You've got to want it to win it

This morning we did the cemetery loop from Sugarhouse.  I ran with Natalie, and on the way back we had our pace to 7:30s and as we finished we were at 7:00.  Our average pace was 7:52.  Then we did our core and pushups.

This morning I was awake since about 3 and I was thinking about going to practice but I had chills and instead I fell asleep for about 3 hours when it was time for practice.  When I woke up it was too hot to do the run outside so I did it on a treadmill.  I listened to my ipod the whole time, and did my best to not look at how far I'd gone.  The first time I looked I had almost done 5.  I took a break at 7.5, when the treadmill had timed out.  Then I made the last 5.5 with my ipod.  It feels so good to be finished!

This morning we ran on Drycreek up by the JCC.  We carried rocks up to the pile 1 mile and a half up, and I turned around at 3 miles.  Did core and pushups afterwards.

This morning we ran on the Jordan River Trail starting at Peace Gardens.  I went out a mile and a half and back, then did my core and pushups.  

This morning we did 2 laps at Liberty and then strides.  Then we cheered on the members of our team not racing tomorrow, who were doing speed.  Then we did crunches and pushups.

This morning with Amanda I did a half mile warmup, we just went to the finish line and back from where we had parked.  Then I took a Gu and changed shoes.  Then we went over by the line.  There weren't a lot of people so Amanda and I started right on the front (not many people did).  Going out there were 3 guys ahead of me, but then another guy passed.  Then another guy caught up to me and I stayed with him and worked to the other guys.  I noticed as I crossed the train tracks that there was a train coming and wondered if all the runners would make it through before the train.  Not many did as I found out from Amanda later.  I realized this also when afterwards I was running parallel to the train as part of the course.  About 2 miles in I caught up to the leaders and passed them.  One of them came with me and I ran with him most of the time.  When we got to the 3 mile sign I noticed it was almost 3.25 on my Garmin.  At the water stop I splashed myself and then drank a little bit of water (what I hadn't spilled when I was picking it up).  At around mile 5 the course was confusing because there was a right turn arrow and we had to go around a barrier type thing and then we weren't sure which way but we went parallel to the freeway instead of under it and that was right because we saw the 6 mile mark (which was actually around 6.25, anyway).  Then at the water stop I splashed myself again and drank a little.  I knew that around then Bill and Emily wanted me to take my Gu, but I couldn't make myself do it because I have never tried during a race and I didn't want to end up not being able to wash it down for a while.  At around mile 8 the guy I was running with got a lead on me, and then I was passed later by another guy, who I saw pass the other guy too.  At the 9 mile mark my Garmin was at 9.9 and then I wasn't sure how hard I wanted to push for the rest of it because I was worrying that it would be 14 miles instead of 13 if it was a mile off there.  At the water stop I splashed and drank a little again, and by then I was closing the gap on the guy who had took the lead before I was passed.  I accidentally stepped off the road a bit and rolled my ankle in a way which I'm pretty sure that if I weren't running would have sprained it.  It didn't hurt luckily, though my left calf hurt after that.  Eventually I caught the guy and I moved right past him, I don't think he tried to come with.  The mile 12 mark was closer to being accurate, my Garmin read 12.08 there so that was the most accurate out of any of the others.  From there I guessed that the rest of the course probably was accurate and that helped me push to the end.  I thought I could hear the guy coming up behind me but he never caught me.  After I finished I went back and cheered on others.  Amanda and I had a good time with our first half-marathon, and both of us got PRs :)