halloween half

I have officially registered for my first (last?) half marathon. For those who know me, this may come as a shock because I don't enjoy running. The last race I did was a 10k in July, and I distinctly remember thinking as we were stretching and lining up, "I don't even like running! Why am I doing this??". That thought persisted for several miles.

But recently I've had the urge to train for something bigger. Maybe it was accomplishing the century- probably that hardest thing I've ever done physically. Maybe it was seeing my longtime friend Stephanie run her first half. Either way, I looked around to see if there were any local half marathons before Utah turns into a frozen tundra, and lo and behold I found this.The Provo Halloween Half, boasting a 2,000 ft elevation loss. Costumes encouraged. After gathering some cousin friends (who I sure hope don't bail on me) I registered yesterday.

 


Training? Oh, yeah. Let me remind you I've never run more than 6.2 miles, ever. Yesterday I did 8 with relative ease. Calves are a little sore (shocking to me, because I have always considered my calves to be indestructible from riding) but overall no worse for the wear.

And the greatest news of all- no IT band pain. I guess stretching actually does help; go figure. I struggled with my IT band hurting the week before July 10k. I'd never dealt with that before, and after some googling, I found the only solution to be stretching. Google video provided me with some how-to stretches, but I've never felt a good, deep stretch while doing them. It must be doing something because I went from feeling pain after just 2 miles to going 8 with no complaints.

Next week: 10 miles. We'll see how that goes...