Woo Hoo! Under 2 hours for me! I was hoping to get close to Painter's time, (2:05:something), but had heard many people tell me this was a more difficult course. So I really would have been happy with anything around 2:05! I was very pleased as we headed out in the morning that it wasn't quite as terrible as the weatherman had predicted. In fact it was just perfect! However at the starting line I still heard a lot of whining about the cold! I figured they must be from somewhere really warm, but I asked them and they said they were from Bountiful. They must not have been running outside much this winter or they would have appreciated it! I pretty much ran most of the race alone. There were some nice people along the way to help pump me up when needed! One girl in particular, Kambria, (hopefully she will join in on the blog), pulled me along at times and I was able to pull her along at times. The hills and wind on the last few miles were definitely not fun! But I kept thinking of two people in my life who are not able to get out and run, (but both of them would if their circumstances would let them)! I kept going for them! I ended up stripping down to just the singlet on top. I got pretty heated up. But not long after ditching the long sleeves the wind kicked in really good. I was happy to have Tom at the end with a sweatshirt all ready for me. The end weather was way worse than at the beginning. My average pace ended up being 8:58 with my splits as follows... 8:29, 8:04, 8:19, 8:39, 8:26, 8:44, 8:42, 8:59, 9:33, 10:01, 9:44, 9:26, 9:28 It was fun to stay up there and be with the blogger gang again! Everyone is so nice! The speedsters all talk to me and encourage me just as they do each other! It was so fun to come running into the finish line with lots of people cheering for me and yelling my name! Thanks to everyone for your encouragement and support! Oh ya, I wanted to add that I was quite disappointed not to get a medal around my neck for finishing. I thought all half marathons did that. But I was informed that Painter's is just lucky because they have Steve Hooper adding so much to the race. A big thank you to Steve and the St. George Running Store for providing so much to the races down there in St. George! Addition,(mostly for my information): I just looked at the results. I came in 253 out of 435 finishers. That means there were 182 behind me. But I was 82 out of 197 in female finishers. That means there were 115 women behind me!
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