Pink Series Half Marathon

I'm a tad bit late on making this post (the race was on 10/12/13). Mainly because I have been waiting for the race pictures to be posted online. And it has taken far too long to the point that I'm not going to worry about it. I got some of before and after. Who needs during pictures right?

 

I had been looking forward to this race for the past 10 weeks. Originally a friend of mine gave me a training schedule that I could do along with the GPP Fitness Training that I do everyday. A week or so into that I was talking to a friend of mine who is one of the trainers at GPP. I was telling her that I had signed up for my first half marathon. She started to tell me I needed to talk to Neil (who owns GPP), because he had been working on the Heart Rate Training. Her and another girl were actually doing it for a full marathon and were noticing huge improvements in their running.

 

So the next day I went to Neil about it, and he was very happy to put together a Half Marathon Heart Rate Protocol Schedule for me. It took him a few days, but once he did we got started on it.

 

The idea behind the heart rate training was to be able to run faster on a lower heart rate. Making you more efficient and have more endurance. So everyday in the training was different. Sometimes I would run keeping my heart rate below 70% of my max heart rate, other days at 75-80% or 80-85%. Distances varied. Saturdays were always my long runs.

 

I would take a picture of my GPS watch (that had my Time, Avg Pace, Distance and Avg Heart Rate) and text it to Neil who was tracking my progress. This was very helpful to me because it made get up early and do my runs. Some days were just running, some days had just my GPP workouts and others I would do both. On those days I was to only do 70% volume of the workout that day. Which made it doable with all the running I was doing.

 

 

My cousin Timalee was the one who invited me to do the Half Marathon. It was a girls only race in honor of Breast Cancer, in Park City. So we all drove up the night before to have a little girl time. Shopping, Dinner and Staying up way too late for having to run a race the next morning, laughing and enjoying being just the girls.

 

I was feeling a little apprehensive about the weather. Days before I was watching the forecast and that Saturday was saying it was going to be a high of 40 degrees with rain. ....But as it grew closer the rain came early and on race day it was sunny with the high of 57 degrees. PERFECT!!!!

 

Here is a picture of us all ready to head out to the shuttle buses. Left to right: Brooke, Alex, Sarah, Timalee and Me.

 



 On the shuttle bus, feeling unexpectedly calm about it. I thought I would be super nervous. But I wasn't. If anything I was feeling excited. On the ride up Sarah asked me if I was nervous? And I was happy to say that I wasn't. She asked me if I had a time I'd like to finish. Alot of people tell you for your first race you shouldn't give yourself a timed goal, and that you should just have a goal of finishing. But I felt like I knew I would finish so I needed to give myself something more challenging. So I told her that I wanted to finish under 2 hours.

To finish under 2 hours meant that I would have to keep a pace no slower than 9:00 min/mile. As the race started I knew the energy of everybody around me would give me an initial fast pace. But I just wanted to run at what I felt comfortable with and not push too hard. Especially to start out with.

During the race I wanted to make sure I looked around at the beautiful fall scenery. I wish so bad I could have pulled my phone and snapped some shots of the colorful leaves.

I was keeping a good pace around 8:20 and I was feeling awesome. At mile 9 I thought "Wow, that was fast, only 4 more to go". Then at mile 10 we had a hill to conquer. Oh man. I slowed down to a 9:00ish pace. But sped it back up once that mile long hill was over.

Around mile 11 my IT BAND on my right side was starting to feel tight. Which sucks. I had troubles with it all during training and was constantly stretching and rolling on it. So part of me wasn't surprised when it started to bother me during the race. I had hoped it wouldn't have happened. But it did. I just had to try and ignore it. The good pace I had kept up the whole time wasn't about to go to pot. So I pushed through during the next two miles.

Honestly those 2 miles, (especially the last one) felt worse than the first 9. Brooke actually caught up with me and helped me finish strong at the end. I was so grateful to her. She told me that I was the wind under her wings. During the race she said she tried not to let me out of her sight.

I crossed the finish line with a time of 1:53:39. With an average pace of 8:40. Putting me 11th place (101 girls) in my age division. 48th place (438 girls) overall. Not too shabby for my first half marathon right? And I beat my goal! YAY!

My cousin Timalee finished a little after Brooke and I did. So we got to cheer her on as she crossed the finish line with her husband and two girls. Timalee and I were both so sweaty, but SO happy to have finished!

 Alex and Sarah finished after Timalee and they all had their families there to cheer them on. The moment Sarah saw her family she became so emotional. Which in return made me emotional. It was such a tender moment I got to share with her. My next race I'll be able to have Jesse and the boys there and I'll get to have my own "Moment".

  I guess I could say that I had my "moment" on my drive home. I got to reflect on the race and think about my dedicated and hard working husband, my dear sweet boys, my supportive in-laws, family and my Father in Heaven for blessing me with health and strength. Can't express the gratitude I felt when thinking about all of that. I'll blame the tears on the adrenaline.

 I was aching to see the boys at that moment. Ryker has always, and I'm sure will always be, my biggest fan and cheerleader. When I made it to Mike and Heidi's (where the boys had stayed the night) Ryker was SOOO excited to see me as well. Gave me the biggest hug! I just love him!

I remember thinking that a half marathon seemed so hard and that I wouldn't ever be able to accomplish it. But I did it. It's a great feeling!  I owe it all to the love and support of my family! Can't wait to do the next one! Maybe I could get Jesse to do it with me?