found this quote on Janae's blog:

"When we feel stuck...going nowhere....even starting to slip backward-we might actually be backing up to get a running start."

love it.  =]

PCHM

(or provo city half marathon for those of you who don't know)
i ran my first half marathon on saturday and i have to say that it was the hardest thing i have ever done in my entire life. my goal was to finish and in under 3 hours would have been nice. my official time was something like 3:03:17 (just ballparkin' it....=] )

so, close enough to 3 hours and i wasn't last! i think that means success.

i'm going to try to explain to you my thought process at about 

mile 4 and i might fail horribly so...bare bear with me. 

(also i might have to go into a tangent about the phrase "bare/bear with me" haha)

in order to help other understand my thought process, 

i guess i have to explain how the race went. 

i ran/jogged almost the entire first 3 miles to
the second water station. at that point i was
pretty tired and my muscles were a bit fatigued
(keep in mind i did almost no training didn't train
as much as i should have for this race)
so i started a brisk walk. from then until mile 11 it
was a steady switch off from jog to walk as i felt
was appropriate and then the rest of the race i just
wanted it to be over so i pushed myself and jogged to the finish.

so, when i initially started walking i started to be a bit disappointed in myself;

wanting to run the entire thing, 

wanting to pass this person, 

not let that guy pass me, etc. 

i quickly stopped that thought process by thinking 

"why?!" 

why do i care if i run the entire thing?
why does it matter if that guy (who is 50 lbs overweight) passes me?
why do i care if i pass that lady or keep up with those two?

my goal was to finish and there was no way that i was 

going to quit unless i passed out or broke a leg. 

besides, i bet they all trained for this more than i 

did so why should i compare myself to them? 

it was a really interesting experience bc i realized
that i really didn't care what people around me were doing.
sure, trying to keep with someone is a great way to push
yourself, i'm not saying it's bad, but i was pushing myself
by simply trying to go 13.1 miles without much training!
i could gauge my level of intensity bc i knew what i was
feeling, not what anyone else was feeling or what anyone
else had done to prep for the race. i decided to really take
some advice that my dad gave me and just relax and have fun.

i started looking around at the things around me 

and enjoyed going through a part of provo that 

i'm hardly ever in. i saw tons of yard sales and a 

little girl gave me a high five as i was running by 

and i saw a guy on a riding lawn mower except he 

was standing on this tiny platform on one wheel 

that was connected to the mower and well, ya i just 

had fun with what i was given. 

and then miles 5-9 went by pretty quickly. i always thought it
was dumb when people would say that parts of a marathon
went by really fast, not because they were running faster but
just because they got into a rhythm i guess....well, at about
mile 2 i was sure that was NEVER going to happen and that
this half marathon was going to last foreverrrrrrrr.....but, to
my surprise, it didn't!
ok, it wasn't all puppy dogs and rainbows.

at mile 10 i hit a serious wall and my hips were killing me. 

i didn't even give myself places to run to like i normally do, 

i was just going bc there was nothing else for me to do. 

i certainly wasn't going to stop after 10 miles. so the last 3.1 

miles were terribly painful and hard but I FINISHED!!!! 

and after crossing that line i wanted nothing more than to lay
in my bed and go to sleep. i don't know that i would classify
this experience as fun quite yet, tho i'm sure at some point i
will look back and think it was.

ok, i'm sorry for the intense novel, i know blog posts are much more fun when there are lots of pictures but i didn't take my camera & i just wanted to share my experience! here's me at the finish with two girls from my ward-tippe and lauren. lauren finished her first half in 2:17:45 and tippe finished around 2:5  these girls ROCK!!!!