Me and Amber (my sis-in-law) ran the half marathon Saturday
I ran my second half marathon on Saturday and let me just tell you.... I HAVE QUITE THE STORY TO TELL!!! And a VERY EMBARRASSING ONE TOO!
First of all, the good news.... I ran the fastest half marathon I think I will ever run! I ran it in 1:53:49. You can check it out
HERE! I was 35th in my age division. I still don't know how anyone can run it any faster...I DIED! LITERALLY! My average speed was 8.41 minutes per mile.
My first half marathon, I ran in 2:08, so I am shocked that I beat that by 15 minutes.
I had been training for a long time for this, and I am proud of my time, even though it's not very fast comparatively.
Anywho, on to the embarrassing story...
Well, Amber and I were the only ones that ran the half marathon even though 3 in-laws signed up for it also... but they were so crazy busy this summer, they didn't train for it at all. HOWEVER, Tiffany (Tyson's sister) is a big runner and is very fast. She could have ran it, but didn't train well for it, so why run and get a crappy time, right?! (Even though she would have beat me by 20 minutes LOL) So, instead she was nice enough to meet me at the 10 mile marker and push me along....
We started so dang late! It was the hottest day of the summer, can you believe that!!! I had to get up at 4:30 to get on the buses by 5:15am so they could bus us up the canyon. The last buses were late and so the race didn't even start until 7:40am. It was suppose to start at 7:15! That 30 minutes made a HUGE DIFFERENCE in the weather because the wind and breeze stopped at about 8:30am!
The first few miles were all down hill. They were awesome! I felt great and I was running a 7:30 minute mile for the first few miles. I was nervous that I was overdoing it and might burn out too soon though. Amber fell back a little bit at mile 4 and I pushed on. As soon as mile 6 came I slowed down a bit. It opened up and the sun started to beat down. Then the hills started to come. By mile 8 I started to crash a little, so I started taking my energy beans. At mile 9, 1/2 I saw Tiffany waiting for me. At mile 10, I had ran 1 hr 25 minutes. It was good time and I had 3 more miles to go. I hadn't stopped to walk at all except to grab a drink of water. She knew I could make it in 1:50 at the finish, so she tried to push me. At 10, 1/2 miles I wanted to cry! I was so done. I had to pee sooo dang bad that I had to stop and hold it. I knew I had to either keep running and pee my pants or stop and squat. There was a line of bushes right before a HUGE LONG hill, so I literally stopped on the side of the road and dropped my pants. At this point you are just not yourself! You are in so much pain and tired, you don't think reality. All I remember is hearing one guy run by say, "You don't see that everyday!" HOW EMBARRASSING! Tiffany said that he was the only guy that looked back and saw. She said it looked like I was taking a rest and sitting on the ground because my but was touching the ground. I think she was just being nice. Oh well, it was embarrassing, but on we went up the DANG LONG HILL! My mom, my brother Kelly, Tyson and Taylor were at the top of the hill cheering me on. It was so nice to see them, but I was in so much pain I couldn't even give them a smile or a wave. Tiffany said I slowed down almost to a fast walk after the hill and that's why she started to push me from the back. She literally put her hand at my back and pushed me. LET ME JUST TELL YOU, I WAS NOT SO NICE TO HER!!! AND I FEEL SOOOO BAD ABOUT IT! She knew I was going to be dead and not so nice, but she just shrugged it off. She was such a good sport. She would say, "Keep on going! You are going to be in pain anyways, lets get it over with! Come on! Push it!" I told her to stop talking and to get behind me because she was running in front of me so I would keep up with her. I had NEVER EVER BEEN IN SO MUCH PAIN (mentally and physically). I wanted so badly to keep going, but I stopped to walk like 4 times for a few seconds each. That was the worst thing I could have done too! I had taken 8 energy caffeine beans from mile 8 to the finish and so I had a lot of highs and lows. At 1/2 mile left, I tried to speed it up a bit. And then I sprinted at the last 1/4 mile. AT THIS POINT I WAS COMPLETELY NUMB! I literally didn't hear a thing around me, my body seemed to shut down and as soon as I crossed that finish line, I COLLAPSED! It was the craziest thing ever! I have never done that, EVER!
My whole family and Tyson's whole family was there. The EMT ran over and lifted my legs up. My face was pure white. They gave me wet rags to try to cool me off. I wanted to get right up but I physically couldn't. I don't remember half the things that were said to me. Tyson said it was kind of embarrassing with all those people around looking. I totally agree! If I could change it, I would have tried to walk it off as soon as I crossed that finish line. But I don't know if I could have. I really did collapse out of my own free will. My brother, Kelly, was right there getting me water and helped me walk over to some shade. My mom and Tyson were taking pictures, for the blog of course :) When I first went down, my father-in-law was the first one there. He is the captain of his fire station in Salt Lake City and kept asking me if I was alright! He told me that the first thing I said was, "I'll never make my time!" I was retarded! My goal was under 2 hrs and I beat my goal by 7 minutes, so I was totally out of it! The second thing I said was "I'm going to KILL Tiffany" :) She was great! I certainly wouldn't have gotten the time I got without her yanking me along.
There were many times that I wanted to throw up, but I kept my cool and held it in. Shockingly I wasn't that sore physically after the race, just weak. The only damaging thing is that the dead toenail I finally grew back from the last half marathon is now dead again! :(
As Tyson and I drove away, we saw a lady open her car door and throw up like 10 times. It was awful! I think what drove me to collapse was lack of oxygen and heat exhaustion!
Here I am running up the LONGEST HILL OF MY LIFE!!!
10 1/2 miles
(I'm in the pink shorts)
I still had almost 3 more miles to go and I WAS DEAD ALREADY!!!
This is what I wrote on the back of my shirt!
I got a few comments, but I did it mainly because I saw a ton of funny sayings when I ran the Derby half marathon in Kentucky, and thought it was a cute idea.
I'm sure it put a smile on a few peoples faces :)
Me and Tiffany sprinting to the finish line
I am in the pink shorts about to cross the finish line! The timer is the "gun time", my official time was 1:53:49 because I didn't cross the start line until 34.5 sec after the gun went off
AND THEN I WENT DOWN!!!
I couldn't really remember half the things that were said. Everything was sorta numb to me.
Here is my brother Kelly trying to give me some water. I could barely lift my head.
I had never in all my years felt like this before. I literally couldn't get up!
I wonder if EMT would have given me O2, if that would have helped.
I see it in the bag right there. And I heard other people having to get it.
Here I am feeling a little better, drinking tons of water and eating crackers. I felt so weak!
MORE PICTURES TO COME....from my mom and mother-in-law's camera
Things I will do differently next time I run a half marathon:
-Train better in learning how to increase my time at the end or how to avoid hitting a wall 3-4 miles before the finish line.
-Train with Energy beans or goo (which ones work best for me) or help the most
-Eat more complex carbs throughout the week and especially in the morning (I had 1/4 cup oatmeal at 4:30 in the morning and a protein drink and that's it)....bring a bagel up the canyon to eat
-Don't drink a lot the morning of (only the day before, load up on water) I even pee'd right before we started the race!
IF YOU HAVE ANY TIPS, I'M TOTALLY OPEN TO THEM!!!
