Race #4: Half Marathon

Alright, first of all, I know I've been a neglectful blogger. Lately, it just seems like I have nothing interesting to say. That's probably always the case, but usually I just say it anyway. But for the past couple of weeks, I just haven't the blogging bug.

But in a spirit of continuing my race reports, I decided today to just give in and try blogging again.

Today was a half marathon. All week I've been dreading it. Number one, because it was supposed to snow today, and number two, because I haven't been training very well.

But two things happened to help. One, mom was so worried about me running in the snow that she got me a super cool running outfit complete with running tights and a warm shirt. That mom. She is just always thinking of everyone all the time. I sure love her. And two, Dustin was able to come and run with me. That's always such a good thing for me because he helps take my mind off running, and he also helps my pace a bit too. I'm sure it's a pain to have to run so much slower than he's used to, but he is a good sport about it.

Luckily this race was downhill for the most part. We ran down a canyon for the first half, and then around a lake for the last half. Surprisingly, the snow wasn't bothersome at all. It was falling down lightly and there was no wind as we ran down the canyon. It didn't even feel very cold at first. We made pretty good time as we came down the canyon (at least for me).

Then as we finished the canyon part, the wind hit us. It was pretty dang strong. There were times it felt like we were moving, but we weren't getting anywhere. And it was cold! I kinda felt bad for those runners who dropped their warm shirts in the canyon. They were probably hating life. I tried to run behind Dustin and use him as a wind block. It didn't work very well. I'm sure he was glad about that.

I'm glad I had Dustin, because I'm sure I would have stopped and walked a lot more than I did. He kept me going and he is just an amazing person to help me like that. Eventually we made it to the end. It wasn't much fun, and it wasn't very easy, but we made it! I felt good just knowing that I accomplished something. We finished around 2 hours 20 minutes, which was an improvement over my last half marathon time. We had a whole crowd of supporters to cheer us on too. That's always the best part. It's so nice to feel that support and love.

After the race we ran over and caught the rest of conference. It was a great day and I am so grateful to everyone who helped and supported me.

Here are a few pictures from the day:

At the starting line:


Coming into the finish line, and finishing!