My First Half

The home stretch. I had about 50 yards to go at this point. Almost there!

Who knew running could be so much fun? On Saturday I ran the Snow Canyon Half Marathon with Angie, Tara, and Greta. I had the most amazing time. I really did. I'm not just saying that. Everything came together that day. I felt great. I'd made sure I'd carb-loaded for several days leading up to the big event, and I was plenty hydrated. Thanks to Greg I got my "good sleep" in two nights before. He'd read that the night before I wouldn't sleep well because I'd be too excited for the race. So I went to bed early Thursday night. Just like he said, I tossed and turned Friday night, so I was glad for the night's rest I had the night before. Saturday morning we all woke up bright and early and headed to the school. Buses were waiting to transport us to the starting line up the canyon. Hundreds of people awaited. I'm not exactly sure how many people in all ran the Half Marathon. I know more than 1000 signed up for the Half and the 5k.

We all had our music except for poor Greta. Her iPod ran out of juice before we got to St. George, and none of us had the right connector to juice it back up. I still don't know how she ran the Half without music. Personally, I'd die without music.

Mine was working though, and I listened to "Another One Bites the Dust" to get me pumped. My Garmin was set, and I couldn't wait to get going.

The run itself was beautiful. I was surrounded by hundreds of motivated and excited runners. Red rock was everywhere. About 2 miles into it we had to do an "out and back" on an incline for 2-3 miles. That means we ran back up the canyon on a dirt trail. That was probably the hardest part of the whole run, but I'm glad it fell early in the race. While a lot of the Half was downhill, I was surprised at how much was uphill too. Another friend I'd met while at the race told me out of the 5 Half Marathons she'd run, this was by far the most difficult.

I finished with a time of 1:44. My overall average pace per mile was 7.59. I'd set a goal to keep my pace between 8.30 and 8.45. I'd totally beat my own personal goal time. Now that I know I can get under 8, I am excited to try it again and see if I can shave any more time off. It would be great to get between 1:30 and 1:39. Who knows. Maybe I can. I can try, right?

Everyone else did awesome too. Angie and Greta just barely started training 8 weeks ago. Greta came in at 2:06 and Angie came in at 2:37. There is no way I had the courage to do anything so drastic when I first started getting back into shape, so I am extremely proud of both of them. Now Angie and I are preparing for our next big race together. We are shooting for the Painter Half Marathon in St. George in January. I'm trying to convince Greg we need to go down for my birthday. Think I could convince him to run it with me? Yeah, right!