Calderwoods

Last Saturday, October 13th, I ran the DAM 1/2 marathon here in the Heber Valley. It's been about 4.5 years since my last 1/2 in Washington D.C. Pretumor diagnosis I was signed up to run the Moab 1/2 marathon in March. My surgeon told me no running after I was out of the hospital for awhile. I relented to running the Moab race, but signed myself up for this DAM race. I knew it was months away and had faith that I would be able to run it by October. I found a training plan for beginners, convinced my friend Jessica to register and we trained all summer for the big day. The unique thing about this race is we were able to ride the Heber Creeper Train to the start line by the Deer Creek Dam. The conductor happened to be a man in my ward.

 

We left the train depot in Heber at 6:45am. The train really "creeps" along and we arrived at our dropoff point by the dam at 7:30am. The race didn't begin until 8:00. Cody had a free dental lecture he was able to attend Friday and Saturday so he dropped me off and I informed him how I was doing by text throughout and after the race. He made a really nice facebook post about me. "A big shout out to my wife Lisa! 9 months ago she was having her brain tumor removed, and today she is running a half marathon. Even though she is still in the middle of her chemotherapy and feels like crap somedays, she is out there fighting and running. Congratulations babe, I love you." So sweet.

Jessica and I on the train. We sat right in the front next to the coal heater. We were nice and toasty on the ride over.

The sun peaked out from behind the clouds for a moment before the race began. It snowed the night before on Mt. Timpanogos.

Ready, Set, Go!

 Jessica's husband and kids met us about mile 7 on the Deer Creek trail. The race ran the length of the trail, about 8 miles and then finished with 5 miles winding through Midway and ending at town square.

My Mom came up to help watch my kids during the race. They were watching for me at the last corner of the race. Tucker and Aubrey are always asking me when they can run with me, so I told them to join me and cross the finish line.

 This was by far my slowest 1/2 marathon, but I finished and so did Jessica. I told myself throughout the race that I wouldn't leave her behind. I'm glad I didn't. My time ended up being 2:31. Average of about 11:33 minute miles. My fastest 1/2 was about 2:03, but considering the year I've had, I really am just happy that I finished. I start my next round of chemo today and I'm grateful the race fell on a good weekend.

 We received awesome beer mugs and railroad nails as our medals.

 No one wants to see feet, but I wanted to show my blisters I began forming while running. My toes are all pretty now with my sparkly glitter toes I received yesterday. I'm already looking forward to next years race and any others I can find. I signed up for our local Turkey Trot this morning and am contemplating running the Snow Canyon 1/2 marathon in 3 weeks. I love to run! Thanks to everyone for supporting me!