Time travel back to October 8th with me. That will make this post seem like its not completely outdated.
Back in July I was talking to some girls in my ward. A couple of them said they had completed a marathon and I was very impresed. They also all agreed that it's mostly a mental challenge. So then I got to thinking that maybe it was possible for me to do it. I decided to start with a half marathon though in order to decrease my odds of dying. And that is the story of how I signed myself up for a half marathon.
I created a training schedule for myself and stuck with it pretty well...even though it involved waking up at 5 am everyday for a 12 weeks. Naturally, the day before my race was the first day of snow this season. Troy and I had to take a last minute trip to the store to get warm running clothes. I was planning on wearing my tank top and shorts but clearly Mother Nature had other ideas.
The race was in Park City so it was even colder than I thought it would be. When I got on the bus to drive to the starting line, I probably had 20 layers. I regreted this decision once I was on the sweltering bus for 30 seconds. Our bus driver got us lost on the way too which was exciting. We almost crashed into a mountain. Seriously. Who would have thought it was even possible to crash into a mountian? We finally got to the start line and froze a little while longer until they would finally let us run.
The first 4 miles went SUPER quick. I was shocked. The snow wasn't as bothersome as I anticipated either. I actually didn't get tired until mile 9 or so. But by then you're so close to finishing that you want to just keep going. Pretty soon I was finished. Weird. It actually wasn't that bad! I wanted to finish in 2 hours and 10 minutes. My time ended up being 2 hours and 15 minutes but I was still happy with it. Considering the weather, altitude, wind, and it being my first one I think I did ok.
And now for the pictures...
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Troy was my awesome photographer. This is the finish line area before being invaded by runners. |
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Apparently I run with my thumbs up. I'm such a cheerful runner. |
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Getting my "charm". It was an all women race so we got charms instead of medals. |
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Best part of running 13.1 miles is eating all the free food after. Totally worth it.
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All in all it was a great experience. I'm totally converted. Right when I finished I thought that I'd like to stick with half marathons rather than doing a full marathon...but now I've changed my mind. Who would have thought I'd ever like to run.