13.1 miles, take two.

it took some time to decide what to say about the snow canyon half marathon... but i'm ready for a recap.

7pm, night before: i cannot carb load. literally, my stomach cannot take much more than about four bites of pasta. so...i was hungry in the morning. what a waste...
7am, race day: eating some oatmeal that i brought from home in the hotel's breakfast room. pretty sure the front desk girl thought i was sneaking in cocaine because she kept staring at me as i pulled my breakfast out of my bag. i just have a routine. lay off.
815am: woman with her daughter, pointing at those of us in the line to get on the bus: "those are the crazy people. they're running 13 miles today. by choice." thanks for the pep talk, lady.
9am: ready to go. race coordinators are not.
940am: race starts. finally. due in part (i think) to runners inching closer and closer until finally someone just started running. 40 minutes late.
miles 1-3: so great! my garmin told me i did them in 9 minutes each. much faster than my usual mile, therefore...
miles 4-7: veering off the downhill course onto an uphill, gravel bike trail. very uphill.
miles 8-10: eating shot blocks like candy in hopes that i will somehow finish this race.
miles 11-13: girl next to me - "are we going to be able to go three more miles?" me - "can you carry me on your back please?"
13.1: FINISH. awesome friends with sign, cheering louder than the announcer. i think people were jealous that i had my own fan club :)
emily: can you run through again? i missed the picture of you crossing the finish line.
me: (lying on the grass) "NO." :)

mmm yes. the second half marathon was 14x more brutal than the first. i'm not sure why exactly, but i'm thinking it had to do with the serious incline. the race packet says "bus to the top of the canyon and enjoy a beautiful run down" i feel that this is quite a misrepresentation of how much we were running up. :)
but i loved it. strangely, i would do it again.

after a checkup/x-ray with my sports med dr this week, i will be signing up for the salt lake marathon. wish me and my tibia good luck, okay? thanks.