Haunted Half

As I mentioned, at the beginning of October I decided to run a half marathon with two of my running friends, Jenny and Savannah. We signed up for the Haunted Half in Provo Canyon, which starts up above Vivian Park in South Fork Canyon. Our long training runs were hard, but I felt really good during them, so I felt well prepared. I actually never even listened to music during training runs; we just talked the whole time. 

Leading up to the half I tried a couple different fuel options to see how I liked them. This PowerGel stuff made me gag. Very glad I tried it before the race so I didn't throw it up on race day. 

When I woke up on race day some neighborhood friends had left me some love on our front porch. It was about 6 AM and dark when we left so I took this later. 

The details on my race: We took buses from the University Mall up to the staging area at the starting point. The weather was pretty mild for early morning on the last Saturday in October. It had rained the night before so the ground was a bit muddy, but luckily none of the actual race was on dirt. We hung out for an hour or so until race time. The time felt like it passed really slowly until I decided to go potty 20 minutes before. Time flew by and with the long line I barely got out of the port-a-potties before race time. We threw our extra stuff in the back of the truck to be brought down to the end point. Then we wound our way through the crowd to try to get towards the front. It was kind of a mad dash and I felt very flustered as we started. With all the excitement and the people, we ended up using a lot of energy going around slower groups and trying to find a good spot. We were also running 8 minute miles, which were a bit faster than our training times. By mile 4 we were already split up. Jenny is an experienced runner and she is 6 feet tall (literally- that's not an exaggeration), but I am competitive and tried to stay with her. Around mile 5 my left foot started going numb and I just started feeling weird. I told Jenny to run ahead because I was slowing her down. My foot continued to go more and more numb as I ran and it spread up into my calf. I kept saying prayers and hoping I would get feeling back. I was incredibly uncomfortable and it was distracting me mentally. Right around mile 8 or 9 the numbness stopped. At mile 10 I was feeling SO good. I was just under pace for my goal of under 2 hours and I only had 3 miles left! I texted Daniel and told him I was feeling good and I would see him soon. Right after mile 11 I felt like I was going to die. I really thought I might. I struggled my way into mile 12 where.....I let myself walk. I was SO close to calling Daniel and telling him to come get me. Another mile and a half just didn't seem possible. Plus I knew there was a big hill right at the end. I walked for a few minutes while drinking some water and then got some energy to run. I walked up the big hill because I knew it would probably be faster than running. Right as I reached the top I saw the 2 hour pacer ahead of me! He must have passed me on the hill. I tried to muster more energy but I couldn't find any! I still wanted to quit. I wanted to finish the last mile feeling strong and amazing but that feeling didn't come until I saw Daniel and the girls, about 75 feet from the finish. I just loved seeing them. It was such a pick-me-up. I kind of wish they could have come helped me at mile 12. When I crossed the finish line it turned out I had finished in 2 hours and 34 seconds. Just missed my goal!! It was slightly disappointing, but not really because I cannot believe I ran a half marathon! I never ever ever thought I would run that far. I currently have no desire to run one again, but maybe if the timing works out perfectly like this one did. 

It turned out Jenny, Savannah and I finished the race within 10 minutes of each other. Jenny was about 5 minutes ahead of me with Savannah 5 minutes behind. And for some reason I always have tall friends so I look like a midget!

My absolute favorite part of the race was seeing Daniel and my girls cheering for me. It felt amazing to do something I never thought I could.