Provo Halloween 1/2. What a FAST course. Holy shiz. The first 5 miles straight downhill. Everybody was slapping their feet. I was number 2 female until around mile 7 and 9, when I was passed by 2 other girls. I was not registered for this race and was planning to run bandit style. But I saw Julie Esplin at the start who was planning to pace her brother through parts of the race. She offered me her bib since she wasn't planning to run the full race. She has had some knee issues. Su-weet! I'll take the bib! So I ran under Julie Esplin bib# 1607 Ah oh, that means I cannot let THE awesome Julie Esplin down with a bad time in her name. But, if you know me, you know I like to run pretty quick and I will always push myself. So maybe Julie has run a quicker half than my time today, who knows? But this is a new PR for me so I am down with it. I have not run much outside since TOU. I could tell today. My last 3 miles I was dying and mentally I was quitting. But there were 2 dudes from the FRB who passed me those last two miles and gave nice words of encouragement (Jeff L I believe?) also an older fella who was about to pass me at mile 12.5 suddenly slowed and looked over at me and said "hey Darlin, you need some company and a little push to stay on target?" YOU BET! That was the best part of the race. The gentlemen who slowed just to help me. What a stud! He ran with me the next half mile to the finish. Not sure exactly yet how I placed for Julie, but from what I was told by spectators, I was the 4th female and PR'd for Julie's age group. Nice. I know I say this all the time, but I will say it again: I LOVE RUNNING
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