Last year I ran six half marathons which is a lot, especially for someone who hadn’t ever run a half marathon before. For 11 months I felt like I was constantly training for my next event. After my last event in November, I decided to slow down a little and wait until January 1st before actively training for the next race: the 2015 Salt Lake Half Marathon alllllll the way in April.

It was an insanely mild winter in SLC, so I was able to train outside most of the time. When we did have a little rain or lingering inversion, I did speed training on the treadmill. It was definitely different from having to commute to the Kearns Oval three times a week like last year… #contributingtotheinversion.

Chad and I ran the course a few times before the race and I felt pretty good about finishing in under 2 hours. Then, the Wednesday before the race, winter showed up a little late to the party and it snowed like it hadn’t snowed all year (literally). Fortunately I hadn’t packed away our winter stuff because I’m familiar with this kind of bullshit.

Bella is also familiar with this kind of bullshit. #yesmydoghasclothes

 

Moooooooom, the other dogs are gonna make fun of meeeeeee! #Bellathedog #bellashardlife #terrier #terrierist #jrt #jackrussell #jackrussellterrier

A photo posted by Sarah Spain (@formosaspain) on Apr 15, 2015 at 7:15am PDT

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Bella was not pleased with me.  Until approximately 5 minutes later.

 

Ok, there’s a POSSIBILITY that this ridiculous outfit was necessary. You’re still going to die. #terrier #terrierist #jrt #jackrussellterrier #jackrussell #Bellathedog #bellashardlife   A photo posted by Sarah Spain (@formosaspain) on Apr 15, 2015 at 7:19am PDT

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Fortunately, everything cleared up and we had a slightly cold but beautiful morning to run a half marathon on.

The first half of the race is primarily down hill, so we got the first 6.2 miles out of the way in 50 minutes. Around that spot we got a little help from Chad’s parents with specialty beverages – Dark Chocolate Zico for me and Gatorade for Chad.

A few minutes later there was a street bar where some lovely (definitely not legal) bartenders gave us even better specialty beverages: beer, the drink of champions. I like to think it was the beer that gave us the power to get through the next several miles – even when I wanted to give up at mile 9. I don’t know why, but I always seem to struggle around then. I was convinced we were going too slow and weren’t going to make it under 2 hours.

But we did.  

I seriously felt like I was running so slowly through the race, even when my app was telling me I was running fast. Even when Chad was telling me we were running fast. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had lead in my shoes.

 

PR 1:52:34 USA! USA! USA! #nikeplus #rundisneytraining #running #slchalfmarathon #saltlakehalf #saltlakehalfmarathon with @chadspain7 A photo posted by Sarah Spain (@formosaspain) on Apr 18, 2015 at 8:18am PDT

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But there you go – the mind playing tricks on you at its finest. I remember pulling up my results and thinking that it must have been the beer. I will have to add that into my running regimen in the future 😉

I just wish the medal wasn’t a belt. Seriously. Who came up with that idea?