So I've had this half marathon planned for over a month. I had trained for it and we were all set to go, my race was December 17th. Then I was on the race website looking up the info when I saw the date Saturday December 10th. Wait a minute, the 10th! Oh no. Thankfully this still over a week before the race but unfortunately I had completely over booked myself that day. We had a Santa pancake breakfast planned for the kids, I had agreed to do a kettle bell training that afternoon, we had a white elephant party the night before and our ward Christmas party was that night and we were taking food. Not to mention UT was playing BYU and I wanted to go. It was not a great day for a race. Aaron and I talked about it and decided what the most important things were that we wanted to get done that day but we knew that it would also help a million if my parents came to help us. They were saints and agreed to drive down and help us out for the weekend. This way we could still do all the fun things we wanted to do and my parents are pretty much the only people I will leave Spencer with these days so this also meant we didn't have to take him to the party! Well Friday started off well but then my parents called us at the party friday night and let us know that Brooke was crying. So we left immediately and went home to take care of her. She wasn't feeling well and was burning up. Then she started throwing up on me and kept going until I got her to a sink. We finally got her all cleaned up but she was having a hard time sleeping. Spencer was up at this point so I fed him and got him back down. At this point it was midnight. I was laying in bed with Aaron and we were like what should we do? Should I run my race still? Aaron had been planning to go with me with Spencer but we felt like he needed to be with Brooke. But I can't be away from Spencer for a long time. Plus it was freezing! At that time Brooke woke up again so Aaron went to lay with her and stayed with her the rest of night. I went to bed and wasn't sure what to do. Spencer woke up early to eat again. I got up to feed him and while I was feeding him I just decided I was going to just leave everyone behind and run my race alone. I got a bottle out for Spencer, got up and got ready to go and left everyone sleeping in their beds. I just decided everyone would be fine without me, right?
I wasn't sure what to expect from the race since it ended up being a crazy night and crazy cold. But I felt good on the warm up and just decided no excuses. I was going to run the best race I could run and just enjoy myself. My goal for this race was to celebrate being back in shape after Spencer and being proud of how hard I had worked.
I lined up in the cold and realized this was a small race field, there were only like 160 half marathon runners total.
Right before I started I got a text to tell me good luck and let me know that there would be lots of donuts waiting for me when I got back. :)
I told myself to start out slow. I really held myself back the first mile and when my garmin clicked for the first mile and I saw 7:49 I knew this was going to be a good day. the first few miles felt effortless and fun. The course was great, it was just challenging enough to keep it fun but not too hard. The race is an out and back and I knew that I was in second place, female, right away. At the turn around point I timed that she was 1:30 ahead of me. I decided I could cut that time down. I started making my move the second half of the race. I pushed my pace and told myself I needed to start running my miles in the 7:30s. I pushed myself on the down hill section and she was now just 60 seconds ahead of me. I kept my focus and kept hunting her down but I was also having a blast. I made sure to cheer everyone on at the turn around and stop at all the aid stations to tell the volunteers thank you because it was a cold,windy day and not fun to be out volunteering. I still felt good after 11 miles and knew that I was now just 30 seconds behind this young girl. I kept hoping she was going to slow down but she continued to run a pretty consistent pace. The last two miles were the hardest, as they should be, if you aren't hurting at all at the end then you weren't running fast enough. :) I ran those last 2 miles under 7:30 but I knew I couldn't catch her, she was still running strong. I proudly crossed the finish line in 1:40:19, a shiny new PR and sprinting to the end. I was so happy to finish a race so strong and having run a negative split. Just about 10 seconds behind that 16 year old girl who beat me.
I felt really great after the race and after drinking some water and having a volunteer take my picture I needed to head home and get back to my sick baby girl and sweet baby boy. I ran this race with no expectations, just wanting to run hard and enjoy myself and I did completely.
This race lit a fire in me. I feel very motivated to work hard and push myself this spring. I fell in love with racing all over again and can't wait to get back at it.
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