...Just Two Peas in a Pod...: Autumn Racing

Wow, do I need to catch up. This post is mostly about some of the recent races I have done and it is a little bit backwards. Above is a pic from the Layton Half Marathon which was October 9. It was an out-and-back course and I ran it in 1:43. It was a flat course, but not too scenic. I still had fun and I even took advantage of the post race massage. I didn't find out until later that I had taken 2nd place in my age division.

The St. George Marathon was the weekend before that--Oct. 2. Hayden and I drove down to St. George the day before with the Andersons and Michelle's mom, Lisa. We hit the expo when we got there and then headed to the house...great house, btw. It was super nice inside and right on a golf course. I made a pasta dinner that night which we enjoyed outside on the patio. It was an earlier night for Justin and I since we had to get up early for the race.

The next morning Michelle drove Justin and I to the buses a somewhere after 4 in the morning. It was pretty warm...supposedly the warmest it's been for this marathon. After the bus ride to the start we had plenty of time to hangout and eventually enjoy (?) the fire. It actually felt like an inferno standing inbetween all the fires they had going--that's how warm it was. The race itself started out pretty good and I was glad to make it up the huge hill in Vejo around mile 7. Overall the course was much hillier (is that a word?) than I expected. Around mile 16 or so I started to run with the 3:30 pacer which was nice because he was pretty talkative which was a great distraction. I can't remember exactly when, but somewhere around mile 18 or 20 I did stop at the aid station and had one of the volunteers put icy hot stuff on my calves and hamstrings. This felt great at first, but then when it turned hot it wasn't the greatest feeling considering that I was already running in the heat. I expected it to be more downhill after I hit mile 20, but it wasn't. Every time I saw a water mister I ran through it just because it was so hot (I guess there were about 1000 runners who didn't finish and I am guessing it's because of the heat). I was so glad once I crossed the finish line and I immediately stretched, grabbed some water, and then rested on the ground for a bit. Eventually I met up with everyone and then got my cool shirt and medal from Wasatch Running Center for having finished all the Grand Slam marathons.

After we got back to the house, Justin and I took the kids swimming while Michelle and Lisa went and ran a few errands. That night we enjoyed some Cafe Rio and the girls watched a movie together (it was great to have some girl time, too).

The next day I made some french toast and eggs for the group, we packed up and headed to Sand Hollow before heading for home. The kids loved playing in the water and along the beach.

The week before the St. George marathon was Sojo (the South Jordan marathon). I ran the half marathon along with Lisa and Aubrey (another friend and Michelle's sister-in-law), Michelle did the marathon, and Hayden ran the Kids K. Michelle and I both got first place in our age divisions which means we have free entry into next year's race. Plus we also won some cool customized plaques.