13.1

That's right. I just ran 13.1 miles in the American Fork Canyon Half Marathon.

I have never had any desire to run.  Nope.  Didn't think I would ever do it.  AND I always laugh at the people with the 13.1 or 26.2 stickers on their cars.  Great, you're super athletic and you can run long distances!  BUT now I get it!  I want to sport a 13.1 decal because I did it!

Ok, so here is how the run came to be:

Kelsey sends me a message on Facebook back in March saying we should do a half marathon.  It was a great even to raise money for those who are fighting cancer.  I said yes, but nothing really came of it and the race filled up.  Then, Porter was diagnosed.  Now, we had to run, so dad made some phone calls and we now had 6 spots.

I started "training".  I would run 3 to 4 miles during the week and then a longer run (between 9 and 10 miles) on Saturdays - note that I was not consistent in my running and only got in 3 or 4 long ones and my weekday runs were sporadic.  Most of our group was planning on just walking the whole thing so I figured I had a place to go if the running was too much...


Until, I got a call last night.  They weren't going to run.  There was a lot of smoke in the air.  Another one had the flu.  And one (Kelsey) forgot her running shoes!  I had to run it, but I didn't want to run alone...


so here is my little testimony of prayer.  It was about 9:30 and time for me to get to bed so that I could get up at my 3:00am wake up call. I knelt down and told Heavenly Father my dilemma.  The race had grown to mean a lot to me, it was an accomplishment I wanted to have, but I didn't want to experience it alone.  I didn't want to get french toast at the finish line by myself.  So, I asked him to find someone to run with me. At 9:40, my friend Spencer texts me to wish me luck. I tell him that it was just me.  That I was nervous, but I had to do it.  Then of course, I thanked him for his support.  I am not sure if it was a joke or not, but he replied with, "Oh man, I'm sorry...want me to run it with you? haha" Now, that was probably more of a joke on his part, but this was looking like an answer to my prayer!


It was.  Spencer and I ran that race!  And he was such a good running partner.  We made it all the way to mile 10 before we needed to stop and finished in about 2 hours and 15 minutes - beating my goal by a whole 15 minutes!



The run was a great experience.  I picked Spencer up at about 3:35am and got to American Fork High School right at 4.  We were on the first bus to the start of the race, but we didn't win anything from the raffle (even though we were feeling real lucky).  We did get some mickey mouse disposable gloves to keep our hands warm though!

We sat at the starting line for 2 hours.  I ran into a mom of one of my students and we chatted for a little. We bounced around, trying to keep warm.  And we signed the "Cancer Sucks" poster.  Then, I noticed Porter up in the corner of the huge blow up screen.  His picture was up there!  My aunt Michelle had submitted it and there he was!  It almost had me crying.

Finally, we were just minutes from go time and just anxious to actually start running!

We must have been just past the first mile marker when we ran into this...

I ran it for him. 

Then between marker 10 and 11 (the longest/worst two miles EVER), I got the following reminder:

So, we kept going.

From Mile 12 in, it was time to run and give it the last bit that we had.  As we were turning a corner, knowing the final stretch was near, I heard my name.  There were my supporters - Mom and Porter, cheering me in.  It was a pretty fabulous way to end the race.