My garmin says13.23 in 1:57:39 AP 8:53. This is my 4th half marathon. I PR'd today by a minute plus a little! I didn't even realize it till I was driving home and checked my last half time (on my sister's i phone) cause I didn't remember what it was. So I'm happy!!! Ashley and I drove down to AF to get our packets and then went to dinner at Pizzeria 712 in Orem! Scrump! We then stopped at The Chocolate which is almost right next door. We took our leftover food and too many desserts to my other sister's in Traverse mountain. She was supposed to run this with us but got injured. She did jump in at mile 9 and run to the finish. Way to go Amber!!! Ash and I stayed at a hotel at Thanksgiving point. I didn't get much sleep. It was so fun to have a night out though and sleep in a hotel. I never do that. Anyway, not much sleep and at 2am Ashley was cracking her knuckles in her sleep. Think she was nervous? We got to the buses at 4:30am and rode up on a luxury bus. I've always been stuck on a school bus. It was nice. I wasn't feeling well and didn't talk much. That's pretty much how it went the entire race. I was having female issues and ate too much the night before. Bad. Greg Wrubell was mcing at the top . His voice put us right at ease:) I saw the group of pacers shortly before race time and recognized some from the blog. I talked to Kelli and wished I had trained to run a 1:45 half. I saw Kim and introduced myself. She is beautiful in person. She was pacing 2:10 and her husband 2:00. So, I was hoping Ashley's knee would be fine on the downhill. I told her we needed to take advantage of the canyon and we did! I was feeling crappy and I was annoyed being surrounded by runners in the beginning. I broke out and Ashley caught up. I told her I wasn't feeling well so wouldn't be talking much. We put our music in. At mile 3 I felt a major blister forming on big right toe. I had side ache, stomach cramping issues from mile 3-6 appr. I hadn't eaten yet and didn't take ibuprofen before the race, probably should have. I had shot bloks and drink at mile 6 and pulled out ahead of Ash for the rest of the race. I had a bright orange shirt on and ended up being her guiding light to a sub 2 hr half. She surpassed her goal! My mantra in this race from the beginning was "The faster you run, the sooner you'll be done." Cause I felt so crappy. I tried to enjoy it but it's hard when you have sickness issues. So I just RAN. The cramping went away as I concentrated on my breathing. At mile 9 my sister Amber jumped in. I kept running and she asked about Ashley and I said she was behind and I kept running. I couldn't stop. At mile 10 as I turned left to go up a little hill, I got a pounding headache!!! Really??? Again with the mantra. I just ran as fast as I could the last 3 miles. It was getting hot, it was so hard to keep running but I just wanted to get to that finish line to see my family and be done! They were all there in the chute sticking out their hands for me to slap. I got my medal and REALLY needed water which was like a half mile away for some reason. I finally found it and brought some back to Ash and Amber. Ash was only a minute behind me. She did awesome!
Beautiful course. I loved the canyon and it was fun running through the gold course. Happy about the PR.
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