Nicki and Dustin: Timp Half Marathon

This summer I finally accomplished a major goal that I've had for years, to run a half marathon. It was quite the endeavor first because just registering turned out harder than thought. Half marathons are way cheaper in Utah and I wanted to run with my sister so it would be more fun but trying to coordinate that with our yearly family trip turned out to be pretty hard. But in the end we figured it out and Jess and I ended up running the TIMP Half Marathon, even though Jess ran the Hobbler Half two weeks before (the one we originally signed up for but that I couldn't make it out for).

Wake up at 3am, get dressed and grab food and drinks and head out to American Fork, park and take the bus to the top. Stretch and do morning yoga and go to the bathroom and wait for 90 minutes for the race to start. It is smart that they have a bag drop so you can pick up your jacket, water bottle, etc at the end of the race.

We found our pacer, planning on it taking about 2 hours to 2 hours and 10 minutes, and got ready. Now I had injured my knee by over training and not doing strength and running downhill too much in prep. Mostly I learned I needed to vary how far I ran and do strength at least 2 days a week for my quads and hamstrings. Needless to say I did not run for 4-5 weeks and then ran for 2 weeks before the race, not having run farther than 4 miles in 7 weeks. So I was nervous.

This race was also a 1800 elevation drop, aka bad for your knees! Great. So we took off and it felt great. It was really cool outside, the canyon was absolutely beautiful, and I wasn't struggling with the altitude change nearly as much as I had thought. Mile 4, my knee starts hurting. But as long as I focus on my stride as I had read for downhill running (don't heal strike, have a good swing back with your legs, don't fights the decline, just let it take you, and relax) it stopped hurting and I was ok. About mile 8 things started to flatten out as we came out of the canyon and I felt great. We just stopped to drink at every water station (every two miles) and then kept on going keeping about a 9:15 or 9:30 pace. Not bad eh? Then mile 9 hit and there were intermittent declines which I had to walk because my knee hurt so bad, but just on the inclines. Mile 10, I had to stop and stretch and take it slower but could keep going. Mile 11, time to walk. We walked and jogged intermittently and then ran the last mile with me amazingly having some juice in me to pick it up at the end. 13.1 miles. I made it in 2 hours and 13 minutes. Not bad for having to stop and walk etc for being just 3 minutes off of my goal!! However I did have a massive blister the size of my baby toe on that toe and was extremely sore and had to go home and take a nap. But all in all it turned out really well and I plan on doing another one for sure!! I will just wear maybe a seamless shirt or something and do a few other things to prevent chaffing. Never ran far enough for that to happen before! And get some better socks to prevent blisters. But I felt great and was so happy to accomplish such a goal!!

I am so grateful to Carter who watched the two boys so Jess and I could run and especially grateful to my High School Best Friend Trisha who came to see us at the end. It was so fun to have her there even though I was super tired. Thanks Trisha! It meant so much to me! And of course meeting M was amazing!!

Here is the link to the photos they took of Jess and I running. Part of me wants to buy them, but who can justify spending $50 for a photo of me when I'm red, sweaty and stinky??

http://www.lucidimagesutshop.com/search/?c=photos&n=lucidimagesut&q=hinton

The last photo in the link is me at the finish and even though it looks like that girl is gaining on me fast I still beat her :) haha

This is Jess and me waiting at the starting line!