Finished Ogden 1/2 Time 2:08 (according to my GPS)

Yes, I survived the half marathon today. I don't know why I was so nervous. I happened to have a fabulous running day. I found while I was training some days I felt great, and other's not so much. Luckily today I felt awesome. I was seven miles in before I even looked at my mileage on my gps. Usually by seven I'm really starting to feel tired, but today I was just enjoying the run so much. When I first started out everyone was passing me. It started to get to me I wanted to speed up, but I kept to a safe pace because I didn't want to go out to hard and hit a wall. I'm really glad I took that approach because I enjoyed the experience so much more. I found another runner who had a steady pace like mine and we talked for a couple of miles. I think that really helped me keep steady, and get my mind off of the mileage. Then she needed to walk so I pressed onward and pumped up my tunes to keep me motivated. I felt great as I was coming out of the Ogden canyon. At this point I started to pass some people who had gone out to hard in the beginning. That felt good and was alot of motivation to keep up my pace. Then Dan and the kids saw me just a I was starting out into the Ogden park. It was amazing how much energy it gave me just to see some supportive faces. I was so happy to wave to my family and show them that I was still going strong. At this point in the race I wish I would have pushed a little bit more. The walk way is narrow so it was dificult to get a good pace because I didn't have as much space to get around the other runners. I also thought I had to run all the way up 12th street, so I didn't want to push it to hard. By the time I was finished with the walkway I could see the Ogden Temple spires. I was just one mile from the finish, much closer than I realized. At this point I was still feeling great and felt like I had some more in me. I tried to speed up my pace to a 9:00-9:30 pace from my conservative 9:45-10:00 minute pace. I saw my parents as I ran passed the Temple, and then Dan was about a half mile from the finish. This really helped with my adrenaline, and then I pushed through to finish strong. I have to admit I enjoyed the entire race. It felt great to run steady, not needing to stop. I was nervous about finishing because I've never done a 13 mile run before, but my body was able to respond when on some of my training runs I wasn't as successful. Afterwards I got a horrible stomach ache. I'm not use to eating Gu's on my run and it did on number on me, but that's starting to feel better now. I'm glad the half is behind me but I'm afraid I've turned into a running junkie because I can't wait to train for another one soon! By the way when I finished the clock said 2:10 but I was actually faster because of the few minutes it took for me to cross at the startong line. I'm really proud of 2:08 because 2:10 was my minimum goal, that's the pace I've been training at. I've got picture's but we don't have our camera on hand right now, so I'll post some soon. Glad it was a good running day for me.