Ogden Half Marathon Race Recap

Like most races that I find myself running, this one was a last minute decision that I jumped into. I wanted the Ogden Marathon to actually be my first marathon instead of Salt Lake, but it was right near Derek's dad's birthday and we were unsure a few months ago if we would be going to go to Idaho to celebrate so I never registered, and did Salt Lake instead. 

Fast forward a few months and we decided since Memorial Day and the end of the school year coincided, we would hold off on a trip to Idaho for Derek's dad's birthday, and just spend Memorial Day up there instead. This meant that I was now able to participate in the Ogden Marathon events, and at the last minute decided to jump into the half marathon to see if I could finally get my sub two hour half marathon goal. 

The day before the race I was feeling fairly confident, but at around 8pm, decided that I hadn't hydrated enough for race day, and stopped at Soda Crazy to get a 44oz ice water before heading home after picking up my race packet at the expo. I drank all of it in about five minutes, and then I was freezing cold and felt pretty sick the rest of the night after drinking it so fast. 

The next morning my alarm went off at 4am for me to get dressed and head over to my friend Jen's house so we could ride to the race together. Once we got there and were waiting to get on the busses I started getting a huge headache. When we were on the bus heading up the mountain, I asked a few of my friends if they had Tylenol, and one of my friends said they had Ibuprofen, so I took that. Finally I started feeling better and my friend Jen and I huddled together to stay warm for about an hour until it was time for the race to start. 

Once the race was underway, I wanted to stay with the two hour pacers as long as I possibly could, and then come in right before two hours with them at the end. I hung on for the first three miles and then I started to feel awful. I thought I might be hungry or that I needed water, so I pulled off at an aid station for some fuel and then started to feel even worse. For the next five miles I felt like I was on the verge of throwing up, or pooping my pants. It was mentally really tough, and even though I was still splitting 9:30ish miles, it was still really difficult. The worse part was that all of this was happening during the downhill portion of the run, and I wasn't able to take advantage of it like I would have liked to in order to get my sub two. 

By the time we came out of the canyon though, around mile 8 or so, I got a huge second wind and was feeling amazing. I was flying through the last section of the race, splitting 8:50 mile pace.  When I was about 3/4 of a mile from the finish line, I thought it was a lot closer than it really was and started sprinting, and then died when I realized how much further I really had to go still. I finished the last mile in 8:40, but all the good work that I did the last four miles, wasn't enough to make up for the rough time I had in the canyon earlier. I official chip time was 2:02:09, just 12 seconds shy of a new PR. 

This is my friend Jen that I always talk about ;)

I've had a lot of time to reflect over what happened that made me so sick the first half of the race. Initially I thought that the gels that were at the aid stations, or the gatorade had given me heartburn, and that those were the things making me sick, but then a few days ago I realized that taking the Ibuprofen on an empty stomach was likely the bigger culprit for my nausea. Even though I didn't get my goal time, I'm still proud of the effort that I was able to give, especially at the end of the race, and I know it was just one more good run in the bank for me to hit that goal in a few more weeks.