The Timp Half Marathon Recap and Sunday Dinner!

First, HOW IS IT AUGUST ALREADY?  School starts this month here and I’m just confused how this summer went by so quickly (probably because Andrew and I decided to jam everything possible into the last few months;).  I am beyond excited to watch the Olympics this month and the OPENING CEREMONIES on Friday!

Time for the Timp 1/2 Marathon Recap from Saturday morning!

I jumped (okay, rolled… grumbled angrily) out of bed right at 4 a.m. and got breakfast (ate some applesauce and a banana) and drove over to American Fork High School to jump on a bus.  The busses go from 3:45-4:45 and I got there closer to the end and got right onto a bus with a very short wait.  The bus ride to the start took about 40 minutes and I think I fell asleep but I don’t really remember.

PS about race day food—>  when I was packing up stuff for the race, Brooke asked me where my waffles were.  I was so confused about what she was talking about until I realized she was talking about those Honey Stinger Waffles that I always eat before a race.  She now remembers my race routine better than I do.

Also, I wore my Boston jacket from Candice… good memories.  The start wasn’t super cold but having a jacket was really nice because we were up in the mountains.

I met up with Josse and Mackenzie and we ran together for the majority of the race which was my favorite part about the morning.

The race started at 6 a.m. and it was already pretty light out by then which is always nice.  Running in the light > running in the dark in my opinion.

I don’t know what is happening here.

I ran my first race watchless on Saturday.  Why did I do this?  For a few reasons:  1.  Josse does it all the time and told me to at least try it out once to see how I liked it.  2.  I knew I wasn’t going to be anywhere near a pr and so I thought why not?

It was really nice to not look at my watch constantly but I think I really do like wearing a Garmin on race day.  I like knowing my splits, doing the math in my head and especially when I am really trying to race.. the splits/paces/average pace really motivate me and I think that helps me to push myself harder.  But it was really nice Saturday because we wanted to treat the day more like a long tempo run and not worry about times as much as focusing on effort.

It felt REALLY weird to not push the start/stop buttons at the starting line and finish line.  It was also weird to look down at my arm randomly and see nothing but a few freckles.

I also didn’t bring any headphones… mainly because I knew I would be talking with my friends for a good portion of the race and also because I couldn’t find them in my car.

We started off and ran the first 9ish miles together.  We talked the whole time but it still felt like I was putting in some good effort.  The first few miles were nice and cool which was different because I feel like I am used to being completely frozen for the first few miles of some of these canyon races.

One lane of traffic was closed for us (I snapped these pics as we were running).

After the canyon we were on the paved trails for most of the remainder of the race.

We separated at about 10 miles in and I wanted to push myself (for where I am at now) for the last 5k.  This is when I wish I had music, it’s crazy how much music motivates me when it comes to running.  At one point I came across cones going slightly to the right and to the left without any volunteers or anybody in front of me… so I just chose to turn left because I thought that is what I remembered from the previous year.  Turns out that wasn’t the race course and a few people followed me.  A mile or two (cones were there entire time) later and we ran into some police officers that pointed us into the direction of the 1/2 course… I had accidentally turned onto the 10k course and I felt pretty bad because a few people followed me but at the finish line their gamins all read that the distance was the same.   They weren’t mad about it at all but we weren’t sure why the volunteer wasn’t there to point us the direction to go.

It also was really warm once we were out of the canyon which is awesome for St. George Marathon training because that race gets HOT some years… Like, really hot.

The race ended on the American Fork High School track which is awesome because then the spectators can watch easily from the bleachers and it feels pretty cool to end on a track.  I tried to kick it for the last half mile but my legs were dead so I did the best I could.

Lots of chocolate milk and

Popsicles, fruit, water and a sweet medal at the finish line.

At first I was kind of bummed about my time (10.5 minutes slower than last year) because I felt like it was pretty hard (especially those last few miles).  But then I remembered I definitely didn’t put in the work for anything different.  I’ve been making sure to get in my long runs but the speed work has been pretty much nonexistent so why in the world would I expect anything different?  With running you get what you get according to the work you put into it so slowing down recently is just kind of part of the equation.  But that is a-okay with me because while I’ve gotten slower, I’ve sure gained a whole lot the last few months.

They had these sweet computers to find your finish time… you just enter in your bib number and all your info pops up and then prints out.

I finished in 1:32:23 which is a 7:03 average.  I’ll take it.  I was VERY sore the next day probably because those are paces I haven’t done in a while and because we went boating right after.  It’s kind of weird that I like to be sore though—>  it’s a reminder all day long that I pushed myself which is fun;)

Definitely an amazing race to do if you are in the area or want a destination half.  The canyon is stunning.  The SWAG is great (I loved the shirts this year!!!) and it is a great training race for any of these Fall marathons coming up!  Try it out… I’ll be doing it every year (and Andrew will next year too but he rocked kid duty instead this year).

Just a few pictures from Sunday:

After church, Andrew and I took a nap (the night of the race I got 4 hours of sleep and we went boating for most of the day after the race…I was wasted) and then we kept things pretty lazy.

The kiddos helped me make dessert.

And then we all went over to my parents’ house for my mom’s famous lasagna.  This meal is my absolute favorite, I could eat it daily and be happy.  I’m very grateful that it is one of Andrew’s favorites too because he gets just as excited as I do about it.

Ice cream/cookie sandwiches that Curly (remember how my niece was just a baby when I started posting pictures of her on the blog?) loved.

Andrew was wearing his ‘Blogging Socks (what he calls these socks)’ so I made sure to match him.  We looked pretty cool.

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Ever gotten lost during a race?  Turned the wrong way?

Music during a race?  Always, sometimes or never?  

During a race how often do you look at your GPS watch?  

Random question (probably because of above sock picture)—>  do you sleep with socks on or hate that?

-I love sleeping with socks on… especially in the winter.  It’s strange.