A.F. Canyon Half Marathon

Yesterday Noelle and I ran the A.F. canyon half marathon (13.1 miles).  It started up at Tibble Fork reservoir up A.F. canyon. I had never been up that canyon that far. It was really beautiful. I was going to stay with Noelle as long as I could but after a 0.5 mile she started to take off. I couldn't keep up any more. She is a speed demon. As I was running down the canyon I was enjoying the beautiful view (look up at the mountain) and I ran right into a cone and fell flat on my face. How embarrassing! I just got up and kept running and pretended nothing happened. I didn't realize I scrapped up my knee until I finished the race. The run was hard! The 7.5 miles down the canyon wasn't too bad but there was 6.5 miles that was flat and some uphill. I finished it in 2:02. I wanted to finish in under 2 hrs but at the end I just couldn't. 2 minutes isn't that bad. Noelle finished in 1:42. That is a 7.45/mile pace. She is so fast!
My hardest part was that my IT band has been killing me for 6 weeks. I just pushed through training so I could do the race. Around mile 8 it was hurting so bad I didn't know if I could keep going. I stretched it for 10 seconds and was able to keep going. This week I am going to take off of running to rehab it.
I love having a physical goal and finishing it. Next summer my goal will be to do my first triathlon.