South Jordan Half Marathon 7/10/10

I ran my first half marathon (13.1 miles) the morning after we arrived in Utah for a family reunion.  I had planned to run one here in Denver but couldn’t find one on a Saturday this summer while we are in town.  So I just found one in Utah, conveniently while we were there, on a Saturday AND in my home town!

I felt less nervous for this race than others because (1) I had trained well, (2) it’s a longer race so I didn’t feel so much pressure to be so darn fast, and mostly because (3) I had ran the course previous to the race.  I woke up at 4:45 and got to the start line WELL before dawn.  I was the 2nd racer to arrive.  I knew it was a small race (their 1st year) but… c’mon!  More people came but I think there were only 115 runners.

Dan and the girls woke up and found me around mile 10 to cheer me on.  It meant a lot to me, sort of teared up when I saw them, good thing I was wearing sun glasses so no one could see. :)  Check out their cute bed heads and jammies in the picture below.

I met my primary goal of under 2 hours but not my secondary goal of under 1:50.  That’s okay, I feel really good about my race.  I ran hard and at a pretty even pace the whole time.  I had energy left to sprint the last 100 meters and no injuries!  It’s a really hilly race and I think I will try a flatter course and maybe break 1:50 next time.  My biggest excuse for my time is that they didn’t have mile markers on the course!  I did have my nike+ chip that talks to my ipod and tells me distance, time and pace but I forgot my ipod and used Dan’s and it gave me inaccurate readings so I thought I was going faster than I was.  According to his itouch I finished in under 1:50 (it said I was done like half a mile early) I may have been closer to my goal had I not relied on that bad information.  But no biggie!  Like I said, I am happy with my performance.  The nice thing about the first time you do a race, anything is a PR!

In a small race like this my places look so much better than the Boulder Bolder!  I got 5th overall and 2nd in my age division, made me feel pretty darn special.  I am tempted to do a full marathon but am scared of injury so I think I’ll stick to half marathons for now.  I’d really like to do another half this summer but I can’t find one!  What is it with Denver and races on Sundays only?  Geez.  Hello Denver?  Sunday CHURCH, you ever heard of it?!?!?