Top of Utah Half Marathon

Today was the day! I ran the Top of Utah Half Marathon! So, here's how it went down. Last night we went to pick up our packets at the finish line and it was a down pour! It was raining so bad, the streets were like flash flooding! Okay, not that bad, but it was wet! I was ready to scream. I did not want to run in the soaking wet weather. But by the time I went to bed, I was mentally prepared to run, rain or shine. And I went to bed earlier than I have all summer-- 10! That felt pretty darn good! :)

This morning we woke up at a quarter to 5 and ate a little breakfast and headed down to the park to board the busses. It was not raining, but there were plenty of ominous looking clouds. The bus ride up to the starting line seemed like forever. It made me really nervous. It felt like 26 miles instead of 13.1. But we got up to the starting line an hour before the race was supposed to start. We visited the bathroom and got some water and then were just walking around a little and ran into my cousin Katie and her husband Ryan. We knew they were going to be there, but not 10 minutes earlier, I said that finding them and Harold (a school teacher and friend at Cokeville) would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Then there was Katie and Ryan. We visited with them for 45 minutes until we needed to go to the starting line. So far, the weather was holding. Thank goodness. My goal all summer was 2 hours. I just wanted to beat 2 hours. So, I went to line up with the 2 hour pacer and there was Harold. So I chatted with Harold for the next 15ish minutes. All week he was telling me how I was gonna whoop him and I kept tellin him that wasn't gonna be the case. I was right. Seriously 2 minutes into the race, I had completely lost sight of him and never saw him again. Speedy! I just started my music and started plodding along. To make a long story shorter, the weather was perfect, I felt really good, and I smashed my goal. Okay. Smashed is a little bit of an exaggeration. I ran 1:47. I was pretty proud of myself for that. I felt good, I tricked my brain through some pain and stiffness, and it's now 4 hours later and I'm still good. I'm not going to go on a 13 mile run tomorrow or anything, but I feel pretty good considering. My mom beat her goal by 30 minutes! She's so awesome! She ran 2:03. I'm super proud of her! I got a medal! It's super cool! I was talking to a friend and he was like, you get a medal just because? And before i ran I thought, yep! But after I ran, I decided, I earned that medal. 13.1 miles is a far ways to run! 

So that was the race today, but my running journey started a long time ago. When I was a just a kid, I was bored of always walking, so I started running... No. Not that long ago. I'll just tell you the motivation for running this half marathon. For those of you who ran with me in high school track, or coached me, you are probably shocked that I voluntarily ran a half marathon. I am a little bit too. I do not love running. So why? Well, I tore my ACL 16 months ago (which seems like a long time, but it's not that long through recovery and stuff) and I couldn't run. It was frustrating! Then, last year, my friend Holly ran the TOU Half Marathon. I was so impressed and watching her come across the finish line, I got really inspired. I thought, I wanna do that! So, as soon as my therapist gave me the go ahead to run, I got online and signed up to run this thing! My sister Taffy gave me a workout schedule and I went to Alaska and did it! My cousins up there said I was the most irresponsibly responsible person they've met because I would play hard into the night, and then never miss a run. I really did a good job training and that's because I had a wonderful training partner, my aunt Lila! She did her own half marathon this morning in Alaska so that we were running together. She's awesome! In the middle of the summer, I had a little set back with my knee, but I saw Garrett, an awesome chiropractor, got a blessing, and then everything got better. It was amazing. I was able to resume my training and I know it's because Heavenly Father knew it was important to me and so it was important to Him and I'm extremely grateful. 

I can't say that I love running and that I'm addicted and wanna do races all the time. I can't even say that I can't wait to go on a run next week. But, I don't hate running like I did in my first few years of high school. Running, to me, is a good way to exercise. It's fairly inexpensive, I saw all shapes and sizes of people doing it, and it's just fun to accomplish something hard, which running is. So, I'm super glad I did this half. I'm proud of myself. I stayed in pretty good shape over the summer. It was my victory run, like in your face knee surgery! It was a great experience and I'm super glad that I did it! And excuse how our hair looks in the pictures--I think we look dang good for what we just did! :)