Salt Lake Half

Let's just say, this has not been the healthiest year for me.  I've spent at least seven weeks of it sick. I had the 2 weeks I was out due to oral surgery. And allergy season this year? Worst ever.  The second half marathon I ran this year (should have been third, luckily the first let me defer a year because of the surgery + first flu issues) was the Salt Lake Half.  Last year, right after the race (when the race offers half off registration fees) a neighbor mentioned a bunch of us who are runners, and asked if we wanted to do it.  A group of us signed up, and one year later, we were running.

So that I wouldn't have to wake up super early to drive up to Salt Lake, I stayed the night at my aunt's house who lives less than a mile from the start of the race. The night before, she let me know that she had stocked her fridge/freezer with gluten free waffles, eggs, bacon and OJ.  How awesome it she!?!?!  Such a great start to my, still, early morning.

I met my friends at the start line. They were nice enough to notice my eyes are shut in the first shot, so took a second. =)

What is it with me leaning in with my head instead of my body? Oye!

This race was five weeks after I ran the Canyonland Half.  And what happened in those five weeks? Remember the intro paragraph? Yup, I took my usual recovery week off, went to CA to visit family, where I ended up only running once, and I got sick, again.  And then, allergies sort of overlapped with the illness.  I ran a total of five times between the two races. And 4.5 miles was the longest distance. Ouch!

In the bottom photo, the girl to my right (left side of the photo) - she is my next door neighbor. Her husband is serving a year deployment right now.  She decided to run 400 miles while he is gone.  The day of the race, she had 13 miles left.  I ended up running most of the race with her.  I ended up finishing in just over 2 hours. Not bad for not really training. (So glad my neighbor pushed me, even if she thought I was pushing her.)

Here we are after finishing

A fun group of ladies. Most of us finished within 4 or 5 minutes of each other. I think we all finished in a 15 minute window. Super women!