Shun the Sun Run

I decided since I was already in shape for the 1/2 I would participate in the race put on my the 1st counselor in my bishopric.  It's called Sun the Sun (skin cancer awareness) and it was in Mesa.  The course was FLAT, down one side of a canal for 6.5 miles and up the other side.  I'll be honest, it was a pretty 'boring' course, but it was exactly like what I've been training on and it was easy to run.

I've learned a lot about sports psychology in the past 10 years.  After training for and running 2 marathons, I learned a lot about setting goals and reaching them.  I gained confidence in myself and I was able to keep myself going for a long time.  But I still got down on myself when I didn't perform the way I wanted or thought I should.   Then I got married.   Dave is a super star when it comes to mental health in sports. We would play racquetball together and I would get frustrated at myself when I didn't play well, and Dave would literally NOT play with me when I would get like that.  So I HAD to learn to control my frustration if I wanted to play with the big boy.  He taught me to not dwell on the past play when the next play was happening.  Finally, as a PE teacher I went to in-service where there was a BYU sports psychologist speaking.  He talked about how the best athletes are able to live 'in the moment'.  They only think about the things they can control (perfect form, moving quickly, etc) and not the things they can't (winning or losing, who passes them, what happened in the previous play).  This opened my eyes to how I was in sports and competitions and it has changed the way I run.

I am a very competitive person, so I love to do races and I really like to do well.   Especially since I had  just run a race, I thought I could do better in this race and the pressure to do so was scary to me.  I wanted to say, "I can't do it, so why try".  The herniated disc in my back flared up again on the previous Saturday and I took 3 full days off running and visited the chiropractor (and said many prayers).  I wanted to use this as an excuse to do poorly and be ok with it.  I almost let my fears of not performing well take over my mind (and, in turn, my body) several times during the race, but I just kept trying to focus on the present and what I COULD do to run well and not think about the outcome.  I was proud of how far I've come from my miserable senior year of cross country in high school.  I stayed focused, I forced myself to think positively.  I conquered my mind and my fears in a way I didn't think I could.  For me, that was the greatest WIN in this race.

BUT I also ran eight minutes faster than my Park City time and got my personal best in the 1/2 marathon (1:38:18 - which equals a 7:30 min/mile).  I was the 8th girl to come in, but got 4th in my age group, so I didn't get any award or anything :(.

This race had the most awesome finish line ever!  There were 12 bounce houses, cotton candy, face painting, balloons, etc (for the kids).  There were the standard massage therapists, bananas, water, etc, but also jamba juice and popcorn (love it!) and rolls and sugar cookies that you frosted and decorated with as many sprinkles as you wanted!!  AND hot chocolate!  It was incredible!  (mostly because Jackson was so happy and I got to stay and enjoy the post-race feeling for longer than usual!)

One thing I love about getting older is seeing progression.  It is exciting . . .and also a little embarrassing to think about how I 'was'.  But mostly, exciting to see that we can be better than we were.  We can overcome hard things.


*and I didn't get a single pic :(