13.1

My first (hopefully not last) 1/2 marathon in bullet points.

• So nervous the day and night before, like so nervous.
• Amazing dinner friday night at Cucina Toscana. Broke lots of rules about pre-race eating.
• Hilarious trip with Tiff & Dad to Orem Wal Mart. "You chicken."
• Night in the Provo Marriot - staying up WAY too late reading magazines with Tiff.
• Bed @ 2am, alarm at 4:15am. "Oh, time to get up!"
• Freezing our butts off in the canyon waiting for the stupid thing to start.
• Gun goes off, everyone and their mothers flew right past me. I kept my pace I knew I could maintain - I'm proud of that, you will see why.
• First 6 miles = most fun I've ever had! Awesome music, great pace, perfect temperature, downhill shaded course. LOVIN it!
• Miles 7, 8, and 9. Harder but still feeling pretty good, keeping my pace.
• Spotting people ahead of me that became my next target to pass. Around mile 9 I started seeing people I hadn't seen the whole race. They were the ones who flew past me at the start and now were walking and I was still RUNNING! Suckers!
• Mile 10, significantly harder. Exposed to sun, some steep inclines (or at least they felt like it).
• Mile 10.5, I hurt and I'm tired and I need another GU but there is no water station... someone kill me. I start calling Tiffany really bad names in my mind for telling me I could do this.
• Mile 11, a girl I had been running near for a long time is in front of me on a hill, I'm struggling but trying to keep the same pace as her. Around the corner comes her little 5 yr old boy, running towards her smiling. Holds her hand and runs a short ways with her.
• I cry a little, but this gives me the boost I need.
• Mile 11.5, me and aforementioned girl with the inspiring son run together. No talking, just encouraging each other to keep running.
• Mile 12, so close can't stop now. Keep thinking how proud of myself I am! Re start my playlist to motivate me.
• Mile 13 to the finish - I feel like I'm running but also feel like I'm barely moving (as you can see in my pictures). So hot, so tired, sore feet, calves, and knee.
• Finish line with my nameless running buddy = euphoria.

I was really proud of myself. It sounds so silly I know, but I think the only time I have ever been more proud of myself was after I delivered Boston. It feels amazing to push your body to do things it's never done before. I finished at just about the time I expected to, at 2.5 hours. I had a more ambitious goal time before I signed up to go to Africa. Ethiopia fell right in the middle of my training program and I took almost 3 weeks off because of that trip. I thought a few times during the second leg of the race that I wished my body would let me run harder and faster, but I reminded myself that I went to Africa instead, and I would choose that again, any day of the week.

The next few days I was so unbelievably sore. But as soon as I could walk up and down my stairs without tourettes, I couldn't stop thinking about what I wanted to run next. I get now why runners keep running. It's addicting, but not for the reason I thought. The high you get crossing the finish line is great, and running the actual race was really fun (for the first 9 miles at least) but the part I want to experience again is everything that leads up to that. The training hours and sacrifice you put it is hard, but at the end to look back on it is so gratifying.

I ran 13.1 miles.

And I think that is awesome.