Timpanogos half Marathon... And Smashing my PR!!!!

The morning of my half marathon started out at 3:15 am. YIKES! That is so early! We drove up to the start and go in line for the bus. Luckily the line was really short, and not very long later.. we were on our way up to the start of the race. On our way up we were talking about our goal time. My previous race times were all in the 2:45 region.  I had a dream of 2:30, however I knew it was a long ways off. I have not trained well enough for that.

We got to the starting point at about 4:45 and settled in for the wait. We ate some breakfast.. said hi to some of my racing friends. Waited in line for the potties a few times... you know.. nervous pee pees. And before I knew it.. Race time was only a few minutes away. Not enough time to get my cell phone set up to my garmin account. :(  oh well... C'est la Vie 

Noel, Me and Dee at the starting line

Noel had a good ol' regular watch, so we could at least have an accurate time of how fast we were going. At the first mile, we were right above 10 minutes. That's fast!!!! I usually run a 12 minute mile. We hit mile 2 and we were going at a little under a ten minute mile. Miles 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8... all the same. We were burning it up. I have never ran that fast in my life. We averaged a below ten minute mile for the first 8 miles. That is monumental.

After that we hit a few hills, and the sun came out. Hot and uphill... my worse nightmare.  We started averaging around a 12 minute mile. At 11 miles I hit a huge wall and I could not go any more. Noel kept going and I pushed on the best I could. Right after the 11 mile mark, they handed out otter pops. It was hot, and I was so tired, and that otter pop sounded like the best food in the world. I ate a few bites and jogged on. Then.. Bam.. It hit me.  CRAMP! HOLY CRAMP! I have never had a cramp so bad in my life. Usually a cramp comes on just one side.. and I can tell it to shut up and keep going. This one hit on both sides.. my whole stomach was killing me.

I looked down at my time, and saw that I had been running over just over 2 hours. That meant that I could hobble to the finish line and still make my goal. I hobbled on the best I could and I would jog for as long as possible. The last two miles were so hard. I knew it was going to be close.. I might make it just after the 2:30 mark.

I turned the last corner and saw the finish line.. and the time on the board was 2:29.30 and I gave it all I had. And I crossed the finish line before the 2:30 mark. Saying that I was trilled was an understatement. My far off dream came true.. even though I had to walk most of the last two miles.

My official bib time was 2:29.08. That means I beat my PR by 15 minutes and 36 seconds!! THATS HUGE!!! Here are the times from all of my races.

Halloween half 2010:    2:45.09
Thanksgiving point half 2011:  2:44.51
Halloween Half 2011:    2:44.44
Timpanogos Half 2012:  2:29.08

This girl right here is very proud of herself!! That was such a great race! Noel has the pictures from the finish.. so I will have to get them and post them later. 

Hope you are all having a great weekend!!