We did it! The Mesa Falls Half Marathon (Ashton, Idaho) started out a few miles above Warm River (Bear Gulch) and was freezing cold! Our acclimation runs earlier in the week were done in 40-50 degree temperatures. Jeana and I stood at the starting line in our sweatshirts trying to decide whether or not to start the race with them on or off. We ended up running the first few miles with our sweatshirts on, which was no big deal because I was accustomed to running in hot sweaty weather in Texas.

The first part of the run was on a dirt road through the forest and looked down over Warm River. I was excited because we had just seen Stephen run by us - but there was no way we’d catch up to him. This part of the run was intimidating because we were running in tire ruts and if you weren’t fast you had to stay in the rut on the right side of the road.

When we approached the bridge at the Warm River campground, we left the dirt road and started running on the main road. My sister, Jodi, was there to take pictures and cheer us on with her kids. She was a lot of fun along the way - we saw her quite a few times.

There was a massive hill which was much bigger than anything we trained on. It seemed to go on for quite some time. There were runners I saw that would run, then walk, then run, then walk. I was proud that we ran the whole hill without walking.

One lady we were behind near the end of the race was running in the middle of the road and tons of passing cars sat behind her waiting for her to realize she was in the way. I was a little annoyed. I don’t know why, it’s lame I know.

When we passed mile 12 it was cool to think that every step I took was making the distance longer than I had ever run in my life. I think this thought helped me push to the end. Along the last mile we passed a girl and Jeana said something that totally motivated her to keep going.

This race was my first real race (okay, I ran a 5k once, but I didn’t have a number so I don’t count that one) so when we turned the last corner and could see the finish line I got excited. Jeana’s mom and brother, Brad, were cheering near the finish line. And by cheering, I mean that they were humoring us by being there since they were trying to keep the girls entertained at watching tons of random people go by waiting for us.

We finished the race (13.1 miles) in 2 hours and 18 minutes. We kept a pretty good pace and walked through the water stops. According to the official results I finished 164th in the entire half marathon and Jeana was right next to me at 165th. Jeana finished 14th (out of 22) in her age bracket for women, and I finished 7th (out of 8 men) in my age bracket for the men. According to those stats, we didn’t do so hot, but I’m completely satisfied with what we accomplished. Thanks Jeana for training me!

We found Stephen and Jodi after the race and Stephen showed us his gigantic blister. I felt good after the race. We didn’t stretch as much as we would have liked, so I was a bit sore later that weekend.

After the race we went back to Jeana’s parents’ house and did dutch oven chicken and potatoes for the family and some friends. I make a raspberry cake in the dutch oven which turned out quite nicely.