Halloween Half

For those of you who know me, you know that I am not a runner.  I don't like it, I'm not good at it, and I don't do it...ever.  Well, Spring and Summer seem to be race season here in Utah, and pretty much everyone I know is racing.  Either running, or swimming, or biking, or all three!  And though I am not a runner, I am a competitive person.  Brock has always been a runner, and he has run many races including a couple marathons and Ragnar relays.  He has always told me that he knows I could do it.  I just need to try.  I have always told him that no - this is just one of those things that my body was not made for, and I am okay with that.  Well, in about June, I started thinking if all of these people can do it - I can do it.  I decided to make a running schedule, and then, depending on how it goes, I'd find a race.  My first day of running was Monday, the 4th of July.  I literally probably ran a mile and a half (and stopped at the park half way for a drink).  Talk about out of shape!  I started running on my lunch breaks at work, and started with 2 miles, and then got to three.  After about a week, I found a race I thought I could do.  The Provo Halloween Half Marathon.  It's a lot of down hill, and it was almost 4 months away.  I called my sister Julia to see if she would be crazy enough to do this with me, and she agreed!  She's pretty much like me in the running mentality, so I was happy she decided to do it.  I gave her my running schedule and we began training separately.  My first Saturday long run was 4 miles, and I had to walk a few times, but I did it.  Then it was 5, and then 6, and by the time I got to 7 I was running the whole time.  Since I had such a long time before the race, I was doing each week of training twice, so
I'd run 4 miles for two Saturdays, and then 5 mile for the next two, and so on.  By the time I got to 8 miles, I was wanting to run with someone, so I asked Julia to run with me.  We woke up early one Saturday, and headed 8 miles up Millcreek Canyon.  It was great!  We ran at about a 10 minute pace - our fastest yet!  (I know, we're kind of slow).  We moved up to 9, 10, 11, and then finally 12 miles!  We ran our 12 in 2 hrs and 3 minutes which we were so so proud of!  And it felt great!  Only three weeks to go until race day.  We were ready!  Well, those 3 weeks flew by, and it was now the day before the race.  I had seen these cute necklaces on Pinterest, and wanted to make them for me and Julia, and I thought they turned out great! 

The big one says 13.1, the small one says J & J (for Jennie and Julia), and our parents sent us each these shoe charms from Pandora.  

And here it is on.  

 

 

We picked up our friend Andrew Warner, who decided to run it with Brock, and then picked up Julia, and headed out to Orem.  I gave Julia the necklace on the way.  She loved it!  We first went to University Mall to get our race packet.  The line was practically the length of the entire mall, so we went to dinner first.  We decided we had better carb up, so what better place than The Old Spaghetti Factory, right?  We all got spaghetti, and it was delicious.  When we headed back in to check out the line, we were pleasantly surprised to find the line gone!  We went right to the front, got our race bibs and shirts, and were out in 5 minutes!  Here we are at dinner.

Me and Julia sporting our cute necklaces

Brock and Andrew

 Then we headed to the hotel to hopefully get a good night's sleep. 

Before we went to bed we were all checking out our phones.  It was pretty funny.  

 

 The morning of the race, we got up nice and early at 5:30am, and got ready.  We headed to the mall again where the buses were going to pick us up.  We met up with a bunch of my girlfriends and waited with them.  It was FREEZING!

Stephanie and Alisha dressed up as Forrest Gump.  At least their faces and heads were warm!

Finally on the bus.

Me, Jules, and creepy Steph waiting in the warmth of the tent.

Jenn, Steph, Alisha, Me, and Julia waiting for 9:00!

Then the race began.  I kissed Brock goodbye because I knew I wouldn't see him until the end, and we were off.  The first 4 or so miles was pretty good downhill.  We were going at a little bit better than a 10 minute pace.  Then it evened out, and even went uphill a bit.  At mile 5 Brock passed us. It turns out he had to wait until the late start because he and Andrew were waiting for another friend of theirs.  So he started 20 minutes after we did, and passed us at 5.  It was at this point that I was not feeling very good.  Not sick or anything, but just kind of discouraged.  I didn't say anything, and kept pushing forward.  At around mile 7, I could feel my calves really starting to get tight.  They'd never done this before, so I wasn't sure how to "treat" it.  Should I slow down, should I stop and stretch them, should I just run through it?  Anyway, at mile 8 there was a drink station, so I stopped to get water, and both of my calves flexed up and froze, and I fell to the ground.  Literally.  I yelled for Julia, and she rushed over.  She tried to stretch them out, but both of my legs were frozen.  My calves were flexed so hard, and I could not move.  We didn't know what to do!  Eventually they eased up a bit, and she was able to flex my foot to stretch my calves, and because of  lack of any better ideas, we started running again.  I was so mad!  I had never experienced this before.  Not even on our 12 miler, and why was my body doing this to me now???  We still had 5 miles left, and I wasn't sure what was going to happen from here.  After that, we literally had to stop about every quarter mile or so to either walk it out or stretch again, as they kept charly horsing.  I could even feel it happening in my toes as we ran.  It was awful, and most of all, I felt bad that I was slowing Julia down.  I told her to keep going, and that I would be fine, but she never left my side.  Of course she didn't.  This is Julia we're talking about.  Best sister ever.  One of the best people ever.  Anyway, we finally made it to the 13 mile marker, and I started crying.  We grabbed hands and ran the rest of the way to the end.  When we crossed the finish line we hugged and cried, and hobbled off to the side.  I never even saw Brock or the kids!  I asked where Brock was, and Julia said she had seen him taking pictures of us on the home stretch.  I am glad there are pictures to prove I did it, because I am NEVER doing this again!  Okay, well, not for a long time.  Here are those pictures.

Can you believe how narrow the race way was??  People were like right on us as we were running by.  It was crazy.

Yeah, I pretty much felt how I look here.

I swear we're not walking!

Almost THERE!!!

 Then we met up with Brock and Andrew, and saw Dale and Shauna.  They had brought our cute kids to see us finish.  Little did they know they were going to have to wait a whole hour after Brock finished! 

Chatting about the race.  Miss Leila needed a hug. (So did I!)

Brock and Andrew.  Brock's official time: 1.39.05  Talk about amazing!

Here we are with the other guy Brock works with.  I wish I would have seen some of my girlfriends!

Me and Brock

My official time: 2.35.20

Julia's official time: 2.35.18

One of my friends made these capes for us.  There are purple J's on each

I was glad my family came to support me...oh, and Brock!

 This is something that I am glad I did, but it's like having a baby.  It's too soon to talk about doing another one!  It was hard, and as I think back on it, I am just so disappointed with how things went.  I think I figured it out, and it was from having too much caffeine, and not enough water.  I was dehydrated.  It's the only thing I can think of, since we had run 12 before, and nothing even close to this happened.  Anyway, I finished, and I accomplished a goal that I set out to accomplish 4 months ago.  I worked hard for it, and I did it.  I am definitely happy about that.  I am happy that I got to do it with my sister, and that she stuck by me when things got hard.  That's just her though.  She's the best.  I am grateful for my husband for always believing in me.  And I am thankful for Brock's parents who are always there for us when we need them.  They were happy to take our kids for the night, and drive all the way to Provo to see us finish the race.  I think more than anything though, I am glad it's OVER!!