Halloween Half!

A half marathon has always been a goal of mine even though I had never run more than 2 miles in my life. So this summer when I start running I knew I had to do a half and I am so glad I did! 

The half that I did was the Halloween Half Marathon from Sundance down to the Shops at Riverwoods in Orem.  The atmosphere was so fun with everyone dressed up.  We wanted to dress up but also didn't want anything too annoying to deal with while running so these skeleton sweatshirts that Priscila found were perfect.  And then we made tutu's to make our outfits a little cuter and wore black eye-shadow and lipstick! :)

The whole experience was so much fun, and I was so nervous the night before.  I took advantage of the whole "carbo loading" thing and went to Pizzaria Limone (my fav) for dinner, went to bed early and woke up at the crack of dawn to meet my friends and drive to Provo.  We got on the buses and took the long ride up the canyon to Sundance.  It was FREEZING because it had snowed the day before so we just snuggled up and listened to music to get pumped up.  Once we got to the top we went into a huge tent with everyone else and literally huddled together until the race started. 

Care, me and Linds

Me and Pris
Loved being able to train with my friends who I don't see as often anymore!

The fab 5 who did it together! Sooo grateful for these girls, we had a blast!

Me, Caroline, Priscila, Lindsay and Sarah

On to the race details....

I read online that this race was a lot of downhill, etc.  But since it had snowed the day before we had to start the race at the bottom on Sundance instead of the top, cutting off miles from the downhill part of the race route.  Because of that they added an uphill switch back that was soo hard, I was dying!! I was planning on a down-hill race and then they make us go uphill for who knows how many miles, 3-4ish? It was so hard! All 5 of us started together but Caroline is an awesome runner and left us in the dust.  Sarah slowed down from the beginning to pace herself, and me, Pris and Linds stayed together until the switch-back.  That is when Linds needed to slow down to make sure she could finish and me and Pris kept going. 

We had a lot of fun chatting for a bit, but the race got sooo hard after that uphill so we mainly just listened to our music and motivated each-other to not stop! I truly would have given up if it weren't for Pris! At about mile 11 we were sooo tired and wanted to die - like I said we were planning on an easy, downhill race but there were so many more hills then we were expecting. 

The last mile was soo hard for me, I started getting this crap in my lung area that hurt soo bad.  But luckily Pris's mom was waiting for us at mile 12 to run the last mile with us and she saved me! I had to slow down but I did not want to stop so she talked me through breathing, etc. I was so grateful she was there! Seeing the finish line was the best sight I had ever seen, I was so excited to finish!! As I was running up I saw Al and Katie I got a little teary haha! I had run almost 13 miles in training so I wasn't emotional about the mileage or anything, my cramp just hurt sooo bad, the last mile seemed to go on FOREVER, I could barely breath and thought that my lung was going to explode, so I was just so happy to stop running! 

After I finished and walked it out and drank a little water I was totally fine and felt great! It was so much fun and I am so proud of myself for accomplishing this goal!

Martinah is in the middle - so glad she was there!

Thanks to my hubby for being there to support me

I was so happy that Katie took time out of her day to come see me finish! It meant to much to me and I was so happy to have her there!

My first medal! So proud! I really can't believe I ran a half marathon! I ran it in 1:54 which I was totally proud of.  Had it been more downhill I would have wanted a better time, but considering the uphill course change, the frigid temps and all the other hills I was extremely happy with my time!

I haven't been much of a runner (like at all) this winter, I went a few times but I just can't do the cold winter mornings. But I 100% want to do the Big Cottonwood Half next September so I am planning on starting running again in a few months when its warmer!