Update From A Mad Runner

Well I'm done. And I was so tired I couldn't find time write this blog! haha.
B, Jenn, Jason, Carter, Izzie and myself made the trek to Cedar City, UT on Friday night. Cedar City is a few hours south of SLC and is more in the desert area of UT. It was a beautiful drive. We got checked into the hotel about 9ish, got some treats for the night and then hit the hay.
Jenn and I went to get our packets about 5:45 a.m. on Saturday morning. It was not very organized in the morning, it was still dark out and the people handing out our packets could barely see the names on the bags. They also "didn't get" the medium or extra-large shirts for the runners, which was very strange.
We then got onto our bus to take us 11 miles up the Cedar City Canyon. It was like the beginning of a scary movie, a bus full of strangers heading up a dark scary winding road. At the end of it, they had about 3 little bonfires to help keep people warm. It was SO cold up there that early. I am so glad I had B grab my sweatpants before we left SLC. They had all people put any belongings we didn't need into our bags with our names on it to pick up at the finish line.
By the time we started, a little after 7, the sun had just started coming up, but it was still freezing!
I had read online how pretty this run was so I made sure to bring my little camera for pictures and also wanted to make sure to enjoy the scenery.  They had a mile marker every mile down, which helped me realize how slow I was running! I didn't have any goals for this run, except to finish it, but I was only a couple miles down and was so far on my song list so I decided it was time to speed things up, I mean I was going downhill.
Everything was great. At about 6 miles down the hill flattened out a little and had some little rollers the rest of the way down. Also it was in the sun more. I was able to finally take my long sleeve shirt off!
The last three miles were all in town and I knew these would be the toughest. With the first 10 miles going mostly downhill running through town up and down little slopes and with the flat areas was so tiring. I didn't stop at any of the last water stations because I really didn't think I would be able to start running again!
I finally finished at about 2 hours and 10 minutes! Yay! I was hoping to be right around 2 hours so I was very excited with this time. Jenn also finished within her goal so I would say this was a very successful 1/2 marathon!

I think I am going to take a couple weeks off before I run again!

Here are some pictures of the run....sorry they are blurry, I was running when I took most of them.

 at the start line, just barely warming up!

 Still the beginning

 I realized here at about mile 3 how much further I had to go

 This is around miles 6-8

 Mile 10! I was ready to be done!

 Finished it! Holla!

B and Carter! Carter loves him!