Provo City Half Marathon

I completed my twelfth half marathon this weekend! And got a PR! To be honest I wasn't really expecting a PR.  After doing an 18 mile run a couple weeks ago by legs just have not felt fresh for any run.  I was worried that I was over training.  But I decided I'd watch myself and if running didn't get any better I'd back off a bit for a week or so.  I also decided I needed REEEAALLLLY focus on recovery.  I've been super good about stretching and foam rolling after runs but after a bit of research realized I really needed to be getting protein in me within 30 minutes of a hard or long run so my muscles could recover better.  I also am making sure to wear my compression socks after long or hard runs.
So this past week my runs have felt slightly better but never really easy. I was also worried cause the course is slightly downhill and I have struggled with getting side aches on downhill courses and those just slow me down big time.  Throughout training I've found that when I first start to feel a side ache if start to breathe in and out through my nose I can usually keep it at bay.
The night before the race I went to bed around 9:30pm but probably took an hour to fall asleep due to a busy brain.  My alarm was set for 4am but shortly after 3:30am I woke up with a start because I dreamt that my alarm went off and it was 6:58am and the race started at 7am.  Luckily that wasn't the case but I was up after that. I ate a whole wheat tortilla with peanut butter and honey at around 4:15am and then a honey stinger about 10 minutes before the race started. During the race I sipped on Nuun electrolyte drinking and surprisingly didn't use any of my fuel blocks or gels.
Felicia and I rode together to the buses and because we were in the first four buses we were entered into a raffle.  Right before the start they gave out the prizes for the raffle and I won an entry to a local half in July! We tried keeping warm next to the fires they had going (the start is at a campground).

The race started promptly at 7am and I lined up with the 1:40 pacer.  Felicia had wanted to go out at an 8 minute mile but wasn't looking at her pace and so when I heard our first mile was 7:14 I was a little scared but we just chugged along and I think we both felt great.  We stuck together till about mile 8.5.

Right before the start

I had a perfect playlist and I feel like that helps me so much.  All of the songs seem to have inspiring mantras that just really help me mentally. So even though my body may be hurting the lyrics are basically telling me to keep going.

Throughout the race I had a few scares with the beginning of a side ache but worked through them and a slight twinge in my quad a couple times but overall felt really good.
The last couple miles I was able to reel in a couple people and that is always a moral booster.
About a 200 meters from the finish I kicked it into high gear along with the guy next to me finished strong with a 1:36:38 finish time at a pace of 7:23/mile. Felicia finished just a few short minutes after me in 1:39!! Neither of us were expecting those kinds of times so needless to say we were thrilled!

Here were my splits:
Mile 1-  7:14
Mile 2-  7:17
Mile 3-  7:35
Mile 4- 7:18
Mile 5- 7:19
Mile 6- 7:27
Mile 7-  7:29
Mile 8- 7:30
Mile 9- 7:23
Mile 10- 7:23
Mile 11-  7:32
Mile 12-  7:23
Mile 13- 7:09

2nd place in the women's 24-29 age group

68th of 623 overall
2nd of 45 in female 24-29
16th of 344 females

Brooklyn had a blast at the finish line since there was a bouncy house and slide, Creamies popsicles, and face painting.

And to top it all off we had 20 miles scheduled for marathon training so after the race I added on an extra seven miles to make me niiiiiicccce and sore.