Salt Lake Half Marathon

Saturday I finished my second half marathon. The first one I raced was the Las Vegas half when I was 19 or 20. I don't remember my exact time, but think I barely squeaked under 2 hours. This year some of the neighborhood gals were racing the marathon or half, but the Antelope Island duathlon was the same day and I opted for that. Due to some unforeseen problems, the Hess Cancer Foundation changed the duathlon location and date the Monday before the race. I then went out and ran 9 hard miles and decided I could do the half. I figured out a dream time of 1:45, which would mean an 8 min mile. I didn't know my race mileage as it's always at the end of a triathlon and I haven't raced any solo 10ks or 5ks.
Rich helped me figure out nutrition and how long to warm up. I drove up with Page and Stacey, so it was a non stress situation getting up to the race. I did a nice warm up and ran into the girls from the neighborhood and Danielle Crosby, my last mission companion. My Garmin froze up which was disappointing (I still have yet to see my race heart rate). I started about a minute after the start as I knew they counted your chip time, not the start time. I still had to baby step dart around in the crowd trying to find an opening to run though for the first 100 yards.
Even though I didn't have my Garmin, there were times posted at the mile markers. I didn't know how fast I was going, but quickly realized that I was hitting the 7 something mile and keeping it steady. I didn't know if I could make it without blowing up, but tried to keep up the pace by focusing on someone I would try to pass or going over my running form. I took 2 gels and only drank water at the stations because I was afraid of cramping up with the Gatorade. Towards the end my feet started cramping up. I licked my forearms to get salt, but didn't know if this was the real issue. I looked for the family at Liberty Park, but knew that I was there earlier than expected. I had battled for position with some other women and during the last 2-3 miles they caught back up and passed me. I was out of steam and couldn't launch any counter attacks.
I crossed the finish line in 1:35:59 which means I ran a 7:19 min mile. I was thrilled and couldn't believe how fast I had been able to go. Granted, the race was flat or down hill, but it was still a thrilling time. I finished 36th out of 2551 women finishers or 181 out of 4139 overall finishers. Now if I can only get my swim and bike times to be this relatively fast...