Provo City Half Marathon Relay Report

Oh...my...HAIL! I say that not because I shy away from the real 'H' word but because the hail started at basically the same moment I started running. Wait. I'm getting ahead of myself.

Friday night I checked an updated report from Weather.com. The forecast for 9:00 Saturday morning says mostly cloudy with a temperature of 39. Definitely opting for pants instead of capris! The rain isn't supposed to start until about 2pm--perfect.

My alarm went off at 5:30, but I didn't get up until two snoozes later. I got ready, gathered my gear, and hopped in the minivan to pick up my relay partner Rachel. We got to Provo right at 7:00 and collected our race packets. Turns out I was lucky number 13! Which doesn't really mean anything because it's not like I do this to win. But maybe it's a sign of a great run?

I gotta give a shout-out to Run 13 who does a great job. The gun went off right at 8:00 after the crowd paused a moment for the national anthem. Rachel was off! And I headed back to the minivan to find my way to the exchange point. We knew the exchange was about half-way. Rachel's Garmin read 6.22 when she arrived at 9:09 am and slapped the bracelet on my wrist. Thank goodness I could start running and warm up a little. Because Weather.com is a liar.

Like I mentioned, the hail started at the beginning of my run and bounced off my cold face for at least half a mile. The hail turned to rain, snow, and back to rain again throughout my 6.97 mile run. Most of the second leg was on the Provo River Trail which very beautiful and full of puddles. I kept thinking I could run faster if my shoes weren't full of water.

My Garmin read 1:09:20 at the finish line. Here's my mile splits (which I swore I wouldn't do). But it's for posterity.
Mile 1 9:45
Mile 2 10:05
Mile 3 9:59
Mile 4 10:02
Mile 5 10:10
Mile 6 10:11
.97 Miles 9:14

Here I am crossing the finish line. My 11-year-old said, "No offense, Mom, but you look kind of fat." I know. It's because I was running so fast at the end (trying to beat white headband girl behind me) that my shirt and tank underneath did the Gus Gus thing. You know--the little mouse from Cinderella who wouldn't fit into his shirt because his belly was so big? But Gus Gus wasn't a runner.

No finish-line nonsense for us. After grabbing some bottled water and French toast we went straight to the minivan with its glorious heated leather seats. Respect the Van! Shortly after I dropped Rachel off my gas light went on. But I absolutely, positively in no way was stopping to fill up. All I could think about was a nice hot bath waiting for me at home.

 I just checked the online results which gave me an average pace of 10:38. I'm thinking they took my total chip time and divided by half. Even though the second leg was about 3/4 mile longer than the first. Oh well. My friend Shane would ask what's next. Well, next week I find out if I got in to the St. George Marathon. AND I signed up for a sprint triathlon on June 12. Hopefully the weather warms up!