Halloween Half Marathon

After training for 4 months and running my first half marathon in April I had every intention of running at least one more this year...but alas life happened and another half marathon didn't seem possible. As the racing season was coming to an end I had been getting a little down on myself about it when a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to do the Provo Halloween Half with her. She had just done the St. George Marathon and I was feeling inspired by her. She's pretty awesome. So, I called my running coach (aka my awesome sister-in-law) and asked her if it would be incredibly stupid of me to do it even though I had not been training or done any long distance runs for several months (the longest I had done was 6). She told me it would hurt (which I already expected) but because I had still been exercising she didn't see it causing any real damage that a few days of rest wouldn't heal.

So, I decided to do a little test to see how my body would hold up.  I ran 8 miles one week, and 10 the next. I was contemplating wimping out on the race when my brother called and told me he had gotten me a free entry thanks to his hook-ups through his company UtahRunning.com. Plus, he was doing it too! So, that decided that. I was IN!

Race day started SO early. My brother and I left my house at 5am to go wait in line for an hour in the freezing cold for a bus to shuttle us up Provo Canyon. Once we got to the race start they had tents set up which created a nice bubble of body-heat for us to wait in (for another 1.5 hours) before the race started.

I couldn't believe peoples' costumes. It was awesome to see how creative (and brave) people were!

Kendra's costume was awesome! She was Bella's baby from Breaking Dawn.

When I did my first half marathon, I was a little bit devastated when I didn't see Sean and the kids cheering for me. This time I really wanted to not only SEE them, but have Ryker run the last little bit with me. He LOVES races and feels so proud when he gets to run in them. When I told Ryker my plan and told him that he would get to wear his Spiderman costume, I asked him what he wanted me to dress up as.  His reply, "How about a girl superhero? Then we can be a superhero team!"

So, to impress my little man and be his superhero mom I dressed up as "Bat Girl"!

Finally, the race started! The weather was perfect, the scenery gorgeous, the people entertaining, my playlist was festive and upbeat. I was feeling great. The steep downhill was killing my legs but really helping my time. I really had no intentions of getting a better time than my last race. I had told myself just to enjoy it and be proud of myself for even doing it. But then...

I passed the 1:50 pacers and the competitive side in me creeped out. I decided I wouldn't let them pass me. I knew it was going to hurt no matter what because I hadn't trained, so I decided I might as well just make it count. Then I caught up to my friend and decided I would do my best to stick with her. She was awesome! She pushed me, encouraged me, and even gave me Shot Blocks when I started to fade. I stuck with her until the last 1.5 miles and then my body started to crash. I was slowing down but was still determined not to let those pacers pass me.

As I neared the finish line I couldn't wait for Ryker to join me so that I would have an excuse for running so slow! Then I saw my cute little fam and got so excited...

...and my little dream came true!

It was awesome! Everyone was screaming and cheering for "Spiderman" and his face was just glowing with excitement and pride. The announcer even announced his big finish! It was so cute.

To top it all off, I got a PR by 5 minutes!

Here are my stats...

Time = 1:50:50

(SL Half 1:55:10)

Pace = 8:28

(SL Half 8:47)

I was really happy and proud.

Now for picture overload...

Kendra got a PR too!

My brother is such an inspiration to me in so many ways. It was so fun to do this race with him!

The big difference between my brother and I is I'm lucky if I survive the races, and he wins them!

He took 2nd place with a time of 1:09:52 (and that's after stopping to use the bathroom!). His training buddy took 1st. Pretty stinking cool if you ask me!

My little superhero running to the car...

I'm SO glad I did this race and reached my goal of doing another half!

I did pay dearly for not training though! In all my years of exercise I've NEVER been that sore. It took me 4 days to finally start walking normal. It was worth it though :)