Utah Valley Half Marathon

I did it! My first half marathon! I can not imagine doing that twice. Hats off to you full marathon runners out there! You're a little crazy in my book.

Anyways, 1-800 Contacts paid for Josh to run the race. I planned to run it too, but kept procrastinating on the registration. When I finally went to register it was full! So I kind of halfheartedly trained thinking I might run part of the race with Josh and our friends, Mindy and Tyson. Then about a month before the race a spot opened up for me to take. So my training was not fantastic and I had terrible shin splints for a good chunk of our training. However, I did run the whole thing, walking only to drink water at the aid stations. It was such an awesome experience and we're planning to run another one in October. I was hoping for about a 10 minute mile average pace and finished in 2:15 so I was pretty much right on with that pace. It was what I expected. Next time I hope to beat it though. Josh finished in 2:04. He ran with me for the first 1 1/2 miles but my pace was a little slower than his and we had agreed beforehand that we would rather stick with the pace we were comfortable with than stick with each other. Isn't that sweet? :) So I had no problem with him leaving me in the dust!

I was pretty nervous before starting the race. We had to leave at about 3:30 am for Provo and then took buses up to the race start. I got nervous when the buses just kept driving and driving and I kept thinking about how I was going to have to run the whole way back. The farthest we had run before this was 11 miles. Fortunately, this race had a bit of downhill (though I could have gone for a little more of that) and it was nice and cool in the early morning and we had a pleasant breeze at our backs. It was a pretty ideal morning for running.

I discovered two products of which I am now a big fan. KT tape saved my shins during this race. I saw a guy taping a girl's knee with this stuff at the expo when we picked up our race packets. So I asked him to tape my left shin where I've been getting terrible pain. It didn't completely cure the pain during the race but it helped significantly. The night after the run I took it off and almost immediately regretted it. I didn't realize how much it was helping even hours after running! I bought new running shoes a week after the race and a bunch of that tape and my shins have felt much much better.

The second thing is Sport Beans made my Jelly Belly. Way yummier than GU and they didn't make me too thirsty. I just took a couple at each aid station and they helped quite a bit I think. I still got very hungry while running. Right around mile 8 I started feeling hungry and by mile 11 my stomach was growling. Those half bananas they handed out at the last couple aid stations seemed to make my stomach more angry because it just wasn't enough. I guess I'll try to eat more breakfast next time.

Well, it feels awesome to accomplished this!