What We Call Life: Bryce Canyon Half Marathon

Back in December I convinced my mom and sister, Krista, that we needed to run the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon. Who wouldn't run a half marathon for only $35? (that was rhetorical, most people think we are crazy.)

My mom and Krista had ran this race before and liked it but warned me that it kills your quads. Actually anybody who has ever ran this race gave me the same advice, make sure you work on quad strengthening. I thought "well, I have been doing the Squat Challenge with Travis I will be good. Shoot, I just ran the Ragnar too, I can do anything." Wrong, I was so wrong.

The night before we headed down to my Grandparents to meet up with everyone. My Grandma, Jaylee, and I made the trek down to Cannonville to pick up our racing packets, while the men went fishing. While driving down there I was scoping out the course, making sure there were plenty of restrooms- which there were every 2 miles, and what the terrain was like. It didn't seem too bad.....in the car. It was a fun little drive down but we got rained on. I was worried we might get rain the next morning and I did not want to run 13.1 miles in the rain.

My mom,Vanessa, and Krista made it to Grandma's in perfect timing to have a spaghetti dinner with us and compare notes. We ended up going to bed way too late but oh well it was fun visiting with everybody. Colby was even there with us. 4 in the morning came way too early. Who gets up that early? We loaded the kids in the car and were on our way in the dark, the race started at 6. I was a little upset when I found this little fact out but afterwards I was so grateful that we started so early, it go HOT.

Vanessa and Travis dropped us off at the starting line and headed down to the finish line before they closed the road. They were armed with food, blankets, and an I Pad to keep the kids entertained. The starting line was exhilarating. I love starting lines, so much anxious, excited energy. We actually ended up running into a few people we knew, Greg- my cousin and his brother in law, Nikki Richins, and Hillary and Cassidy Carter. It was fun to know we were running with people we knew.

So happy at the starting line

When we started it was a mad house. It was so crowded. We should have listened to my wise mother and got on the left side of the road. We also noticed right before the gun that there were pacers. I love me a pacer. We realized we were way back with the 2:35 pacer so we tried to push our way forward but to no avail we got stuck by the 2:15 pacer. When the gun went off the masses started moving but very, very slowly. Our first miles was 8:45 and it felt like we were barely moving. I know I probably tripped a few people trying to get out of the pack but oh well. Krista took off. I tried to stay in front of my mom, which I did until mile 7. That never happens so I was super excited.

The first part of the hill is all downhill. Not like a gradual downhill, like so steep your legs can't stop if you wanted them too. You just gotta let gravity work its magic here and go with the flow. As we were nearing mile 6 I could here talking behind me. I recognized the voices and my mom and Greg. I thought I could fend them off but to no avail they passed me when the course leveled out and we had to start going up and down hills. I kept my mom in my sights but she ended up beating me. I actually ran pretty close with Hillary and Cassidy. It was fun to be by people I knew. There was a lot of support along route from volunteers and townspeople. They even had a sprinkler you could run through if you wanted to. All I though when passing the sprinkler was chafing. Not a good thing.

There goes Krista, notice how nobody is around here. Apparently that happens when you are fast.

I made it to the finish line and my little cheering crew brought me in. It was fun to have Vanessa, Travis and the kids there. Sawyer was really happy when he saw me. He now asks when he can run a half marathon to get a cool metal.

Did she even break a sweat?

The finish line was awesome. I was so tired though and stinky, just ask Vanessa who got stuck behind me in the car. Krista ended up taking 1st in her age group, and 9th overall female, and my mom got 1st in her age group too. Sadly, I got 17th but the winner was in my group. It is also the biggest age group and most competitive.

We headed back to The Pines Restaurant to get some delicious pie to go. We then headed back to good ol' Circleville. When we got there the bikers were just going through for the awesome "Crusher in the Tushar" bike race. We all decided to watch them go by and cheer them on. It was amazing how fast those bikers were going. It was fun to watch and sit down.

The rest of the weekend was filled with good food, rubbing sore muscles, and trying to remember what if felt like to sit down or go up stairs without pain.