One of the goals I set for myself this year,
was to run 2 races.
As of last weekend,
I'm happy to say: I did it!
(if you didn't know/remember I ran my first back at the end of May...
see this post)
After doing that first half marathon I was SO gung-ho to do another,
and I had signed up for the Boise FitOne happening in September.
But then plans changed and I missed it,
and I was bummed about it.
I really wanted to run at least one more half,
and was looking at a few around here as well as down in St George.
I knew 2 of my cousins were running the Provo Haunted Half on Halloween,
so I finally just buckled down and signed up for that one...the Monday before!
Gooooooood thing I had kept up and been training,
so it wasn't any crazy shock to my body :)
Here we are freezing our bums off the morning of!
(me, Jaleese, Bug)
It was so cold!
Although,
I can't complain too bad because overall it was a beautiful day - and actually pretty perfect for running a race!
We started up the Provo Canyon and ended at the Orem University Mall.
The views were bomb,
and I wish now I had snapped some pics on the way down (but of course I was too busy running....dangit).
I look retarded,
but love that I am laughing here!
I was on the final stretch and had just seen my family....best motivation ever!
Also,
it needs to be noted that I had just come up an extremely steep freaking hill and it had kicked my trash.
I've got to give a shoutout to Jaleese for creating the most adorable workout tanks and tees.
She just opened a shop and it's filled with motivational apparel.
The two you see above are from her Halloween line.
My fave are the ones directed at mommy runners...pretty cute play on words!
Go check out her shop
HERE and follow all her daily grammin' over
HERE.
...it was also only my second...haha.
but i'll take that.
Yaaaayy!!
The biggest thing I had wanted to do with this race was pace myself.
And I did!
I loved being able to run and keep up with my cousins (both were crazy fast in high school, this was nothing new to them!).
We had about 8 miles down where our pace was at 7:35-45,
and then it slowly started creeping up the more the ground leveled out and we left the canyon.
I had been hoping to keep my overall pace to under 8 minute miles,
but oh well.
I felt SO good the whole race,
and only started to feel tired/slow around mile 12.
And then I hit that dang hill!!!!!
I actually stopped on it and turned around to try running backwards up it....but then just turned back around when I saw all the peeps behind me (because hello! i couldn't let them pass me! i couldn't look weak!) and kept going.
Man that was hard, and I hated it.
I totally should have driven that last 4 miles of the course beforehand,
just to see what I was in for...lesson learned.
Overall I think I was more prepared mentally for this race,
whereas last time I didn't really know what the heck to expect....but I was doing it!
haha.
It was also definitely fun for me to see my time improve.
Now that it's been about a week,
my legs are feeling back to normal (hurray!).
It was nice to use this past week as a recovery week,
and take a break from running every day.
This week was all about my upper body.
More focus on core strength and arms...and lots of stretching.
As for training for this second race,
I mostly stuck to the same schedule as before,
found here, but also tried incorporating in more tempo runs and sprints to help increase my time.
I was also doing some BBG workouts as well (though not following those strictly by any means).
...................
Okay tired of all these deets and just want the dang playlist?
Well you can calm down because here it is:
Dessert (feat. Silentó) [remix] by Dawin
Drag Me Down (feat. LunchMoney Lewis) [Big Payno x AFTERHRS Remix] by One Direction
Hey Mama (feat. Nicki Manaj, Bebe Rexha & Afrojack) by David Guetta
Problem (feat. Iggy Azalea) [Dawin Remix] by Ariana Grande
When Can I See You Again (Wreck it Ralph) by Owl City
Va Va Voom by Nicki Minaj
