Back To Back Trips to Utah (Trip 2)

Trip 2: Provo Halloween Half Marathon

I missed Utah so much that I decided to go back after only 5 days! I headed out on Friday, October 28th and flew back to Colorado on Sunday.  It was a quick weekend!  Aside from getting to hang with my family, the whole purpose of this trip was to torture my body by getting up super early and running 13.1 miles down a canyon road.  Fun! I promised I would do it if Jessica and Marcela signed up, so I am a women of my word.  I was looking forward to running with Jess and helping her reach her new personal best time, but she dropped out and was unable to run due to a stress fracture.  Bummer! It was fun to hang with Marcela though who flew in from Seattle just for this race.  

I got up at 3:45am (I think I got about 4 hours of sleep that night which is about what I got the previous night as well- awesome!), got dressed, and headed down to Provo to catch the bus which took us to the top of the mountain.

5:30am and oh so happy

Marcela was rather chipper at 5:30am and looking forward to running!

Mike joined us and he even got into the spirit of Halloween!

We were to the top of the mountain by 6:30am and the race did not start until 9am.  We had a lot of time to kill, but we were entertained by seeing all the crazy costumes people came up with.  It was freezing though, so it is a good thing we found a nice spot right by the heater in the tent they set up for us. 

The race started pretty close to on time and we were off! The first 5 miles is extremely steep and then it is a gradual down-hill slope the rest of the way.  Needless to say I flew the first 6 miles and it felt great.  My first mile was run in 6 minutes and 55 seconds! I'm not sure if I was going so fast because I was freezing and wanted to get warm, or if I simply wanted to get this race over with, or if it was because it was so steep, but nevertheless I was off to a good start.  I crossed the 6 mile mark at 44 minutes and 37 seconds which may be a new personal record for that distance.  I was not able to maintain that pace though since it was around the 6 mile mark that my hip started hurting. :^( That made the remaining 7 miles pretty painful.  You can tell I was hurting since my times gradually increased to 9:28, 10:40, and 11 minute miles. 

Since I didn't train much for this race... seriously, the farthest I made it was 6 miles and I ran that the Monday prior to the race which was held on Saturday.  Awesome! Anyway, since I knew I wasn't in good enough condition to break my record of 1:46:44, I made it my goal to complete it in under 2 hours. 

Here I am making my way to the finish line.

I am happy to say I made my goal and came in at 1:55:58! I was worried I wasn't going to make it since every step hurt the last 7 miles, but I did it!

Obligatory Pose at the End

I am very proud of Marcela who finished in 1:52:04.  You are an animal! That is a great time Marcela!

It is always the best feeling to cross the finish line knowing you have a fan club waiting for you. Such a cute fan club I have, too!

Pictures at the end of races show the joy of being done, but they do not reflect the pain I was in.  I was hurting pretty bad and Mom definitely had a good time making fun of me when I couldn't walk very fast and had a really hard time putting on socks the next day! Why do I do that to myself? I don't even like running!

So, yes, I did it, but I don't recommend running a half marathon with little training.  You can do it, but it is hard and you will definitely be paying for it for a couple weeks!  

Thanks for making me do it Marcela.  This has given me motivation to actually start training again.  The new goal is to run one mile under six minutes.  Totally possible!