SoJo Half 2017

A few weeks ago, I ran the SoJo Half Marathon. I sure haven't run a half marathon since 2014, but I wanted to give it a go. My SIL was going to run it, and I was like, let's do this thing! I trained a bit for it, I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to die. My finish time goal was about 2:10, I didn't have hopes of doing anything spectacular. But I ended up finishing in 1:56! I couldn't believe it! I was so jazzed. 

 Here I am, so excited for my medal. When I finished the race, I still had a bit to wait for my SIL to finish the race. In that time, tiny nephew Darth wanted to try a rock climbing wall that was there. But when we got him up there, he was NOT having it.

My SIL came across the line and we had a small celebration, her first half marathon! It was a great experience. 

 Here's to another great race over! Glad to be done.

SoJo Half Marathon

Today was the SoJo Half Marathon, and for the first time in a couple of years, I ran it alone. Usually PJ is my running friend, but she’s having some injuries happen, so she’s not running at all for the foreseeable future. I was really worried for this race, I didn’t really train for it at all! I hadn’t run over 5 miles for the last 2 months, so I was really concerned I would have issues. I got there a little early, and was super chilly while waiting. Then the race started, and off I went!

I had a goal of finishing before 2 hours and 10 minutes, so I ran in front of the pace person holding that sign. I just knew, no matter where I finished, if I finished in front of them, I would make my goal. I didn’t do too badly during the race. I had a bit of a stitch once in a while, but other than that, I was totally fine. It wasn’t until I hit mile 11 that I hit the wall. I felt like I couldn’t keep going, but also, I knew that logically, it wasn’t too long for me to run. I slowed my pace waaay down, and then finished the race in 2:03:00. Not bad! Ahead of my goal! It felt like the last mile was the longest mile I’ve ever ran in my whole life. It really was so long, I don’t know why, but it felt never-ending. Luckily, I finished, but then I felt like dying.

And I got a sweet medal.

I was so jazzed to be done! And now I only have 1 more race this year, the Thanksgiving race. Woo!

SLC Half Marathon 2014

Today was the SLC half marathon. I have done basically no preparing for this. I ran 8 miles a couple of weeks ago, and that’s about it. But I woke up and was prepared for it. We got to the race with maybe 6 minutes to go. Trax took FOREVER.

It wasn’t raining this year, so already, things are improving after last year’s debacle. The weather was nice, and I enjoyed the race, for the most part. When we got to mile 8, PJ hit a wall, and couldn’t run anymore. We kept slowing down and down and down until I could no longer stand it, and I had to leave her behind and run. I sped up, and finished the race, and was so tired. When I got to mile 12, I kept chanting, (Out loud, of course) “1 mile left. 1 mile left.” and then, when I got near the end, I just kept saying “I can see it, I can see it” when I could see the finish line. I finished, and got my sweet medal, and then drank a half a bottle of water in one gulp. I was so tired and grimy, and I was glad the race was over. We were pretty smiley at the end though.

This is after we cooled down and stretched, and didn’t feel like dying anymore.

Hobble Creek Half

Today, for the first time, I ran the Hobble Creek Half Marathon. For those who have never heard of it, you get dropped off up in the canyon, and then you run back down. I was told by previous runners, that it was awesome, there are no hills, its straight downhill, so it’s a fast awesome course. This is a lie. A super, super lie. There are hills. There is one at like, mile 11 that is almost straight uphill. It was awful. Anyway, we had to be in Mapleton at 5:00 for the buses to take us up. If you missed the buses, you missed the race. So I set the alarm for 4:00 ON A SATURDAY to wake up. I went to bed at 9:30, on a Friday night, I felt like a 90 year old. We got up there, and wasted the next two hours. You read that right, they dropped us off 2 hours early, and we just had to wait there, for 2 hours. I brought a jacket, I expected the chilliness. Here’s PJ and I before the race:

Then the race started. We were maybe 3 minutes in when I took off my jacket. It wouldn’t sit well on my hips, so I threw it to the side of the road, knowing I would never get it back. I did yell ‘sorry’ as I did so, though. RIP Jacket. Then the race. It was a little harder than I thought it would be. The unexpected hills sucked, then as I got to mile 11, I was hot, I was thirsty, and I had had enough. So at this point, I started to pick up my pace, because I was sick of running and just wanted to be done. As PJ was a little behind me, I just started yelling about how I hated this race, I hated this course, I hated the mountain, I hated the heat, I hated that we woke up so early, and I just about lost it. I just kept going, faster and faster, until I finished the race. I didn’t look super grump coming in, though, and that’s what counts.

I even did a thumbs up! Then I finished, and I had a hard time stopping and walking, it felt so unnatural. I made my way over to the water station, where they were handing out WARM CUPS OF WATER! Yes, to those of us who had run 13.1 miles, we were given warm water. It was awful. I made my way over to the food, and picked up some cold watermelon, and finally found some cold water. We wandered around, cooling down, and finally, felt better about not running anymore. It was glorious. Plus we were really hot and tired at this point. I just wanted to nap in a cool bath of water.

But we survived, and that’s the important thing of the day. Plus, I got my sweet medal.

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:

Miscellaneous Monday

I haven’t done a Misc. Monday in a while, and while each of these could indeed be their own entry, I just don’t want to write a bunch of blogs, so I’ll just consolidate them into this.

On Saturday, I finally had my half marathon. All week, I didn’t really feel like I had a race coming up. I don’t know what it is, but it just didn’t feel like I had anything coming up. So, come Friday night, we had our pre-race feast of pasta (chicken alfredo with some broccoli and red peppers for some color) and then I went to bed earlyish, since the race was at 8, in SoJo, and I wanted to be there at least 30 minutes early. I woke up Saturday, and off to pick up PJ. I was running late, and so I ran to the car with my stuff in hand, and off we went. (Husband drove us to the start line, because we weren’t allowed to leave a car there. Dumb.) It wasn’t until we were near her house, that I realized I didn’t grab my breakfast/pre-race banana. Oh the humanity! And of course, PJ didn’t have any bananas. We drove up, and got dropped off at the race start, and what should be there but a 7-11! I ran inside with the change I scrounged up, and took a look, and they had no bananas. The cashier asked what I was looking for, and I told him bananas. He said he had some that he didn’t want to put out, because they were getting ripe. Even though I HATE eating bananas that are too ripe, I was pretty desperate, so I bought one, and ate about half of it before I couldn’t take it anymore, and threw the rest away. Then, the race started. It was a little chilly before we started, then it was a pretty  warm race after that. We finished in 2:23:00, and a finisher’s medal was mine for the taking!

After the race, I walked through the corral for runners, I picked up the usual post-race far. A bottle of water, an apple, an ice cream sandwich, and a snowcone. Tiger’s Blood, my favorite flavor. It was a good race, I think I’ll do it again. After stretching for a while, I’m still sore, 2 days later. Worth it, though, for the medal.

I went to Lagoon this weekend. On Sunday. That’s right, everyone, I went to Lagoon on Sunday. Here’s my rationalization for it, and I’ll gladly explain why. I bought the tickets for Husband’s birthday 3 months ago. I’ve tried several times in those 3 months to go, and it just hasn’t worked out. So, now, this week is the final week of being able to go at all – it closes on Halloween for the season. So basically, it’s use or lose all that money, because they don’t do refunds – no exceptions. And we can’t go this upcoming weekend, because Husband is out of town. So it either had to be Sunday, or no day. So, off we went. We rode all the rides we wanted – Colossus, Wicked (SO AWESOME), The Bat (Yawn), Samurai, the white Roller Coaster (That’s seriously the name), Centennial Screamer, and one more that I can’t think of the name. Basically, all the roller coaster rides, and similar ones thereof. Then we  took a walk through Pioneer Village, and looked through the cool small buildings, played a Midway Game, and won a small polar bear stuffed animal (I would have included a pic, but I forgot until I was writing this, and then I didn’t want to get up. I’m sure at some point, I’ll include a pic somewhere). I call him Jaques le Bear. He has a French accent in my head, so I liked it. After spending a few hours there, we called it a day, because rain clouds were threatening, and I didn’t want to be caught in the rain. It was a fun trip, hopefully we can go next summer again, to enjoy it more, for longer.I wish I had some pics or something to include, but the problem with only being two people is that there’s only 2 people for to take, and I hate asking strangers if they’d take a pic, since it’s usually with my phone.

This morning, as I was eating breakfast, I broke a glass. I don’t even know how it happened, it just did. I was in bare feet and everything, so Husband threw me a pair of flip flops, and I cleaned everything up. Of course, this broken glass leaves me with 5 glasses instead of 6, so now I want to break another one to have an even number.

Foto Friday

And welcome back, kids, for a Foto Friday: Marathon Edition!

Last weekend, PJ and I ran a half marathon (which I did mention on here, just not in detail). It was a really cold race – they brought us up to Sundance, (the race finished at the Riverwoods) where we sat around and waited for 3 hours prior to the race. Finally, we got going, and it was chilly and all downhill for the first 9 miles, then we evened out, and I started to get warm. It was a fun race, because costumes are fun, but I just don’t like the way it was planned, so I don’t know that I would do it again. They took pictures of us during the race, and emailed them to us finally a few days ago. I did a (slightly illegal) thing and just saved them to my computer instead of buying them. (Shhhh)

This is PJ and I during the race. I don’t know what mile this is – it must be at least after the 9th or so, because my gloves are off. My hands were getting really hot. Look how great we look as the Power Rangers.

There’s a part near the end where for some reason, the race course narrows so that only 2 people can run through. I was stuck behind this lady, because near the beginning of the narrowing, she grabbed the hand of her son (who was not running, but there to cheer her on) and they were in front of me, and I couldn’t get by, it was driving me crazy. So my face is mad, because I was stuck, but this is finally where I got to get around her and run fast again.

I always look really mad at the end of the race, in every picture. But at this point, I was really close to the finish line, and I was happy to be over, my body was screaming at me to just stop running at this point.

So there it is, the Halloween Half-Marathon. It was a fun race, once it got started, but all the waiting around stuff just drove me crazy. But at least I finished, and had no guilt eating candy the rest of the day. Not that I do anyway…

I've got nerves of steel...

Right now, I actually don't feel like I have nerves of steel. I'm nervous. There, I said it. I'll admit it. I know it's dumb to be nervous now, but I am. Tomorrow, Saturday, I will be running in my first ever (and maybe my last, let's see) half marathon. I am both excited and totally completely dreading it. I think I can do it. I have done the distance once before, so I know it's been done, but I feel like tomorrow my body will freeze up, or after a few miles, just give out. But in my logical brain (the one that rarely comes out) I know that probably will not happen. I'm going to think positively now, and know that I can do it.
I pretty much just have one goal. Well, two. My first is to finish, and my second is to beat the other people that I know that are running the race. I think I might be able to do that, and that's what will push me over the finish line. I don't care if I have to crawl over it, I will finish this. I love being competitive, I'm glad that I found something in this race to compete with someone about, even if they don't necessarily know about that.
Well, wish me luck, everyone. I'm sure things will go well, and I'll post the results at some point tomorrow (if I find them out myself) so you can see that I've at least finished the race. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!