Salt Lake City 1/2 Marathon and more

Possibly one of THE worst pictures of me ever. My sisters look great for it being 0515....Black eye, swollen face, crazy hair, squinty. Man this is just a fugly pic of me.... but I'm still gonna post it. hahahhaha

"Who's stupid idea was this?", from the police officer asking us why we were walking along the TRAX tracks, taking a shortcut to the station. It was mine. A $100 fine was threatened but not given.

"Do you think I can use the bathroom at __________?", from my sister at 0530 in downtown SLC. Um, hate to break it to you sis, but a real estate office is not gonna be even open on Saturday, let alone at 530 in the morning, for you to use their bathroom. Don't you know, you shoulda went before we left home!

"Could everyone please more to the right side of the train.", from the TRAX driver because the cars were soooo full they were bottoming out against the platform and they couldn't move. Later the cars would grind against the ground going around corners. They were so full at the later stops no one could even get on, and you could see the disappointed look on their faces, realizing they were gonna be late for the start.

"It's gonna come out!", my aforementioned sister looking very nervous, waiting to use the bathroom before the race. Five thousand people and they had 18 porta-potties. That is piss poor planning on all levels, pun intended. The dearth of porta-potties would figure greatly in my race strategy later.

"There's no shame in wetting yourself!", something a guy yelled at me while I was waiting in line to use the porta pottie at mile 6. Well dude, guess what? If I only had to wet myself I would have done it, but I wasn't going to do what I needed to do without stopping. I wanted to beat my sisters, but I wasn't gonna poop on myself to do it. If anything that would have slowed me down or caused me to drop out.

"Bacon! Get your bacon!", about mile 8 a guy was cooking bacon in his front yard and passing it out to runners. I wanted it, but did some quick thinking and assessing how I felt and ran to the far side of the street to avoid eating any. But props to him for making me smile.

And for the race recap....
mile 1: we are all together. my feet are starting to hurt. i turn off my mp3 player as it was totally annoying me. i'd never ran with it before and learned i don't want to race with it either.
mile 2: M and i are together. my foot pain is gone buy my calves are hurting.
mile 3: i am running by myself now. running about a 9 min mile pace and breathing easily.
mile 4: just still running.
mile 5: i eat my fist gu. my thighs are starting to hurt.
mile 6: this mile changed everything. the aid station was out of water and cups. i wasted NINE minutes waiting in line to use the bathroom. my urine was clear so i know the quart of cytomax i drank the morning of the race was still holding me strong. M passed me while i was in the bathroom. let's see......if there was 7 miles left and i just gave up over 9 minutes to her and she was running a 10 minute mile pace.... i needed to run 8 minute miles for the rest of the race to catch her. great.
mile 7: i check my heart rate monitor, focus on my breathing and start to really pick up the pace.
mile 8: the bacon guy makes me smile.
mile 9: gu number two and a little bit of powerade to drink at the aid station.
mile 10: yep, my legs are feeling sore. still no sign of my sister but my pace is good, doing 8 min miles and passing lots of folks who passed me at mile 6.
mile 11: still running.
mile 12: uphill, up State street. i had checked out the course map pretty thoroughly as I am unfamiliar with SLC. so i knew i had a pretty good idea of where i was and how many miles were left. i kept telling myself, 'you're strong. crush these people going uphill. be stronger than them'.
mile 13: i see my sister. i pace her a bit. then i run up behind her and SPANK her on the booty. hard. hahahaha. she then says to me, 'let's run together a bit and then sprint at the finish line' to which i laugh and just take off. i look over my shoulder a few times but she wasn't able to stay with me.

And I cross the finish line! Woo Hoo!! I was too fast for family to get a pic of me at the finish, but this will have to do.

My family was cheering! I got a nice race picture taken. My finisher medal looks good. My race shirt is crappy. The post race food is blah. The finish at the mall was very nice. My legs were totally dead. I was able to breathe through my nose the whole time.


And after days of trash talking I backed it up and beat my sisters. So the bet was winner gets to spank the loser. Exhibit A. Me, the winner, spanking the loser, my sister. (i love you sis)

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It was also a rare weekend where all of us kids were in the same place. So it was very nice to see all of my siblings, even if only for a short time.

I also got to play with my nieces and nephews a bit to. I felt like Uncle Donald hahaha.

Today, Monday, we are admitting my dad to the hospital for his heart surgery. So of course there was much prayer and talk about that, wanting all to work out for the best for my mom and dad.

I got to see J and M. That was nice. Though I think we sat around a little too much for their taste.

We went to a bouncy house place and the kids loved it. My dad, T, M, J and myself went to a driving range. I was the worst. Barely 140 yards at best.

I took everyone out to pizza for dinner at The Pie on Saturday night.

So that is my time up in Utah. All in all a good time too.