Salt Lake City Half Marathon 2013

I was a good girl and got everything all laid out the night before the race just like I always do.

Black tank top, black skirt, my Boston shirt (to represent), Shamrock Pro Compression (people on the Facebook were saying to wear green to honor Boston...gladly, any excuse to bust out my lucky socks) and of course my beloved Kinvara's.  Matching is overrated people!

Holly, Jorge and I headed up to SLC at 4:30 this morning.  It was raining but for some stupid reason I believed the weather reports and assumed it would stop or be a slight drizzle by the time the race started.  I'm sure you all know what happens when you assume :)

We hung out under a big ol' tent until it was time to head to the starting line.

We're glowing and I'm Satan ;)

#keepittight

I added this shirt to my ensemble that I got from the founder of Altra at the starting line.

The Back

I guess you'll just have to turn your computer on its side cause I tried to flip the ding dang picture 3 times but for some reason it wants to stay on its side, whatever!

Right before the start they had a moment of silence and then blasted Sweet Caroline as a little tribute to Boston, it was awesome.  There were quite a few runners there that had just done Boston on Monday, some even did the FULL.  That's hardcore baby!  One guy even ran carrying an American Flag the whole race.

The bomb squad was at the starting line and there were helicopters flying around.  There were more cops than I've ever seen at a race before.  Almost every corner had at least one cop.  Holly and I tried to thank as many of them as we could.

So did I mention that it was raining?!?  Yes, it rained and then it rained harder and then it poured and then it turned into more of a hail.  As we were running I actually quite enjoyed the rain, it reminded me of TOU...I LOVED that race!!!  I could have done with out the wind though.

There were a lot of people cheering along the course, they actually cheered, that's kinda rare for Utah!  It was such a fun run.  Holly and I photo bombed a news anchor doing a story :D  I yelled "Woohoo!"  And Holly said, "Hello, news anchor man!"  He actually stopped his story and the camera guy got us, too bad I have no idea what channel he was with.

Holly was pacing the 1:45 group and I "helped" her.  A lot of help I was though because Lou, my dumb Garmin, froze up on me and never started.  I tried everything but he wouldn't listen, lame!  I need to write a letter :)

We finished in 1:44:59 pretty much nailed it, AWESOME!!!

This is where it all went down hill.  First we broke a photographers camera with our beauty ;) sorry dude!

Then we realized how freaking freezing it was.  All I wanted to do was get on a bus and get to Holly's car ASAP!  That didn't happen.

We waited forever to get Holly's drop bag and tried to figure out how to get back to her car.  We saw signs that supposedly led to a shuttle to get us to TRAX.  Never found the flippity flappin' shuttle.  We walked past some motorcycle cops and I asked if I could borrow their motorbike for a minute.  They didn't seem too amused and assured me that I wouldn't be any warmer on the motorbike.  True 'dat but it would have gotten me to the TRAX train a whole heckuva lot faster than walking 20 blocks, or 6 but who was counting.  I know 6 blocks doesn't sound like a lot but when you are frozen to the bone it seems like 20 miles.  All I wanted to do was lay down and cry, I was miserable.  Wearing layer upon layer of soaking wet clothes, socks and shoes after finishing 13.1 miles is no fun!

We finally made it to the TRAX loading station and sat there for about 20 minutes...dying!  After an hour and a half we were finally back to the car.  Even with the heat cranked up, seat warmers and blankets we were still frozen when we got home 50 minutes later.  I do declare that we were suffering from some kind of hypo!

I loved the race but the shuttle situation at the finish area was a big ol' #FAIL!

I think it's funny that last year at Boston we got an aluminum blanket...when it was 90 degrees but today when it was 40 degrees and pouring rain we got nothing #FAIL! 

 Shoot, I plum forgot to get my Beer...oh well ;)

Here's a picture of the marathon winners

The guy on the far right, you know the one with the HUGE muscles, that is Mr. Seth Wold!  I used to work with him, he is pretty much the nicest guy in town aaaaand he is super speedy!  YAY Seth!