Porter's Half

I got up at 5:30, got ready and headed up to the Porter Half finish. While waiting for the bus to come I met one of the ladies from our running group, Marisa. She's a great lady. They bused us up to the start and I met up with some other friends and started the race. 

 I started out WAAAAY too fast. My first mile was 8:59. Haha! After that mile it was all down hill. Well, kinda. When I was signing up for this race I looked at the elevation and it totally looked like a nice gradual down hill. I thought it'd be super easy and nice. Yeah... not so much...

 It was hilly and level. It was a tough course! I'd rather have all down hill or flat, but not that. Around mile 8 I was really feeling it and by mile 9 I was doing a lot of walk/running. Mile 12 was a 14:22 mile...Ugh. Oh well, I felt really good in my legs, but it was a real mental game. I need to get out of my head and just run. Anyway, I ended up finishing in 2.25.23. Not bad! That's my 3rd fastest half. It's amazing how far I've come in the past 8 months. 

 One of my running friends, Robert, was getting pictures of people from the group crossing the finish line. That's my picture. I look SO much different from the start of the year. It's really amazing how far you can come when you work hard. 

 It was a tough race, but it was great to be there with friends. :) Next weekend I'm running The Nebo half. I'm really hoping for a sub 2 hr half. We'll see what I can do. There's going to be a lot of us from the group running that one and a few of us aiming for a sub 2. 

 After the race I thought it would be a good idea to have fresh legs for Nebo, so I picked up a bag of ice from the store on the way home and took an ice bath. Sooo cold, but it really helped! 

My calves are a little sore, but I think they'll feel good on Saturday.