American Fork Canyon Half Marathon

Second half marathon down!  

Race tip: lay out all of your stuff the night
 before so you aren't stressed/ scrambling! Also
 pin your bib on your shirt as soon as you get it!

For this race, I was feeling a lot less nervous.  Part of it was just the atmosphere-- this one was a fundraiser for cancer patients who can't afford treatment.  There was a great sense of community!  It was also the first race they had put on, and I must say that they did very well!  I would definitely recommend this one, and will probably do it again in the future.

Because there were fewer people for this race, I didn't have to be on the bus until 4:15am this time! It was also a lot warmer at the start, even without fires.  The race started at 6am, and the sun had just barely lit up the canyon enough to help us see well.  By the first half mile, it was plenty light.

A bit before the first mile mark, the road was flooded!  So for the next 12 miles, all of us had soaking feet.  Not so cool!  The night before we had slept at the White home, and I had forgotten my running socks, so I was running in wet cotton.  C*tton so*ks are BAD NEWS for physical activity!  Don't go there!  Also never wear cotton spandex or underwear when running.  You will have chaffing like you never knew could happen.  You've been warmed.  Fortunately my feet are already so beat up and tough that I didn't even get blisters ;)  Very good!

Around mile 4, a lady came and started talking to me.  She was a middle aged women with kids in the late teens-mid 20s.  She has run many half marathons and some marathons, and has some family up in Canada working, on missions, etc.  I really liked talking to her, but she was super speedy so I had to push myself like crazy to keep up with her to keep talking!  I stayed with her until the end of the canyon, then we lost each other at a water station (so, she took off like a Mexican mouse and I shuffled along at a more comfortable pace).

The rest of the race went by really quickly.  I didn't start getting knee twinges until about mile 11 or 12.  I hit 13.1 at 1:50, and finished the race at 1:52:17 and 13.33 miles.  That's a 5 minute difference from last race, which is pretty rad!  Obviously that's due a lot to the difference of the course, but I'm still satisfied.  

Let's take a look at the following picture:

Nice picture.

Now let's look at the right half of my face:

Not bad, kind of scuzzy, but I just ran  over 13 miles.

Now let's look at something disturbing:

What the-- what happened to my eye!? What disease do I have? So much shiny!  PUT IT AWAY!

So for those of you who commented on the pictures from the last race, saying that I didn't even look like I just ran, this time around all of that grossness was concentrated into half of my face.