Half marathon

For those of you that don't know, my mother and I ran a half marathon on Saturday May 2. Well, run is a loose description, since I walked quite a bit of it.
It was down in Hurricane, which is by St George, Utah.

This is my Uncle John, my cousin David, my mom, Chad and Lisa Rowley, and Me after the race was over:

This race was pretty hard on me. I have been training since January, and we have done long runs for about 6 weeks in a row. We started out with 6 miles, then increased by a mile each week. The most we ever went was 11 miles, but I felt fairly confident that this race wouldn't be much different than our practice runs.

I stayed up with my Mom until about mile 7 or 8 (it all kinda blurs together). We were making great time, since we did the first 6 miles in 54 minutes. That calculates to 9 minute miles. Impressive for us. At about mile 8, the road started going downhill fast. As in, there were markers for trucks that warned there was a 6 or 8% grade. This downhill part lasted about 2.5 miles. As we went down it, I needed to walk, so Mom pulled ahead. I was feeling sorry for myself (I was soo tired!) and started to kinda cry. This caused me to start hyperventilating, which, you know, isn't a good thing.
If anyone would have driven by, or asked how I was doing at that point, I know I would have given up. But, luckily, no one came by so I had to keep going. I got over my self pity and started running again. I walked quite a bit of the last 5 miles. But at the last mile, Mom waited for me, and we came in together. Thanks Mom! I really needed encouragement at that point.

My mom and I were saying hi to Katie in this picture:


We came in at about 2 hours 50 minutes. I think there might have been 4 or 5 people that finished after me. :( But, I am grateful that I can say I finished!

I have wondered why I was so tired, and I have come up with this theory: During our long practice runs, we brought fruit snacks or Gu. (kinda like honey, with caffeine. It helps keep your energy up) We would eat these about every 3 miles. Well, on the race, they had water and Gatorade every 3 miles. That's it. I thought they would have sustenance, or else I would have brought my own. Oh well. Live and Learn.

Overall, I would say it was a good experience. I'm glad we did it. We are planning on doing another half marathon in August. The good news is: My time can only get better! :)