THE Race Report

Can you believe it's over?

So, Friday we set off for Education Week, where we caught two sessions. Hillary and I slept a little bit through the first one--on communication--and I don't remember much about it because the rest of the time was spent trying NOT to fall asleep.

Our second session was about giving more praise to our husbands and was taught by John Bytheway. I thought it was a good lecture, but my legs were terribly uncomfortable in the chair.

After the sessions, we left to go pick up our race packets. And then we went to dinner at The Brick Oven. I had a great dinner of salad, garlic bread, and pizza, but I totally overate. I usually eat late, and it was 5:30, so I wasn't concerned about the next day's race. We were going to go see a movie, but there wasn't one playing that we were interested in seeing, so we just went to the hotel.

We went to check into our hotel which was a complete mess. They didn't have our reservation. The check-in lady was an idiot. Yada, yada, yada. But, we finally got our room. After we checked in, we went to find where we needed to be at 5:15 the next morning and then stopped at Wal-mart for some last minute supplies.

We got back to the hotel, got a few things ready and then it was off to bed. Hillary and Christina shared a King size bed while I got the sofa pull out--all part of our "suite" deal. The bed was soooo uncomfortable. And I was awake every hour to see if it was time to get up. Finally, it was time. We all got ready and then headed to the buses.

The bus ride up the canyon took FOREVER. I thought, on more than one occassion, surely we've gone too far. But, finally, the bus pulled over and we all filed out. Then we had to walk 3/4ths of a mile to the starting line. That was weird. Couldn't they have found 3/4ths of a mile somewhere else to add to the run? But, whatever.

So we waited in line for the porta potties and then sat on the road. Hillary and Christina had to use the bathroom again, and so we all trooped over to the campsite bathrooms. Against their posted signs saying not to use the bathrooms, Hillary and Christina used them anyways. I would've too, but I didn't have to go. Grace and Trevis were behind us in line so we gave them some of our food that we weren't eating. Then it was back to the starting line and waiting some more.

Somewhere around 8 am, 45ish minutes after we were suppose to start, we were off.

Christina and I ran together for the first 3 miles. Maybe a little longer. I remember we hit the water station together, but then my mind got a little fuzzy afterwards. At mile fourish, the most overwhelming need for a NAP came over me. It was really weird. All I could think was "if I just went and laid down for 10 minutes, I would feel so much better." The thing is, my rational brain was saying "you can't lay down. No one lays down in the middle of a race. Especially when they still have nine miles to go." But my irrational part kept urging me to just go off into the woods, lay down, and everything would be okay in 10 or 15 minutes. It was a really weird discussion going on in my head.

At about 5 miles, I saw Christina veer off towards some bathrooms and I thought, oh, I'll walk until she catches up. Because that's what friends are for. :) Actually, it gave me an excuse to walk and she caught up a lot faster than I thought she would. We ran together until the next water stop, I think, but then she was off again. Maybe I just thought we were together that long. Anyways, I took one of the energy packs they were handing out because I was so drained. I took the water. Drank the water and then opened the energy pack and ate that. Which was a mistake. I should've grabbed another cup of water to wash the energy pack down with. So for the next two miles all I could think about was how dry my mouth was. Finally, there was a water station and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

I'd say miles 4-9 were the hardest. I was exhausted, but I knew I had to keep going. At mile 9, all the downhills were extracting a price from my left knee (NOT the knee I've had two surgeries on!). Every step was excruiating. I briefly considered pulling out of the race, but I really wanted my t-shirt, which only went to finishers. I walked for a long time deciding what I should do and evaluating my running. Clearly, a t-shirt is not worth ruining your knee over, but when you've spent all summer training for this race, it's really hard to throw in the towel. I wiped away some tears and started back up running. The pain wasn't as bad when I was running, but it was still there. I was also aware that Hillary should be closing in on the finish and I was sad I wasn't closer to the finish as well.

Mile 10, we ran down a big hill and then up a big hill. It was the one we were all prepared for. And it didn't seem that hard. Then it was just the last 3 miles to go. It was slow trudging with a lot of walking and pain, but I FINALLY made it!

Only to find out that they were out of shirts, out of food, and basically the finish line SUCKED. But at least I was done running.

One of my friends from Provo came down and cheered me in at the finish line. That was fun to have someone there.

My official finish time was 2:26:08, averaging 11:09/mile. Not bad considering how bad my knee was hurting. I was able to stay on our Training pace until mile 8 and the Slow pace until mile 9. Then it kinda went downhill from there.

Of course, Hillary blew not only her TRAINING time out of the water but her BEST time out of the water as well. She finished in 1:55:51, averaging 8:51/mile. That is INCREDIBLE. I can't believe how good she did. I was so happy to see how excited she was at the finish line when she told me her time. Christina came in below the BEST time of 2:10 as well and finished at 2:09:22, averaging 9:53/mile. And that's with taking a bathroom break too. That's 13.1 miles below a 10 minute pace. Remember the first time we ran 3 miles under a 10 minute pace and thought we were going to die? The last half marathon Christina ran, she ran it in 2:21:30, so she shaved a full 12 minutes off. I ran the same half in 2:50:22, so I shaved 24 minutes off. YAY!

Here are my thoughts on where I went wrong:
(a) I knew I was starting out way too fast. I ran the first 5 miles anywhere from a 1:15 to 30 seconds faster than what I was "suppose" to run them in. I knew that it was going to catch up with me and that's why at 4ish miles I told Christina to go ahead because I was going to slow down a bit to try to rein myself in. In hindsight, I probably should've slowed down at least 30-45 seconds to save some of my energy for the latter part of the course.
(b) My chosen energy thingie was CRAP. I was unbelievably tired at four miles. I mean, I was fighting myself from taking a nap. While I was running. And then I remembered that the same thing happened at the 10k at four miles as well. I felt incredible the first three miles and then I just crumped. I figured it was because I didn't get enough sleep beforehand, but I think it's the energy stuff. I need to find something new. I feel good afterwards, but I don't think it's meant to help with these athletic endurance.
(c) I didn't eat enough beforehand. The oatmeal tasted like crap. Everything tasted like crap and I didn't eat hardly anything. That probably didn't help. I need to force myself to eat, even if I don't feel like it.
(d) I was sooooo hot. I wish I would've had a tank top, but probably not as much as Christina wished she had a tank top.
(e) I had to stare at jiggly thighs and butts all the way down the canyon. You should put on your chosen outfit and then run in place in front of the mirror and check out your backside to make sure that you see what the rest of us are seeing. I don't particularly like skirts so I've never been drawn to the running skirts, but now looking at a plethera of them, I realize that most of them are unflattering because they aren't long enough. Of course, I don't have a lot of room to talk because I am wearing spandex shorts. But at least I try to keep my shirts long enough to cover the jiggly parts.

24 hours later, I'm still a little tired since I didn't get a nap (because apparently Wade didn't think I needed one. Seriously, as soon as I walked into the door, Wade went downstairs and worked on the basement, and then kept asking me to come and hold things. You know, because he can't do anything when he has both kids, but it's perfectly fine for both kids to be upstairs unsupervised if I'm home? I don't get it.) And my knee is still a little sore, but I think by the end of the week, it will be good to go. I need to work on building the muscle around my knees during this "off" season and I'll be good to go for our next race. :)

I'm so happy that both of you guys did so well! You guys were awesome!