We Can Go the Distance!
In May my older sisters, Cassie and Chelsea, invited me to run the Top of Utah Half Marathon with them at the end of August. I just laughed. Since my fitness glory days on the high school soccer team I had put on about 8 pounds and lost who knows how much muscle! I figured that we would have very few opportunities for running while we were in Europe and I knew it would be impossible for me to run it without training the whole summer, so I politely declined their offer.
However, a blessing to our unexpected change in housing in France landed us in one of the most quiet areas of Paris with a large green space right outside our door. I decided to give the training a chance and to keep up with the schedule my sisters were on. Most days while Burke was in class, I dedicated the first hour of my morning to a run. It was amazing to me to see how quickly my body began to regain its former shape and the increase in my endurance. I was shocked by how much energy I regained and pleased with the shrinking of my abnormally large boo-tay.
When we returned to St. George and I ran with Cassie for the first time, I realized that I was really going to have to kick my training into gear if I was serious about running this race. Cas was the ultimate cheerleader and encouraged me whenever I was being a weakling. She is one tough Mama! By the time August 28 (the day of the race) rolled around, I was just hoping that we had done enough to make it through.
Chelsea, Cassie and I got on the bus Saturday morning at 6 AM and crammed all three of us on the sticky plastic seat (right over the heater no less) so we could be together on the drive up Blacksmith Fork Canyon. Energy was high as the 2,500 runners milled about before the race, taking last minute potty stops, jogging and stretching. I was a little nervous as this was my first race, never having run even a 5k before! When the gunshot went off a collective cheer was raised, but we didn't even cross the starting line for another minute with the bottleneck of clogged bodies. Once we were out of the crowd, we struck a great rhythm and had a nice time enjoying the beautiful canyon scenery. We got a lot of funny comments from the spectators such as, "Go matching running girls!" and my favorite was, "Triplets?!"
I had never run the course before and as we came out of the canyon at mile #7, Chels and Cas started prepping me for the huge hill looming ahead.
"Okay Em, here comes our biggest hill," Cas said as we rounded the corner. "It's all a piece of cake after this." I sized up the ascent and started preparing myself mentally.
"They call it The Monster," Chelsea said with fear in her voice.
"The Wall." Cassie affirmed.
So there I am trying to pump them up as we get closer and closer to the base when suddenly I realize, why isn't anyone ahead of us running up it? They had a pretty good laugh at my expense, but it was pretty cool how I had geared up mentally for "The Wall" and I was so relieved when we turned down a side road just at the base!
On mile 11 I started hurting and by mile 12 I was whining to Cassie, "I've gotta walk sis!" She wouldn't hear of it and kept encouraging me until we saw Burke right before the finish line and my pride kicked in to not have him see me limping across the line. Our goal was to do the race in under two hours and our final time ended up being 1:55:03 from the gunshot, but 1:53:51 from the time we passed the starting line. I was pretty excited today when I looked at my results and discovered out of the 2,500 people I ranked 456 over all, 212 out of the females and 13 out of my 20-24 age division!
I'm so glad I got to run this race with my sisters and hope to do more half marathons in the future. As for a marathon? NEVER.
However, a blessing to our unexpected change in housing in France landed us in one of the most quiet areas of Paris with a large green space right outside our door. I decided to give the training a chance and to keep up with the schedule my sisters were on. Most days while Burke was in class, I dedicated the first hour of my morning to a run. It was amazing to me to see how quickly my body began to regain its former shape and the increase in my endurance. I was shocked by how much energy I regained and pleased with the shrinking of my abnormally large boo-tay.
When we returned to St. George and I ran with Cassie for the first time, I realized that I was really going to have to kick my training into gear if I was serious about running this race. Cas was the ultimate cheerleader and encouraged me whenever I was being a weakling. She is one tough Mama! By the time August 28 (the day of the race) rolled around, I was just hoping that we had done enough to make it through.
Here I am with 2 of my 5 beautiful sisters at 5:30 AM the morning of the race. I couldn't believe when I got my bag and I pulled out number 4. 4 is my lucky number! Certainly a good sign.
Chelsea, Cassie and I got on the bus Saturday morning at 6 AM and crammed all three of us on the sticky plastic seat (right over the heater no less) so we could be together on the drive up Blacksmith Fork Canyon. Energy was high as the 2,500 runners milled about before the race, taking last minute potty stops, jogging and stretching. I was a little nervous as this was my first race, never having run even a 5k before! When the gunshot went off a collective cheer was raised, but we didn't even cross the starting line for another minute with the bottleneck of clogged bodies. Once we were out of the crowd, we struck a great rhythm and had a nice time enjoying the beautiful canyon scenery. We got a lot of funny comments from the spectators such as, "Go matching running girls!" and my favorite was, "Triplets?!"
I had never run the course before and as we came out of the canyon at mile #7, Chels and Cas started prepping me for the huge hill looming ahead.
"Okay Em, here comes our biggest hill," Cas said as we rounded the corner. "It's all a piece of cake after this." I sized up the ascent and started preparing myself mentally.
"They call it The Monster," Chelsea said with fear in her voice.
"The Wall." Cassie affirmed.
So there I am trying to pump them up as we get closer and closer to the base when suddenly I realize, why isn't anyone ahead of us running up it? They had a pretty good laugh at my expense, but it was pretty cool how I had geared up mentally for "The Wall" and I was so relieved when we turned down a side road just at the base!
On mile 11 I started hurting and by mile 12 I was whining to Cassie, "I've gotta walk sis!" She wouldn't hear of it and kept encouraging me until we saw Burke right before the finish line and my pride kicked in to not have him see me limping across the line. Our goal was to do the race in under two hours and our final time ended up being 1:55:03 from the gunshot, but 1:53:51 from the time we passed the starting line. I was pretty excited today when I looked at my results and discovered out of the 2,500 people I ranked 456 over all, 212 out of the females and 13 out of my 20-24 age division!
The after shot. Never mind that I could barely walk and thought I was going to throw up after this picture was taken. My sisters were a whole lot tougher than I was!
I'm so glad I got to run this race with my sisters and hope to do more half marathons in the future. As for a marathon? NEVER.
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