Halloween Half

I have been looking forward to this race pretty much all year. And I love it for a few reasons:

1. It was the first race I ran that got my fire lit for running

2. Since I had been training all year for my marathon and because this race is so downhill I knew I could kill my previous time.

3. It is the last race of the season and so to miss it is to make the winter longer

And plus I really wanted to run it this year because last Halloween I was in the hospital just having had Kasen. I was lying in a bed on a respirator, not even breathing on my own. And so one year later my body is back and I am back to running. I just think it is so amazing how the body works. How it can heal and repair itself and become even stronger. I experienced many miracles and saw the Saviors hand in my life when I had Kasen. So to me this was more than just a race.

Having said all that...

This was not my best race. I really thought I could get a time of 1:45 but I guess I took too much time off between the marathon and this race and I lost some speed. It didn't help that my foot hurt almost the whole time too. Running is a mind game and I just couldn't get my mind into it. It also didn't help knowing that TJ would not be at the finish line either.

The race was pretty disorganized as well. They changed the start location (no more downhill), and instead of fire pits or a nice warm tent to hang out in until the race started we stood out in 25 degree weather for an hour. My feet were completely numb. They also changed the bus loading time at the last min. We got to the mall in the morning at 5:45 and waited for the buses until 7:30. After the race we sat around for 2 hours waiting for our bags that we checked before the race to show up. Inside it were my car keys and phone.

I'm not sure if I will run this race next year. I have done it 3 times and each year I get the exact same shirt (identical) and the exact same medal. I would think with how expensive this race is they could at least get a new shirt design.

Oh well enough complaining. It was still fun to run and running down the canyon in the fall with the leaves everywhere was beautiful and it was awesome to run it with my sister too.