Keep Runin' Runin'

August 9th 2008

My race was scheduled for Saturday at 6:30 am. Sarah Challis drove up with me, and will be running the race with her sister Lauren. I dropped her off at the motel where her family would be staying; they came down from Wyoming. My friend Dustin found me a place to stay a few doors down from him in some girls apartment. I was lucky enough to stay in their empty bedroom for the night. My goal was to get some good sleep so that I could do well in the morning. (I had been up in Orem earlier this week for a work conference and haven't gotten much sleep)

I got plenty of sleep that night and was pretty excited to go running. After taking the bus up the canyon and meeting some new friends on the bus, I used the port-a-potty and got warmed up. I was dressed up in 80's gear. I had a headband, and wrist bands. I had shorty-shorts and I wore a shirt that hung off my shoulder a bit. I wore "old-skool" head phones and tube socks that reached my knees with the two black stripes up top.

To stay warm and to get my muscles warmed up I danced around in a ska kind of way - kicking my feet and swinging my arms - all while pretending to listen to music. There were many who found it amusing and probably a few more who thought i was odd. However, dressing up was the best thing i could have done because it helped me be excited rather than nervous and brought smiles to a few faces.

I was nervous that I wouldn't be hydrated enough for the race so I made sure to drink more than enough the night before and the morning of. This was very problematic because when the race was about to start I had to use the port-a-potty again - but not too badly - so I just ignored it.

The race started when the gun was fired- and I was no where near the start of the race. There were 2500 people running in the race and we were all packed pretty tightly and actual running was a joke. So I turned on my music and starting singing and dancing next to people who were trying to run. I then starting skipping and walking faster than some were running. I decided that I should try to run so I followed after some people who were running off the side of the road in the weeds. There were times you had to make sure to not fall off the cliff though.

I made pretty good time on my race - however the WHOLE TIME I had to use the port-a-potty so that when I was finished with the race - that was the only thing on my mind - and we ran next to a river the whole time.

AND there was not one port-a-potty to use when the race was over. I was SO full of liquid it was about to leak out of my eyes! - for real - I had tears in my eyes I had to go so badly. So I found a restaurant and went straight to their restroom. After that I was a happy camper again.

My brother and sis-in-law joined me and took some rad pictures - it was awesome to have some support there!! My time was unofficially around 1:42:ish.