Top of Utah

So, Janessa told me I had to write up this part of the blog since I ran the 1/2. This is my story....a few months ago I just got a desire to start running and to do a half marathon. I actually registered for the same one that my lovely wife ran last year, Logan Top of Utah 1/2. It came a lot quicker than I had expected and I trained for 12 weeks to prepare. On Friday the 28th, me, Janessa, Nick, Cass, Taylor, and my mom and dad all went up to Logan. We had a nice dinner at Sizzler, (nothing like steak and shrimp to get you ready for a run), and after that we went back to the hotel room and played some games. Cass and Tay and me and Ness shared a room, not a bed. There were 2 queen size beds in the front room, and a king size bed in the back room with a pull out bed where Nick slept.

Everything was great until it was time to go to sleep. Here's what happened. We started to sleep and what happens???? Of course, I get low on sugar in the night. So, I crack open a strawberry lemonade and wake everyone up. After that, it was so hot we had the air conditioner cranked up to HIGH, and it sounded like a dang freight train was in our room, so that didn't help our sleeping situation. After hours of tossing and turning, my alarm went off. I was kind of relieved to get up because sleeping wasn't happening. I got up and got all dressed, checked my sugar (made sure it was a little high) and ate a granola bar and drank another strawberry lemonade.

We then went and loaded the bus which took us all the way up the canyon on the exact run we would be making. It seemed way further than I imagined and I was getting a little nervous by this point. Luckily for me there were a ton of port-a-potties at the top of the race....if you know what I mean. I then ate a package of fruit snacks and shortly after we were off to the races! Me, Nick and Bryan stayed together the first few miles and were setting a really good pace. I had a 2 goals, 1- To finish under 2 hours, and 2- To finish at 1:50 if I was feeling good. Nick and I pushed each other and we averaged an 8:22 pace for the whole run. Thanks to Nick my sugar stayed fairly good. He held 2 packages of fruit snacks for me, which I had to eat. At every aid station I stopped and drank 2 cups of Gatorade and ate a banana, which kept my sugar stabilized around 120 during the 2nd half of the run.

When Nick and I got to mile 11-12 it was up hill, but we kicked it into gear. We passed probably 12-15 people on the up hill part, and then from mile 12-13 we really turned it into high gear, passing over 20 people the last mile. Then, just around mile 13 my right calf started cramping up, which made it possible for Nick to sprint in and beat my time by 2 freaking seconds! That little punk! But, got to hand it to the kid, all he does is put his head forward and he can run like the wind!

It was so awesome finishing the half. It was so cool to set and reach a personal goal, and spending time with the family running wasn't too bad either : ) I'm so proud of my Dad who finished with a time of 2 hours 5 minutes, and Cass who was right behind him at 2 hours 10 min. We will see what next year brings and hopefully Ness and I can run the half together! Until then, I hope to keep my sorry butt running and will try to keep in shape til the next run! Thanks to all those who supported. You guys rock!