Dogtown Half Marathon

Emily and I have been training for a half marathon for the last few months. It has been really fun to run with her and spend that time together. We really pushed each other during training because some days she would beat me and other days I would be pushing her.

While we were in St. George, we ran the Dogtown Half Marathon. The course ran through Washington City.  We both did really well.

 

The course was a little harder than I thought it would be with a lot of rolling hills and even a couple of big climbs.  Emily did great and I was trailing her the whole time.  She probably could have gotten a much better time but she was waiting for me the whole time.  I was coming off of a bad cold and had not ran for a week because of it.  (Personal reminder: Do not take NyQuil!)  Thankfully I woke up on race day feeling much better than I had all week.  

The starting line was really cold so we were grateful for the warmers.  Once we got running though, we warmed right up.  Even though the course was challenging, it was a nice scenic course.  I would like to go back and run a few of these trails in shorter sections.

By the end of the race I was capped.  Emily on the other hand got a second wind and raced to the finish line.  I told her to leave me in the dust and finish strong.  She did just that and passed a few people on her way to the finish line.  

Our goal was to finish the race in under two hours.  When the 2 hour pacer passed us early on in the race we were kind of discouraged until I looked at my watch and told Emily we were right on pace.  The pacer was running more of a 1:45 pace.  One mile before the end, we caught up to the pacer and he was walking.  As we passed him, he apologized for going too fast for his assigned pace.  I just laughed and said he gave us something to catch.  We finished the race right on our goal in 1:58 and 1:59! (I should be a pacer!)

When we got our time cards, we realized that Emily had placed second in her age group!  We were staying for the award ceremony!  As soon as we stopped running, we started feeling the cold again.  Our sweaty clothes didn't help either and made us even colder.  Emily just wanted to leave but I said no.  She was getting her 2nd place medal!  We only had to wait about 15-20 minutes for the awards so it wasn't too bad.  Way to go Emily!! I think it is so awesome that she was able to medal in her first half marathon!  

While we were training, Emily said she was never doing another long distance race again.  After the race though, she decided it wasn't' too bad and she could probably do another one.  Ha ha she is hooked.  We may be doing some more races in the future.