Provo River Half

What a great race! Erin and I had such a fun time running and both of us felt great and truly enjoyed ourselves. We were even shocked to find out that we pushed ourselves and did well! We channelled our inner Sue Ann and Amanda and were able to 1) keep a steady pace 2) not walk and 3) push it the last mile. Manda, you added a fun element to our half by providing us silly tasks to do along the half, it kept us highly entertained--thank you!

The highlights:

Our race weekend started out with a nice little sleepover at Erin's. Thanks for opening up your house, friend! We chilled, ate ice cream (yes, it IS good pre-half marathon food...hee hee) and watched the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. I enjoyed getting to know Ty better and seeing E's uber cute house.

Starting line. Relatively disorganized and SMALL. There were thousands of runners and we were all funnelled into a small parking lot entrance for the beginning. Due to Erin's finagling we snuck up to the front. Just like last time, they gave us no notice of starting, all the sudden a gun went off and THERE YOU GO!

Mile 3: We started getting reallllly worried. We hadn't seen a water station yet (ps, we did the first 3 miles in 25 minutes). Mile 3.5: even more concerned. Mile 4: THANKFUL for the water station.

Mile 6: Amanda's instructions were to stretch with the splits at mile 6... uhhh... this was as close as we could get:

10k pace, btw, was 54 minutes.

Mile 8: where we realized that we enjoyed running Half Marathons. Thinking about going 5 more miles seemed like NOTHING. That was a gooood feeling.

Mile 9: Amanda's directions were to run around the 9 mile marker in a circle. Hee hee.

Well, look closer... that 9 mile marker? What race are we running again? Oh yah, the Provo Half NOT the Moab Half. Tee hee. I'm glad they share... they're friends. :)

Mile 11: The switchbacks began... yes... the switchbacks for the next 2 miles we could hear the music and smellllll the nummy food... we also slowed down considerably from a 9 mm to a 10mm. Drat. Mile 12.5: Some dude yells out "only 100 meters left!" We believed him. Bad plan. We started sprinting. 100 meters, MY BUTT. It was closer to .5 mile!!! We were DEAD at the finish line. Sprinting for that long (well, our sprint consistently slowed as we ran farther... and farther... and farther...)? Makes someone tiiiiired. Mile 13.1: We're DONE! Finished in 2:08. Good. On. Us. We both felt great and had such a great time! Woo woo!

But, we were even MORE excited to get the pancake breakfast! My little sister Emily and Erin's hubby Ty came to cheer us on to through the finish line. Thanks for the support friends!!!

What a great half. I'm soooo glad we did it Erin, SOOOO glad. I'm thrilled with the prospect of you running the TOU Marathon with me. I'll let you know how the walk/run training goes. We'll have to try it out on the 23rd for our 18 miler. Awwww OUR 18 miler. It brings me joy. yes yes it does. Can't lie, Manda, we missed you terribly. I especially missed you because the course brought back so many memories from the last time we ran it together, I'm glad I now have memories with BOTH of you from the infamous Provo River Half. MUAH!

We run HALFS because we can....

This was the theme of today...I loved this race- AMANDA put it on your calender now for next year...there will be no excuses! Even though your reasons for not being there today are totally understood and respected- I glad it was a good day for you! LORI and I kept a pace even you could appreciate...and my proudes monent I only walked like a totally of 1/4 mile- normal I probably walk closer to 1- 1 1/2! Lori has all out fun pics so I will let here tell the exciting, funny parts! BUT I just had to say...WHAT A GREAT RACE! YES truly my arm pits where that sweaty

EXCUSE

...since Amanda got to announce when her period started the day before the marathon its now my turn to let out a loud shout out...I AM A WOMAN!! Not only do I feel like someone is grabbing my bones and crushing every single one of them with intense focus on my older back- I am sad!
We will see how tomorrow turns out....GOOD LUCK LORI!

Motivation For Pictures

One time only Manda, I'm giving you an opportunity... yes yes a way for you to get pictures during the half marathon... :) You can come up with certain things you want us to do at certain mile markers and we'll take pictures and send them to you.... you can be as creative or dull as you want. ;) You can even outline a plan for us for the half. (silly topics to talk about at certain mile markers) Per each picture/task we successfully do....hmm... I'll have to think about the reward.

What do you think? You up for it?

A complete 10 miles

Don't laugh seriously..Yesterday morning I ran my whole 10 miles and fought the naggin Erin voices to quit...secret is once I was five miles into it the only way to bail out was to run the five miles back...I tricked myself! It was a wonderful run as they always are...and I went on a new route that was entertaining and just maybe Lori I will be able to pull of the half without you giving me a piggy back :)

Here We Go

I start back to work this week. Sigh. While I may not necessarily be looking forward to going back to work I am looking forward to getting back into a routine. Maybe that means I may start working out again eh? Hmmmm.....I guess we'll see!

Sad.

Apparently the universe is out to get me. I didn't get to bed til 2am but I was determined to get up at 4:30 to fit my long run in before 7:15 (when Van had to leave). So you can image my SHOCK when our phone starts ringing at 6:55... a) because the phone is ringing at 7am (my Father in law calling about golf...) and b) WHAT?! It's SEVEN?

yaaaaaaah.

Sad. Van's gone ALL day and we are stacked this evening. So, my only option is to fit my long run in tomorrow morning before church. Fun. For. Me. I might need to set up some sort of a wake up call program for Saturday mornings. Geeeeeeeez.