I ran in the Salt Lake City Half-Marathon yesterday (I'm using the word "ran" very liberally here...it was more like a fast jog.) I'd actually planned to participate in the full marathon back in January, but around the last week of March when I realized that I hadn't run for over a month I started thinking that maybe I should scale down to the half.
This was my seventh half-marathon and I didn't set a PR by any means! My training for this particular event was sporadic (if not non-existent!) because of work and a lot of traveling (I know--excuses, excuses...) The last time I'd run before the race was April 9th when I ran 2 miles for my PT test (which I also did not train for--geez!) I ended up in the lower mid-pack with a finish of 2:21:11 (that's a 10:46 pace--I was runner # 1748 out of a field of 2882.) This isn't the first half that I've run with no training and I always kick myself afterwards--if my performance is relatively mediocre without training, it'd be nice to see what I could do WITH some training!
Even if I didn't do as well as I'd have liked, I really enjoyed the whole experience. Bruce was an excellent cheerleader/support team, and I had a lot of fun during the actual run. Unfortunately, the battery to my camera died so I didn't get to take any photos--huge bummer because it was a perfect day and I kept seeing things during the run that I wanted to take pictures of: a nail salon in Sugarhouse with a sign advertising for pedicures and asking, "Do your feet hurt?"...Two girls running together in bright red tutus...A sweet, sweet 9-year-old little girl running (with perfect form, may I add!) alongside her mom ...An older gentleman who ran the entire half marathon while pushing a man in a wheelchair that was adorned with flags...A guy on the side of the route wearing a purple feathered hat and playing his guitar for the runners...
I was able to stick with the pose running for the first 4 miles and actually felt great until about mile 9. Once I got to the (evil and COMPLETELY uphill!) street leading up to the Capitol Building at about mile 11.5, I was definitely ready to finish! At that point all I could think about were the bananas, ice cream bars, and Paradise Bakery rolls waiting for me at the end...I was SO hungry!
All in all, I had a lot of fun, but I definitely need to work on training before events (I'm not as young as I used to be!!) It was a beautiful day today and I was able to get a short jog/walk in this afternoon to work out some of the soreness. I do have a lovely dime-sized blister the color of a watermelon Jolly Rancher on my toe as a souvenir, but I don't feel as tired or as achy today as I thought I would. So I guess that means I have no excuse not to show up to a WOD tomorrow at CFUV, right?? :-)
