6th time is a charm- Snow Canyon Half Marathon

Yesterday I ran my 6th half marathon. I didn't take this picture while running, I almost carried my phone in a backpack so that I could take a couple of photos, but decided that I didn't want to be bothered with extra baggage. This is a picture from a year before when I visited Snow Canyon with the fam and thought it would be a great place to go for a run. My fabulous sister-in-law, Stacy, had heard of this race and a couple months ago said she was going to go. I ended up deciding to go a long too and even conned Caryn into coming. As adventures go, the plan changed several time in the couple of weeks before the race and Caryn and I ended up going to Saint George alone. (Stacy caught the stomach bug that was circulating right before the race and wasn't able to come at all. We really missed her.)

We drove down on Friday night, slept a few hours at Caryn's aunt's house and woke up to fridged temperatures and some pretty high winds. We rode the bus up to about 4 miles above the state park to start the race. The wait was close to 25 minutes by the time they started. Since there was snow on the ground, we were numb and shivering at the race start. We hit 2 miles before I really felt my toes and fingers regain full circulation. Luckily as the sun got higher and we entered the park, the mountains blocked out the wind and we warmed up. It was such a beautiful and amazing place and even though there weren't as many downhill stretches as people had led us to believe. The scenery really carried us through. At 7 miles we were at 58 minutes and quite amazed at our progress. Caryn and I split up after that since she races much fast than I do, and we were each going against a different personal time to beat. So I turned on the music and kept on moving.

When I was still feeling strong at 10 miles, I knew that I had it in the bag and ended a great run with my fastest ever time- 1:57:43. What?!?! I know, I am surprised too. 10 minutes faster than my previous personal best.

And while I did feel a bit off for the rest of the day and was exhausted beyond belief by the time we hurried to shower and drove home to go on dates with our husbands, I didn't end up sick. And that to me is another reason to call it a Fabulous race.

There is a point in every race I have ever done were I start to feel amazed at the world around me and amazed at what the human body can do. As I pass people of all ages and with all kinds of stories out spending their time running, it just chokes me up a little. Somehow no matter what excuse you use for running or what you use to motivate you, running is about doing something good for your mind, body and soul. And I for one am so grateful that I have reached that realization in my life and hope to see myself at the age and mental condition of several women that I passed who have much more life experience that I do, but were out their running a race to prove something to themselves and just because they want to. The only thing better than that is having wonderful women to be running along side you.

If you haven't had a good run lately... I'll see you on MWF and Sat at 6:10am on the corner. ;-)

(for those that are interested... and since Caryn may not blog about this for 6 months, she ran a personal best of 1:49:40... that girl is "one fast cookie.")