SLC Half Marathon

So I did it. I accomplished (part of) a goal. I ran 13.1 miles on Saturday in the SLC half marathon. It was hard. Definitely hard. But it was great. Why would I do this to myself? A couple reasons. My cousin and my uncle were running and I wanted to be a better runner. I used to be a really good one in Junior High when I ran on the high school track team for a year, and I wanted to get back to that, now that it's 15 years later and I have 20 pounds to lose. Oh yeah, and I wanted to lose 20 pounds. I started "training" in December, so you that sounded totally doable in 4 months. So how much did I lose? -1 pounds. Crap. Don't judge me. I am launching a campaign to prohibit the sale of Dr. Pepper, diet or otherwise. It has ruined me! Oh well. Somehow I can run miles and miles in what is basically a fat suit. Who else can do that and really enjoy themselves? But at least I accomplished something I didn't think I could do, and I will do it again. Here's some pictures of the fatty boombalatty (as we call ourselves at our house) running.

And then finally, I was almost at the finish line. I got a burst of energy and I was sprinting to the end. I felt like an awesome sexy runner with a beautiful stride. I am never going to allow pictures again, because my glorious image of myself is now ruined.

And then I was done and I saw my Dad taking pictures of me. And no, my time was NOT 2:43. It was 2:18 thank you very much and I can prove it. It's on the website I actually started 25 minutes late. Go down to the end of this if you want to read a long winded story about my how dysfunctional I am when trying to leave the house at 5:30 in the morning.





And here's my wonderful supportive mom and brother at the end. And my cute cousin Cassie who also ran it. I wanted to run with her, but as I said, I was a little late.

Yay accomplishments!

And now I'm writing my whole long winded version (for my benefit). I can't do anything without making it extremely stressful. The day before the race I had to go to Salt Lake and pick up a "packet." It had a chip that you put on your shoe for your accurate time, and a bib number. This was my first half marathon and in all the information they give you it says that you HAVE to have your bib and your chip or you CAN'T RUN.

I went to bed the night before super super early. We're talking before 10. Shocking, I know! And I woke up at 5:00 without any problems. I had a whole backpack of stuff all ready with extra clothes, my ipod, my gum, etc., everything important. I put it right next to my "packet." Why didn't I put my packet in my backpack? I don't know. That would have made my life easy.

So it is now 6:00 in the morning, and I am almost at the gateway, which is where I was going to park my car and ride tracks up to the starting line, and I realize. I don't have my packet. I started freaking out. For some reason I couldn't break the rules. I just knew if I didn't have my bib number and my chip, I wouldn't be able to race because somehow, you know, they would have singled me out of the thousands of people at the starting line, and dragged me off the road. Never mind that my bib could have been covered by a sweatshirt or something and that there were THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE LINED UP AT THE STARTING LINE. I totally could have run, but at 6:00 in the morning, I had to have my packet. I turned around ready to go 100 miles an hour on the freeway and go home and get my stuff.

So I call my cousin Cassie and tell her that I can't meet her because I'm retarded and she tells me to call Ty and have him meet me somewhere. So I did. I called Ty at 6:00 in the morning to tell him that he has to drag the boys out of bed and meet me in Draper to give me my packet. I HAVE to have my packet. He was SO incredibly happy to be helping me. Let me tell you. When I finally met him it was about 6:30 and we calmly (baa!) decided to try have Ty drive me all the way to Salt Lake and get me as close to the starting line as I can get because I wouldn't have enough time to park my car and then go catch Trax, etc.

Well, that didn't work. I actually had no idea where I was supposed to go and half of Salt Lake was blocked off so he frantically dropped me off at a Trax station and 6:45 so that I could just ride it up. I jumped out of the car and I watch him drive off and I realize that I didn't have my ipod. I swear I almost fainted. There is no way I could have run 13 miles without my precious ipod. I left it in my stinking useless backpack. Luckily I had my phone and Ty was so incredibly happy to turn around as fast as he could and give me my ipod before my train arrived. He was actually much nicer than I expected. He was able to coherently say, "You're making it hard not to be rude." So then he turned around and finally found me and said that he was going to throw my ipod out the window at me, which he basically did. But I appreciated it.

So by the time the right train came, and we had gone through all the stops, and I turned in my gear bag and went to the bathroom, I crossed the starting line 25 minutes late. Luckily I wasn't the only late one and I felt really good about my self because I spent the first 2 hours passing people. It was a confidence booster.

And to top it all off, after everything was over, I realized that the whole time, I had my bib number upside down. Awesome.