How I got into Ultra Running
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- Written by: Amanda Jerman
I've been a runner since about 7th grade. You know the famous quote "My Sport is Your Sports Punishment", well, that was true for me. I played 
every sport possible, volleyball, basketball, softball and even might mites football and the only running I did was for punishment. In college, I attended College of the Ozarks in Branson, MO, I played Volleyball, so running for punishment continued. After my freshman year, and experiencing the true freshman 15 is when I really got into running. At that time, it was running to loose weight & having the choice to eat whatever I want.
Soggy Bottom Keynote Speaker Jason Bauer - how it all began
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- Written by: Jason Bauer,Director of Food & Nutrition for Cox Health and avid Ultra Runne
Everyone has reasons why they run, some run for fun, some for weight loss, others run for competition and the list goes on and on; ultra-running is no 
different. I always liked to run but not for any real distance, so to speak. I would go out and run 1-3 miles and felt that this was a pretty good distance. I used to be in to bodybuilding and I would use running as a way to slim down for the summer. One year I decided to do an adventure race with some friends thinking that it would be fun to train for something like this and use the running as a weight loss tactic. The adventure race at that time was made up of four people, coed. We had three guys and one lady on our team. One of the guys was a triathlon competitor and had done this particular race before; he served as our coach. We would go on training runs with him. He explained that we needed to be able to run a minimum of 10 miles for this race. The race was broke up into four sections over a day long period, (run/ride/canoe/orienteering). You never knew how long or in what order you would do each of these events, not until you showed up the day of the race; basically you had to be ready for anything. I trained both on my mountain bike and ran on trails since this race was held in the Mark Twain National Forest. Our coach/teammate pushed us to run as much as possible. I really did not know how to train honestly I just ran as much as I thought was necessary. My longest run before the race was 8 miles; I thought to myself that if I could run 8 miles by myself I could run an additional 2 miles if needed, with my team.
AZALEA RUN - MEDAL PICK UP
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- Written by: Amanda Jerman
If you were unable to stay for the awards ceremony at the Azalea Run on Saturday, September, 12, 2015 they will be available for pick up on Tuesday, 
September 15, 2016 at Garden Adventures & Nursery, 1900 W. Mt. Vernon Street in Nixa. We will leave them there for approximately 2 weeks. If you are unable to pick up your medal during this time frame or you live out of state, please send an email to and arrangements can be made.
AZALEA RUN COURSE MAPS - PRINTABLE
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- Written by: Amanda Jerman
Below are links to the Azalea Run course and turn by turn directions for the Half Marathon, 10K & 5K