Race Day

Today was my big race. I hadn’t slept well the night before or the night before that—colin was working late and both nights I’ve been recovering from a stomach bug. Got up at 4:15, drove to Provo, and caught a bus around 5:00 to go up Provo Canyon. We started at south fork park. It was very cold up in the canyon. They had light fires in all the fire rings at the park and the runners stood around the fires waiting. It was magical looking through the dark forest seeing glowing lights and strangers, but like-minded people standing together around a fire. Walked up the canyon a little further to kill time, stay warm, and see the sun rising. Beautiful.

Ran the first half of the half very fast because it was so down hill. They didn’t have the mileage well marked so I didn’t realize how fast I was going (probably 8 minute mile pace or faster for some miles). The last half was a straight and more flat shot through Provo. My IT band (outside of knee) hadn’t given me a single complaint any of the time I trained but right at mile 8, it tightened so fast and so much I was worried I was going to have to slow way down and ruin my time. I thought “I’ve been in labor and given birth without an epidural—I can handle pain for 40 more minutes easy” so that’s what I did, with a prayer and stubbornness I kept going as fast as I could. Eventually the pain was lessened, just in time to hit a wall at mile 11. I’m sure my last two miles were my slowest. My time was 1:52.39. I had a simple goal of wanting to run it under 2 hours so I was very happy with this. My PR, by the way, is a 1:43 which I ran at the Moab half. I got 27th out of 109 25-29 year old women. I laugh because it’s funny they keep track. I guess it matters a little. It was a very rewarding race—I felt like my running all winter long (even when it was only 4 degrees outside) paid off.

 

 

Colin brought the kids and were a few hundred yards from the finish line. Jackson gave me a high five as I ran by. He knew what number I was and kept asking Colin what numbers were close to 944--he thought we were somehow running in order and he could predict when I would come by. It was cool to see how the Provo City Center Temple is coming.