Provo Halloween Half Marathon

I'm not sorry that I'm late at putting these pictures up- hehe. I ran 13.1 miles yesterday and my quads are constantly burning and Jon has to help me up and down the stairs- so I have reasons for being late on this one. I am sorry that the post is a little lengthy.. but there are lots of pictures!! Enjoy!

This is us at our ward halloween party the night before.
Jon was Garth from 'Wayne's World'. "Party on, Wayne!" haha!
Happy Halloween!!!!

This race was one of the best races I have ever run. I woke up at like 5:30am and got ready and put all my gear on. Jon and I headed to the Riverwoods where the buses were picking up all the runners. They said the last bus was leaving at 6:45am. We got there a little after 6am and I waited for about 25 minutes until a bus finally showed up. This is probably the only thing I would've changed about the race. Tons of runners were in a line waiting and then when the bus came it passed us and ended up going to a different part of the parking lot. All the previous buses were stopping where we were all lined up so we were all confused and this just added to the mayhem. People were cutting people to get on the buses and I got elbowed by some chick (on purpose) but whatever, i'm over it.

Me before leaving the house and before the earmuffs went on!

Anyways, before I got on the bus I was in line and I was standing by an older woman (at least she looked older) and the whole scene reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite! She was like "can I touch your tutu?" It was a bit awkward. I was waiting for her to say "I like your tutu, it's real big and puffy". Then the lady I sat on the bus with was another awkward character. She kept staring at my tutu and then she started jabbering about the race start time. Heh, then there were some old guys in front of us singing "the wheels on the bus". It's amazing what kind of people you run into at 6am, most dressed in costumes and prepared to run in 30 degree weather in a canyon- hehe.

After the scary bus ride (imagine doing switch backs on a bus!) we got to Aspen Grove (above Sundance). They had one of the buildings reserved for us which was really nice. I went in and picked up my timing chip and got situated. There were even a few people who asked if they could have their picture with me- I looked that good! I ran into some people I knew and hung with them until the start.

Please don't judge me... I was making a "woo!" sound/face and um.. the picture
doesn't do it justice. Haha! I should've just gone with
the "thumbs up" ;-)

The costumes were AMAZING! Although, I have to admit- there were a ton of tutu's.. but mine was by far the best! The guy who won the costume contest was dressed as Wonder Woman! It was pretty great. There were a few "runaway brides" who wore wedding dresses with long trains (honestly.. how??) and one of my favs that didnt' win a prize was a guy who was dressed in a blue dress shirt, pocket protector, name tag that said: Bill and! he had a briefcase w/ a Microsoft sticker. Hehe.. he was Bill Gates and he ran the whole thing w/ the briefcase! Crazy!

The race ended up starting about an hour late (9am). It was due to the buses. The bus company were prepared for about 300 people and there were actually 800 people who ran this thing. So, we had to wait until all the buses got there. I was grateful though! A later time = a little warmer weather. Well, as warm as you can get at 7,000ft!

Wahoo!! I'm done!!

The first 5 miles were all down hill. It was intense! My quads are in agreement on that one ;-) I loved every minute of it though. The view of the mountains was unreal! It was so beautiful and breathtaking. Corny sounding, I know. I really mean it though. It is always so wonderful to see all of God's creations and being able to soak it all in. Anyways, after the first five miles, we ran on the side of Provo Canyon Rd. until Vivian Park and then we entered the canyon running/bike path and that took us back to where we got on the buses. They didn't have any mile markers on this course and I'm kind've glad. I just felt like I was just running and not in a race. I wasn't getting all caught up in "how many miles do I have left?" and I was just running and enjoying the scenery, other costumes (haha), my thoughts and music. At one of the last aid stations they yelled out that we were at 10.5 miles and I was like "woah! I only had a little less than 3 miles to go!" I kicked it into gear and finishing this time vs. my first half marathon was really awesome. My finish time was 2:02:04! Granted, we had the big down hill, but I ran the 2nd half of the race faster than the first half- go figure ;). I am so excited about this race. Even though my whole body is in a good amount of pain, I am really proud of myself.

After the race with my finisher's medal!

I also have to give another shout-out to Jon. He is my cheerleader and my most favorite person in the whole world :-) I told him he didn't have to come until the finish, but he insisted that he wanted to be there for the whole thing. I am so grateful for all his support. There are probably a million things he would rather be doing than go to a race- but he goes happily and cheers me on. I am so lucky to have Jon as my husband. I know of other husbands who were not so happy to be standing at the finish line yesterday and it made me sad when I saw how un-supportive they were. There were no "congrats" or even high-fives. I mean really! Your spouse just worked their butt off (literally) to run 13.1 miles and trained really hard for it and they're met with a grumpy husband way after the fact of finishing. Not cool.

I am hands down the luckiest woman in the world. I wish Jon could run with me, but due to knee problems, it just isn't an option. As much as I would love for that to happen, having him there supporting me is just as great. I love Jon and he needs as much recognition as I get- he's a real trooper putting up with my training, races and weird eating habits while I'm training. After the race yesterday we went up to Corn Belly's (a corn maze) and these next few pictures are from that :-) I love Jon- you are awesome and I know I thanked you like a billion times yesterday- but really, thank you for being there for me and helping me up and down the stairs, cheering me on and loving me no matter how I do. I appreciate all you do.

Jon before we started the maze

After a 3d fun house hehe- awesome glasses!

Here is a sign at the start of the maze... I don't think I could've run that fast
at that point anyways.. haha! I was very slow going (still am)
when we took this picture!