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Published: July 24th 2006
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One of my life long goals has been to run a marathon. Before my mission I was signed up and training to run the Alaska marathon with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. However funds fell through and I left on my mission before I could run the race. But this goal has always been in the back of my mind. A few weeks ago I was talking to my good friend Maria about what was new in her life and she mentioned this half marathon in Moab that she was going to do… so I checked it out and entered my application. I was one of the lucky ones chosen to run the race as not all applicants get in!
Training has been a bit of a struggle but finally race day came. I had gone up a day early with Danny and we hiked delicate arch and just had fun in Moab as you can see in the pics posted. On race day we woke up early and headed for the busses. Our group consisted of 13 runners, 6-8 fans from our ward at BYU and a wonderful team massage therapist 😊
Our team name was Team
Bangarang and our motto for the run was: LESS FLAB MO-AB!!
Together we entered the bus super excited and ready for the adventure!! However, as we went further and further up the canyon I was getting a bit nervous realizing that we were driving the incredibly long race route! But we made it there and spent some time at the bathrooms, stretched out and headed for the start line. Before a race it is recommended that you take this gel stuff called GU well I was eating mine and I put it in my pocket for a min and then forgot about it and started to stretch… big mistake.. I had GU all over in my pocket!! It was pretty hilarious as I tried to scrape out what was left so I wouldn’t lose my energy. The other one I had I stored in secret spot that only Maria and I know about…
Up at the top ready to start I was feeling more and more nervous but I put on some Shakira tunes from my Ipod and I was set. We were off and running…. For the first few miles I was passing people left and right and
it felt good just to finally get out and start running. I caught up to a girl from my running class that I had been taking and we were at about the same pace for a while so we ran together for 3 miles and then she decided to pull back. It was really fun though to have someone to run with! Shortly after I left her my Ipod died. I was so bummed out because I love listening to music while I run it just gives you that extra push…I guess this was a race I needed to finish without music. On mile 8 I met up with another guy that was in his 50s who told me that his goal was to keep up with me… I thought that was so funny and we actually ran together for a good 3 miles pumping each other up when the hills came and really working it on the downhill. He eventually pulled back and said he’d see me at the finish line. It was around that time… mile 11 ½ that I started feeling a bit tired. I had done fine the whole time until that point. And ironically at
the water stop I ran into my parents!! It was really refreshing to see their faces however I was sooo tired that I couldn’t really say much to them I just had to keep on running. I think it took me double the time to finish the last mile than it had taken me on any other mile the whole run. However with encouragement from every side I was able to sprint the final quarter and ended with a time of 2:30:06!!
My goal had been to finish at 2:30 and so I was super pleased with my time. It also made me realize that I would have finished faster had I not been so tired the last mile. This race taught me a lot about myself and the mental strength I achieved by running a half marathon. Hopefully with more dedication and training I’ll be ready for my next race… the MARARTHON!!
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