SO Close...

Yesterday I ran the Provo City Half-Marathon. When I started training back in January or February, I set a goal for myself of 1:40. As race day got closer, I kept thinking there was no way I was going to come close to my goal. At one point, I was overtrained and fighting fatigue every day. My legs felt dead every time I ran, and I did not look forward to it. I took a few days off and felt quite a bit better after that. I backed off quite a bit, and was running my easy runs at a very slow pace. So when I started doing speedwork again, I felt a lot slower (not that I was ever fast to begin with, but still...). Then last week I pulled my groin muscle doing some lunges, and I took a few more days off to make sure it was better for race day.

I was still looking forward to the race to see if my hard work was going to pay off. We stayed at the Marriott in Provo (the race headquarters) and the boys had a blast swimming and jumping on beds. My mom came down to cheer me on and help with the boys. She knows they don't sleep when we're at a hotel and I needed some rest. Josey had a track meet in Salt Lake on Friday night, and so he didn't get down there until after we were in bed. But I'm so glad he made the effort to come and support me. It wouldn't have been so much fun without the support of my family.

Anyways...my final time was 1:40:44 (An average per mile pace of 7:41). I missed my goal by 44 seconds, but I was still very happy with my time and my performance. Like I said, I could barely sustain that pace for 5 miles during my training, so I was quite surprised. I got 5th place in my age/gender category, which I was very happy with. I guess the excitement of race day helps a lot. I also wonder if the altitude has anything to do with it. Kemmerer is at over 6900 ft. and Provo is at around 4500 ft. Also when running in Kemmerer I am always either running uphill or downhill, almost never flat (unfortunately, my treadmill is also stuck at an incline because I can't find anyone to get to Kemmerer to repair it, so really, I'm always running uphill). This course was mostly flat and I loved it. I got to run in some places that I used to run when we were living in Provo, so it brought back some memories too. The weather was the main disappointment. When I signed up for the race, I was hoping for some nice spring weather. Instead, there was light snow falling the entire time, and it was quite windy, though again, nothing compared to Kemmerer. So I guess I can't complain too much.

I really love race day. I'm on a little high for the rest of the day. After the race, we went to the BYU Bookstore and bought the boys some BYU shirts. After running 13.1 miles, I wanted something good to eat, but guess where we went? McDonald's with a Playland, of course. I couldn't help it. I thought my boys were being so sweet and happy that I wanted to do what they wanted. According to Josey, they weren't being very sweet or happy, but I guess my endorphins were making me distort reality. We had a peaceful drive home listening to conference. When Josey went to the priesthood session of conference on Saturday night, I turned on a show for Jordan at 6:30 so I could lay down for a minute, and I ended up falling asleep until Josey came home at 8:00. Oops! But I was exhausted, and a little sore. I feel a lot better today after getting a good night's rest.

Thanks for reading my race report. Now I'm hoping for a nice turn in the weather and some relaxing easy runs outside this week. I might consider training for another half-marathon later this fall. We'll see if I want to get another race in before I decide to have another baby.

Josey tried his best, I guess, but he is not the greatest race day photographer. Here's me making some sort of weird face (completely exhausted after a final sprint with a girl who was trying to beat me at the last second - she didn't beat me, by the way) with my mom after the race, and here's me running so fast that it's all a blur to Josey. :)