Provo Canyon Half Marathon

My roommate talked me into running the Provo Canyon Half Marathon last Saturday. I'm not really sure why I said yes, but I'm glad I did it. It definitely was an experience and a pretty big accomplishment for me because let's be honest, I don't love to run. I realize that half marathons aren't that big of a deal (as my brother put it, "What's so great about a half marathon? People run 13 miles all the time.") It was a beautiful run though and an experience I'll never forget. So how did I train for it? Well, let me play out for you the entire experience:

-5 weeks before the race: I decide I should probably start running. 5 miles run. My knee hurts.
-4 weeks before: Try running again. Only do 4 miles because I ate too much crap the day before. Decide to eat better.
-Later that week: 5 more miles. Feeling good. Only stopped because I was bored.
-3 weeks before: 8 miles done! And I feel great! I can do this
-2 weeks before: I went to New York and didn't run
-The week before: 9 mile run. I wanted to do 10 but lost that mental battle. Oh well.
-Rest of the week: My knee is a little sore so I decide not to run again before the race, but I do play some soccer.

Yep, that's 5 times running. I'm crazy, maybe stupid, but I finished the race, and that was my goal.So the morning of the race came along
4:00am-Hit the snooze button. No one should be awake right now
4:05am-Hit it again
4:10am-Get up, get ready
4:30am-Head over to Bethany's
4:50am-Arrive at Riverwood's, take a picture, get bib's, start to get cold
5:15am-Get on bus
5:47am-Bus hits sign
5:50am-Get off bus, get in line at porta-potties
5:55-6:30am-Freeze our butts off
6:30am-Wonder why the race isn't starting
7:15am-Finally start running
7:15-9:00am-Feeling great
9:01am-Knees start hurting really bad but there's only 3 miles left
9:38am-Cross the finish line