The Hobble Creek Half Marathon

I was talking to my friend Emilie Creswell a few weeks ago, and she told me about a half marathon she was running. Since I missed the chance to run the Provo River Half, I jumped at the chance to run this one.

Emilie and I went down the night before and stayed with her friends in Orem. We went out to eat at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Provo (or is it still Orem? Who knows!) for our carbo-loading extravaganza. I ate way too much, as usual. After making a stop at Cyndi's new house we headed back to Orem to try and get some sleep.

I had a hard time sleeping. Maybe it was the anticipation of the race. Maybe other things were on my mind. The thought of being in the elite 100 Women finishers was definitely hanging over my head. Could I do it? I thought there was definitely no chance. Surely there were 100 women faster than me in this thing. But I wanted that medallion so badly.

We woke up early race morning. We had to be to Springville by 6:30 at the absolute latest--that's when the last bus was scheduled to shuttle runners up the canyon. We took the wrong exit, but eventually found the park and was on the last shuttle bus on time.

From where the shuttle bus dropped you off to the start line was about a 3/4 mile walk up the canyon. I guess you could say it was a "warm-up" before the race. It was still a little annoyed and my left ankle started hurting terribly, which I took as a bad sign. But by the time we actually started running, my ankle didn't hurt anymore. I swear my body is on crack sometimes.
This race is mostly downhill, and it's fast. It's good practice for the quads for St George. It was surprising, though, what actually hurt during this thing: my calves. Was I just trying to bust up the hills? Emilie said her calves were tight by the end too. And my right hamstring was bugging me a little bit. But not too much.

I love the race experience. I love picking people out in front of me and passing them. Each women I passed I knew I was one more closer to my goal of the elite 100. I knew this race was fast, but I didn't realize how fast. I was pushing it, sure, but not terribly hard. I've had other races where I felt like it took all I had and I still wasn't going that fast. I still had something in me for the last few miles.

I took them one at a time. I thought to myself, "if I can just coast through mile 10... then mile 11... then I thought just keep it up through mile 12 and I can start to push it a little harder..." once I got to mile 13 I knew I had it and I kept pushing. This was a good course.

I finished with a time of 1:42, gun time. Since my watch broke I couldn't keep my actual time, but it was probably a good minute or two before I crossed the start line. Needless to say, this is my best half marathon time ever. Perhaps my best race ever. I crushed my previous PR by ten minutes! I was running a 7:51 pace for over 13 miles! I never thought I could hold that! My dream of Boston has been rekindled! I need an 8:20 average pace in St George to qualify, so if I can race like I did last weekend I can do it. It's really quite exciting.

So if you must know, I was in the top 100 women finishers. I received the coveted elite 100 medallion. Now it's true: I am an elite athlete. It was a good day all around. Everyone should run this one next year. I'm quite a fan.

P.S. Emilie and I both won in the random prize drawing after the race, which is exciting. While running the race we passed the Hobble Creek Golf Course. As I was running by I thought to myself, "wow this is really beautiful! Fred should come down here and play this course!" Then I almost got hit in the head with a golf ball (actually the guy right in front of me literally almost got hit, but it startled me nonetheless). So when they were doing the random prize drawing and they were giving away the 2 passes for 9 holes at the Hobble Creek Golf Course I thought to myself, "I should win this..." And then they called my number and I did! So when I get back from Texas Freddie is going golfing with me. I'm excited to see his advanced skills on the golf course. Emilie won a prize right after me. A new pair of Mizunos at a running store in Provo. Oh, and we both got a new pair of socks with our prize. Good times!