Salt Lake City Half Marathon 4/16/11..and I'm crazy! :)

I can't believe it's already over! It feels like it came so quick! I did another half marathon yesterday for Salt Lake City. I did this one last year and got 1:57:28. When I first signed up, my goal was to beat it, but a lot of stuff happened that caused me to not train as hard. So I was hoping to at least beat my Top of Utah half that I just trained for 2 weeks on. So Sat. morning came....I got up at 5am, got ready, ate my bowl of rice...and attempted a picture of myself on a timer so I didn't have to wake up Kev. I walked outside to go to trax and it was raining! No one thought it would rain that morning! But, by the time we got to the starting line, the rain had stopped and the roads dried a little. Now it was just a nice cool breeze that was perfect for running!The whole time I had kept a good pace. I knew at mile 11-12 was a hill, so I wanted to go as fast as I could to make up any time I would lose on the incline. I was prepared because of doing this one before and I knew when I needed to sprint and when I could catch my breath. I couldn't believe I kept my pace up for so long though. Even on the hill, it was rough, but I never walked it and kept pushing through it. This pic was almost to mile 10. I was feeling really good...my legs were getting a bit tired, but my lungs were feeling awesome! And then almost to the finish line. Kev was so cute and met me at mile 4, 9 and the finish line. I am so grateful for his support for me in doing these!I did it!! I beat my best time!! This year, my time was 1:54:57!! My overall place was 1113/4444. My age division (25-29), I was 85/501. My sex overall was 415/2715. My overall pace was 8:46 min mile! I was so excited and couldn't believe it! I pushed myself and it paid off!!My good friend Brittany did the 5k that morning also!! Here we are with our wonderful supporters, Adam and Kev!!And my lips started to turn purple! ha! I was so hot that whole time, but by the time my heart rate went down, my lips turned purple. Didn't know it at the time! :)Now these next pics, I had to post. So some people (or a lot of people) think I am crazy. I like to challenge myself physically...and I try not to let "it's too hard" or "I'm too tired" to get in the way. That being said, no I don't want to do a full marathon because I like pushing my time for the half now...training for a full takes up too much time and although that would push my limits, I'm really happy with how I feel after half marathons. BUT, I've noticed that most people, after they get done running halfs or fulls, sleep the rest of the day, or just relax. I don't know what that is like. My last half, we drove 5 hours, packed our stuff and moved into our apartment and didn't go to bed until 5 the next morning. This time, our good friend Mark had free tickets to go snowboarding. Kev was going to go, but they weren't sure if I would be up for it...considering I just ran. But I couldn't pass that up. Is that weird? ha! So I took a quick shower and we left 30 minutes later for the mountain. My legs were jello so I had to go every other time that Kev and Mark went. But towards the end of the day, I just kept going with them. 4 hours of snowboarding after running a half marathon in under 2 hours...you can imagine what my legs feel like today! My whole body aches but it's a "hurt so good" feeling! Man, I love it! :) One more thing I want to add...don't ever let someone else or even yourself talk you into believing that you can't do something. You are capable. You are strong. You are determined. Now go sign up for something you "never thought you could do" whether that is school, half, 5k, full marathon, a sewing or cooking class, or even a gym membership. Challenge yourself...you'll be happy you did!