As you may have noticed from the last post I did about the Thanksgiving Point 1/2, I wasn’t all that excited about it. So, Sunday night, on a whim, I decided to register for the Provo City Half. I was second-guessing  my decision because that night, I was up a good portion of the night with a terrible ache in my foot. I just couldn’t get rid of it. I knew I had been favoring it during the race because I had bruised it the week before. I also have a really bad left ankle from spraining it over a year ago while playing church ball, so it is really sensitive and weak anyway. Right after the race it was really bothering me, but it went away only to return that night. I rested it Monday and Tuesday, but the ache just wouldn’t go away. I went for a long bike ride on Wednesday, and then Thursday I ran three miles all on grass. It felt really good. I ran 5 easy miles Friday morning, and felt good about the race the next day. I really think it was a deep tissue bruise from stepping on the rock. It is completely gone now.

Pre-Race

The night before, we actually had pizza because we came home late after my 7-year-old’s club soccer game. (They beat the first place team 3-2, and he scored!). I tried not to overload, although I was starving. I made sure that I drank enough because I had spent most of the day in the sun, as I went on the zoo field trip as a chaperone for my daughter’s first grade class…so fun!

Here is a video I took  from one of his games a couple of weeks ago. I know I have pictures on my computer, but I can’t find them. He is the small one with the blue shoes.

Soccer video

Here are some pics from the zoo…

Aspen is the one on the left 🙂

Yes, we give bunny ears to our friends…we’re cool like that

In front of the alligator that wouldn’t shut his mouth

I wanted to be in bed by 8, but 9 had to do. I took three of the kids with me to bed to lighten the load on Adam. He had had a long week, and wanted to watch a movie. I didn’t mind; I like to cuddle my kids :). We read a few stories and fell right to sleep. I actually slept the whole night really well…well, until 3:00, when I had to get up. I had to be there by 4:30 so that I could pick up my packet. I ate my usual breakfast of maple brown sugar malt-o-meal…delish!

This is what I woke up to :). Not sure where Adam slept…oops.

Once I got to Provo, I met a friend who was running the full marathon. It was good to have someone I knew there. The marathon and half were supposed to begin at the same time, but then they decided last minute, to have the half start 15 minutes later. I was fine with that, since I wanted to stay warm in my clothes a little longer. I wanted to hold out as long as I could before stripping my warm-ups off because it was pretty chilly. I waited a little too long, because all of a sudden, the bus where we were supposed to drop our bags started to take off. I hurried and sat on the ground and started to quickly take my stuff off. I got it on the bus in time, but my black shorts had dirt all over them. I tried to brush it off, but couldn’t get it all, and wasn’t too worried about it. When I stood at the starting line, a girl behind me said, “do you know you have dirt on your butt?” Then she gave me kind of a disgusted look. I told her that I knew, but wasn’t really worried, then politely thanked her….some people :/. Right before the start of the race, the announcer told us that some of the runners were doing a 2-person relay. I am so glad that he said that, and that I noticed a girl right next to me who had a relay bracelet. I knew I wasn’t racing against her.

Race

We began the race on time and on a pretty good downhill. I noticed right away that the lady in front of me was pretty speedy. She went out fast! I ended up keeping a good pace with the girl who was on the relay team. I tried to stay conservative, but it was hard as the first couple of miles were a pretty good downhill. By mile 2 we began passing the marathoners, and at this point we began going on the parkway, which was pretty narrow. I spent a good amount of time weaving in and out of people the rest of the race. It was fun to have all the marathoners cheer for us, though. I actually passed a friend of mine from high school at about mile 11, and was able to give her a thumbs up! It was pretty neat!

To back up a bit, I ran the first 8-9 miles with Kali White on my tale. I have run with her before, and she is pretty speedy. We were heading in to a slight head wind, so I let her lead the last 4 + miles. I felt really comfortable at mile 10, and decided that at this point, I was just going for place, not time. I stayed right with her, and knew from previous races with her, that I would be able to out-kick her the last 100 meters if I needed to. So, I waited until then to pass her, and I did. I ended up with 2nd place, and a time of 1:21.57. Here are my splits (I’m not so good at pacing; I’m working on it…) 5:57, 5:53, 6:17, 5:59, 6:04, 6:15, 6:17, 6:25, 6:34, 6:25, 6:39, 6:23, 6:16

Here are the race results

This was the last 100 m or so

My friend, Mikki was there cheering on her husband, and she got this shot of me crossing the finish. I rarely have anyone I know come and watch. It was nice to have a friend cheering for me :). Looks like the dirt came off of my behind, though 😉

It felt really good! There was really never a time during the race where I felt like I was hurting. I finished strong, and didn’t feel like throwing up or wetting my pants, which is a really good indicator that I had plenty more to give (TMI, perhaps, but true, nonetheless 🙂 ).

I didn’t stay for the awards, because I don’t like to be home later than 10 am…I miss my family. Funny thing, though, when I checked the results, it said that I got 3rd. I didn’t know how that was possible because I began the race with the Kali, and I beat her by a few seconds. I emailed the race director and asked him about it and he said that her chip time was .003 seconds faster than mine, but that USATAF rules go by clock time, and I beat her my 3 seconds and took 2nd after all! It really didn’t matter to me, I was just curious. As a bonus, I won $100 (3rd as $75). Kinda’ cool!

This was a fun race! I will definitely have to do it again!