American Fork 1/2 Marathon

Ever since I ran a marathon 4 years ago I've wanted to run a half marathon.  When we would do our training runs I really liked the 10-14 mile distances.  So this year I finally signed up to run in the American Fork half marathon.  I was so glad Jenny, my awesome running partner, signed up with me.  We did most of our training runs together and felt pretty prepared for the race.  Our goal was to finish in at least 2 1/2 hours but hopefully closer to 2 hours.

My good friend, Paige, was so nice to let us stay at her house, which was only about 5 minutes away from where we had to get on the buses to go up the Canyon.  We had to be on the bus before 4:30 am and we hadn't slept a wink.  I think maybe since I never went to sleep I wasn't tired when I got up, and all that race adrenaline sure helps.

We had over an hour to wait up the canyon for the race to start.  It was cold and luckily we'd borrowed a blanket from Paige and we got there early enough to get the cool gloves. It was a miracle that Leslie found us up there and we had fun hanging out together before the race started.

check out our cool gloves

trying to stay warm together

getting close to race time

jenny and I with leslie - our running momma

 Jenny and I stayed together the whole way down the canyon, which was 7 miles.  It was such a pretty canyon and a very gradual downhill grade.  We were keeping a great pace and staying with the 2:10 pacer.
When we came out of the canyon we saw our awesome hubbies!  They are so cool to come and support us.  They drove all over the rest of the course waiting for us and taking pictures.

just coming from the water station we saw our cute hubbies waiting for us

getting ready for  a photo-op

this was at mile 7 and we felt great

I really love Jenny and am so grateful for her amazing spirit!

We made sure we were always running when we saw the guys.
I'm trying to toss them my long sleeve shirt.

look how happy we are -
running is so much fun :)

Really starting to get hot now!

at the finish line!

 Jenny and I stayed together most of the way, until the last 2 miles.  She was feeling great and I told her to go on and finish strong.  I was feeling pretty nauseated and had to slow it down and walk a little more.  Jenny finished in 2:12 and I finished in 2:15, so not too far behind her.  It was such a great course - very beautiful and the race was so well organized.  This was only their 2nd year and was so professional.  I will definitely plan to do it again.

our amazing husbands - love them!

Jenny with her greatest fan

and me with my best fan

oh wow - did I just run 13 miles?

how cool is that - I was number 1
cool benefit of having a last name that starts with A
The pink ribbon was for my mom

Jenny, Leslie and Lisa at the finish line
Leslie did awesome too - she thought she'd finish in 3 hours but finished in  2:29!

It was a great run and I was only sore for 2 days after the race.  I definitely plan to keep running 1/2 marathons - that's the distance for me.