This is before the race with my friend, Danette. She was also going to run the race but due to a death in her friends family she was needed more importantly at the funeral that was taking place later that morning. She still wanted to go with me for the start of the race, and ended up staying and cheering me on through the whole race!
My parents also came early, and luckily brought their camera, which I had forgot, and we all chatted as we waited for the race to start.
This is about a minute before the race started and I was feeling pretty nervous.
Mile 1-3: Felt pretty good and got into a good 9:20 pace. I really enjoyed running down the backroads in Spanish Fork where I grew up learning to drive with my friends. My parents and Danette had driven ahead to cheer me on. They were awesome to cheer me on through the whole race!
Mile 4-7: Ran next to a older gentleman from SLC who chatted with me for about 2 miles. He said that his wife is saving all of his shirts from the half marathons he has been running and is going to make a quilt with them. What a good idea - but would require that you ran more than one half marathon, which in my case may not happen. :)
This is between mile 6 and 7 (just about to start the hill loop that you can see in the distance) and the last time I saw my parents until the finish line.
Mile 8: This is where it started to get hard - physically and mentally. As I came up on mile marker 8 my feet were starting to really hurt (my hip felt fine the whole way). I had gotten new shoes on Monday trying to see if that was the cause of my hip problem. I knew that around mile 9 or 10 Danette and another friend Catherine (her husband Blake and cute 2 year old boy Benson had come too!) would be cheering me on so that was good motivation. I was also making good time for my 2 hour goal and that kept me going.Mile 9-12 Wait, why was I doing this again?! At this point it was all mental. My feet hurt and I kept checking my watch to see where I was for coming in under 2 hours. I was cutting it really close and would have to keep a steady 9-10 minute pace to finish. I was popping sport beans (electrolyte jelly beans) trying to keep my energy up but I was fading. There was a lady I was running with for a few minutes until I shared with her my goal of finishing under 2 hours. She looked at her garmin (a gps watch that keeps track of your pace time) and told me that I wasn't going to make it. I'm a stubborn person and don't like to be told what I can't do so I sped up and left her behind.
I saw my friends one last time at around 11.5 miles and looked down at my watch, which read 1:47, so I had 13 minutes to finish. I thought I may be OK, but mile marker 12 was a lot further than I thought.
Mile 12 - Finish
When I finally hit mile 12 I only had about 7 minutes to finish under 2 hours so I knew then I wasn't going to make it. I started to get dizzy and felt a black out coming on. I kept going, knowing that at this point finishing is the goal (but of course the closest to 2 hours, the better) and I didn't run this far to stop short. I even ran for a few second with my eyes close hoping that would help with the dizziness. It didn't. When I finally came around the last corner I heard a gal behind me say to her friend "This is the last stretch" and I could see the blue balloons up ahead for the finish line. I started to pick up the pace and was so focused on getting to the finish line that I didn't see my family and friends but could really hear them cheering! It was awesome! My final time was 2:02:53, which I am happy with.
I love this picture because right over my head you can see Dylan with a big smile cheering me on. He said later he was saying "Go Mom!"
Adam, Greg, me, Danette, and Catherine at the finish line. I was really feeling blessed to have such great family and friends supporting and cheering for me during the race! 
It was a great race (with yummy belgian waffles at the end).
Blake, Catherine, Greg, Adam and I watching the kids play on the playground.
People have asked when I'm going to do another half marathon. Or even a crazier question, when i'll do a full marathon. Hah! I could barely make 13.1 miles let alone turning around and running that again! Unless this is like childbirth, and eventually you forget the pain, I think this half marathon was my first and my last!
