Temple to Temple 1/2-marathon

So, I'm finally posting about the temple-to-temple half marathon! Sorry to those looking forward to it! Alicia, my former coworker at the LDS Church office building, had run the temple-to-temple 1/2 marathon that her good friend, Brooke, had organized the year before. We had talked about running and I ran my first 10k earlier this year on Earth Day. I did really well at the 10k and Alicia kept encouraging me to run the half marathon.

Considering the time commitment, I kept being non-committal about whether or not I would run the half until just about 3 months prior to the race. I had already quit working at the Church Office Building (COB), but Alicia had promised to send me updates and such about the race. So, I started training. I was ready to run it - Sept. 18th was the day. The plan was to run from the Draper temple to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple across South Salt Lake Valley. Due to my hurriedness, I didn't double check the plans and ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Oops. So, I started about 30-40 minutes after everyone else (it was a small group of runners). Everything seemed to be going smoothly, though, as I began running. Brooke had left me a map of the race and the water stations were all going to wait for me (bless them for this!). I felt good, too. I never would have thought I would say that.

At about mile 8, though, just before a water station, I was trying to meticulously study my map so that I wouldn't miss any turnoffs or anything and I landed on the edge of the pavement, rolling my ankle and landing my opposite knee on the gravel in stride. I continued in stride a couple of shaky steps and decided to take a breather. Unfortunately, my ankle felt pretty sore and my knee was bleeding down my leg. I instantly thought, "What?!?!? I am NOT quitting this thing! Too many hours of training have gone into this! And I've come too far!"Ironically, I had the map and was able to wipe my knee off a little as it dried over the next couple of minutes. My ankle stopped throbbing and I began walking for a little bit before beginning my run again. I was able to finish the race in about 2 hours and 15 minutes including the fall along the way and the stoplights. I don't know for sure if that is a decent time or not, but I was really glad I was able to finish the race. Thanks to the cheerleaders at each of the water stations, to Alicia for encouraging me to run in the first place, and to my cheerleaders at the end of the race, especially Eric & Otto, Alicia, and my dad & Jill!

Here is a pic of Alicia and I at the finish line. Yes, I look nasty after running, especially after running 13.1 miles.