Provo City 1/2 Marathon

About 6 weeks ago Russ's cousin emailed me about the Provo City Half Marathon, saying she wouldn't be able to use her registration and she wanted me to run under her name. I had been running a bit more than usual, but definitely not half marathon training amount. But being the optimist I am, I responded with an enthusiastic "YES!" Gulp.

I think all forces were against me with training when I first dislocated my knee while working in the yard and had to take a week off for that to heal. And then I got the blister of all blisters on the bottom of my foot (I'm talking multiple blisters on top of each other... ouch), and had to lay off the running for that to heal. And then I went on vacation. Ha! So let's just say I had about 3 weeks of "real" training. As I expressed in this post, I was hoping just to finish. 

Continuing the documentation of my crazy weekend, I finally wrapped everything up with the baby shower at about 10:30 on Friday night (after going all day on little to no sleep as it was). I knew I needed to get to bed right away because my alarm would be waking me up at 4:15 am. SICK. I couldn't get to sleep, and I think the last time I saw the clock was 2 or 2:30. When the alarm rang to get to my race I felt terrible. I drove myself down to Provo anyway, and waited in line in the dark for the shuttle to the top of Provo Canyon, which luckily is one of my favorite places to run. 

When the gun finally blew at 7:15 all I kept thinking was "here goes nothing!" And you know what? It went. I finished my fifth half marathon! Definitely no PR for me, but I was happy just to finish. It always feels like such an achievement. (And thanks to Russ for running the last 3 miles with me... I may not have been able to keep going without him :)

I wore my Pro Compression socks for the first time during a race. I've loved them for recovery after long runs, but I've seen people running in them so I thought I'd give it a try. I did feel like my legs were a lot less sore and recovery time was much faster. I am a believer.

And one of the biggest highlights of the day came when I finally ran into my running hero, Hungry Runner Girl, who also ran the race. She is 6 months pregnant and finished in 1:39... amazing right?!? She's also one of the nicest people I've ever met. I felt a little bit like a stalker as I know more about her than a stranger should (thanks to her blog), but luckily we have some mutual friends so I wasn't totally creepy. I was so excited when I even made it onto her race re-cap post! 

In the end I'm glad I ran the race, although I would not recommend doing it on such little sleep (or training!) to anyone. I think your body likes rest. Just guessing.