After work on Friday I left my home with an old friend (Sonny) and headed for St. George, Utah which is about 260 miles away from my home. We planned on staying with a friend (Ryan) and I planned on going to bed at 11 or worst case scenario 11:30. 4:40 am rolls around and we are still up. Now at this point it is important to note that I hadn't really ran in about 2 weeks. Not ideal for running 13.1 miles. I was extremely nervous that I wouldn't be able to finish and consequently disappoint my ancestors, family, friends, etc.
In the end, I got about 3.5 hours of sleep. I woke up, get dressed, ate a bagel, and then walked outside to the rain that has been coming down all night. Luckily, I brought another shirt/jacket thing and threw that on. Ryan drove me to the Dixie Center (the start point). We left with about 30 minutes to spare, but I didn't anticipate the traffic so when we arrived 15 minutes before the start time, I jumped out of the car and took off. I didn't take my phone (because I knew that Ryan would just meet me back at the pre-determined location) and as I watched Ryan drive away, I realized that I left my music in the car. Talk about lame. It was raining, and now I didn't have any music.
When the announcer told everyone to line up, I felt my stomach jump a little. It was intimidating seeing all of these people that looked like runners line up around me. Once the race got underway, I settled into a pace time that was about 1 minute faster than I was planning on running. This made me nervous because I hadn't ever run a race this long and it only added to my fear of bonking midway through.
After the first mile, the rain had receded to a light drizzle or stopped all together, I couldn't really tell. After the first few miles, I was in my groove. After about the eigth mile, I way feeling like a pro. Then I caught up to an 11 year-old kid and it hit me, I felt like I was running like this-
But in reality, I was running a lot more like this-
It didn't matter though, I was still keeping a good pace time, and I figured that based on how I felt I would be able to complete the race for sure. As the miles wore on, I felt pretty good about it. Just after the 12th mile marker, I heard someone yell out, "TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT" ... silence... "MOZEL TOV" ... nothing... "I GOT A FEELING". I looked behind me to see a 60 year-old lady that couldn't have been taller than 5'2" running behind me. I couldn't help but smile as I ran, easily the best part of the race.
I ended up finishing in 2:03, which ended up being my PR- mostly due to the fact that it was my first race. Overall, it was a great experience and I can't wait to run my first marathon in April.
Terrific race report, especially with the addition of the photos. It's one thing to hear you say you place to start running while we are on vacation in Costa Rica, it's another to actually go home and follow through. Nice work. Still waiting to hear what you next planned race is.
ReplyDeleteShane