I want to go back a little and talk about the last two weeks of running. I went from an elevation of 430 feet above sea level to an elevation of around 5728 feet above sea level. Let me tell you that there is a huge difference between those elevations breathing wise. I can't breathe here! We (my husband and I) had two weeks to train on Utah hills and in this high altitude and it was hard for me.
I felt like it took about 3 miles to get into any run we went on. The hills seemed like mountains compared to what I am used to. There is no air here! How do people breathe? lol. I am glad we had some time to acclimate to this higher elevation and hills.
On Monday my husband and I went on our 10 mile run (we were supposed to do it last Saturday but our schedule was kind of crazy). We felt pretty good going into the run. There were some hills and some straightaways. It took us about 3 or 4 miles to get into our groove. Up until about mile 8 we did alright. Then I must have hit the dreaded running "wall", because I wanted to walk and not run, but my man encouraged me on. There was a massive hill in the middle of mile 8 and we ran up the whole way, which I was pretty proud about. We thought we were home free in mile 9, but I tweaked my left knee as we ran over a bridge. It hurt so bad. I wasn't sure what I had hurt, all I knew was the pain was bad. I thought to myself, "really? I train for months with no injuries, and in the very last mile of our last long run I get injured??!!" I wasn't too happy about that. I also want to mention my husband's knees were killing him. His knees have been bothering him for a while. So we finished the 10 miles in 1 hour and 56 minutes. I felt pretty good about that.
After running that 10 miles I felt pretty confident about the upcoming half marathon. I was just a little worried about my knee though. Within a day my knee felt fine. My birthday was on Wednesday and my husbands family and I went on a 5 mile hike. I ran some of it and my knee didn't hurt at all. Again, I felt confident about the race.
Last night I laid out all my clothes (my awesome brother in-law and his girlfriend gave me a cool running outfit but I didn't get a chance to run in them before the race, so I stuck with what I have been running it) and packed some gatorade and water. I run with a fanny pack (I know, I'm so cool!) so I put my shot bloks in that with some water, my on-the-go phone charger, my chap stick, and some sunscreen. I went to bed an hour later than I planned on but I still felt pretty good and prepared.
I. Slept. Horrible. I don't know if it was pre-race nerves or excitement, or if it was an uncomfortable bed, or if it was my stomach (Yesterday I had some digestive issues going on, if you know what I mead. I had an unsettled stomach the whole day, and I think it was something I ate). I woke up so many times. So did my husband. So going to bed at 11pm and waking up at 4:30am, along with waking up through out the night, didn't really make me feel too confident this morning.
My husband and I ran the half marathon with one of his brothers and his sister. When I say we ran the half marathon together I mean that his brother and sister ran really fast, and we ran together several minutes behind them. We left the in-laws at 5am and headed up this crazy canyon. We got there, got parked, and got ready.
It may just be me but when I am nervous, or excited, or like today, nervously excited, I need to use the bathroom. A lot. So I made a few trips to the port-a-potty before the race began.
We stood at the end of the start. I guess a gun went off, I wasn't really paying attention. I turned my Pandora onto the Beatles station and started my Endomondo. We headed out on the road for 1 mile before turning onto a dirt trail.
There was a water station at mile 1 (which is also mile 12 because the race was a down and back run). I didn't need any water at mile 1, I was just getting going. When we signed up for the Canyon to Canyon half marathon, it was described like this:
"You will be constantly running up and down steep hills, crying in pain, wishing you hadn't chosen such a hilly first half marathon. Your body will ache all over and you will want to ask the medic to drive you to the finish line every time you see him pass by. You will become bi-polar, switching from 'you can do this' to 'I can't do this' throughout the 13.1 mile course. You will enjoy it at first, but by mile 8 you will wish you could fly so your legs could get a break. You will see no porcupine, fox, or deer, but you will see some fluttering birds that can be seen anywhere. A tiny little stream can be seen at times if you are a tall person. "
It was hard, I'm not gonna lie. I think that if there weren't so many hills it wouldn't be so hard. And. There. Were. Hills. Monster hills. They weren't rolling. I didn't take any pictures of the trail but it was hill after hill after hill. And you knew that if it was downhill on the way out that it would be uphill on the way back. Here is a picture from Google Maps:
There were actually 2 races going on, a 10k and a half marathon. The 3 mile mark was the turn around point for the 10k. I had a proud moment passing that, thinking of how awesome I was for doing the half marathon instead of the 10k. There was water there and I had some. I also brought water in my awesome old lady fanny pack.
At mile 4 there was a bathroom and we stopped for a minute to use it then kept going. Unfortunately it was in the middle of a hill and it was hard to get up. I have to mention that I have the best husband ever. He was such a motivator to me. He helped me get up those hills. He took my hand and led me when I didn't think I could go much longer.
It had rained a little this morning before the race and that made great weather for us to run in. It was cloudy most of the time and a little overcast. By the end of the race it felt a little hot though. It was a beautiful run, I have to say. The view was spectacular. There were beautiful "rolling" hills all over. There were beautiful trees. We saw a really pretty yellow bird. There were times where we really enjoyed the run, but mostly it was hard and those hills really took it out of us.
We ran down the hills really well. We let them take us. That really helped with our time. It also felt really windy which was nice because we were so sweaty. That cooled us down. In the last several miles we walked the hills.
There were several people running by us that we went back and forth passing each other. Bran and I decided to pick certain people to pass for good. It took a couple miles to pass some of them. In the end we were able to pass a dozen people which made us feel really good.
I took my shot blocks around 45 minutes in and again at an hour and 50 minutes. We hit a wall around 8.5 miles. It was really hard from then on. We hit 10 miles at 2 hours and 4 minutes, a little slower than our last long run, but we still had 3.1 miles to go.
We got excited when we saw the 11 mile mark, but we also knew there was still 2.1 miles to go. My husband kept saying "You are awesome! We are awesome!" I felt a little tense in my shoulders and decided to stop briefly to stretch out my upper body. As we were walking up a hill my husband said "there's a camera man" so we started running. We were like "We have been running this whole time!" and we ran really well to get cool pictures. Haha.
We were so excited when we got to the 12 mile mark. Earlier in this post I mentioned there was water at the 1 mile mark (which is also the 12 mile mark). I thought it was silly to have water at the 1 mile mark, but I was so grateful to have water at that 12 mile mark. I poured some on my arms and then I drank some.
I was so hot. And so tired. I really wanted to be positive but negative thoughts had come into my mind and I was thinking I couldn't do it. And I was so close! I was super duper bi-polar in that last mile. It was back on the road, and it was flat. No hills. You would think I would do really well. Well I was exhausted. My body and my mind were fighting each other. I would say "Alright we can do this, let's go all the way" and just a few seconds later I would burst out crying and blubber "I can't do this! Carry me the rest of the way". I think I was having a panic attack. My poor husband must have thought he married a nut job because I went back and forth with those positive/negative comments.
It was hard. That last mile was do or die. I kept running but I didn't want to run anymore. I just willed myself to keep going. That last .1 mile was my saving grace because it was downhill. It helped me to push a little harder to cross the finish. By the time I got to that last .1 I was crying almost uncontrollably. I had my hand in my face as I crossed the finish line, bawling. I had so many mixed emotions crossing that finish line: I can't believe I just ran a half marathon. I am so proud of myself! Oh my gosh, I am so glad that it is over! I CAN"T BELIEVE I JUST DID THAT!! Have you ever seen the Disney movie Tangled, when Rapunzel leaves the tower and she says "I can't believe I did that!" several different ways and with different emotions? Yeah, it was like that for me. And yeah, it was a moment in which I looked like a crazy person. I was like hysterically crying. My sister in law thought I had gotten hurt or something because of the way I was crying.
It took me a minute to calm down, but after that I was good. I had water and a muffin and I stretched out. We were all proud of ourselves for completing a half marathon! My brother in law wasn't fairing so well stomach wise, but he ran the race in 1 hour 50 minutes! So awesome! My sister in law did awesome too! And I ran the half marathon with my husband in 2 hours and 40 minutes. I am really proud of that, because I just completed a half marathon.
I don't know in this moment what other races will be in my future, because I am too sore and tired to think about it. I will post pics from today after I have had some rest.
-Kate, your not-too-fit guru
No comments:
Post a Comment