Half marathon

The half marathon was this past Saturday. I apologize for not blogging it earlier. I couldn't find the camera for a couple of days. Ben took this video of me crossing the finish line. I was not in good shape at this point. Luckily I recovered quickly, but I was nearly in tears after I crossed.

The Wednesday night before the race I came down with a stomach bug. It was one of those kind where your stomach is in knots and you know it is coming, but not sure which end. I took a Zofran for the nausea, and luckily was able to keep everything down. But for 2 hours I was up that night, rushing to the bathroom. The whole time I was thinking, I can't run a race feeling this way! I never get the stomach flu...last time I had any tummy issues was probably 5 years ago. And it hits me 2 days before a race I've been training for 4 months for? Anyway, I was feeling better by Friday, although my stomach was still cramping most of that day.

Friday night, I couldn't fall asleep, because Ben hexed me. It was about 1:30 before I finally was able to. And then we had to get up at 4:20 so we could catch the bus to take us up to the start. We got up to Eden sometime around 5:45, and then huddled up under a blanket to wait. The race didn't begin until 7:00. It was beautiful watching the sunrise over the mountains. When it was time to begin, we took off our sweatshirts and pants and made our way to the start. Of course, Ben took off right away. He is competitive when it comes to racing, so he took off near the start.

I felt great, my pace was good, and the worst part of that course (a gradual uphill) is near the start, so with that behind me, it was mostly downhill. I had to shed a couple layers of clothing (I kept a jacket on, and my running tights over a pair of shorts), but I didn't want to drop it in the clothing boxes because then I'd have to wait until the end of the marathon to be able to claim my clothes. So I tied both jacket and pants around my waist and looked like I was smuggling a tire in to the finish line.

The run was beautiful coming down the canyon, with the Ogden river right there. At about 2 miles left, I started to feel tired, but plugged away. Then for the last stretch, with only 1/2 a mile to go, I started to hit a wall. It was only about 4 blocks long, but I kept having to stop and walk a bit. I was so tired and hungry. I hadn't been able to eat a whole lot the day before, and I had eaten only a banana and some grapes the morning of the race.

Anyway, I crossed at 2:19:44...a full 10 minutes ahead of the runner who won the full marathon. (At least he didn't pass me!) I fell onto the grass, and my hands and feet felt all tingly like they do when they're asleep. My calves started cramping up, too, which is something that never happens to me. I never get cramps like that while running or right after. I think it had to do with lack of calories or something. I went over to the Great Harvest table and got a piece of bread. Then went and had a couple of bananas, and met Ben outside. I was just wanting to go home, so we found our stuff that we had left at the start line, and made our way home. By the time I got home I was feeling a lot better.

Overall, given the circumstances of being sick, and little sleep the night before, I did okay on my time. I had figured from my training runs that if I came in under 2:30 I would be happy...and I had that beat by 10 minutes. I keep wondering what I would have been able to do on that course feeling 100%. Anyway, I am considering the new Layton half marathon in October...either that or the Spanish Fork one that Ben runs every September. We will see.

Very bad photos of me can be seen at Zazoosh.