The Haunted Half & Halloween

I ran my fifth half marathon in five years on Halloween morning! It was the same half marathon that I ran for my first. I would have loved to write a post about how I did really well and it was fun...but sadly, that is not the case. This is probably the last long race I will get to do for quite awhile so naturally, I wanted to do my best. I was aiming to beat my best time of 1:54:51.
I was doing really well for the majority of the race. I was on track to beat my time. With less than a half a mile left, I came to the last major intersection and was stopped, along with the other runners, by a police office directing traffic. I couldn't believe it. Were they really stopping me in the middle of a race?! I knew as soon as they stopped me that there was no way I was going to be able to make up the lost time let alone run very fast after they just iced my legs! Have you ever tried to start running again after running 12.7 miles as fast as possible? It is pretty much impossible. I was stopped at that light for over a minute. I broke down in tears at that light and cried all the way to the finish line.
I have never pushed myself that hard physically as I did during that race. Then to have my goal trampled on like that was a pretty hard pill to swallow.
I tend to tie my ability to complete physically challenging things to my ability to overcome hard things in life. And this race was very much tied to infertility and my ability to go through IVF. I was running this race not only to beat my best time but to prove to myself that I can do hard things and to get one last race in before running is taken away from me. I can't adequately describe the crushed feeling I felt after that race.
I am feeling slightly better about the race now, but when I think about it I still get worked up. Haha. Anyways, on to better topics......

Halloween was pretty fun this year! Zac and I were Jack and Jill after they fell down the hill....again. Haha. I think this is the fourth year in a row that we have used this costume. Elise threw an awesome Halloween party. So we went to their beautiful new home and had fun with them and the Enghs.

Our amazing BYU Pumpkin! This is definitely the most advanced we have ever gotten with our pumpkin craving.....

We had a really fun Halloween party at work. They had all kinds of competitions. This is my entry into the Styrofoam tombstone competition. I won a $50 gift card for 2nd place. I kinda have an awesome job. :)

Halloween has never been my favorite holiday, but I think it is growing on me. I have always loved holidays, mainly because I like parties and an excuse to do something out of the ordinary. So I definitely can't wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas!