13.1

My day today started out at 2:45am. Do you know how ridiculously early that is? It's like 3 hours of sleep early. After quickly getting dressed and eating some breakfast, my roommate dropped me off over at the Provo Towne Mall. I was lucky - or perhaps unlucky - enough to get on the first bus headed up the canyon. We headed about two miles north of Vivian Park which is a total of about 7 miles into the canyon. Upon our arrival we all exited the buses and there we were to stand for two hours. Why the buses run only from 3:30 to4:30am when the race doesn't even start until 6am is beyond me. So I got to the starting line a little more than two hours before the race even started. And I was already exhausted. Thank goodness they had fires going for us that we could stay warm next to - however the smoke coming from them soon became unbearable; going into our eyes and making us all smell just fantastic. Eventually I ventured away from the fire to go to the bathroom and wouldn't you know it, it was pitch black outside and no sort of light in the port a john. That was a great bathroom experience. At about 5:30am I headed down to the starting line to stretch and try to keep warm without the fire, and at 6am sharp the Provo mayor sent us on our way.

This was a beautiful run - very scenic and the weather was fantastic, but I need to saysomething here. I have a run a half marathon before. September of 2007 and it was in Disneyland. Disney goes above and beyond for everything - including its races. I think I definitely got spoiled on that race. Water and Powerade at every single mile, bathrooms at every mile, people cheering you on the whole way. It was a fantastic race and I felt kind of jipped while running this one. But alas, it wasn't scorching hot like the Disney one so I can get over only having water every other mile.

Before the race my goal had been simply to beat my previous half marathon time, which was 2:30, however I was hoping for somewhere in the 2 to 2:15 range. My goal was met! My end time was 2:01! Crossing that finish line felt so good - and my knees were screaming the hallelujah chorus. Somewhere in the middle of the race my knees started to ache, but once I stopped running my knees started to kill. I went and got a free massage at theend of the race and she worked around my knees, but the pain is bone not muscle. Hopefully in the next couple of days my knees will forgive me and let me go run again.

Speaking of running I have a couple of things I need to address. First of all, I am going to San Francisco and going across the Golden Gate Bridge - but it won't be until after my birthday in September. The reason for this being that I was running the Napa Valley Ragnar Relay! I am super excited for it and can't wait for the race. That being said, I know right now that there are a couple of things on my list that I won't be able to do before my 20th birthday because of costs. I will do what I can though and will keep the list and do the things I can't in the hopefully near future!