Pageant veterans will run in Monday's races

If the military took Jill Stevens' advice, they might send soldiers to pageant workshops instead of boot camp.

Stevens, who served in Afghanistan as a combat medic with the Utah National Guard from April 2004 to April 2005, is also a Miss Utah 2006 second runner-up.

Stevens, Miss Utah 2005 Julia Bachison and Miss Wales 2004 Amy Guy will be star attractions in different races of the Deseret News Marathon on Monday.

It wasn't easy for Stevens to trade combat boots and military fatigues for high heels and an evening gown.

"Walking on high heels is brutal. I don't know who invented them," she said.

"But now heels have actually become a comfort zone," said the 22-year-old senior nursing major from Kaysville. A reigning Miss Southern Utah University, Stevens faced 55 other city, county and university queens at the Miss Utah pageant last week and finished in the top three.

Stevens has volunteered as a presidential ambassador for SUU, was SUU Nursing Class president, and worked as a medical representative in Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Hope. She will run the 10k race Monday for the third time.

"I love taking on new challenges. I do unique things and have unique goals," she said. After graduation, Stevens hopes to work in pediatrics or an emergency room for a while, then take her experience to developing countries as part of a team to help people who lack access to medical care.

"My role model is a dream of a woman that I am trying to become," she said.

Like Stevens, Bachison is comfortable with multitasking. The North Ogden resident plans to balance modeling assignments with her career goal of working as a political broadcast journalist in Washington, D.C.

While interning for former state representative and House Speaker Marty Stephens, the 23-year-old Bachison dealt with the media and loved every bit of it.

A winner of the preliminary lifestyle and fitness in swimsuit segment of the Miss America pageant this year, Bachison also will run the 10K.

Bachison loves working with kids. Her platform, "Healthy Weight for Life," emphasizes the importance of physical fitness at the elementary level and making that a part of life.

She is involved with Gold Medal Schools, a program run by the Utah Department of Health that helps elementary students develop good exercise habits by charting walking distances in their schools.