Mt. Nebo, 2014, the plan comes together, finally.

Its so good when a plan comes together. Finally. For two years to the day I've been attempting a PR at a lot of the half marathons without success. in September 2012 at Mt. Nebo I had a PR of 1:43:55. Since that time I've had two 1:48 finish times and a 1:46 at American Fork this year. I thought Run Elevated would get me there. Not! Even going into Mt. Nebo this year I wasn't sure if I was going to try to PR or just run for fun. But the day of the race I figured I HAVE to try.

Couldn't get everyone together for a pre race picture,
 but a few of us made it!

My plan was to do a 7:35 pace for the first 9 miles, then let my pace increase each mile after that, 8:15, 8:30, 8:45 and 9:00 for the last 4 miles. I didn't know if I could reach and keep that pace but figured I'd try. I wanted to get slightly faster than the 1:43, so figured I'd follow the 1:40 pacers for as long as I could which should have given me the pace I needed for the first miles.
I was also going to run in brand new shoes which I hadn't tried out yet. I put an extra liner inside them to add to the cushion and figured they should be good. I loved the colour and figured it might make me faster!
I normally try to get on the first bus which means getting up very early. This time I told myself not to worry about it being the first bus, just get there before the last bus leaves.
The alarm went at 4, showered, dressed and had a quick breakfast and was out the door by 4:30. Arrived at Payson high school around 5:15, found London, Jonathan and Camille Grimshaw and got onto the front bus. One bus had already gone. It was pretty full so we couldn't sit together but I sat with another girl who was also called Camille from Morgan valley.
We arrived at the start line about 6:15 and they had a huge fire which most were standing around warming up. The temps were cool but not too bad. I put on a sweatshirt to help warm me but skipped the pants. At the porta potties we met up with Susette, Josh, Becca and Cathy. Johnny Ahn also bugged me about wearing a shirt to start. He had already shed his but was wearing a cap and gloves. I told him mine will come off soon.
We saw one of the strangest things at this race, a female racer standing there prior to the race smoking a cigarette! Just didn't make sense.
We threw the bags into the bus, lined up at the start, I took a couple of pictures of the pack and we were off.
First thing I saw was Susette flying past me, I looked at my pace and I was going about 7:30 and I thought, she's flying, at that speed she's going to burn up and I'll catch up to her further into the race. But that wasn't to be. Shortly after a guy ran by yelling to me "nice shoes!" I think he had the same shoes as me. I do think the colour stands out.
The first three miles I was slightly ahead of my pace goal. 7:27, 7:29 and 7:22. I grabbed water at the aid station and found I was slightly ahead of the 1:40 pacers. Mile 4 was my fastest at a 7:08/m pace. I had made a decision to fuel at most of the aid stations with my Cliff Blocks when getting water. I believe the aid station at mile 6 wasn't ready, they were just setting up. Another one later on didn't have any cups. I felt more sorry for the volunteers than the runners as they wanted to help but weren't sure what to do. So two aid stations I didn't fuel at. I did at most of the others and I believe it helped.
I was feeling pretty good. Not too many people were passing me and I was keeping my pace. Mile 5 was 7:45 and mile 6 7:30 and then a 7:26 in mile 7. At the half way point I calculated that I was on course for a 1:36 finish which I knew I couldn't keep on with, but it was a nice feeling. By the end of mile 9 (7:58 pace) I had an overall pace of 7:34. When crossing the finish line I needed around 7:54 overall pace to beat my PR. I had my virtual partner on the watch set at a 7:51 pace and knew I had banked a lot of time for the last miles.  Surprisingly by the end of mile 10 I was still at an overall pace of 7:35, I was still banking time. I was starting to realize I was going to PR, but by how much I didn't know.
One of the 1:40 pacers who I thought was Jorge(Turned out his name was Andy) called me by name and asked how I was doing. I said doing pretty good. I had no idea how he knew my name, but after the race I asked him and he said all those pictures Joshua Hansen posts makes me fairly well known. Thanks Josh! :)
The course had changed slightly this year and there was going to be an extra 1/2 a mile outside the canyon, meaning more flat ground to cover in the finish. The last few miles were the hardest but I kept pushing. The toughest part was running past where we finished last year and knowing there was still a half mile to go. The last two miles (8:18 and 8:27) were my slowest but still ahead of my mile goals for the finish. At the turn at mile 12 it was great to see a familiar face with Dulcinea cheering me on! I believe her encouragement gave me a boost in the final stretch.
As we were coming around the south side of the school I could see Susette relaxing by the fence like she had been done running for ages. I thought she's done pretty good this time for sure, I just didn't realize by how much.
Turning the corner onto the track for a partial lap, we could finally see the finish line. I tried to use up anything I had left and the last 10th of a mile was covered in 11 seconds. I had done it, finally I had another PR and beat my old one by just over 3 minutes. Its nice to know old age hasn't caught up to me yet and I'm still capable of doing a PR in the half marathons. Saw Susette and she was ecstatic, she had beaten her PR by a huge amount. Finish time of 1:34:27 knocking off 19 minutes from last years PR! Totally WOW. I was so excited for her.
Her training sure paid off today and I look at her now as one of the elite runners!
I was going to take pictures of friends crossing the finish line but my camera battery went dead before I even got one.

Susette got 1st in her age group!

Checked the finish times and on their posting I was showing 7th in my age group with a 1:40:50 finish time. But during the awards ceremony Rendi came running over saying my name was called. I got 3rd in my age group! I wasn't going to argue with that at all and took the extra medal.
Met up with Jennifer Rieske afterwards. I met her first when we PRd the first time in Nebo two years earlier, we ran that one together for quite a bit. She was still doing pretty good with her finish times.
Becca didn't quite make her sub 2:00, but she got a very good PR (2:02) at the cost of very painful chafing.
Camille knocked off time off her PR too with a 2:08 even though she's pregnant.
Rendi was another with a great PR of 1:40:12. She and I have to break into the 1:3X finish time next year!
London squeezed out a new PR with a 1:48 finish.
Cathy also got a PR of 2:05!
Katheryn Massa got her Sub 2:00 with a 1:59:46! Way to go every one!

Came in 3rd in my age group.