Provo Halloween Half Marathon

Today I ran in the Provo Halloween Half Marathon. What a fun race with almost all the runners dressed up in costumes. The race experience actually began the night before with a dinner and sleepover at Marilyn Thomsen's home. She opened  up her home to those of us who live quite a distance from the race so we didn't have to get up so early to drive into Orem.
Cyndie met at my house at 3:30 pm for our trip to Orem. After a couple of stops I needed to make we arrived at the University Mall about 5:15pm. The line for packet pickup was over 2 hours long! Geezzz! So we left and went to Marilyn's to have dinner first instead of spending all evening waiting in line.
Gathered for dinner was Liz, Cyndie, me, Gwen & her daughter, and Stella. We had a delicious spaghetti dinner with a tossed green salad, fruit salad, olives and garlic bread. Yum. 

After dinner Cyndie and I headed back to packet pickup where it took just a few minutes to get our bib and shirt. When we returned from the mall all of us spent time working on our costumes and getting our things ready for race morning. 

Marsha & Cyndie

Danielle & Marilyn 

Soon we made it to the area where we made a U turn to head back to the drop-off point. Once off the bus we headed to the porta potties and then to a huge heated tent to wait for the race to start.

Inside the tent.

The first start time was 9am for those runners who knew they would finish the half in 2:20 or less. The second wave was 9:20am. Finally the runners started lining up for the first start. We could not see the start from the tent area but we could hear the gun.

Soon it was our turn to run and we were off. I ran with Cyndie and Stella for the first mile but they decided to do the downhill with no walk breaks and I didn't want to do that so I let them go on ahead and began running the 3:1 that I had practiced. Downhill is always a little tricky because it can be hard on your quads. I had never done one quite so steep. We went from 7000 ft. to 5200 in a little less than 5 miles. That is pretty quick.

Jesus

Here are my stats for this race. I didn't do too bad on the run with my 3:1 pace. Wearing a costume was different. Mostly for me it was probably the wig....it held the heat in but luckily it was cold. But it didn't help my thighs which were numb and purple for the first 8 miles. That was weird. It was fun running all dressed up.

Bridal Veil Falls
One reason why running in Utah is so cool.

Mile 1 I just ran with Cyndie and Stella: M1 10:49.4  M2 11:21.7  M3 12:05.3  M4 11:38.5  M5 11:26.5  M6 13:04.1 then for the rest of the race I hung out in the 12:00+ range. I felt like I settled into a nice consistent pace. Brought me in officially:

2:40:10

2938/3300 overall

2074/2363 females

19/30 age group 55-59

PR for Cyndie 2:29:21

2009 - 2:45:36.3

2010 - 02:33:29.3

L-R Front: Marsha, Danielle, Gwen, Liz & Jason.
Back: Rosie, Stell & Angie.

Desert Shark friends: Karie, Steve & Cindi.

Friends Finish Times:
Karie Underwood: 01:29:15  2ND F 35 - 39
Cindi Glenn: 01:53:13
Steve Avery: 01:53:14
Kelli Davey: 01:55:23
Rosie Talker: 01:57:25
Angie Whitworth: 02:19:03
Jason Gotter: 02:28:43
Cyndie Nell: 02:29:21
Gwen James: 02:31:55
Stella Blight: 02:34:42
Marsha Monson: 02:40:10
Danielle Musick: 02:41:06
Liz Gotter: 03:00:35
Marilyn Thomsen: 

16 yr old Rosie as Edward Scissorhands.
PR 1:57:25

Rosie and Gwen

P.S. Many of these pictures were taken by Gwen. She is quite the awesome photographer.