This is the second half marathon that I have run. It's kind of funny that I jumped straight from casually running straight to the full marathon. The first half that I ran was Provo City April of 2009. From that year on, they started scheduling it in May so that they would have better weather because it ended up snowing that Saturday that we ran...
Flashforward to two nights ago and it happened to snow that night as well. The night before I would run my second half. Lame.
This one was kind of funny because I haven't been on too consistent of a running schedule lately. I was really good just before the wedding, and then I took three weeks off, and then I came back on for a few weeks, did a 10 mile run about two weeks ago, but then only ran twice two weeks ago, and then twice this past week. But having run the 10 made me feel fine about running this one, and plus I knew that this would kind of jump-start my marathon training for this summer.
Thursday I went for a nice 5-mile run at about 10pm. It was just a little windy, but the temperatures were nice. Felt great. Not even two days later the temperature had dropped 30 degrees and when I woke up at 5:30am to get ready for the race there was a 2-3" snow covering on the ground. Awesome.
I was pretty whiny about everything up until about 15 minutes or so before the race. Kira ran this one too, so it was fun to see her there. Her dad also happens to work at Thanksgiving Point so it was fun to see him in various places during the morning.
I had on my running tights, shorts on top, long sleeve shirt, t-shirt on top, and then a jacket that I sometimes run in on top. I also had gloves and a headband. Gear-wise, I'm doing pretty well these days. I have just about everything I'll ever need to run in any kind of weather (although I'm kind of starting to think that I'd like some trail running shoes, but that's for another day).
The cold was pretty miserable in the beginning. It just felt like it seeped right through my clothing. They had no heaters. Just cold that morning. But I knew that once I got going temperature wouldn't be a big deal.
The race started, and sure enough, by about 1.5 miles in, I had already taken off my jacket. Lucky for me, my sweet little wifey had already gotten to another part of the route and I was able to strip it off and leave it with her. Eventually I took off my headband, stuffed that into my pocket, and then took off my gloves and held those the whole time too.
The race was fine. It was well-organized, had plenty of aid stations with the right stuff, and good post-race treats. I just didn't like that it was so early, and that it doubled back over so many parts of the race. I really just hate seeing other runners that are ahead of me doubling back over parts that I know that I'm going to be running in just a little bit.
I ended up doing well enough, finishing in about 1:48. Kira raced well too, considering that she's PREGNANT! Crazy, right? But that's Kira. She's tough as nails.
Anyway, although I was a big baby before the race started, whining so much about the cold, I was glad that I participated once it was over. And even more, I'm just so glad that I married a girl who loves me enough to get up with me at 5:30am on a Saturday in 30 degree weather just to come and cheer me on and take some pictures.
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