Details later....potty break and helping a collapsed runner cost a minute maybe. *Tom took the liberty to come in and give that quick report for me. I will know finish my report. It's always crazy that we end up having very little sleep when we do these things. I had to meet the bus between 3:30 and 4:30 so I planned to wake up at 3:15. I woke up at 3:13 by being elbowed in the face by my sleeping husband who "claims" he was dreaming about being chased by a dog. (Should I believe him or turn him in?) I got ready and headed into Provo all by my lonesome. Tom was running his own 18 miler into the finish line to watch me come in. It was kind of lonely going this all alone. Even up at the start line I hardly saw anyone I knew. Sat on the bus by a nice kid named Dan. We did the regular old pre race chit chat. I also like to listen to all the people around and the things they have to say. You can learn a lot by sitting and listening...sometimes too much! I had to wait over an hour up at the start line. I hit the POPs twice and just wandered around by myself. The first mile was hard to weave through everyone of course. With it being just one lane of the road it was quite crowded and no one ever lines up according to their pace. It was a lot of fast/slow/back/forth movements to get through there. Then my right shin started tightening up real crazy like. I don't usually get that kind of thing. It gave me a mental issue I had to deal with the rest of the race even though the tightness went away. Coming up on mile 6 I was needing to hit a POP. I didn't really want to but knew life would be happier if I did. So just before the mile I forced a Carb Boom down and washed it down. Luckily there was an open POP so I was able to make a very quick stop. After getting out I wanted to make up time but it had some up hill so I'm not sure if I made up time or not. One thing about this race is that I wanted to get in around 1:45 but I didn't really know what I had to do each mile to make that happen. I was mostly just running how I felt. Just before the 10 mile aid station I decided to take my last Carb Boom. Uhhg! It was hard to force that one down...almost lost my cookies there. Luckily I got it down but I had to stop for a bit to force in two cups of water to help get it down. Up till here I had found one lady who I would pass, then I took the POP, so I passed her again, then I stopped for water so I passed her again. Each time she told me "Good job!" and was so nice. I had just passed her again when I saw a guy in front of me doing very non running type of moves. I notice the two guys next to him looking at him and then he was going down. Luckily he didn't hit the ground. We all lowered him down and that really nice lady was the next one up. She didn't even hesitate and said, "I'll run back to aid station 10 for help." I told the two guys that I would stay with him and they could go finish for their time. But the one guy said that he was not even registered for the race so for me to carry on and he would stay. The poor guy that was down was in pretty bad shape. It was hard to leave him. He had a very sickly green color and was talking but not making any sense and couldn't focus on us. I hope he is ok. I must have turned my watch off when I stopped to help him. I wish I wouldn't have, I didn't notice until about a half a mile later so my last 5K I don't really know my splits. I was happy to see the finish line but you could see it for quite awhile before getting there so that is sometimes hard. As I was coming in through the finish chute there were lots of people lined up to watch but no cheering. Grrrr! I raised my arms and told people to give me some love and help me to the finish line. It was fun as they all obliged and I got some nice good cheers to give me what I needed to get through to the end! I could hear Tom out there shouting my name that always feels great! I waited at the finish area to watch for my new best friend/hero who had went back for help. She came in just under 1:50. It was nice to talk to her. So I ended up 5th in my age and lucky for me they were giving away prizes 5 deep in each age. So I got to stand on the little platform for my 2 seconds of glory. I had a Mother/Daughter Activity at 10:00 that I was trying to get to, while at the same time trying to get my award. Awards started at 9:30 and they did ALL the men FIRST! What ever happened to women first? I had my friend take my daughter and told her I would get there asap. I hurried home, did a mucho quicko half clean up and got down just about 20 minutes late and was able to enjoy the rest of the 2 hours with her. However I had thought it was going to be a brunch and it wasn't and I was starving! After the activity we took the kids to Applebees and had some nice family time with all three kids still at home. We don't get that much anymore since one of them is 17 and needs much more time with friends than with family. Sorry this ended up so long. It is mostly for my benefit, but thanks for reading if you did. : ) Here are the splits that I do have: 1 8:30 (weaving game) 2 7:59 (shin starts acting up/mental games start) 3 8:21 (one of the hills I was expecting) 4 7:30 5 7:18 6 7:22 7 8:44 (this one started with the potty break and then had a hill) 8 7:41 9 8:02 10 (turned watch off about 10.2 so from here on out I'm not sure.) One last thing....the canyon sure was pretty today! : ) *We just looked at the official results and it has me as 4th in age instead of 5th. Thought I better change that for posterity! : )
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