Utah Valley 1/2 Marathon!

Last week Holly called me and said that Jorge had a free entry into the Utah Valley Marathon.  She knew that I had no desire to do the full so they got me into the half.  I was so excited!!  Friday night Holly and Jorge had me and my kids over to carbo-load!  We had our usual pre-race meal: homemade pizza with whole wheat crust, turkey sausage, turkey pepperoni and LOTS of veggies.  It was delicious, then it was time for dessert...pizookies :)  Wow, they were delicious!  I felt properly loaded, I had the right outfit ;) sometimes the right outfit makes all the difference, come on you know it's true.  I figured if I couldn't run fast I should at least look fast :D

I woke up at 3:30 am and drove over to the Provo Towne Center mall to meet up with the other Stephanie Anderson, my SIL.  We boarded the buses, UTA buses none of this school bus business.  We sat in the very front and I am so glad we did, our bus driver was a hoot.  He was a little confused at first but I reassured him that I knew where we were going and I wouldn't let him get lost...like last year!!  We got about 3 miles down University Avenue when a lady came on his radio thingy and said for all marathon buses to head back to the garage.  He looked confused and said "Now!"  I was afraid he was going to listen so I said that she meant the FULL marathon buses.  Whew, that was a close one ;)  We got up to the starting line and some guy was trying to instruct our driver as to where to go next.  I couldn't hear everything he was saying but as we drove away the driver muttered "That was no help at all...I don't even know what a fog line is!!"  Steph and I busted up!

We thanked our little bus driver friend and headed to the Honey Buckets, we got in line for the MOTHER of all Honey Buckets, it was a port-a-potty suite.  After being in line for 20 minutes or so the gal in front of us turned around and thanked us for entertaining her.  I can't remember all that we were saying but whatever it was she appreciated it :)  I was so grateful to have Steph with me at the starting line.  We saw Janae and Billy and chatted with them for a few minutes, if they aren't the cutest couple in town then I don't know who is.  Steph went back to the back and I decided to start with the 1:35 pacer.  I kept up with the pacer until about mile 3 where he all of a sudden disappeared, I was confused until I looked up my splits...I went from a 7:15 mm to a 7:42 :/  There was a big hill and the wind was pushing against us.  I said going into the race that I was going to go with how I felt, not pushing it.  After all, I couldn't be the 2483 person to drop out of our Ragnar team ;)  I wanted to enjoy the race...not kill myself off! 

There were about 6 of us that kept playing leap frog.  I think I saw the same guy pass me 8 times yet I never remember passing him, weird!  I chatted with a guy I had met while working at 26.2 a few times throughout the race.  There was a little kid that ran by me for a while, I finally asked him how old he was and he said 12!  That is amazing, he did awesome!  He was like Kobe and as soon as I said how fast he was he zipped off and I never saw him again.

At mile 7 we came out of the canyon and I all of a sudden felt at home.  I run that road often and felt like I knew where the hills were, I knew where the CRAZY birds were and I knew how far I had until I was finished.  I was done playing leap frog and told myself that I wouldn't let any of the others pass me again and they didn't.

The volunteers were amazing!  Just a word to those who go out to cheer for family members...cheer for everyone :)  One of the runners kept getting the crowd to cheer and I LOVED it!  It doesn't do the runners any good to see a bunch of people standing around staring at them.  Stare and cheer...it's fun!!  Even at the finish line people only seemed to be cheering for the one person they came out to watch.  That is one thing I loved about Boston people cheered for everyone.

I ended up finishing in 1:37:30 which I am okay with.  I know I could have done it faster but with how I have been feeling lately I'm just glad I finished.  I ended up placing 7th in my age group, 1 minute faster and I would have been in the top 5 and earned a plague :(

I loved how organized this race was, the expo was great, the finish area was awesome! 

After I finished I ran back to the mall to my car, zipped home, grabbed the kids, zipped back to the race and we cheered on runners as we waited for Jorge and Holly to finish the full!  This was Jorge's first marathon and he did amazing!