Sunday, July 24, 2011

2011 Half MarathonS!!!

So my big goal for this year was to do a half marathon, and I ended up doing two! So I am pretty proud of my self for that! Too bad I totally hammered my feet with the last one, and haven't quite gotten the courage up to go get new shoes and get back out there! I am getting the itch again, so hopefully it won't be too long before I am "chasing pavement" again! ;)
My first race was April 30th at Thanksgiving Point. I absolutely loved this race!! It was SO beautiful to run through the gardens at the height of the season, and so well organized. The only downfall was that it snowed that morning! And the night before it snowed like 6 inches!! It didn't ruin any of the scenery, in some ways, it actually made it prettier. But it definitely was cold!! A couple miles into the race, though, my hat and jacket were off! Apparently all the spectators were freezing, they obviously were not running 13 miles! :) Here are some pics...

I have the cutest fans ever!




Getting a congratulatory hug!

I felt like I was going to cry several times during this race! I would just get overcome with emotion, and have to fight back the tears. I should not have been able to do this race! I was really bad at being consistent with my training, sick the 2 weeks before, and just a crazy, stressful month! I was so nervous to run, I knew I probably wouldn't get hurt, but I just wanted to do well on my time, and I hadn't trained, so I knew it was a long shot! My goal was 10 minute miles, and I ended at 2:11 hours, so just 6 seconds a minute over my goal! The part that stunk was that I was doing really well and staying right around 9 minute miles for the first 8-9 miles. Then I started to get tired. I remember being at mile 10 and really starting to feel it in my legs. Mile 11 had a nice stretch of steep hill and that knocked the wind out of me! I struggled the last two miles, and gained all my time back! Once I hit mile 12 I tried with all my might to go faster, and I swear I could not move any faster! I was so glad to be done! You can tell by my pictures how tired I was!
But of course as soon as the race was over, the fever kicked in!! I was already thinking about what I could do if I trained consistently and really pushed myself. Then I found out that my two sister in laws had signed up for the Utah Valley Half Marathon in the middle of June. I decided that if I could find someone who was trying to sell their spot I would take it. Just so happens, two weeks before the race, my sister in law's friend ended up needing surgery the week before and had to sell her spot, so I was in! It was a fun race! Definitely not as easy as I thought it was going to be (I thought it would be all down hill), but it was good. My favorite part was running down University Ave, and having crowds of strangers cheer me on, and little boys sticking out their hand to give me high fives! It was really fun having that experience with my sister in laws too. Jolene is moving out of state in a few days, and that was probably our last opportunity to all run together. Hopefully, not, but all probability counts against us! Here are those pics...
Jolene and I before the race

Don't my children look thrilled?!?!
The three of us, this was Stacey's first race ever and it was a half marathon!!

2 comments:

Merrells said...

You're awesome! I seriously can't believe you ran TWO. Way to go!

Krissy said...

Congrats Girl! I can't believe it... not only is Kaleb a super hero you are too! Good Job!