Yesterday my little family, along with Holly and Kaden, headed to the land of the dinosaurs...Vernal, UT. Our pacing team, Run Your Race Pacers, was set to pace the Dino Half Marathon. We got into town, got our race packets and met Niccole and kids at Costa Vida for some dinner. We got to our hotel and I must say it was pretty awesome. We stayed at the Spring Hills Marriott Suites. Who knew Vernal would have such a hip hotel?!?
The kids did a bit of swimming and then it was time to meet up with all the pacers to hand out singlets and some stuff from our sponsors: Yogurtland, Good2Go and Emergen-C. We are so grateful for all of our sponsors. We are excited to add another great sponsor to the list, Warren Orthodontics is now a proud sponsor of RYR Pacers, YAY! Dr. Warren is one of the nicest people you will ever meet and he is a GREAT orthodontist. He has been my kids orthodontist for years and even got me hooked up with a permanent retainer.
After the pacer meet up it was time for bed. After getting all ready for bed and setting everything out for in the morning I got in bed and laid there WIDE AWAKE :/ Usually it takes me about 3.7 minutes to be dead to the world. I laid there for well over an hour, I could not shut my brain off. Thinking of all the crap I have to do to get things set up for this boot camp thing is way overwhelming. After Jake's stupid phone DROIDED at it's loudest 2 times, I finally gave up and turned the TV on. Everyone else was fast asleep and doing the whole deep breathing, I'm having a wonderful dream thing. I got little sleep to say the least.
I woke up and really started freaking myself out about the pace that Holly and I had to hold for the race. We were pacing the 1:40 group which is an average of a 7:38 minute mile, I haven't ran that fast in a very long time. Usually 1:40 is easy for me but for some reason I really let it stress me out.
We got on the first bus and headed up the beautiful canyon to the starting line. The temperature wasn't bad at all, which was nice, last year we nearly froze right to death. We talked with the runners and got ready to run.
Tall sock twins unite!
I found Parker and Keli who I paced at this race last year.
The Run Your Race Pacers.
Let's pace a race...but first, let's take a selfie!
From the very beginning we started running with Chad. This was his second half marathon and he was hoping to stick with us but said that he would be thrilled just to finish before 1:50. We ran and chatted, learning all about Chad and Vernal. He lives in Vernal and told us about some pretty cool places.
I found out pretty quickly that today wasn't going to be my easiest race ever. I really had to work to keep pace today, it could be the lack of sleep, the stress I have caused myself over the past week or the fact that I was seriously doubting my abilities before the race even started.
I let Chad and Holly do most of the talking, while I tried to get into my music and let it carry me along. I noticed at about mile 4 that Chad, Holly and I were lone rangers...not a person anywhere near us. We ran along enjoying the views and loving to see the smiles on peoples faces as they drove past us. There are only a couple of races in Vernal so it's probably fun for the people to see a bunch of crazies running around. At about mile 10 I was starting to wonder if I could hold on, it was HOT and I was struggling. I just had to tell myself that my legs and body were fine, it was my head that was the problem. I kept pushing and praying for a little downhill action. Did I happen to mention that there was a head wind pretty much the entire time...RUDE! We had a couple of pretty good hills to climb and that head wind was really starting to make me angry.
We hit the 12 mile mark and Chad thanked us for all of our help and zipped off. He did so awesome, we both felt like proud parents watching him run ahead of us. Chad passed a couple of guys and ended up getting second place in his age division, pretty awesome.
Meet Chad
Just a quick shot of me doing my duty as a pacer, checking my pace band to make sure we were on track.
I just love this canyon.
As we neared the finish line the kids starting running us in and we ran right into Jake who happily gave us our medals. I'm so grateful for a supportive family who will put up with my shenanigans,
Holly and I finished in 1:39:41, good enough for 3rd place OVERALL female. Technically I was .02 milliseconds before Holly so I took 3rd but let's be honest, we started and ended at the exact same time and I honestly couldn't have done it without her. Holly got 1st place in her age group and I got 2nd place in mine. I can't wait to get our awesome 1st and 2nd place medals in the mail. There were some timing issues so we weren't able to get them at the race but they are seriously the coolest medals I have ever seen.
After we finally got back to the hotel we only had a few minutes to shower up before getting kicked out of our rooms. We then went to check out some petroglyphs that Chad had told us about, he said we HAD to go. He was right, it was awesome!!
Jake, Pitbull Jr. and me
The tall sock twins with the "twins"
I had such a great time, I'm so grateful for the adventures we have while pacing. I'm grateful that I got to pace someone for 12 miles and then watch as he finished strong. I'm grateful that I was able to get outside of my own negative thoughts and push through to the end. I'm grateful for all of our friends who come and pace with us. We had a really fun group this time and I'm grateful for all of them. I can't wait for our next pacing adventure.
