REVEL Big Cottonwood Half

A couple of weeks ago, it was a typical Friday night.  I was trying to clean up the kitchen and  (which always seems a losing battle) and Preston was talking on the phone to his little sister Alison.  Next thing I know, Preston is telling me that she is asking if I want to run a half marathon in the morning. Her husband had been planning on running it with her, but something came up and he had to miss it. Alison had another friend doing the race with her, but Thomas had already paid, and she already had picked up his packet and had his race bib and everything, I just had to show up.  I had already been training for the Haunted Half in October, and I looked at the course and it was DOWNhill, so I figured...what the heck?  

I had second thoughts the next morning when my alarm went off at 4 a.m.  "I hate this part!" I whispered to myself as I crawled out of my nice warm bed into what seemed like the middle of the night.  I got dressed, grabbed some water and a banana and headed out.  The drive wasn't too bad, and I met up with Alison and her friend and got in line for the buses by 5:15 a.m., right on time.

As we boarded the bus, I said "I hate this part!"  It is always a little intimidating to take the bus ride up to the start line.  Those rides seem to take forever, and the whole time I am thinking how I have to run allll the way back to where I started.  While we rode, I pinned on my bib, which said "THOMAS" in big bold letters. :)

But on the other hand, the bus is nice and warm and cozy.  So, when we finally made it to the start line and we had to get out of the nice and warm and cozy bus to go stand outside in the cold for an hour until the 6:45 a.m. start time, I said "I hate this part."  I don't like standing around and freezing and doing nothing except noticing how everyone else's shoes look faster than mine.  Actually, it wasn't as cold as I thought it would be because in our race bags were those shiny silver space blankets, which actually worked really well to keep my legs warm.  It was kind of funny to see all those runners wrapped up in tin foil in the dark.  It looked like some sort of space alien convention.

If you are a runner, you know that the most important thing to do at the start line before you start your race is to find yourself a porta-potty.  So, after a bit we made our way over and found a potty line to stand in.  "Ohhhhh, I HATE this part!" I said. (My deep and intense hatred for all forms of non-flushing toilets is well known.  And for good reason.).

Next, we headed toward the start line.  It was nearly race time, and the race organizers yelled for us to put our drop bags in the waiting truck.  Oh dang, time to take of my nice, warm jacket.  I hate this part.

But, I still had my "space blanket," so it actually wasn't too bad.   This was the most downhill course I had ever run, so I decided to at least start out fast and see if I could get a PR.  Off went the gun. Off went everyone's space blankets.  There were a LOT of runners in the race, so I didn't get past the starting line until a couple of minutes had gone by.  There was a lot of dodging people (and discarded space blankets) at first, but I was enjoying the downhill.  Have I told you how much I love the downhill?  So much.

I had my GPS watch, and I was going at a pretty fast pace the first few miles.  I hadn't done any downhill training though, and by mile 5 my calves were getting a little tight.  That didn't bother me as much as my hat, which kept sliding down over my eyes for some reason.  

 The canyon was beautiful, with some leaves already turning.  I kept on going, still at a fast pace (for me at least, thank you, gravity!).  The canyon lasted for most of the race, with only a few flattish miles to the finish.  I was a little sad to see the canyon end, even though my downhill muscles were tired.  Those last few miles on the (relatively) flat land sure felt a little harder after all of that downhill.

I had been watching my time, and I was on pace to smash my old PR.  If I kept going as fast as I could, I figured I might even be able to come in under 1:40.  I was pretty tired, but I thought how cool it would be to have a PR that was 1-Thirty-Something, so I kept on going fast.  I will admit that the 11th mile was not my friend, and the 12th wasn't too great either.  There was a super fun cop directing traffic and enthusiastically handing out high fives with about 1 mile left to go.  I liked that part.

The finish line was in sight, so I kept on pushing.  I hit the button on my watch as soon as I hit 13.1, and it said 1:39:05!  Yay me!  My official chip time (under Thomas' name, of course), was 1:39.29, average pace 7:35/mile.  (Gravity IS my friend, because this time has absolutely nothing to do with how fast I am when I am running on the flat).  Crossing the finish line was awesome.  I LOVE this part!  Makes all the parts that I hate more than worth it.

After the race I was pretty worn out, and shuffled over and picked up some chocolate milk and another banana.  After I sucked down the milk, my eyes beheld the beauty of a cold Diet Coke.  So what if it is only 8:30 in the morning?  It tasted great.  I grabbed whatever snacks I could find and shoved them in my mouth.  I love this part too.  This race was really well done, everything went so smoothly.

After my refreshments I was feeling a little better.  I shuffled back to the car and drove home for a quick shower, then headed off to Daxton's flag football game, which was followed by Cora's soccer game.  I will admit that after Cora's game, I was ready for some lunch and a nap.  

I meant to only take a little rest and then go mow the lawn, but ended up sleeping most of the afternoon.  Ooops.  When I woke up, my legs were already so stiff!  I was walking down stairs sideways for a couple of days.  I will admit that I took the elevator down at work on Monday, even though I only work on the second floor :)

But after a few days I felt fine again.  And now, I am having thoughts I never thought I would have.  I am kind of almost thinking about maaaaybe considering running the full marathon next year.  If I ran the downhill section at the pace I ran the half, I could run the flat section at the end at around a 10:00/mile pace and still finish in under 3:40, which is the Boston Marathon qualifying pace for my age group.  How cool would that be, to be a Boston Qualifier (not that I would actually run it, but just to say I qualified)?  But I don't know, it would take soooo much training, and then I might cramp up or just bonk or something and miss the time or not even finish.  But maybe I could do it?  Would I regret it if I don't even try?  Would I regret it if I do?  I can't decide.  It isn't until next September, so I have some time.  Someone talk me out of it.