Race Report

I ended up hurting the arch in my right foot about two weeks ago. I bought a new pair of shoes ended up running to long in the shoes before breaking them in properly. I debated all week long whether I should attempt to run my first marathon or wait for the next one which is in two month. All night long, I wrestled with the idea of not going. Leroy didn't want me to run. He was really worried I would hurt myself. At the last minute, I decided to get up around 6:00am and get dressed for the race.

I didn't do any prep work at all. Trying to look for your running clothes in the dark is really hard. I ended up dumping all of my drawers out and never did find any of my dri-fit shirts to wear. I ended up going with a pair of biker shorts with a race t-shirt which is all cotton. Next thing, I knew it was time to leave to drive to Springdale to the baseball stadium for the race.

It ended up being super cold outside this morning around 44 degrees. I ended up throwing on my old BYUH sweatshirt from my college days. After, getting my bib number. I decided to go back to my van and wait for the race to start. I was busy working on my knitting and I heard an announcement. Due to being in my van, I could not hear the announcement very well. I kept on knitting. I soon realized I didn't see any runners around me waiting in their cars. Oh, no! It's almost time to start the race. I managed to do a fast jog up to the starting line. Wow, that was a close one.

I ended up running into Leroy's Co-worker Ed. I didn't know he was running in this half marathon. It was nice to see someone I knew at the race. My running partner ended up not being able to run with me do to having family in town.

The race started off to a good start. I managed to do a 8:40 pace. I decided to run with this pack of one guy and two girls. He was shouting out how fast our pace was and how many miles we had gone. No mile markers. We decided we were going too fast so we all slowed down to 9:40 minute pace. It was seriously the prefect pace for me. Not too fast but not too slow. I stuck with them around for the first five miles but they ended up pasting me going up this huge hill. Oh, yes! Lots, lots, of hills. Not an easy course. I kept at that pace for most of the race.

I decided at each station and get some water. They had this other drink but it wasn't Gatorade. I decided not to risk it and just drink water. I ended up using two power jells which I have never used before but loved it. Gave me the boost I needed to finish the course.

Not much happened until around mile 9 I started to notice this weird pain in the back of my leg and knee area. I literally had to stop running. We had to run up this huge hill straight up. I decided to just walk it all the way up to the top. Just about everyone around me was walking at this point. This is where I ended up losing a lot of time.

I made it up to the top of the hill and decided to try to jog at a very slow pace. Slowly but surely I started to feel a lot better. The closer I was to finishing. I picked up my pace. I tried to sprint it in to the finish line but it was more like a fast job more than anything.

I was hoping to run this course around 2 hours but I managed to make it in 2:23! I'm still very proud of myself. Ed was waiting for me to cross the finished line which was really nice of him. I told him about my leg pain and he told me it was lactic muscle build up. He told me next I need to make sure to drink Gatorade that would take care of the problem next time.

Come to find out they weren't passing out Gatorade but cliff water. I didn't touch it because I didn't know what it was. Next time, I will just wear a water belt and bring my own stuff to drink. I had brought a bottle of Gatorade but decided not to run with it. I had to run the hold time with my keys in one hand and I didn't want to carry the bottle in my other hand.

Oh, well...Lesson learned!

My next half marathon is in November around Thanksgiving time.

I'm going to bring my own gartorade and have a killer time.

I'm so proud of myself.

Now, I need to start thinking about running a marathon next year!