We Did It!

Friday night, my friend Beth Hansen and I ran the Moonlight Half Marathon in Mapleton, Utah. It was an interesting experience, but definitely worth it. As of three or four days before, Beth didn't think she was going to run it, but I begged her to come do it with me, because what would be a fun adventure with a friend would not be nearly so exciting alone. Luckily, I'm a persuasive person. We had started out training together for this about a month ago, and did really well. And then like two weeks ago, we kinda just...faltered. Ran maybe twice a week. Kept making excuses

like, "I had curry for dinner." So we both came into this skeptical of our ability to actually finish the 13.1 miles with any kind of life left in us at the end. But we were going to run it anyway.

Getting ready was fun. At packet pick up, we got to choose a light up flashy thing and four glow sticks. And I happened also to have a tube of glow sticks that I'd bought a year or two ago. Beth's

boyfriend Ryan also bought us glow stick earrings to wear. I think I ended up with at least twenty glow sticks plus the bright flashy one on my wrist. Combined with the required reflective vests, and we were pretty well lit. The pictures are kinda blurry and/or dark, but you get the idea.

It was a very interesting race because everyone chooses when to start, with the goal of being the first person to cross the line after midnight. We chose to start at 9:40. That means a pace of 10 min miles with ten extra minutes for walking or a bathroom stop. It was really trippy for the first couple of miles of the run, because you had to get used to seeing discombobulated and/or floating flashing lights running ahead of you or passing in the opposite direction. It was fun though - as long as you weren't near a really bright flashing light for very long, because that just got really annoying. Great motivation to pass people, though.

I really loved the setting of the run. Hobble Creek Canyon is slightly up and down, but not much. For about half of the run we were on an asphalt bike/run trail just off the road, which was really nice. It was nice and cool without being chilly - absolutely the perfect temperature. The full moon was super bright, so seeing the road wasn't really a problem after it came up. Beth and I found a comfortable, slightly-fast-for-us pace and just churned out the miles. I honestly was so surprised to watch the mile posts come up so quickly and without much pain. I think half of it was the whole running in the dark thing. And every time we passed a mile marker, Beth would punch my arm. Usually more than once. It hurt! Haha.

We stopped once for a bathroom break around mile 8, but were able to keep running at a pretty good pace after that. Maybe slightly slower. Around mile 10 it was getting to seem a bit long, but neither of us could believe how good we were running, and we only had like a 5K left, so we kept running. And all of the sudden we could see the finish, and I sprinted through at...

11:57 PM. Just a little bit too fast. But this was ok with us, because it means we did better than our goal. I honestly felt great. A bit tired, but it was midnight and 13.1 miles later. Beth did not feel so great after - we think she kinda went into shock and was feeling very nauseated. All in all, however, we both feel that we did great - WAYYY better than either of us thought we could. Here's us at the finish line:

Yeah, so that was one goal accomplished, and it was way fun and much more successful than we thought it would be. I kinda wish I was going to be around to do it again next year. Oh well. I'll find some fun races out in Atlanta.