Dino Halfs (Marathons and Miles)

Since I don't have any wedding pictures yet I am going to skip ahead to our weekend trip to the land of Vernal.  The reason we ended up in Vernal on this particular weekend?  Well, if you remember, I was a little disappointed that I didn't make my 2-hour goal at the Disneyworld Half Marathon back in January because of the 25,000 other people in my way (not exaggerating).  I wanted to give it one more try in a less-crowded race to see if I could make it under the 2 hour mark.  I checked online and found a race called the "Dino Half."  It cost less than 1/3 the amount of the Disneyworld Half Marathon, started 2 hours later in the morning, and had 1/100th the amount of runners.  Win, win and win.  The race was being held on a slightly-downhill course near Dinosaur National Monument and other dinosaur stuff.  Hey, I know a kid who kind of likes dinosaurs. 

 

Sign me up.

 

After I signed up, I noticed that there was also a half-mile kids race.  It only cost $10 and the kids would get a t-shirt AND a medal.  The medals were in the shape of dinosaurs, so I thought that since Dax has an unending supply of energy and an undying love of dinosaurs that he might want to do the race.  I asked him about it and he was superexcited.  One for the kids race!  Arden was sitting next to Dax while we were talking about it, and she jumped in and said she wanted a medal too.  Um, okay, Arden can run half a mile.  Two for the kids race! 

 

Cora, who was nearby piped up and squeaked, '"I want to do it too!  I want to run a race and get a medal!"  Ruh-Roh.  "Corbie," I said, "You would have to run pretty far.  I am not sure you can run that far since you make me carry you to church, and that is only half a block away."  "But MOOOM!" Cora yells while bouncing up and down, "I AM SUPERFAST!  I WILL NEVER GIVE UP!  NEVER EVER!"  I laughed and I told her that we would go to the park later and she could run around the track to make sure she could really go half a mile on her own two little legs.  Running shoes ON!  Arden and Dax ran neck and neck furiously around the track.  I trotted along with Cora who was running and giggling and running and giggling.  She wasn't very fast but she successfully completed a couple of laps with only a two small walking breaks and zero requests to be carried.  Okay.  Three for the kids race!

 

I went through my training schedule okay, but I knew that it was going to be CLOSE whether or not I would make the whole 13.1 miles in less than 2 hours.  Really close.  I was hopeful, but not too confident.

 

We drove to Vernal Friday afternoon, and checked into our hotel.  Dax told the girl at the desk all about how he was there to run in a race.  After we dropped off our stuff, we went to pick up our race packets.  The kids were jumping around, so excited about the t-shirts, chap sticks and pens and temporary dinosaur tattoos the had scored that they could hardly contain themselves.  We had some dinner (where Dax told everyone he could find all about how he was going to run in a race) and then headed to the hotel pool for our evening entertainment. 

 

I was hoping that the swimming would wear everyone (mostly Cora) out, but we still had a little bit of a hard time getting Cora to keep her sweet little mouth closed over on the sofa bed.  Eventually we all got to sleep. 

 

Soon it was morning, and we headed out to drive me to the bus.  I realized after we were driving that although I had my iPod, I had forgotten my iPod arm band back at the hotel.  I couldn't face the prospect of running 13+ miles in silence, so we ran back to get it.  Luckily, the bus was running a little late too so Preston and the kids didn't have to drive me all the way to the start.  The rest of the crew headed back to the hotel for some breakfast and some pre-race swimming while I headed to the FrEeZiNg CoLd starting line.  I turned on my handy-dandy GPS watch Preston got me for Christmas (LOVE IT) and it started trying to find the satellites.  The start line was up Dry Fork Canyon, which has some tall cliffs on either side in some places.  The race started and still no satellites.  Crap.  I have no idea how fast I am running without my watch, so I just ran fast and hoped the satellites were found quickly.  No luck.  It just kept searching and searching, which had never happened before.  Crap.  After I pass the 1-mile marker and the satellites are still lost, I decided to just switch over to the timer so I would at least be able to tell from mile to mile how fast I was going. 

 

I wasn't too worried because the race had some pacers (people who run the race at a certain pace), so I figured if I stayed between the guy holding the 1 hour 55 minutes sign and the girl holding the 2 hours 00 minutes sign, I would be fine.  At mile 3 I was right behind Mr. 1:55, and I timed myself between mile 2 and 3 and I had done it in just under 9 minutes.  Cool.  I am feeling pretty okay!  (Other than the fact that the pacer (who I shall refer to as Mr. 1:55) is having a conversation with the person next to him like he is sitting on a couch.  He is not even breathing hard at all.  Totally annoying.

 

Mile 4...Mr. 1:55 is getting kind of far ahead of me.  Mile 5...crap, where is he?  I was planning on keeping him in sight for at least a couple more miles, but there was a hill and I lost him!  I am afraid to go much faster though because...well...I don't want to die at the halfway point.  By mile 6 I hadn't seen Mr. 1:55 for a good long time and I was starting to get worried.  I just kept plugging along through the next few miles trying to keep the time between mile markers under 9 minutes, or at least as close as I could.  When the 2:00 pacer hadn't passed me by mile 10, I snuck a peek behind me.  I didn't see her.  Maybe I can do this! 

 

I am kind of tired though.  It seems like the mile markers are getting farther and farther apart.  Mile 11.  Okay, I am really about ready for this race to be done.  I hear footsteps behind me and I am worried it is the pacer.  The way I am feeling if she passed me now I don't know if I could kick it up a notch to stay ahead of her.  Luckily, it wasn't her, just another runner.  Phew.  Are we seriously not at mile 12 yet?  Mile 11 lasted forever!  Eventually, mile 12 came into sight.  Only 1.1 more miles to go.  Just another 10 minutes. 

 

That was a long 10 minutes. 

 

The finish line was set up in a church parking lot, and I have to tell you that when I turned the corner towards the finish line and saw that I was going to make it in less than 2 hours, I was a happy girl! 

 

 



I saw Preston and the kids near the finish cheering for me, and that gave me another reason to smile.  Yay me!  I ran under the line while the shot clock said 1:57.  My official chip time was 1:56:49, which is about 3 minutes faster than I was aiming for :)  I walked over and got some water, chocolate milk and orange slices.  Then my legs decided that they would like to sit down.  So sit we did.  I sucked down some water and tried to get a bite of my orange slices before Dax stole them from me.  Preston kept bugging me to stand up and walk around, so after a minute Preston pulled me up off the ground and we walked over to get a picture:

And then I walked over to get some more snacks since mine had been stolen.  I saw popsicles this time!  I wanted a popsicle, and my legs wanted to sit back down.  I walked over to the curb and tried to give us both what we wanted.  Cora had other ideas.  Here she is, stealing my popsicle: 

I was too tired to resist.  Here is my Corbie, with her ill-gotten gains.  What does a tired girl have to do to get a post-race snack to herself?!?

Lucky for me, the kids race started after a bit, so I wandered over and got MYSELF a popsicle and got ready to stand still and take pictures while Preston ran with the kids.  On your mark, get set, GO!

Arden and Dax were pretty much neck and neck during the whole race, but right before the final turn Dax started to walk for a second and Arden pulled away.  As you can see from the picture, she ran about a 5:30 half mile.  Not too shabby.  Yay Arden!

Dax soon realized he was almost there and picked up the pace.  He was only about 10 seconds behind Arden and finished strong.  Yay Dax!

(Arden better watch out!  I don't know if she will be able to beat this kid much longer).  Preston and Cora were, as predicted, a little farther behind, but they were smiling as they finished.  Yay Cora (and Preston!)

Here is Arden, with her very own, completely-legal-and-not-stolen popsicle, and her medal.  We hung around and ate some more snacks and let the kids bask in the glory of finishing their very first race. 

We  decided we couldn't leave until we got a picture with the dinosaur that was wandering around, so here we all are.  Dino-Half finishers. 

Yay us!  Now carry me to a shower....