Top of Utah Half Marathon

And finally we're caught up to this week's events.

Saturday was the Top of Utah Half Marathon! Woohoo! Natalie had challenged me to do the Georgetown one with her, and I figured since I was already prepared, I might as well sign up for the one in my own hometown. Right? So I did. And it was awesome!

The course starts in Blacksmith Fork Canyon, at the same place my 15k started. It was dark when the buses took us up there. The course ends in Providence, oh, 13.1 miles later :) The canyon part is beautiful, and it's downhill most of the way. It was even overcast and breezy which felt perfect! We even had a tail wind there for a while, so I was really getting pushed down some of the hills.

I felt really good and strong the whole time. Not perfect, but pretty darn good. I had been worrying about my hips since they were STILL sore from my first half, 3 weeks prior. I prayed hard, and stretched really well, and I don't think I even felt them until maybe the 10th mile. But by then my knees hurt worse, so I was good. Haha.

My first mile was about 9:17, and I thought to myself, okay, you're going too fast, you're going to get burned out, but I just kept going at that pace since I still felt fine. One thing I do with all that time to think, is I do math with my mile times. I had a goal of finishing under 2:10, so I figured if I kept going at that pace, I could get pretty close to that. So I just kept on going. I passed each mile right around 9 minutes from the last one, so I knew I was doing well.

I had such a blast because I felt like I was passing people the entire time. In reality the first 3 miles is just a mess, because there are so many people at that starting line, starting their race at different times (for example I was over 30 seconds behind the people in front) and running at different speeds, so you have to weave around slower people while faster people are trying to get around you. But after that, I was steadily passing people which was fun.

Right around the 6th mile, I saw my old roommate Melissa! It was so crazy! She lived with Natalie and I, what a coincidence that 3 of us did half-marathons this year. So I ran with her for about a mile and went ahead. Around the 7th mile you come out of the canyon and start running past houses in some rural neighborhoods. This was fun because that's where people line the streets and cheer for you. Hooray! I don't care who they're cheering for, it helps me keep moving. Around the 10th mile my knees were really killing me, but I pushed through. That's also about the point where the course goes gradually uphill for about 2 miles. The last mile or two are all downhill towards the finish line. That was the best! I could see the finish line for probably half a mile and it helped me run really strong until the end. There were tons of people and I felt good enough to sprint to the finish (although it probably didn't look like a sprint). All these people are cheering, and I heard one voice out of all of them, A.J.'s! YAY! I grinned at him and Grizzly bear and was sooo glad they were there at the finish for me.

Well, I am so excited about my final time. I was hoping for at least 2:10, thinking under 2 hours would be awesome but not likely. Well I finished in 2 hours flat! Woohoo! My average mile time was 9:13, which is really good for me. I had been watching my mile times the whole race, so I was really happy that I had ran at such a consistent pace.

AJ took this picture of me after I finished. The other shots of me show 2 legs, but I figured not showing you those other strange facial expressions was worth my one-legged look here. Haha.

And no, that guy behind me is not dead.

Later that day we went up to Bear Creek Lodge, which is close to Bear Lake, for AJ's summer work party. I could hardly move my legs, and that really impacted the games I competed in. I had hoped to excel in the cow pie toss, the gunny sack race, and the 3-legged race, but it wasn't happening. Sorry, AJ. They had some nice prizes so it would have been nice to win. AJ told me earlier that a 50 inch plasma TV would be one of the prizes, so I was getting worried that I wouldn't be able to perform. Well, my husband is just a sweetheart and let me believe that for like, 4 hours at least. There was no plasma. Fortunately he filled me in on the truth before I started telling people about the TV I wanted to win...haha!

We had a delish BBQ and then just kinda hung out and watched the employees' kids go crazy with marshmallow guns. (It's amazing how people can let their kids get so obnoxious and as I'm being shot with sticky marshmallows they will ask, "so when are you going to have a little angel of your own?" Hmm.) The adults were all just hanging out and probably thought I was boring, but I was completely drained of all my energy for the day. They tried to convince us to stay the night but I was out. So we went home and I slept for like 12 hours.

The end!