Sunday, April 5, 2009

Take Two


me-crystal-marci

Training for the St. George Marathon kept my emotions on a roller coaster ride. Since it was my first big race, I didn't know what to think. The longest I ran prior to the race was 20 miles. At the end I remember feeling excited, scared, competitive, anxious, overwhelmed, exhausted, and determined. I think my thoughts were focused more on the nervous/anxious/scared feelings all the way up until the gun went off at the starting line. When I signed up for the Provo Half-Marathon, I thought it was going to be simple compared to the full marathon....it was still tough.

As I ran yesterday, I couldn't help thinking about the pros and cons of this race.

The pros were: I was in a familiar area and so I knew where I was the whole race, I had great music to listen to, it wasn't raining, I recognized faces on the sidelines cheering us on, we ran through neighborhoods and I found my favorite house, and I pushed myself to make it in 2:10 but ended up crossing the finish line after running for 1:59.31!!!

The cons were: I was in a familiar area so I knew just how far away from the finish line we were, my shuffle wasn't fully charged so I ran half the race listening to my own thoughts, instead of rain we had snow and wind blowing against us, I was embarrassed to have people see me run (stage fright, I guess?), my favorite house had an older man watching us through his window without a shirt on, and now I have to beat my time next race!!!

Can't wait for the two other races left this year! Once you start it's like heroine....seriously....runner's heroine.



FINISHED!

5 comments:

S.Ann said...

Wow Rachel! It's like I'm related to someone famous. And the amazing thing is you looked so beautiful doing it. I do treadmill for 20min & look like I've been run over by a semi. The DeFreese women have a special gene. Love you, G'ma N.

Kaela Cusack said...

WAHOO!!! I could never run a marathon.

Mari said...

You are so amazing! I wish I had the guts to do a marathon. And just so you know, I haven't had my hair cut since the last time you did it. I'm scared to find someone new up here :(

Annie and Dan said...

Great Job Rachel! Guess what... I saw you there! My sister and I were running the 5k and I saw you on the side and I started walking over to say hi, but then you ran onto the start line and your race began. I am glad you did so well. Maybe I will see you at another race, but probably to get my hair done first :)

The Englanders said...

That's awesome! Did you do the full marathon? I always do the Salt Lake City 1/2 Marathon..I don't think I could ever do the FULL!! You are nuts! It is very addicting though. Would you want to do the Triathlong in las Vegas? It's May 9..called the Iron Girl. It's a mini. 1/2 mile swim, 10 mile bike, and 3 mile run. Let me know if you are....