My first Half Marathon Race

I don't even know where to begin. This race has definitely messed with me mentally! It is crazy how just a few minutes can have such an effect on a person. Why is it that just 3 to 4 minutes faster would have made me feel better about my time? Like really, 1:43 sounds SO much better to me than 1:46 and I would probably be perfectly happy with that being my first race time. But its not, I got 1:46 and I am not satisfied with that. I keep rethinking the whole race and I know there were places I could have upped my game.....did I take it too easy in the beginning? I was told by others to not run out of the gate too quickly at the start so I wouldn't fatigue later in the race. Now I think I ran to Eeyore like for too long. Or did I walk too long through the water stations? I was told to walk while I drank my water to better hydrate myself to avoid side aches and wearing my water as opposed to drinking it.

Running to music helps me a lot as well. I should have made a playlist just for my race! But I thought it would give me something to do while I ran to skip a song if I didn't like it. And funny how toward the end of the race when I need the most umph and I'm talking like the last 3 miles when you are basically sprinting your guts out I kept getting Dora's Christmas, When you wish upon a star, One day my prince will come, When will my life begin from Tangled, Whistle while you work, and the freaking letter factory!!! No joke, I was about ready to rip my earphones out!

An expected 5,000 runners showed up to race. My sister and our two friends Marisa and Sunshine were there to run too. Luckily the weather was 20-30 degrees warmer this year as opposed to last year they say. But we all faced some strong wind for the first half of our race which eventually it died down and to me was perfect running weather. No sun and a perfect temp! This was good for me cause I am a sweater and it was nice not having it drip down my face and in my eyes. The race was in Moab and you got to run right next to the river in the beautiful redrock canyon. I don't think I noticed one rock or ripple of water! I was too busy watching that guy and then watching that guy get out of my sight. I know I have the worst thinking right now and need to knock it off!

So overall I enjoyed being with the girls! We for sure got some pre-race fuel the day before the run.....Subway on the drive down (we started out with healthy in mind), smart cookies, a really yummy pasta dinner at Pasta Jays, and we topped it all off with a Hogi Yogi ice cream. You are supposed to Carbo-load right?! Which I probably should have started sooner than the day before but I had to weigh in on Thursday....at least I was super happy with that number! So I guess I'll just look at this first experience as a learning experience. I did learn that I will never do a full marathon. I would rather run hard for only 13.1 miles and not have to add another 13.1 on top of what we did. I just need to not be so hard on myself. I am tempted though to have someone drive me back down there so I can run it again to show myself I can beat 1:46! and how silly that going into this I wanted to beat 1:45, and I got 1:46. But I just know myself and I know I can get under 1:40 and I will! If my husband and my family let me run in another race cause I am acting as if my dog died! (and to top off my run, I came home to a sink full of dishes for me to clean grrrrrrr!)

RESULTS: My age group was 25-29 year olds. 466 of us total.

**In my class, 339 were females and I crossed the finish as the 21st female.

**There were a total of 2,021 females total in the entire race and I crossed the finish as the 93rd female. I just keep telling myself that at least I finished in the top 100 females out of 2,000+ female runners.

(I will post up some actual pictures of us girls on our trip but Shannon was the one with camera so I need to get the pics from her)......and I did!! Just stole these right off her blog:

Before the race

During the race and finish line

After the race

love these girls!