I Did It!

Yesterday was the Utah Valley Half Marathon.  I signed up to run this race with my friend Laurie Petersen back in January thinking I had plenty of time to train - I was sure I'd be more than ready to run.  I started training in February - stepping things up in March and April.  I was actually doing pretty good until May arrived. 

I pushed myself a little too hard on a long run, injured my lower back and had to pull back for a few weeks.  Then work got crazy busy and Brad got sick and ended up in the hospital for a few days.  Needless to say, I didn't get  much running in during May.  A week before race day, I was only able to run for about 7 miles before tiring out.

Feeling discouraged but still determined to do this race, I decided to just focus on finishing the race in under 3 hours.  Laurie was great about it - saying she hadn't enough time to really train either and we would plan to walk as much as we needed. 

Going in with lowered expectations took the pressure off and I was able to relax and run so I did much, much better than I expected!  With Laurie's encouragement I ran most of the way - stopping to walk only at the aid stations to grab a quick drink and one pit stop.  I ended up finishing in 2 hours and 33 minutes!! 

I'm pretty sore today since I wasn't in shape for that long of a run but it's worth it.  The run felt great and I'm so glad I stuck it out.  Now, on to the next race in August.  :)