The night before the race, Maegan & I drove down to Springville. We had booked a hotel there so we didn't have to wake up at 2am.. Kill me! Olive Garden was pretty close to where we picked up our running packets, so we went there for dinner and carb loaded. :) soooo many breadsticks!
We stayed in the Days Inn in Springville and it was pretty average, as far as hotels go, but we didn't really care terribly.. All we needed was a bed and wifi. That night we streamed the movie "Barely Lethal" from Maegan's laptop and painted our nails.. The movie was surprisingly hilarious!
4am came waaaaay too soon. We got dressed and packed our bags with super sleepy eyes. I had shirts made for us for the race.. Pretty amazing!
Minor problem with the shirt: it's heavy cotton and a pretty normal neckline, so it didn't breathe feel well. More on that later...
Denny's was on the menu for breakfast -- aka the only thing open at 5am -- and it didn't disappoint! We ate it on the bus ride up to the race.
The busses dropped us off 3/4 a mile away (uphill) and we seriously had to walk. Uphill. To the starting line. Suuuuucked.
After a quick potty break and some awesome selfies, we were starting to feel the anticipation.
Maegan and I trained together for most of the runs so we knew each other's pace and balanced each other out.. I like to go fast, she likes to go slow, so we meet somewhere in between.
We stretched out and lined up with the 529 other racers... And then we ran!
A few things went wrong on my half marathon... Things I definitely wouldn't do and things I would do (if I were to do another half).
First: Don't wear a camelbak. I'll repeat that.. Don't. Wear. A. Camelbak. I trained with it for weeks and totally got used to its weight, hardly even noticed it once I got going... But goodness, it was awful!! I really love the ease of getting a quick sip of water and how my hands aren't encumbered with water bottles, but it was such a bad idea for this race. It has to buckle at your chest and waist, to prevent any bouncing around, which is normally just fine. But that combined with the extreme physical exertion of running thirteen (point one) miles in the hot sun was terrible.
Second: Don't wear a super thick cotton shirt.. Even if it is super freakin cute! Because I had the camelbak, I had to wear a t-shirt so it wouldn't rub my back raw. The problem with this t-shirt was it was a thick cotton, didn't breathe, and had a high collar with long-ish sleeves. Combine that with my camelbak that had a buckle at the chest and waist, I had zero airflow to my torso.
So back to the race...
The first couple miles are always hard to really get into the groove but we pushed through and actually were keeping to my goal of 10-11 minute miles. Poor Maegan's music wasn't working so she was running in silence for the first while. Once we hit mile 3 I was feeling pretty good, into the groove and keeping our time. We were eating Gu's every 3 miles or so and trying to drink our water regularly too. At mile 6, our almost halfway point, we were right about at the pace time that we ran our 10k in July, of 1:08.
I was feeling great and a photographer snapped a couple of pics of us mid-run.
Then...
I started getting all tingly feeling like I did on my last really long run. My arms and legs were covered in goosebumps (mind you, it was 95 degrees outside) and I had the strangest and worst feeling as a chilly tingle ran from my collarbones up my neck, to my temples. I've passed out several times before and know that awful floaty feeling all too well, so I started walking. A lot. I also was drinking more water, taking the Gu's as we plugged along.. But man, the next 3 miles I felt so off and terrible. My muscles and lungs were totally fine, my body just felt so wrong, like I was going to fall over at any moment. So frustrating!!! After the race I was talking to my mom and she said it was heat stroke, that it's happened to her before too (she has been a runner for years).
Around mile 9 Maegan ran ahead of me and I kept trying to rehydrate my body and eat the nasty Gu's to give my body some more sugar & energy (it didn't make an ounce of a difference FYI).
At mile 10 Maegan was waiting for me at the water station. I had started running shortly after she went ahead of me so thankfully she wasn't waiting for very long. She said she didn't want me to pass out and have no one find me or have something bad happen so she decided to stick with me to the end. I was definitely grateful for the company and motivation to keep moving (cuz I felt like I could lay down on the ground and sleep forever)... But I also felt seriously awful that she wasn't running the race like she wanted to.
We continued at a pretty slow pace, alternating between running and walking (more walking than running) and got to mile 12 when Maegan pulled off to run on her own ahead.
The next mile took an eternity and I fought back tears the whole way.. A couple snuck their way out but I quickly wiped them away. I had such high expectations, goals for the race, and absolutely never thought my first half marathon would be so disappointing. I trained for 9 weeks, ran regularly, bought new shoes, stocked up on Gu's, and read just about every article I could find to prepare for the race. The one thing I couldn't train for was heat stroke. I didn't anticipate how my choices to wear a thick shirt and camelbak would ruin the entire run.
As I neared the end, a darling old man ran up to me and slowed to walk next to me. He said "we're almost there!" and totally made me smile. He was 79 years old. We walked together for a minute then he started running again.
At the last corner I started to run again and Maegan joined me for the last stretch. As I crossed the finish line I was relieved to be done but also so upset about how long it took me and the circumstances.
I walked over to the volunteer who was cutting the timing chips off the shoes and then grabbed a t-shirt. Micah and the kids were waiting for me and while it was great to see them, I was also embarrassed and frustrated at my results.
We took some pics, got our results printed, and had the boys go get the cars so we could go grab some food.
Back at the car, I took my shoes off and saw this massive freakin blister!
I popped it with the safety pin from my running bib.. So gross! That was one of about 7 blisters I got. We then drove to the restaurant Malawi in Provo and ate a ton of delicious pizza, then went our separate ways home.
Ultimately, the race was a good check off on the bucket list and I enjoyed the first half of the half... But the second half was absolutely miserable.
I finished the race in 2:54:59 minutes, 13:21 per mile, overall placed 528/531, in women 304/307, and in my age group 34/34. I was 3 away from last place, the very last in the 25-29 age group. It's absolutely heartbreaking to me that I sucked so bad. If I ever do another half marathon, here's what I'll do differently:
First: Get really comfortable with 10k's. I've only run two of them, and only one this year. Also, regardless of what other runners say, I will run the full distance multiple times before the actual race. I'm a pretty visual runner and really like to see the progress, and if I run on a course multiple times, I love to know where the mile markers are and how much longer I have to run.
Second: Wear the right gear. I won't do another race with a backpack or a full t-shirt again. It's too constricting and far too cumbersome to deal with.. And apparently I don't do well being hot, but I'm pretty sure I already knew that. ;)
All I can say now about the race is I'm SO glad it's done with so I can start enjoying running again. :)
xoxo
Mandi
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