Provo River Half

I was nervous about this race. Very nervous. I had only half-heartedly trained for it, and Rachel had spent the 3 previous weeks nursing injuries...her knee, her back, you name it. Part of me really seriously considered going down, getting my shirt, and then not running it. I am soooo glad I did not choose that path. Despite all of our lack of preparation Rachel and I ventured our way down. We got down to the Riverwoods Shopping Plaza and found the camper with the bibs and t-shirts, which this year went all out and had set up out on the grass instead of handing them out from the camper. Impressive. Also an impressive change to this years race? Timing chips. They were going all out! While standing in line to get my bib a horrible realization hit me. I forgot my running shoes! All day long I'd been telling myself not to forget. Soooo of course I did. I panicked and called Erin (who graciously let us stay at her place) and asked what size of shoe she wore. Erin coolly responded not to worry that she was still in O-town and would be more than willing to stop by my house and pick them up. Erin wins major points.

From there we decided to go to Macaroni Grill to carb load. Nummy. When who should I see? Oh just all of Max's Ashlee's family. Yup! So we hugged and gabbed for a bit and then sat down for dinner. So random to run into them.

After dinner we headed back up to Erin's and settled in for the night because 4:30 was going to come way too soon. Even still we were able to muster this lovely shot on the bus.

The beginning of the race was cold. A cold front had come through sending our temps way below normal. The chill at the beginning was totally worth it though because the rest of the race was beautiful! Perfect running weather. Like the high when we finished was on 64 degrees. Say it with me. Per-fect. We started the race out strong, we felt good and were moving well. 5 miles was over before we knew it. Seriously. I'm not joking about that. It felt like it flew! By about mile 7 though Rachel's knees were giving her grief, but she just kept pushing on. As usual for me I was starting to feel really good about this time. She kept telling me to go ahead, but I didn't want to. I wanted her to have a great first experience so she'd get hooked! So we just kept pushing forward. Rachel did awesome. We really hadn't trained sufficiently, and she had so many injuries I was really worried about her. Even with all of that she was a champ! At mile 12 I was feeling GREAT, and Rachel wanted to amputate her left foot and this time she insisted that I go on. So off I went. I felt strong, fast, and full of energy! I haven't felt that way that far into a race in a loooong time. It was divine! I was totally eating it up. I tore through that last mile on a total runners high. It rocked. It made me remember why I love to run. I totally needed that.

Rachel came in just a few minutes after I did and it only took her about 15 minutes to admit that she liked it and that she was glad she'd done it. Have I created an addict yet? I don't think so. But she IS running Ragnar with us next year. Wuahahaha. And don't let this face fool you. She liked it more than she'll ever let on. That's just the Rachel way of things. Good job girly! I'm so proud of you!