Half Marathon

Now I will tell you a long, boring story of the half marathon I ran with my sister and brother-in-law.  It wasn't boring for me, but it may be for you...it's more for my journaling benefit, anyway :)

My sister asked me if I would run a half marathon with her.  I said yes :)  So I did a 12 week training program I found on the internet.  Turns out my brother-in-law, Scott, was also running in this race.  I was really excited and nervous.

That morning we had to get up at 3:00 a.m. to go park at the mall and take some buses (at 3:30 a.m.) up to the start line in Provo canyon.  Why so early, you may ask?  Because there were a million people.  More like 3000. But they had to bus everyone up there because there was no parking at the start line.  

I included this picture of our sustenance choices.  There were a LOT more gu gels, but we had already put them in our hydration belts to carry with us. I can't tell you what a fan I am of these.  I wouldn't have thought they could keep me going like they did.  It's crazy what a boost it gives you when you start to feel sluggish.  Wish I would've tried them earlier in my 12 week training program.  Bummer.

The consistency of the gels are kind of gross, but I like them the most (over the chomps and jelly beans or shot blocks) because I think they work the best. Don't worry, we only used about 3 each.  This picture is of the rejects.

When we got up to the starting area, we had plenty of time to hang out.  It was freezing cold.  They had a bunch of fires set up along the side of the road that we stood by most of the time until the sun came up.  There were a BUNCH of porta potties that we could frequent.  I took full advantage, but you had to stand in line forever.

This is my sister and I at the start (well, like a half mile back from the start)  We looked for my brother-in-law, but didn't see him.  Boo.

My sister and I are wearing matching outfits (because we're cool like that) but we wore our shirt/sweatshirt over top of our sweet tank-tops the first mile of the race.

I ran faster than I usually did while I was training, so I was worried I'd hit a wall.  Most of the race I just drank from my hydration belt and used their water cups (every couple miles) to pour on my head.  I didn't hit any walls, thanks to the gels.  I did get pretty tired and was ready for the race to be over around mile 12.  I could see the finish and didn't want to sprint, but then they had a bunch of people lined up ringing their cowbells on either side before the finish line.  How can you NOT sprint in front of all those people?  So I did.  My awesome brother-in-law was there at the end with a powerade for me.  I hadn't felt nautious until I stopped, then I felt like I was going to lose some gu gels.  I didn't :) Would've been kind of embarrassing to throw up on brother-in-law.  He's a veteran of the marathon/half marathon races, so he says we should run a full marathon next.  My hat's off to all the full marathon runners.  That would be a LOT of running.

I wanted to finish in under 2:00 hours.  I did :)  I finished in 1:47.25.  So I feel pretty good about that.  I think it's about an 8:12/mile average?  Although the app I was using on the run said I ran 13.21 miles, making my average mile about 8:07.  But who's counting? :)

This is my sister, Amanda, and I after the race.  I'm the one on the left.  Hehe, she already used that joke on Facebook, but I thought it was so funny I stole it to debut on the blog.

This is my sister, me, and my brother-in-law, Scott.  I included the flexing picture because I think it's the funniest thing when someone Jones's your picture (man in yellow behind us).

So that's it.  I WISH my phone took better pictures because then I could include pictures of the AMAZING lunch we went to at Tucano's after the race.  All of my in-laws came to cheer us on, and then we all went out to lunch afterward.  It was sooo great!  It was so wonderful to see and hang out with everyone.  Such a great bonding experience all around. :)  Thanks Manda, for convincing me this would be fun!  A new tradition has been started.