Freedom Run!

Here is a tip for all of you out there: if you fast the day before a race make sure once the fast is over to properly hydrate.  I usually drink about 20 gallons of water a day.  Well, on Sunday I decided I had better fast, the only problem with that is I didn’t drink enough water afterwards.

Soon after the race started I found myself with a VERY dry mouth, I was so blasted thirsty and the race had just begun.  More about that later but for now here are my splits.

Mile 1 2 3 4 5 6 .34 Total Avg. pace Max pace

Pace 7:10 6:48 7:22 7:46 7:52 8:02 7:20 47.29 7:30 5:36

As you can see the race was a bit longer than 6.2 miles.  My official time was 47:26.  I started out feeling good and felt REALLY good on the downhill when I was able to pass a girl that tried to pass me moments earlier.  I know her from the gym and there was no way she was going to beat me ;)

At about mile 4 everything started to bug me.  NO ONE was cheering and that turned me into an angry elf.  The reason I love the Freedom Run is because usually people are cheering you on the whole time and those that aren’t are just fun to watch.  People do some strange things.

I got to Far West Bank which is where Jake was supposed to be.  I couldn’t see him and I got super sad.  I just needed someone to cheer me on, I wanted a familiar face.  I finally heard my name, Jake and Holly’s dad had crossed the street so that they could see us more easily.  I was so happy to see them.

Then that skinny women came along and passed me!

As I was running along I almost yelled at the crowd.  I wanted to say “we are running here, how about cheering us on!”  I refrained.  As we were running up to the mental hospital I could see the lead runner and I thought “wow, I’m not very far behind” I got super excited.  I knew I would see Holly and Tara soon and I couldn’t wait.  Then the race took a turn, I have done this race for the past I don’t know how many years…a lot and they have never had us go up and around the hospital.  That REALLY got to me mentally, I just wanted to stop and walk.  I made myself keep going, I decided to slow down because at that point the end just seemed so far away.  As we got to 9^th East I was hoping there would be water, I was dying of thirst.  I thought for sure they would have water but guess what?  They didn’t!!  I almost asked a parade watcher for a drink I was so thirsty.  A guy caught up to me and gave me some encouragement.  We stayed side by side for a long time, I was just glad he wasn’t there to pass me J  I wanted to walk sooooo bad but since Holly and I had just run the course I knew I was super close.  I could do it!

Throughout the race they did a very good job at keeping the 5k-ers separate from the 10k-ers.  This was good because at this point they were all walking.  As soon as we got to the last .30 mile all of the 5k-ers and 10k-ers were together.  I could barely get through all of the blasted walkers.  The road we were on was very narrow and to have the walkers all over place got very frustrating.  Somehow I made it through and sprinted as well as I could to the end.  Once I stopped my body got all tingly, I was light headed and needed water ASAP!

As the day went on I was feeling pretty lamesauce.  I had wanted to finish in 45 minutes and yet again had not met my goal.  I knew I could have done it faster and wondered what my time would have been had the course been 6.2 miles.  At around 7-ish Holly texted me and said that I had actually placed 2^nd in my age group, had I been in the right age group.  My boss got me into the race for FREE, yippee.  He got me into the Utah Valley Marathon as well and at that point he got all of my information.  But since the marathon I have had a birthday and I guess he didn’t know that so I was grouped in the younger category.  Holly’s text made my whole day.  I no longer felt like such a slug.  Even though the results won’t show that I placed 2^nd I know that I did and that’s all that matters J

I made the mother-in-law make a funny face...she doesn't usually look like that :)  We all realized that sweet little Teancum looks like he could be Jake's child, I'll take him!

After the race we headed over to the parade.  It was a good time I was surrounded by babies and couldn’t be happier.  We were planning on going swimming at Veteran’s but with the threatening clouds we decided to go to my bro and sis-in-laws indoor pool.  There was a big family party going on and they kind of took over the pool so we headed over to the splash park in Spanish Fork.  The kids had a blast.

Next up was SMASHBURGER, I crave that place fort nightly.  They have the most delicious chicken sandwich and sweet potato fries, I can’t get enough of that place.  "They put an addictive chemical in their chicken that makes you crave it fort nightly!"  Does anyone know what movie that line is from? :)

That pretty much wraps up our 4^th of July.

Does everything annoy you when you are thirsty and tired?

I should say so!

Do you like to quote movie lines?

I do it all of the time!!  "Is for fun" :)