St. George Half Marathon (Painters Half) Report

So, I just need to preface this with a few prefaces:

First, when I was preparing for this half, I scoured the Internet looking for personal accounts of this particular race on blogs and such. I only found one by the man who placed 2nd last year, and his account wasn't all that helpful for someone who was running their very first half-marathon. So I hope my account is somewhat helpful for a first time half-marathoner, or at least someone who isn't trying to win it.

Second, most half and full marathons in Utah are known for being on the slightly fast side because they lose a fair amount of elevation. Many of them start up a canyon and come down into the city or town. The St. George half-marathon isn't one of these, it's a loop course, and no one told me that when I registered for it. A couple of weeks after registering for it, I briefly met a girl who found out I was running it and gave me a half grimace as she said: That's a hilly one. And I've been in a panic ever since.

So that is how I came to the race: slightly panicked and slightly sick.

The weather in St. George was rainy and a little chilly the night before. I waited in line for my chip and number, turned to the pretty redhead next to me, and asked her if she had run it before. She said it was her third time. I asked if the hills were bad and she replied that they weren't that bad, but that it wasn't a "fast" race. OK, I thought, I can live with that, because I have nothing to compare it to. That night, I barely slept, I don't know what was wrong, but I grew more anxious as the hours ticked by, and again I was panicking. Rosemary threw up, Lulu woke in the middle of the night needing medicine for her sniffles, and in the early morning Norah had a bloody nose. During the theatrics, the rain poured down.

By dusk, my head was heavy but the storm had broken. The sky was pretty dark and heavy with clouds, so I made a big mistake--I totally overdressed and pinned my number to my jacket that was over a long sleeved shirt. Even if it is only in the
30's DO NOT wear a long sleeved shirt, wear a short sleeved shirt and pin the number to that so that you can ditch the jacket when you heat up.

Anyway, there were a couple thousand people running that morning, in fact, my husband and I recognized quite a few people--he actually went to high-school with the pretty red head.

The race started at the Dixie center and we all had to squeeze our way across the mats that did the chip timing and it took a few minutes to get to my desired pace because the crowd was heavy. We made our way up into a neighborhood for the first few miles and then dropped down to a trail along the Virgin River. There were a few good uphills in the first 7 miles, but they weren't that long. The inclines were mostly gradual. I felt pretty good for the first 8 miles, although I was growing hotter and hotter by the second and wished I could strip to my sports bra. It was around this time that the leader streaked by me because the course loops back around, he probably only had a mile and a half left or so. For a second I considered jumping the track and joining him--my chip would never know. But on I went back into some neighborhood streets, and that's where it got hard. There was a gradual uphill that seemed to go on forever. My inexperience, lack of sleep, and sickness caught up with me at mile 9 and I thought: those girls (running partners) of mine can kiss off, there is no way I am running a marathon with them in May! But then I had a good mile from 9-10 and it was back on. At this point (I think) you drop back down to the river trail. I was really tired, and then my shuffle loaded Where the streets have no name, I actually looked up and saw the red cliffs and the river, and thought briefly: this is nice.

Mile 11-12 was horrible. The last 2.5 miles are a gradual incline and my sorry thighs could feel it. The last mile we passed over a bridge and turned back to the Dixie center and ran over a little steep hill and crossed the line about a hundred yards later. I finished in 1:54 and was OK with that.




Me, right after the race.

See, don't I look thrilled.

Placing some distance between myself and the race, I started to feel better about it (maybe I just forgot mile 11-12). A friend called me from the Dixie center and screamed: Martha you did awesome! I was thinking: I did? She said they had just posted the results and that I had placed 160th out of 800 women, so I guess that isn't so bad for only 3 months of running 3 times a week.

But this week starts five times a week with speed training and loads of fun with food, weights, and core training. But really, the girls I run with are so wise, helpful and fun, it doesn't seem that bad.

And really, the race was kind of nice--in a crazy sort of way.



And see, by the next day, I had forgotten all about mile 11-12.