Still Super Sore

I didn't take any pictures so I have none to post but Abe and I ran the Timpanogos Half Marathon this last Saturday with Abe's brother's Adam and Andrew. It was a ton of fun and I am excited to say that it was my best half marathon time yet!

My super sweet sister Lissa slept over at our house Friday night so she could watch the boys the next morning because we had to leave at 4:30am for the race. Thanks again Liss you are the best!

Instead of getting shuttled up by the buses with everyone else we picked up Abe's brothers and drove up American Fork Canyon to the starting line and Tibble Fork Reservoir. I decided to tell Abe to either run with his brothers or on his own because he needed to train for the pace he is going to run the St. George marathon and not my pace. So this was my first race to run by myself at my own pace. I had never listened to music during a race either and it was really nice to pump myself up with a good song when I needed it.

My plan was to run the whole thing by myself but at about mile 2 I noticed that I just happened to be running next to the 2 hour 5 minute pace runner for a long time. It was a really nice girl and because we happened to be running at the same pace we struck up a conversation and that was the end of me trying to run alone. We became running buddies and she motivated me to stick with her at her pace. As we approached the mouth of the canyon(about mile 8) I was feeling great and the race thus far had flown by. Suddenly I saw Abe and his brother Andrew standing at the aid station. They were waiting for Adam who was taking a potty break. I have never been competitive when it comes to running because I am just so slow but I have to say that running past my husband and his brothers was just about the most exciting moment of the whole race for me. To be able to beet any one of them would give me bragging rights. So I decided that even though I was beginning to struggle going into the next mile that I was going to stick with my running buddy and try to get enough of a lead on them that they wouldn't be able to catch up to me.

Sadly, between mile 9 and 10 there were a few up hills and I just didn't have it in me to continue at the pace I was going. My new running friend had to leave me behind and I was again running alone. Even though the course flattened out between miles 10 and 11 I was really starting to drag and started taking short walk breaks. Up to this point, the only walk breaks I had taken were at the aid stations and those were really short. During one of these short walk breaks about half way to mile 11 Abe caught up to me. He had left his brothers behind to catch me and it is a good thing he did because I needed someone there to encourage me and kick me in the butt when I was dragging.

My best time in a half marathon up to this point was 2 hours and 20 minutes and I ended up beating that by 2 minutes. haha The best part was I did end up beating my brother in law's by about 3 minutes. Of course neither of them have really been training but I can still say I beat them. ;)

It was a really fun race and even though it made me sick and super sore I am glad we did it. It definitely showed me that I am no where near ready for the St. George full marathon yet and need to really get in gear over the next 2 months if I want to finish it. So the 5 of you who still read my blog... wish me luck!