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).
