My Dam Run

I went up to Ogden last night with my 7 fabulous girlfriends + one hubby. We went to race packet pick up, out to dinner then off to the hotel for a deep, restful sleep. When we got there we found that they had given away our rooms (it's a long story). Can you even believe it?! They relocated us to Layton, and even though we had to get up even earlier than our already crazy wake up time of 4:15am and were extremely upset they even had this fiasco happen, the beds ended up being nice and comfortable and it was probably for the best.

We woke at a wretched hour, dressed and headed out to the buses to take us up the canyon. As we were driving I couldn't believe how far we kept going and I was getting really nervous. It was cold, but I don't think it was as cold as last year, so that was nice.

We started off and even though I was feeling good, I kept letting crazy thoughts of discouragement into my head. No worries, I fended them off and told them they could come back later if they needed.

We had a great pace for about 7 miles, then my dear friend/running partner/trainer started having a rough run. I know how that feels from my prior year there when I finally had to beg her to leave me to finish the race. We stayed together until about mile 16.5, but I think the stress of feeling responsible for my run set in and she sent me off this time. Right before this point she really started having breathing troubles, which really freaked me out. I did not want to leave her like that. Anyhow...

I headed out on my own to quickly find I felt lost and lonely without my friend. It's hard when you've spent so much time training together and planning to all the sudden not have her there. I still did pretty good, and stayed mentally strong for the most part.

About mile 21-25.75 I really struggled. I felt fine both in body and mind but I couldn't get them to work together. One minute my body hurt, then my mind wanted to give up, then they'd both switch and want me to press on, I was SO close. Let me tell you, this was hard!

Right as I'm nearing the finish line, I only had 1/2 a mile to go, I start having a serious panic attack where I can't breath, similar to Shauna's experience. I felt like my lungs closed and I sounded like Darth Vader. I quickly tried to calm down for there were people watching and I was SO dang close to the end, plus my beautiful family came to cheer me on and I couldn't let them see me walking!!

I crossed the finish line dazed and confused. I knew I should feel proud for my accomplishment, I just felt weird finishing and not having Shauna with me to celebrate. I had no clue where to go, I just wanted to get to my family. Wow, I'm needy!

We met up with Shauna and her hubby a little bit later, I think that really helped me have some closure on the race.

I am so thankful my sweet Chris brought our family out to support me, it really helped me push on when things got tough. I love that he takes such good care of me.

I'm feelin' pretty good 4 1/2 hours later. I really am glad that I've had this experience and I'm still looking forward to St. George (thank goodness).

*By the way, the name of this race is often referred to as "The Dam Run".