Ogden Half Marathon 2014 (Boring race post with too much detail)

I did it! I did not die. I did not spend 30 minutes using porta potties along the course, and it was awesome!

On Saturday I ran the Ogden Half Marathon and I loved it. I was feeling a little bit of trepidation since a few weeks ago I switched shoes and my foot has been bothering me since. I switched back to a new pair of my old shoes and it seems to be okay, but my foot has been worrying me. I've spent many hours giving myself premature frostbite while icing the stupid thing. (I told Mike that and he said, "Premature? Because you were going to get frostbite as you grew older?" "Yes," I said. "Don't you know that frostbite is one of the many joys of aging?") So maybe it wasn't premature, just plain old frostbite. But it seemed to work. My foot held it together. So let me bore you with the details.

I woke up at 3:45 a.m. after a pretty decent night of sleep. I was in bed by 10:30, after pinning my number on my shorts, attaching my chip to my shoes and laying out my clothes and other stuff.. It always takes me so long to get everything together. I rolled out of bed, thinking that I woke up way too early. I could have at least slept until 3:55. I threw on my clothes, which consisted of my marathon shorts (I thought I would try to redeem them, since my 2009 Ogden marathon had sucked. And yes, I still own the same shorts), my Ragnar shirt from last year, my new purple socks free from planetshoes.com (hooray), my new Brooks Glycerins, and my running hat. The hat was a mistake. It got way too hot and I ended up carrying the dang thing, since I love it and I'm way too cheap to buy a new one (see shorts from above). I wore fleece pants over my shorts because I knew the start line was going to be a bit chilly.

I tried to empty my bowels, was moderately successful, and then made myself a bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and butter. I poured it into a disposable cup, since it was still way too early to be eating. I packed a banana and a multitude of clothes, grabbed my ipod, which Mike had thoughtfully charged for me the night before. I borrowed my neighbor's GPS watch, so I grabbed that too.

Here's my Ogden Half Marathon Gear List
1. Hat (next time only wear if it's raining)
2. Fleece Pants (for wearing at the starting line)
3. DI Sweatshirt (for wearing at the starting line, and just in case it was cold, I could wear it and ditch at one of the aid stations)
4. DI Long sleeve (for wearing at the beginning of the race)
5. Smartwool Phd socks (I love these for running any weather!)
6. Sports bra (duh!)
7. Running shirt
8. Running shorts (number pinned on already)
9. Shoes (timing chip attached)
10.Shuffle Ipod and headphones
11. GPS watch (thanks Meghan!)
12. Waterbottle (disposable would be better, but I forgot to buy one)
13. Ear band
14. Gloves
15. Sports Jelly Beans

Phew! I think that's it. My mom came and picked me up at 4:15 and we were off. Not really. My mom forgot her timing chip, so we had to run by her house to grab it. I began to stress out a little bit, but tried to remain calm. She found it quickly and changed her shirt too, since she claimed hers stunk. Then we were off. There was only a little bit of traffic on the bridge and we found a parking spot okay behind the DMV. We found my Aunt Leslie waiting in line for the buses and loaded pretty quickly. I ate my oatmeal mostly on the drive and sipped my water, trying not to drink too much.
As soon as we made it to the starting line we made our way through the crowd to the porta-potty lines. With our typical finesse we choose the slowest line and spent the next hour waiting to use the bathroom.  Honestly. After we used the bathroom, it was a huge rush to get the clothes on that I wanted to have on to start the race. I peeled off my fleece pants and jacket, tried to get my headphones ready, and got out my DI Long sleeve. I tried to to get my Sports Beans ready, but the pouch was too bulky to fit in my shorts and I was going to deal with it, but then slipped it in my bag and forgot about them until my bag had been dropped at the clothing drop. At this point the collective panic was starting to get to me and I was rushing around, even though we still had about 5 min. to start.

I saw Leah there and she told me she wasn't feeling 8s today because she had been up all week with a sick baby, so we didn't start out together, which was kind of a bummer.

I left my mom and aunt with a last good luck as we dropped our bags off and I started walking toward the starting line. At the 9 min. pace marker there were a ton of people but it thinned out in the 8s and in the 7s there was hardly anyone. I saw Alyssa, Angie and some other fast women I knew inching up to the very front, so I went up to say hello. "Just stay with us," said Alyssa, but she was joking because there was no way I was going to drop anything lower than a 7. Alyssa's goal was like 6:20s. So I wished them luck and stayed pretty close to the front. Suddenly we were off.

I started my borrowed GPS watch as I crossed the line and turned my music on. I usually don't race with music, but since I was going to be alone for this race I figured I might as well. Especially since I had put together an awesome playlist.

Things I remember from the race:

2 miles in, someone pinched my butt. It was my friend Summer, who I was hoping I might be able to keep up with, but she blew by me, saying, "I was late to the start!" I didn't see her again until the finish.

3 miles in, I dropped my sweater by a mile marker, intending to donate it. I wished I had kept my gloves on for the first few miles, but then I forgot about it as my hands warmed up.

I was nervous about forgetting the sports beans, but my stomach was holding up. At mile 4/5 I grabbed a vanilla goo and took it at Mile 7. Well, I took most of it, 3 good swallows. It wasn't bad. It was a quick pick me up. And I probably should have taken the whole thing.

At mile 7ish, some guy came up on me running my same pace SLAP, SLAP, SLAPPING down the canyon. I had to run faster just to get ahead of him. I felt pretty good and would spurt ahead of him. He seemed to always catch up though. So I just decided to stop being annoyed and think happy thoughts for him.

I walked through a couple aide stations, sipping the water they offered and trying not to slosh it all down my front. I mostly succeeded. Somewhere in here I ate a part of a banana. I liked it.

I remember running down the canyon thinking about how awesome it was to be running HALF a marathon, not the whole dang thing. And my legs felt great.

My hat started to annoy me, but I wasn't about to throw it to the side of the road. So I tucked it in the back of my shorts. But it started sliding, so I had to carry it. Super annoying. No hats, unless it's raining next time.

When I hit the parkway, my music stopped! Arghh! I was so looking forward to listening to Katy Perry as I came down the homestretch. Oh well. I could feel myself really slowing down as I ran on the parkway. I just kept thinking, 3 to go, 3 to go.

When I got to 25th st. it was kind of awful. Far, far, far away I could see the finish line, and people started going fast. I thought, "People. Slow down. Don't you realize that we are still so far away?!" But they kept running faster. It's a horrible finish to a great course.

I was able to pick it up the last .2 of a mile and finished in 1:37:53. So happy! Hooray! It's a PR and it was an average of 7:29s. Great Great Great!

My mile splits:
7:19
7:28
7:24
7:31
7:08
7:40
7:44
7:16
7:13
7:21
7:35
7:51
7:52

I bet if Katy Perry was singing me in I would have ran those last two miles faster. Oh well. It was great.
Alyssa ended up coming in fourth behind Angie, who was third. They are so fast! Someday I will run fast like that.

Mike and the girls were at the finish line (the girls were so excited. Not really. They just wanted my creamies.), and my dad was too. It was pretty awesome. I felt tired, but good and happy and I ate three creamies, a glass of chocolate milk and some bread. I was so hungry. I iced my foot, which was a little sore, but okay, and we hung out for awhile until my mom came through, took some pictures and then we headed off to soccer. Good times.

Kenzie took this shot.