Half Marathon

*This is a long post and will probably bore you. (No pictures still.) But I want to remember how I felt.

So I ran the Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon yesterday with Adam. It was AMAZING. This is how it all began...

My friend Marci asked if I was running it- and I hadn't even heard they were doing one. I looked into it and kept it in my head for a few days until Adam was talking about getting into better shape. I said we should train for this half marathon for some motivation. He said okay. I was amazed and excited. After 9 1/2 years of marriage and 13 years of knowing someone, we have never run together consistently and maybe only a few times together (under 15?) It's not that Adam doesn't ever run- he just prefers to run on the treadmill where no one can see him. (I hate the treadmill. But I still use it during the cold months.)

So that was less than four weeks ago. We started on the treadmill during the cold weather and ended up outside. Sometimes we'd go as a family- pushing the double jogger stroller with Linc and Ollie, while Elliott rode his bike. Sometimes I would go after dropping E off at school and pushing L and O while Adam was at work. Adam would run after work, sometimes outside, sometimes on the treadmill. It takes a lot of time! And commitment! But I love that I had to push that huge stroller up and down the hills in our neighborhood- I think it helped me in the race.

The Saturday before, we dropped the kids off at the neighbors and ran 9 miles. I pretty much died. I felt sooo tired and had to walk a few times. I blamed it on Adam's quick pace. Or maybe it was that I stayed up too late the night before. I was feeling a little doubt in myself. A few days before the race- we decided to actually sign up. I was keeping our options open just in case we weren't ready. Or Adam's knee didn't feel up to it (it had been bugging him.)

On Friday I tried to get a sitter, but let's be honest- no one wanted to come to my house at six in the morning to babysit (although they could've slept the first two hours till the boys woke up...) So I called my mom. She met us at six and Adam and I headed over to Thanksgiving Point. We carb loaded at spaghetti factory the night before and went to bed a little after 11 which is early for us, so we were feeling good and excited. We picked up our packets and it was freezing out there! 34 degrees or something. But at least it wasn't raining and hailing like the days before this. I decided to run with my long sleeve shirt.

We saw Marci and the race began. There were only 630 runners. We ran through the gardens and all of those lovely tulips, through the golf course, and then onto a river trail. Then we ran back through some Lehi neighborhoods. It was SO beautiful. And the ever changing landscape kept my mind busy and happy. (I do after all love beautiful scenery...) There were tons of short little hills at first- up then down- sooo different than our loooong neighborhood hills. They made me happy and that's where I passed people. :) I laughed when we hit the 3 mile mark and told Adam we would be done if we were running a 5k.

Back to Adam. Before the race I told him he should definitely run it at his pace and I at mine. But he just kept saying he would run it with me. (This made me a little nervous.) And since Adam doesn't really understand runner's etiquette- he ran about 20 feet ahead of me the whole time. No conversations with that guy. Every once in a while he'd slow down to see if I was okay and then take off again. When we hit the 6 mile mark- I was in complete awe. I was feeling so good- energized actually! I could not believe we were almost halfway through! And the miles kept ticking away. And there were water stops every few miles that I took advantage of every time. At mile 8 I checked my watch and realized I'd been doing 10 minute miles- which with my stroller I was more like 12 minute miles. I was again amazed! At mile 10 I finally tied my long sleeve shirt around my waist. The weather was PERFECT for running. Also at mile 10 Adam gave one last check-up and was off. He didn't say anything- just got further away. I saw him looking back and gave him the wave to go ahead- which he says he never saw. But I didn't see him until the finish line. He was right there to greet me. He got 2:05 and I got 2:10- which I was very happy about. We got our medals, ate some goodies and got our massages. My muscles felt so cool after- really limber and I could stretch so far. But as the day went on we could both feel our legs tightening and I found weird little spots that got rubbed raw- like at the top of my bra on my chest and my ankle that must have rubbed a couple of times and where the top of my pants rubbed on my back. We hobbled around the rest of the day. I thought I was in for it this morning, but I felt pretty good and my muscles felt better. Although crouching down to help Linc is interesting.

I loved this race. I was prepared to take some walking breaks, but other than the 10 seconds it took to down some water, I kept a steady jog and was so proud of myself. And I especially loved training with Adam. It feels good to do something healthy together. My favorite part of running (that I felt yesterday during the race for a long time too) is when my body kind of goes on autopilot and I can't help but start thanking Heavenly Father for our beautiful world and our healthy bodies and a beautiful life! I have always loved the spiritual aspect in running!

I hadn't run a half marathon in over ten years- before I was married and before I had three babies- so it was a very different experience and I didn't know what to expect. Now I just want to do more!

Anyone up for this race next year???

P.S. This race made $30,000 to donate to the new children's museum planned at Thanksgiving Point- a great cause I think!