Salt Lake City Half Marathon

My first half marathon was four years ago. I ran the Salt Lake City Half with my good friend Valerie.  My finish time was 2:05:44, with an average pace of 9:35/min. It was exhilarating and exhausting.

This morning I found myself at the starting line of the Salt Lake City Half once again. My friend Ashle and I have been training together for months. She is a stronger runner than I am, so she helped to motivate and drive me through our long runs. (After our 10 mile run I laid down on the driveway and sobbed.)

I struggled with some hamstring pain for much of our training and I was struggling to get up for our early morning runs. I wasn't feeling very good, but I was determined to complete my training and race goals - which were to finish every run.

Very early this morning we rode Trax to the University of Utah and joined the throngs at the starting line.  I was excited and nervous. On our ride up we began talking with some other runners and made friends with a woman named Gabriela. That's her just over Ashle's shoulder with the black hat.

Ashle and I started the race off together and were quickly joined by our new friend Gabriela. I managed to keep up with them for about two miles and then the initial adrenaline of the start began to fade and I settled into my slower pace.

As the route continued along the avenues and into City Creek Canyon I was feeling pretty good. Downhill running is my favorite and there was a moment when I could see Ashle up ahead of me and I thought just maybe I could catch up to her.

Running into downtown Salt Lake I took a moment to soak in the beauty of the temple as I ran past on State Street. As the route turned up South Temple the incline increased. I was determined to keep running and not to walk.

About eight miles in I caught up to Gabriela. From that point forward we stayed together. We pushed each other to keep going, especially as my feet started to ache with each pounding step.

As we neared Library Square I was so excited to see my little family near the finish line. I knew my parents would be there too and I had some special news to share...

They almost missed me as I ran through the final chute, so they had to wait until they saw me up close to read the good news... I'm pregnant!

At eight weeks along it was difficult to train, but it felt amazing to run and finish such a great race. I posted a picture on Facebook with the following message: Half marathon done. Next big finish in 7 months. Hopefully that one will be 2 hours and 20 mins too and result in a much cuter post-race reward!

My official finish time was 2:19:34 with a 10:38 min/mile pace and I met my goal - to finish!