SLC Half Marathon 2013

Yesterday was the SLC Marathon/Half Marathon of 2013. I won’t lie, I didn’t prepare for this race a whole lot. I meant to, I really did, but the last month has been a blur of sicknesses and issues. As race day neared, I was feeling less and less like I’d do well in it. That’s ok, I pressed on. Friday night, PJ and I were staying up in SLC, that way, we wouldn’t have to get up too early to get to the race. We ate at Buca di Beppo, and after carb loading, ate this delicious dessert:

I had been checking the weather all week, and at first, it was good weather. Then, in went chilly. Then, my app said it would be rainy in the early morning, but then clear by race time. The night before the race, the app changed again, saying rain all day would be coming. UUUGGGHHH why?! So, I put on a long sleeve shirt, a short sleeve shirt and shorts, and thought I’d be ok. After waking up and heading to Trax, which would take me to the start line, I noticed it was already pretty cold and rainy. Shoot. As we were riding Trax, we were stopped, and policemen with dogs searched the bus for…bombs I suppose. After the horrible events at the Boston Marathon this week, security was beefed up like crazy. Finally, I made it to the start line. They had a bomb team truck there, that really surprised me. The police force was out strong, and there were several helicopters circling above us. We took a quick sec to take a pic.

After a moment of silence for Boston, the race started, and off we all were. It was rainy, and cold, but I hoped it would change any minute.

It never did.

So, for 13.1 miles, we ran into the rain and wind. By mile 4, I was already soaked. My nose was dripping water, my ponytail was soaked all the way through and dripping onto my back, and my sleeves were dripping. My hands were cold, but not horribly. By mile 7, the rain had let up just a little, so dripping wasn’t a problem anymore. By mille 9, the rain had come down with a vengeance again. I was dripping everywhere, and my hands were freezing. By mile 11, I could no longer move my hands, they were bright red, and FREEZING. It was also so cold that we were just running so slowly. I wanted to sprint at the end, like I usually do, but that wasn’t happening. I picked it up a little, but not that much. The good news is that they changed the race course, so nobody had to run up the giant hill in SLC to get to the end.

After the race, I couldn’t move, I was so cold and wet. I couldn’t move my hands to pick up a water bottle, I had to use both hands, and then I couldn’t open it. Immediately, I found the shuttle bus that would take us back to Trax, and back to the hotel. The bus wasn’t even heated, if you can believe that. Wet, freezing people, with no heat to the bus. Finally, we made it to Trax, and back to the hotel. As we were walking into the hotel, I realized that I didn’t have a bag to put my wet clothes into. So we stopped at the concierge desk to ask for one. He took a look at us, told us he’d get what we needed, then invited us to sit in front of the fire. I didn’t even notice the fire! I happily stood there and dried off and warmed up. I wish I had gotten an after pic, after the race, but shoot, I just couldn’t remember to do it while freezing.

I tried to warm up by getting into my bed without the wet clothes on, but after a few minutes, I didn’t feel any warmer, so I thought I’d try to get into the shower. I put it to warm, and tried to warm up. My hands were tingly the whole time, and my body was goosebumps central, but at least it improved. And when all is said and done, here was my medal I deservedly got: