Mesa Falls Half Marathon

Today was the Mesa Falls Half Marathon. It started a couple miles away from Mesa Falls and the course followed the Warm River, went up into the fields, and then finished in downtown Ashton Idaho. It was a beautiful morning, although we didn't start the race until 8:30 which made it over 80 degrees when I finished. That's too hot for me! My older brother Nate ran it with me. We went up together and picked up our race packets (which were in potato sacks!) and got bussed to the starting line. Kaila and Eva decided to sleep a little more and came up later. Eva was all dressed up and ready to make daddy smile when I crossed the finish line!

I haven't been training as good as I should be, so I wasn't sure if I wanted to race, or just have a nice easy run. The competitive side of me came out and as soon as the race started, I started running faster and decided I had better see how well I could do. About 8 miles into the course we were in the middle of fields with no shade to bee seen, and it was hot. I am sorry to say I even had to walk a couple of times. But I was able to finish in 1:43:55 which isn't too bad.

Nate ran the Half Marathon with me, and he did really well. He finished in 2:02, which is his best time for a race. His Garmin stopped working about a mile into the race, so I am sure he would have gotten under 2 hours were he able to pace himself. Still, he did a great job.

The awards were pretty cool. They are carved into wood, which beautiful little Eva is modeling! All in all, it was a great race. There were lots of people running, lots of spectators cheering us on, and lots of good food when we finished.

I finished 28th out of 300 runners, and 2nd in my age group! I even got a plaque to commemorate my "sort of" victory! It was a good day and we all had fun. The best part was the free huckleberry milk shakes we got from the old City Drug. Boy were they good! The next race for Nate and I is the St. George Marathon in October. Better get to running...!