Halloween Half Marathon

I completed my second half marathon yesterday. It was a lot different than my first one. My first one was a great experience from start to finish. This one was fraught with frustration, annoyance, and disorganization. The packet pick up was quite the debacle, nothing was ready. People had waited in line for over 2 hours and still weren't able to get their packets. I only had to wait just over an hour at least... Race day was freezing and we had to spend over an hour standing in a cold parking lot waiting to be bussed to the start. There was supposed to be a a heated tent at the start. There was a tent, but I'm certain the only reason it felt a little warmer in the tent than outside of it is because of the thousands of bodies that were packed in there. All told, we stood around waiting to run for a total of 3 hours. We were all thoroughly stiff and cold by the time we actually got moving. Once the race started, things were better, until the aid stations started to run out of things, like water. I really needed that aid station at mile 8 but was out of luck. Oh well. And they started packing up the aid stations towards the end when there was still an hour and a half left for runners to finish. I really had a rough time with this race, finishing 18 minutes slower than my first half marathon. The medal is cool at least. There was more than once that the medal lust kept me going through that race. I've become a medal fiend... I think I'll be skipping this one next year though. There are plenty of other half marathons out there to be run.

One a different note, I am now officially all signed up for the Utah Valley Marathon on June 9, 2012. I'm feeling really nervous, but I have plenty of time to get ready. I know I can do it! (At least that's what I keep telling myself).

Happy running!