Thanksgiving Point 2014 Results and Reflections from the Race

This is the second time I participated in Thanksgiving Point’s half marathon: all 13.1 miles of it! According to my personal iPod that tracks my distance, it was actually closer to 14 miles. Anyway, I woke up with a late start and had to speed from Orem to make it to Lehi before the gunshot. It was almost a tuck and roll situation. Luckily my wife can drive really fast. The weather was extremely rainy the entire time. I ran by Thanksgiving Point's  Noah’s Ark exhibit and thought how fitting it was for the day. I wore a waterproof jacket with a hood but after about 6 miles with the excessive perspiration and the rainfall the jacket was rendered pointless. (I think I will now look into upgrading my running clothes since my baggy gym shorts don’t stay up too well when they are waterlogged.)

The tulips and Italian gardens were once again breathtakingly beautiful to run through at dawn. The rain was a nice touch to that scenery. The main reason why I choose to run the Thanksgiving Point half marathon instead of all the other options available in the valley is because they offer admission for two into everything their giant facility has to offer once you have registered for their race. I like this because even if something bad happens and I am unable to race then I haven’t just blown sixty bucks that can be added as a charitable donation to active.com.

Last year I didn’t train well and I walked three of the 13 miles and I had one bathroom break and I finished with the time of 2 hours, and 20 minutes. I am a little depressed and can’t figure out the mystery of this one but this time I trained harder, didn’t walk at all, and I didn’t take any bathroom breaks and I finished with the time 2 hours, and 21 minutes?!? I blame the rain because that just makes no sense to me.

At least I made par. My pace was decent at about 10 -11 minutes a miles. You need to be going at least 16 minutes a mile to be considered a finisher. They take the clock and finish line down after 4 hours, and open traffic up again. I guess you could say even though I am not the best at races I still love them and hope that I can still do them in my old age.

Have you ever tried to run a half marathon?