Halloween Half Marathon

So I did it!  I've completed my first half marathon.  I have a lot of positive and negative emotions about my first half.  I trained for my half for about two months.  The race was downhill so I set a goal of 3 hrs, but now looking back at my training a 3 hr finish was really pushing it.

I woke up the morning of the half marathon not feeling that great.  I felt the beginnings of a sinus infection coming on.  I woke up nauseous mainly because of the infection.  I really wasn't that nervous.  The thought of food just made me feel blah.  I threw a banana in my bag along w/ some extra hammer gels.  I started getting a little bit of an appetite once we got up to the race start so I ate a banana and one packet of hammer gel.

Once the race started, I was feeling pretty good until I hit mile 5.  I started gagging really bad.  I thought it was weird since this has never happened during any of my training runs.  I figured it was probably just drainage from my sinus infection.  I had it for 2 miles and then it relaxed a bit.  I started to get really sore by mile 8.  There were times I thought about calling my husband to have him come get me...lol!  When I hit mile 10, I just plan HURT, especially in my right foot.  I physically couldn't run after mile 11.  I was so disappointed, but I couldn't do it.  Plus I started gagging once again.  Stupid sinus infection!  Somewhere between mile 12-13 I started running again.

I was so glad to see that finish line!  For some reason, I just wanted to cry because I was finally there but I didn't.  My official time was  3:28:57.  Not even close to 3 hrs, but I'll take it!  To make myself feel better, there were 6 people behind me.

My thoughts during this race was I'm never running another half marathon!  Thats not true since I'm already signed up for one in May!  I'm sure it will be better since it won't be as bad as a downhill.  Those first 5 miles were the hardest!!!  Plus I have 6 months to train for the next one.

Here I go!

I've decided to run a half marathon after all!  A bunch of my friends want to do the Provo Halloween Half Marathon so I thought it would be fun to do it with them.  I won't be actually running with them since I run at a much slower pace, but it will still be fun!

I'll be doing the half marathon using 3/2 run-walk intervals.  The goal is to finish even though I'd like to cross the finish line in 3-3.5 hrs.

Here is a quick overview of my training plan:

Week of September 19th -
Tuesday - 4 miles , Thursday - 4.5 miles, and Saturday - 6 miles
Week of September 26th -
Tuesday - 4 miles, Thursday - 4.5 miles, and Saturday - 8 miles
Week of October 3th -
Tuesday - 4 miles, Thursday - 4.5 miles, and Saturday - 4 miles (Love Your Body 6K)
Week of October 10th -
Tuesday - 4.5 miles, Thursday - 4.5 miles, and Saturday - 10 miles
Week of October 17th -
Tuesday - 4.5 miles, Thursday - 4.5 miles, and  Saturday - 8 miles
Week of October 24th -
Tuesday - 4 miles, Thursday - 30 minute walk, and Saturday - RACE DAY!

I'm also running on my treadmill on the short run days (Tues & Thurs) and Saturday I'm running outside so my body gets adjusted to it.  Plus it gives me a chance to figure out my fueling for the race.

5 miler

Last Saturday, I ran 5 miles.  It is part of my half marathon training plan which I will go more into in another post.  It was a really good run and think I kept my pace pretty well.  The only problem I ran into is my water tasting like plastic so I got slightly dehydrated on my run.  I'm currently working on getting the plastic taste out of my bottles.
The other fun thing that happened on my run was a saw a snake.  I've gotten used to barking dogs but didn't think I'd run into a snake.  I kind of wish I had my camera with me.  I keep on telling Nate that it was a rattlesnake just to be dramatic.  I'm sure it was just a garden snake though.

Giveaway!!!

A friend of mine is doing a giveaway of one of my favorite products: Handful Bra!  The giveaway is only until Thursday, September 9th so if you are interested so check out her blog!

Onion Days 5K

I decided to do this race even though I was out of shape.  It was so close to home that I HAD to do it!

I woke up at 5:45am w/ the runs.  Blah!  Not fun.  The good news is that it went away right before the race.  I blame the cookies I ate the night before. 

The race started a little after 7am.  It was pretty chilly out.  When I left for the 5K, it was about 43 degrees...brrr!  I got to say I prefer running in cooler weather though! While running this race I realized why some people wear sun visors.  There was a good stretch of this race where the sun was in my eyes.  I'm thinking I may get one for my next race.

I decided to keep my pace slow for this race since I've slacked off on training for the past month.  I ended up finishing at 39:56.  Definitely not a PR, but I'm going to work towards getting back to a 35 minute 5K!!!!

Pioneer Day 5K

On Saturday I ran the Pioneer Day 5K w/ my friend, DaNae.  My husband usually runs races with me but he has to watch our son & his eight year old brother that we were watching for a few days.  He did take some awesome pictures of me though!!!

Race morning we got the kiddo's up at 6 o'clock in the morning.  It was easier than I had originally thought.  We got there about 20 minutes before the race started.  Ten minutes before I had to go to the bathroom.  I found the port-a-potties but the line was crazy long and there was only four potties.  A few minutes before the race started I decided to give up on waiting for a potty.  I didn't have to go that bad.  Kind of stinks to run with a semi full bladder though.

The race started and I stayed with my friend, DaNae, for the first mile of the race.  Then I went ahead.  This race was different then the other 5K's I've ran because they actually had water stations on the 5K course.  Before this race, I had only trained for two weeks since the past month or so have been crazy.  I finished the race at 38:26.  Definitely not a PR, but still felt good about the race.

Wanna get DIRTY?

...then this race is for you!

Doesn't it look like fun?