roll” races throughout the country, a pancake breakfast after the July 4 Race for Your Life in Meeker, beautiful local trail runs and races, to a nice cup of wine under the Eiffel Tower.

So leave that iPod at home, enjoy the distractions, accept the “bribe” and get outside and play!

<i>Elizabeth Schnittker and her husband, Chris, own and operate Running Tracks, downtown Grand Junction’s specialty running store and current trophy holder for the Best Aid Station of the Rim Rock Run. Chris and Elizabeth welcome questions and comments at rfrdepo@aol.com.</i>