I awoke at 6 a.m. and grumbled that I didn't want to get up yet. My mind ran through all the things I had to get done before the race this morning. Yep, I've got to get up. I arrived at the Union Pacific building at 7:30 and it was a mad house. I had already pre-registered, but needed to get my number and my much anticipated T-shirt. I stood in line while everyone around me complained at the lack of organization. I was just happy to be there.
I put on my number and my T-shirt (I didn't really want to wear another shirt, but I didn't want to walk back to my car either), and made my way down to the rainbow of pink balloons. The organizers asked everyone to start making their way to the line. I was already there, so I was in the front. Not really a great idea unless your a fast runner, as I found out. I stretched in line thinking we would heading out soon. The woman on the microphone yelled out some motivational sayings followed by, "we'll be starting in about 25 minutes now." 25 minutes!! I am not someone who can stand still for that long. What am I going to do for 25 minutes? Not a whole lot. I just stretched, jogged in place, watch the police officers deal with traffic, and watch cheerleaders from the local high schools (my alma mater included) do cheers thinking to myself, "was I really that young and goofy?"
Finally the countdown began and the woman yelled "Go!,' but forgot to pull the trigger on the gun until about 3 seconds after we all started running. As I was in the front few rows, I believe I was also filmed by a local news station. The camera was sitting on the ground looking up at me when I left the starting line. Guess I'll find later....maybe.
The first mile for me is always the hardest. You would think it would be the last, but for me it's always the "getting started" phase that I struggle with. The route was fairly flat with a small hill just before we turned to head back. The second mile was much easier, and the third was a breeze. I was actually surprised by how many people were running the race. A lot of people would run and then walk, run then walk. But overall, I was impressed with the number of runners. I believe the number of people doing the race was about 10,000, but can't be certain. I had no idea where I fell in with everyone else. I believe I was in the middle of the pack, but near the front. As we finished, we came around the Gateway (too bad "Ms. Babylon in Zion" chick wasn't here this weekend to see what real Utah women do) and finished up in a clog of people, both runners and supports. The place was crazy! I finished my 3.1 miles in 36.37 minutes. Not bad, not great, but I'm happy with it. Gives me a place to start from when trying to improve my time. This was the first time I have actually timed myself. I would like to get that down to 30 minutes.
While I was drinking my water and eating my banana, a girl came up to me and gave me a flyer for anther run for the American Heart Association. Hummmm.....I'm beginning to believe this is a start of beautiful friendship.
Update on May 11th: Actual participants in the race was 17,000. Guess I was way off.
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