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.
