Look like a beauty, train like a beast

Big Cottonwood Canyon was my favorite half marathon last year. This spring i convinced a few girl friends to run it with me. Since the race wasn't until September, we thought it would never come around...but it finally did. It was my last half marathon of the season.

We made matching shirts and planned a girls' weekend. But as the event drew closer, other plans cropped up and although all four of us were still planning on running, we weren't going to be able to travel down from Idaho to Utah together. So, last minute, Mr B decided to come to Utah with me and, if he was driving all the way down, he might as well compete too!

The five of us met up at race start and huddled together to stay warm. We talked about our goals for finishing and got all sorts of nervous and excited.

At race start

i ran the first mile with Mr B. Then i could feel him pulling and i knew that i could never keep up with him. So i said, "Go! Just go! i'll see you at the finish." And he was off like a shot.

i averaged a 8:20 min/mile pace for the first 10 miles. Two of my miles i finished in under 8 minutes! 

Then i hit mile 10 and wanted to die. Luckily, i didn't die, and somehow i kept moving (albeit much slower). i still finished in a record time for me at 1:54:56 averaging a 8:45 pace.

i love setting a new personal record 

My girlfriend finished just two minutes behind me, also setting a record for her fastest half marathon.

So many races with this girl! :)

Mr B pretty much tore it up. He finished in 1:32, keeping his mile average around a 7 minute mile. He finished 112th of about 2500 half marathoners. Man, was i proud of him!

With Speedy Mr B

Everyone was beaming at the end. It was so much fun to do something hard with so many good friends. i absolutely love that i can share my passion with people that are so important to me. And it was nice to have other people limping around for the next week so i didn't feel so alone in my pain :)

Mr B declined a team shirt...hahaha

Our shirts pretty much rock