I didn’t just break 2 hours… okay, I did!

1:58:30. I. Am. So. Excited.

I admit, I cried for a few seconds after I finished and my dad came to give me a hug.

There was required bus transportation to the start. Bus transportation was between 5:00 and 5:30. Bus transportation was about an hour away from my parent’s house. This = early. I said I could drive myself, but my dad insisted he would drive me. Parents do that. Of course, the night before, I looked at my phone, saw an alarm for 5 am, and thought, oh, I’ll just have to adjust that a little. So I did.

The next morning, my dad knocked on the door at 3:58, at which point I realized I had set the alarm for 4:50. Yep, my nightmare came true, but I was saved by my father.

The start was quite chilly – probably about 40 degrees. And since we had to hang around there from about 5:45 to 7:00, it was chilly for a long time. About 6:40, I decided I was ready to ditch my pants and jacket. I walked around trying to stay warm, then discovered along with about 4 other people that hanging out behind the outhouses kept you out of the wind. The smell wasn’t awesome, but it wasn’t awful. And it was quite a bit warmer than standing around in front of them.

I got out in a wave at about 7:10AM. At this point, it had just gotten light enough that you could see everything clearly, though the sun hadn’t come over the mountains yet.

Splits are:

Mile 1: 9:51. Right about on target.

Mile 2: 8:48 (oops, better slow down!)

Mile 3: 9:09. I think somewhere in here I took off my arm warmers and stuck them in my shorts, and then took of my gloves and stuck them in my spibelt.

Mile 4: 8:53

Mile 5: 9:18 (huh? I think there was a tiny bit of uphill in this mile)

The first 5 miles just flew by. I couldn’t believe it when I hit 5, because it felt like nothing. This boded well. I silently asked for 5 more just like them.

Mile 6: 9:00. According to the official timing, my 6-mile split was 57:30.

Mile 7: 9:29 (not bad since I also took half a gel prior to this water station)

Mile 8: 9:06. At this point, I just kept thinking that my mom and her friends would be at mile 10, so all I had to do was get there on pace, and then I could take off and go faster if I still had it in me. At this point, I also knew I would still have it in me.

Mile 9: 8:57. Mom is coming. She’ll have signs.

Mile 10: 8:53. My mom and her friends were cheering here. I had a little problem as I didn’t know the water station was almost right at mile 10, and so I hadn’t gotten through enough of my gel to want water yet. Plus I wanted to ditch my arm warmers and spibelt with my mom, so I was a little distracted. I did kind of throw them at her, and was glad to ditch that tiny bit of weight.

Mile 11: 8:45. I was ready this time, and had been carrying my opened and uneaten gel for almost a mile. So I took about half just prior to the water station at the begging of mile 12.

Mile 12: 8:57. This was the only real hill on the course, and it really is a decent hill, which is why I was a little slower. It certainly wasn’t a lower effort. I passed a bunch of people. Yeah, hills are a strong point for me.

Mile 13: 8:31. Yay, yay, yay.

.1 mile: 53 seconds.

In case you missed in, that was definitely negative splits. And it felt so good. That’s definitely the way to go.

After I finished, my dad happened to look at one of my mom’s signs. She had stayed up a little TOO late making it, and managed to misspell my name!

Here are my little stats, which I’m pretty happy with:

And I just wanted to throw in, this is a great event. Very well run, very little confusion, excellently marked course, etc. And I loved hearing my name called out when I crossed the finish line.