Zion Half Marathon

Saturday morning! The big day! And it's 2:30 am and I CANNOT sleep.

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Repeat repeat repeat

Ohhhh I forgot that I am not going to be able to use Pandora for my run so might as well add some songs from Itunes!

That kept me busy for a couple more hours. I was so excited when Scott finally woke up and we could turn on all the lights and make some coffee.

We had a bagel and a banana for breakfast and met Sarah and John out front to ride down to the race starting point. That ride seemed to last forever and all I could think of was 13.1 miles is REALLY long. And uphill.

When we got to the starting area and parked we got out of the car and were hit with a freezing cold wind. AWESOME. So glad I changed into shorts. I was so, so cold. We did the usual wait for the port a potties and then went into the "warming tent" until it was time to go line up.

 After what seemed like forever it was finally time to line up. We had to walk up a big hill to get into the starting area. I was thinking "this is probably the only downhill we are going to run!".

We all stood around there and froze a bit more and then suddenly everyone was moving and the race was on!

The wind seemed to die down right after we got started but it was cool enough for me to keep my little jacket on until about mile 6 or so.

Some areas were just so beautiful! People were stopping to take pictures. I tried to do some while I was moving with my phone but that didn't always work out well.

 I was feeling really good with my running. Just running about an 11 minute pace. I was just going for a run in a beautiful place, not trying to break any records or win anything.

About mile 6 or so it just started getting really steep. I alternated between running and walking for the rest of the race. I had to go pee but every time I got to a station with port a potties the lines were super long. Like 15 people deep. I may have just went off the road into some high scrub brush and peed there. Maybe.

Around mile 8 I was praying for more port a potties. I didn't care how long the line was because I had some business to do! Finally at mile 9 I got to one. I said 'Thank God for Port a Potties!" and everyone laughed.

That's one way to get "vacation belly" cleaned out. Oh just go run, that will take care of that "I can't poop" problem.

This is about mile 9 when here. Not too long after this John caught up to me and we ran together almost until the end. I had to stop to catch my breath and he went on ahead of me.

My end time was 2:41 minutes. Super long but I did have 2 potty stops in there, the one I had to wait in line for. AND it was mostly all uphill.

A nice tired selfie with my medal!

 

My Runkeeper slowly added on a bit more mileage and ended up with about 1/2 a mile more than I actually ran.   I found John and some of his family. One of his cousins just came to watch and the friend of the other had already finished running. I think she said she came in about 2:15 and I later found out she's in her late 50's. Another rock star woman!! Women like that totally motivate me! 

It wasn't too much later that Scott came running in. I didn't get a  good picture of him coming in because this family of kids ran in to run in with their mom. Which, yeah I guess that's nice but NO I don't think that's nice really. Let Mom have her 5 minutes. Unless you ran it all too, then you can run in with her. Plus it was bad for the other runners having to dodge kids all over the place. I wish they would have had a bit more crowd control on that beginning of the shoot there. (Scott is the middle of the picture in a red shirt)

Sarah came in right behind him. They had walked and ran the whole thing together! 

John's cousin had come in after me and before Scott and so we were all done. 

We hung out for a bit and then Scott and I decided to just walk back to the hotel (about 2 miles). 

We got back to the room and took a nap!

I think this was actually my "easiest" half marathon. Mostly because I didn't wear myself out before hand. Nothing hurt. It was great! I'm so glad that I picked a lower mileage training plan this go around. It make a huge difference in how my body felt. 

I'm still not planning on running anymore half marathons for awhile but Scott is talking about doing the one in Monterey again in November and I'm not feeling like I'd totally hate that idea. We'll see!

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