What a fun day! I'm just sitting here at my sister-in-law's house with Aaron's laptop while family plays Agricola. I'm pretty tired, I admit....but everyone else is hanging out, so I will stay up with them a bit longer.
The race went GREAT! I was pretty nervous yesterday; not about my pace goal, more about the 26.2 mile distance itself. After all, this is only the 2nd time I've completed that distance in my life, and I was pretty sure those last 5-6 miles were going to be intense.
We arrived at my friend, Holly's house in Smithfield Friday night around 9:00 and chatted with her until 10:15ish, so I was in bed at 10:30, but just kept tossing and turning, thinking about the race, unable to shut my brain off. Finally at 11:45 I looked at my phone one last time and fell asleep shortly after that. At 4:00 a.m. I spontaneously awoke, bright eyed and ready to get up. Alarm wasn't set to go off until 4:30, so I just lay in bed for 30 minutes, resuming the race thoughts that were keeping me up 4 hours earlier. Finally 4:30 came and I got dressed, ate some oatmeal and a banana, and Aaron drove Holly, Ashley, and I to the shuttle pick-up.
Got up to the race start around 6:20 and stood in line for the pots. 20 minutes later, got out of the pots and decided to stand in line again. (3 women, lots of nerves, and nothing better to do, I guess). 6:52 a.m. out of the pots for our second round, announcer says the drop bag busses are driving off in 3 minutes. We jogged about .137 mile down to the drop bag busses, took off our warm clothes, put them in our drop bags, and tossed them through the bus window.
Chatted with a few FRB-ers at the start including my favorite FRB-er, Allie. Race started and I just went out at what felt comfortable. Hands and feet pretty cold for the first couple of miles. I recall realizing warmth in my feet finally around mile 2. Started chatting with a young man, Daniel who said he was shooting for 2:45, he is 18 years old, turns 19 soon, and is planning on leaving on an LDS Mission this January. We ran together for the first 10 miles. It was nice to have someone to chat with and pass the time. Around mile 7 we came upon a guy who had his running shorts on backwards. As I approached him I asked him if backwards running shorts were good luck or if he just got dressed at 4:00 a.m. in the dark? "Something like that," he said, "I just noticed they were backwards at the Starting Line." Oops.
Miles 1-10: 6:10, 6:19, 6:16, 6:04, 6:09, 6:10, 6:11, 5:57, 6:02, 6:10
After mile 10, Daniel disappeared. I ran with other men for a few minutes at a time, but from here on out, was mostly running alone. Appreciated the Half Marathon clock; time was 1:20:45ish. Aaron was out on his road bike to take pics, hand me more gu, and hand Sasha his homemade energy drink, which he disclosed the recipe for: Gotu Kola and Marionberry made into tea with honey and sea salt. Did I remember that right, Sasha? Right before the half marathon point, Aaron handed me another gu. I had taken my first two gu's at mile 3 and mile 9 and I wanted another one for mile 13. Nice tailwind brought us out of the last mile of the canyon. Mile 14 brought lots of spectators as we exited the canyon. I saw my former BYU teammate, Katie Moon (forgot your married name, Mooner, sorry...you'll always be Mooner to me anyway) on the sideline cheering, and was happy to see a familiar face. Mile 16 ended with a quick potty stop (9 seconds, according to the lady who shouted it to me after I bolted out). Mile 17 ended with another urgent, more serious potty squat next to the only available visual obstruction, a large trailer parked on the side of the road. Only a female spectator with young child in stroller standing right across the street had to endure full visual of my squat. I gave her a thumbs up and smile as I ran off and I'm sure she was laughing inside. Saw Mooner (as in Katie Moon, not another squatter) a few more times. Thanks for coming out to cheer, Katie! Miles 18 and 19 is where the fun stopped and the pain train picked me up.
Miles 11-20: 6:16, 6:03, 6:09, 5:53, 5:47, 6:07 (#1 stop), 6:20 (#2 stop), 6:12, 6:30 (slight uphill), 6:35 (more slight uphill)
So the fun has ended, and the serious dig deep painful endurance has kicked in. I start to feel quite lonely and pray that my final 10K is not disasterous. Passed a Kenyan who has stopped to stretch (found out later he actually dropped out of the race). Passed a couple of other men who were blowing up. Just kept praying I wouldn't blow up too. At this point I had about a 6:09 overall average though, so I was comfortable with the leeway I had given myself by using the downhill in the canyon to go comfortably fast. I knew that I could run 6:30-6:40 for the final 10K and still get a decent time. My legs were feeling quite exhausted so I just kept pushing as well as I could and telling myself I could do it. My brother and his wife were cheering at mile 23, Mooner showed up again in there somewhere, and Aaron handed me one last gu at mile 24. I was grateful for the momentary diversions. I was also glad to hear more cheering of the spectators near the end. I entered a blurry state of delirium around mile 24 and just prayed my legs would keep moving forward and I wouldn't pass out. Apparently I didn't because I do recall crossing the finish line to a bunch of cheering and looking up to see 2:44 and blur. Yeah! I was finished! And I broke the course record!!! After I finished my legs almost seized up on me, but I kept walking hoping that they woudn't. Saw lots of family and friends with big smiles and cheers. Feeling SO grateful for the strength and support I received from family and friends, especially Aaron, and what a blessing it was to run strong, PR, and set a course record!!
Miles 21-26.2: 6:13, 6:25, 6:31, 6:31, 6:31, 6:41, .2 at 6:34 pace. Woah, three miles at 6:31, now that is even pacing.
26.2 miles, 6:15 average. 2:44:10
It was nice to meet a bunch of you FRB-ers in person! Congrats to everyone who raced TOU today. What a great course and beautiful day, eh?!
P.S. My race buddies Holly and Ashley both PR'd too; Holly ran 3:14 and PR'd by over 15 minutes. My SIL, Ashley ran 4:04 and PR'd by 30 minutes. Congrats, ladies!
| 