Well, my sweet running partner again got me up and out of bed in order to get to the race :) He actually woke up 2 minutes before the alarm would've gone off - he's simply in tune with my needs :) My sister had stayed the night so that she could run her FIRST 10K as well, so we headed on up to the start bright and early. The bathroom lines were horrendous and getting there with only 15 minutes to spare put us in the back of the line as well. I contemplated just bagging the potty stop, but my body told me that I wouldn't be happy if I did, so I stayed. This put us WAY behind the start, we had to practically cut off the sweeper vehicle to start. I've never started a race last before. Since it was her first I wanted to make sure she got to the start and got going, but then I took off. I think being behind really lit a fire for me, and I sped off barely being able to steer the jogging stroller, Adam is just too light :) I finally caught up to the end pack and it honestly wasn't easy maneuvering the stroller through the crowd, but I tried to just stay on the outside where I could weave better. Around Rice Eccles stadium the traffic was backed up and there was a Cream-O-Weber semi inching along in traffic. My goal was to catch it! I kept inching up on it as I barred down the hill and then thanks to a trax train stopping traffic (but not us thankfully!) I passed him! Isn't it fun to race trucks? :) The rest of the race was really uneventful, I felt great and just kept chugging along. only 2 people passed me, and one of them I used as my 'clearer' - She would get people to move then I'd follow right behind her. She finished maybe 10 seconds or so in front of me. It was a great time, I love the energy of this race as you run along the parade route. The last little bit 'up' to the finish was more difficult on the legs and arms, because of the stroller and that is evident in my pace! When I looked at my watch as I finished, the race clock was still under an hour, I was a little bummed that I hadn't broken 50 minutes. However, how can I be upset about 50 minutes a month after giving birth?!? AP: 8:10 splits: 7:37, 7:47, 8:24, 8:05, 8:05, 8:49, 8:55(for the .22 on the garmin) We'll see overall placement later...
I went back to run my sister in (finished about 1:08, a GREAT time for her!), saw Slick and Mark, chatted, fed baby, saw Smooth and Teena after their wild adventure, cheered in Allie (an AMAZING finish!!!) and other bloggers that ran the marathon, then my mom's patience was running thin (I had to take her home from finishing the 5K), chatted with and met some other bloggers (Riverton Paul, Markmc, Steve Ashbaker, Sasha), then on the shuttle bus back to the car ran into JeffL. SO many bloggers there! I had a wonderful time jumping back into the running world and being able to chat with my friends and fellow runners. THIS is what running is all about for me...well, and being able to hopefully run off all this baby weight!
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