A few weekends ago I ran the Snow Canyon Half Marathon in St. George on Nov. 7th. This was my third half, and although I was not nearly as prepared for this one as I have been for the past two (I did not have the benefit of training with Saffron for this one), I was, for some reason unknown to myself, determined to make this one my new personal best.
It started out all too comfortable (I hope you can sense my sarcasm here, cause I'm layin' it on pretty thick) as the first handful of miles were complete DOWNHILL coming out of the canyon! So, by just before halfway through the race when the steep decline ended and my quads were about to snap in half, they decided to oh-so-nicely throw in some uphill/downhill combos for the rest of the race. I am not talking a couple of hills, people, I mean a hill around every bend until mile 13.1! So about mile 6 I realize that in order to make it in under 2 hours (my arbitrary goal that I had not trained for and have no idea when it materialized) I needed to make up time on each mile for the rest of the race. Without drawing out this already-very-detailed/unintriguing story any longer, suffice it to say I was just praying during that last mile that I would cross that finish line before injury occurred, as it wasn't a matter of "if" at that point. I could feel my calves tearing down, and in the coming days my calves definitely paid for that last mile. (Ryan lovingly "quacked" at me every time I entered the room the next 2 days, as I literally could not walk normal no matter how hard I tried, but could only waddle around.)
All complaining aside, I have to say that no matter how you feel when you are running down that last 200 meter stretch and you see that finish line up ahead and all the people cheering on the sidelines, you can't help but feel the adrenaline rushing through your body. At this point I always get pretty emotional as well. As I fight back the tears of pain, exhaustion, exhilaration, and delirium, I am thinking to myself, "And this is why I run!" Which is, in fact, quite ironic considering for the last two miles the only thing that has kept me going is the phrase I repeat over and over again in my mind..."You never, ever have to run one step again for the rest of your life if you just finish this race!"
At the end of the day, I had had a great weekend in St. George with my family and friends (Joy and Kerstin ran this race as well and both did amazing!), I had accomplished a great task I set out for myself, and although I did NOT finish in under 2 hours, I set a personal record by more than 10 minutes (also known as PRs in my track days) of
2:02:27!!
Salt Lake City Half Marathon 2010 you just better watch out, cause this girl is coming in at 1:59:59! Anyone care to join me?
.JPG)
