American Fork Half

Today I ran my 3rd half marathon!

Last night I stayed at Brenda's house in Alpine. Stephanie was evacuated from her house in Saratoga Springs but planned in sleeping at Brenda's house anyway so it worked out. The rest of her family actually snuck back in their house and stayed there last night after observing that the smoke was gone.

Anyway, we went to dinner at Zupa's and then got shakes at Iceburg... Rocky road, my favorite! We finally made it to bed around 11:30pm and got up at 3:40 am. We drove to American Fork high school and loaded the bus. The canyon was gorgeous and majestic in the early morning. We did our bathroom breaks and saw several people we knew from our hometowns and Grantsville. After chatting, the race started and we were off!

I felt pretty good, just tired. I had to keep my mind off of my tiredness but luckily I was with Stephanie and we could keep our minds distracted. We stopped at every water break and walked for a few seconds and even stopped at a restroom in the canyon with no line, so we weren't terribly rushed. The race had pacers and we knew we were somewhere between the 2:20 & 2:30 pacers. When we got close to the finish area I looked up and saw the 2:20 pacer!! I freaked out and told Stephanie we had to pass her. We sped by as fast as we could and it felt great! We were thrilled-- we had no idea what our time would be! My final time was 2:20:03. This is because we started BEFORE the 2:20 pacer. Either way, I'm thrilled with my new PR and my race today! It was especially fu to run with Stephanie. I've done this alone and it's much more enjoyable with a friend!

After the race they gave us Kneader's French toast and all sorts of snacks. We ate and then headed home.

All-in-all this was a VERY organized, beautiful race. I loved the course and they had more volunteers than I've seen before. Also, all of the proceeds go towards a charity to help those who need helping paying for cancer treatments. They had signs all over the course with sayings like, "I'm doing this for you, mom.". Or quotes from actual people about their loved one with cancer. Some people ran to celebrate their survival and some ran in memory of a fiend. It was such a great race!

I think I'll plan on doing this one every year. It was that great.

Before the race

All done!