Road Rage

This summer opened up a new world to me- long distance running.  At least it is long to me!  I had never run longer than 4 miles when Thunder took me on a run in May.  We kept going, and going, and going... and ended up running for 6 miles.  I had never run that far, and was pretty astonished that I could run that long.  I had always thought my legs couldn't carry me that far.

After that, I started running with a neighbor who was training for a marathon.  I didn't go on her long Saturday runs, but ran a lot with her mid-week (even at night, screaming at the insane wind).  I toyed with the idea of training for a half.  The breaking point was one Saturday when I tried running 8 miles... and made it!  I signed up for a half marathon race that night.

Race #1: Salt Lake City Half Marathon

My good friend and running fiend Emily ran it with me.  Here we are, all lined up at the start.  We had timer chips tied to our shoe laces to keep track of our official time.

Can you barely see how this road climbs UP the side of that mountain on the left?  That's Little Mountain.  Hmm, who came up with that name anyway???

The route took us up switch back hills for the first 3.88 miles!  That was about 40 minutes of solid uphill running.  I was dying.  I was totally talking to myself, chanting "You can do this.  You trained for this."  But I didn't stop and walk at all.  I really wanted a clean race.  And I made it to the top!

Then the blessed downhill!  We went down through Emigration Canyon and the road was not closed off to traffic.  At a few points along the way, I saw Thunder and the kids yelling and cheering me on.  It was great!  The first time I saw them I was all smiles... by mile 10 I was feeling really tired and ready to be DONE already.

Here is my personal cheering section!  Can you see Thunder's shadow?

Coming in for the finish.  That big yellow banner never looked so good!

I totally sprinted at the end to catch that guy in the red shorts.  I came in at 2:04:41, which is about 9 and a half minute miles.  That's way faster than I trained!

Emily was so great.  She finished about 20 minutes ahead of me and won 3rd place in the division.

I was so happy to have finished!

And then I hobbled around a bit.  The downhill was really hard on my quads.  It was such a great experience!

Race #2: The Dirty Dash

And on to my next race for this summer... the Dirty Dash!  This was such a fun race.  It was a 10K (6 miles) through mud, hay bales, climbing walls, swampy stinky muck and the biggest slip and slide in the WORLD.

I did this race with Jenny B, and we had so much fun! We stayed together through the tough up-and-down course and pushed each other on.

The end was a GIANT mud pit with ropes that made you crawl right down in it.

Or swim, take your pick.  My lovely family was so thoughtful, yelling such helpful things like "get down there!" and "stick your face in it!"

Wahoo, we did it!

There is another race, a shorter 5K in May. I'm signing up again!