26.2 miles later...

OH MY LANTA!!!! I can't believe I actually finished! That was the hardest thing I've ever done! I thought I would be able to keep a 10 to 10 1/2 minute pace throughout the race, but I hadn't done that on a single long run yet so I wasn't surprised when that pace slowly slipped away. I thought the time said 5:17 when I crossed the finish line but I guess it was 5:27, but since I didn't cross the starting line until 7 minutes after the start time my official time was 5:20. That put my average pace per mile just over 12 minutes. That also put me in 4824th place! Lol!! There were 5702 people that finished the race. That meant that only 878 were behind me. There were 2461 women running the marathon and I finished 1973rd of them. Lol!! Peter and I got a good laugh out of those numbers! Oh well, it was seriously SUCH AN AMAZING experience! Let me start from the beginning...

Friday morning we got the kids off to school and the 3 youngest off to neighbors/friends houses (thanks Mindy and Heather!) and then Peter and I headed down to St George. Peter took the day off of work to come down and support me. We decided not to try to bring the kids for several reasons, but the biggest one was that the day of the marathon there is a lot of waiting out in the heat and I didn't think the kids would enjoy that or cooperate for long and that would leave Peter unable to really enjoy it. I also wasn't looking forward to a 4 hour drive down when I was nervous and anxious trying to take care of all the kids OR the 4 hour drive back home with all 5 kids when I was exhausted from the run. Peter's brother Tim and his awesome wife Lisa came out and stayed overnight with the kids so we could go down just the two of us and really enjoy the experience.

We got there Friday afternoon and met up with my Mom and Jen (my oldest sister) and Billy (my older brother) and headed to the Expo to pick up our bibs (running numbers) and check out all of the vendors and souvenirs. Peter and I each got a cool marathon t-shirt and we had a lot of fun laughing at all of the t-shirts they had for sale. They said things like, "I hope there is someone behind me to read this", "I'm only doing this so I can post a picture on Facebook", "90% of running is half mental", "Running is a mental sport and we are all insane", and "Toenails are overrated!" I lost a toenail last week and it never occurred to me that it could be a result of all of my training! I saw several different signs along the course and quotes on t-shirts about toenails being overrated and something about sacrificing so much to get there - including our toenails, so I wonder if that's why my toenail fell off! We also sat in on the last half of a "First Timers Clinic" where they answered a ton of questions gave a bunch of advice and walked us through the course mile by mile with pictures and told us what to expect. I was really glad that we decided to sit in and wish we would have been there for the whole thing.

After the Expo we headed back to the hotel where we relaxed for a bit. Jen laid out by the pool and read a book, Billy and my mom went for a little swim and I let Peter massage my legs and then I got my stuff all out and organized for the morning. Then we headed off to the Golden Corral for a yummy buffet style dinner. Perfect for loading up on the last of those carbs that would hopefully get us through the race! Then we headed back and watched the last of the BYU game (so depressing) and then got ready for bed!

Neither Jen or I slept much, although Jen slept MUCH less than I did. But we got up at what Jen refers to as "O'dark thirty" and finished all the last minute prep and headed out to eat the hotels complimentary breakfast (that they started serving at 3am!!). I was so glad super happy to be able to eat my same breakfast that I usually have before my long runs - a banana and 2 pieces of wheat toast with peanut butter and jam and a bit of orange juice.

We were all set and we all loaded into Reed's truck (a friend from Clovis) and we drove to the park where the buses would drive us to the starting line! We got there about 5am and waited among the huge throngs of people to get on a bus. When our turn finally came we piled in with 3 adults in each seat (that might be big enough for 2 small children to sit on). It was quite a sight! And then we started to drive... and drive.... and DRIVE!!! HOLY COW!! I could not believe how long we were driving and we were driving the course! I kept saying, "Are you sure they aren't taking us a different route? This is really only 26.2 miles?! Are you sure?!?!" It was crazy! That's when I realized I was completely insane. It was pitch black and thousands of people were being dropped off in the middle of nowhere and going to be told, "Now run back!" Insanity! Finally we got to the starting line and a huge search light was rotating around in the sky and music was being played while thousands of us unloaded the buses and began waiting for the start of the race. There were hundreds of fire pits lit since it is usually super cold at the start of the race. But we took off our warm clothes and sent them right back down the hill and were quite comfortable. It was the hottest morning in St. George Marathon history, which didn't bode too well for the rest of the day! No shade on the whole course (except for one bridge that we ran under about mile 17 or so and at least 40 people were stopped under it to stretch and escape the heat).

We decided to get right in line for the bathrooms since they were super long (even though there were HUNDREDS of them as well). The starting line was CRAZY! Not unorganized crazy just crazy to see! Almost 6000 people crammed onto one road. The mass of sardine people stretched back at least a mile. I wedged my way in and the whistle blew for the start of the race. And I laughed as nothing happened. No one moved. No one could move! I'm sure the people in the very front did, but it took about 4 minutes until the movement reached where I was wedged. And then we all kind of shuffled, stopped, shuffled, stopped and then eventually we all kind of bobbed up and down in a way that tried to mimic a jog (still touching people on all sides) and then we crossed the starting line 7 minutes after the whistle had blown! After we crossed the starting line the mob started to disperse a little bit but you still couldn't put your elbows out very far or take very big strides. You were all just kind of carried along together for about another half mile and then you had a little bit more room and you might be able to put one of your hands out straight to one side of you, but certainly not both. And that squishiness stayed on for not quite another half mile and then it started to get a little less crowded and you could start maneuvering in and around people as you tried to start thinking about your pace. Until about the second mile you didn't really have a choice how fast or slow you were going unless you wanted to get trampled or trample others! By that point as well it was hot enough out that I was full on sweating, which I hear is pretty crazy since usually you are still trying to thaw out at that point. At one point I saw a box on the side of the road for warm clothes that had "mile 3" written on it and I thought, "What in the world? That's so crazy! Have we really run 3 miles?" I was so focused on not getting trampled and trying to weave my way past people and find a way to get out of the mob that I had no idea how far we'd gone! I have an app on my phone that I use that tells me distance and pace and everything and I'd turned it on at the starting line, but I guess in the crowd someone probably bumped it and happened to touch it right where it stopped it. So I didn't get it turned back on until mile 3 when I looked at my phone to see if we really HAD gone 3 miles. Anyway, there were a LOT of people!

My sister took this picture on her phone around mile 17. It was a beautiful course! It was super hot though and like I said, no shade. So the sun just roasted us the whole time! I started out running the first few miles about 8:30 average but I think that was mostly because that seemed to be the "flow of traffic" and at that point I didn't have much of a choice! Then I settled into about 9 - 9:30 min/mile for the next several miles. I was hoping to run with the 4 hour group (they had pacers who carried balloons that said their goal finish time on them) but I couldn't find them in the chaos of the start, so I ran just ahead of the 4:15 group until about mile 7 (yes that's Veyo - one of the only real uphills on the course). I got a pebble in my shoe and stopped to get it out and couldn't get the momentum going again to get back to my 9:30 pace and I slowed down to about 10 - 10:30 for a long time. I was really comfortable running that pace and was really feeling pretty good! I saw a man that looked so much like my Daddy that I did a double take. And he ran like my Daddy! It made me so happy that I ran along side him as long as I could. It lasted a few miles and then I lost him at a water station. It was a fun little distraction!

When I got to mile 14 I started to walk through the water stations (at every odd mile) and eventually started to walk about 10-30 seconds of every mile and I'd slowed down quite a bit to where I was doing more like 12 minute miles. I still felt really good until about mile 19. There was another hill that was a pretty steady incline for over a mile and I got my first leg cramp in my calf. I jogged through it for a few more miles and then finally stopped to get a Bengay rub down about mile 21. I noticed the 5:00 balloons pass me as I was getting my legs rubbed and drinking my Gatorade. I decided to call Peter since my phone was about to die and I'd told him to expect me somewhere around or just after 4 hours and that would NOT be happening! I called him at mile 22 and told him that I'd finish right after the 5 hour group and he told me where they were so I would know where to look for them. Then at mile 23 I got a phone call from my sister Tara who decided not to run this year and she got emotional telling me how proud she was of me and I just started to cry. It was the perfect motivation that I needed to keep me going through the end. I only had 3 more miles and I wanted to run the whole way. My calf cramped up several more times and I slowed considerably but I did it. As I ran into town I just started to cry. I was running by myself at this point. I'd had jogging buddies that I'd try to keep pace with or out-pace for the majority of the race but as we got into town I was on my own. People were lining the streets on both sides cheering and holding signs and about 5 different times people walked along side of me or called out to me and said, "Good Job!" "You are doing great! You are almost there!" "You've done it! Just one more block and you ran a marathon!" and I just cried and told them thank you as I jogged passed. Peter told me that there were just passed the last turn right before the finish line and I wasn't sure how many turns there were in through town so every corner I'd turn I'd choke up knowing that they were right there cheering me on. But then I would turn it and realize there was another turn up ahead. But then I saw my mom through the bushes on the corner and she ran back to tell the rest of them that I was coming. I turned the corner and emotions flooded through me.

There is me crying. It was the most amazing feeling of accomplishment and joy and love for my family and Peter who supported me through all of my crazy hours of training and I just couldn't hold it in. I think too because I was so exhausted physically too it probably made me a little extra emotional but it truly was such an amazing experience.

Here we all are after we finished. Jen had a knee injury towards the end of her training that kept her from getting in her long runs and so she decided to stop at mile 21 and ride the shuttle in the rest of the way and they took her bib number when she got on the shuttle :( You can read about her experience on her blog here. The other two guys in the picture are friends from Clovis Corey Greenlaw and Reed Vanwagenen.

Here's my mom, my sister Jen, my niece Britta (Jen was feeding Jocelyn), my brother Billy and Me and Peter. Billy finished in 3:55 (crazy that I thought I would do close to that). I think the heat added time to everyones runs. But regardless of time, it was an amazing experience and I still get emotional thinking about it. I was sore... VERY sore. In fact I'm still sore as I write this but not as sore as yesterday. We stretched for a bit after we finished and then walked to the car. I debated taking an ice bath but since I'd finished an hour later than I thought I would we were short on time and I didn't think the hotel would have enough ice left to do one. But I should have done it anyway. I showered at the hotel and then we drove home. I massaged my legs and stretched more as much as I could as we drove. And we also stopped twice so I could get out and walk around and stretch some more so that my muscles didn't freeze up as we drove 4 hours home. We got home at 6:03 and Peter headed over to the Priesthood session while I came in and stretched some more and then took the kids on a walk around the neighborhood. I was starting to get really sore. Even my TOES were sore! How does THAT happen?! It gradually increased through the night and on Sunday it was really bad and I couldn't go down stairs really at all. I couldn't carry Logan and walk at the same time. I started having crazy tiny muscle spasms and shooting pains that evening. I took a couple hot baths and Maddie spent Sunday afternoon massaging my legs and feet for a whole HOUR! Sweet girl! At this point I contemplated whether or not it was worth it! (By the way it was). I woke up this morning able to get out of bed without rocking back and forth to get enough momentum to push me forward. I also walked down the stairs without holding onto the rails, I was walking sideways and not straight down but I was QUITE proud of my accomplishment! :)

Sore muscles aside, it was incredible. I don't know that I will run another full marathon until all of the kids are in school and I can be a little more flexible with my training schedule just because it's so time intensive and I'm at a pretty busy stage of life right now. But I will do half marathons, and hopefully a lot of them! I loved this experience and I can't wait to do it again and be able to improve my ridiculous time of 5:20!