St. George Marathon :: The Race

I woke up at 4:40am. To my surprise I was actually feeling normal and ready. I was worried I would wake up with the cold that had been knocking on my door the past few days. Thank goodness for the immune boosters I'd been taking the day before! Oh, and I can't forget those many prayers!

It took me 25 minutes to get dressed and ready. Eric took me to catch the last bus at 5:30am. I made friends with the nice guy sitting next to me who's wife who had just had a baby a couple days before. I thought he was crazy for running the marathon still but he had ran it a few times before and I was happy he was there to give me some last minute pointers. 

I arrived at the starting line at 6:15. I immediately lined up for the bathrooms. 30 minutes later the gun fired and the race was on... Except I was still in line for the bathroom and determined to go before I ran. 

Got my garbage bag on to keep me warm. It was so cold and windy!

I finally started running at 7:01. The 7,500 runners were still making their way to the start so I wasn't really that far behind. Thank goodness for chip timing. I hate being cold so I started running with all my warm ups and gloves still on. 

Miles 1-2: I started off slow and was feeling no confidence in myself and abilities. The little blister that I could feel already forming on my left pinky toe did not help that either. Mile 2 I dropped my warm ups and gloves off at the clothing drop. -I really liked how they had these at miles 1-6.

Miles 3-6: My confidence was growing, enough even for me to make a pit stop around mile 5. So much for the long bathroom wait. 

Miles 7-8: I loved running through the small town of Veyo. It seemed like the whole town was out to celebrate and cheer us on. At mile 7 was the infamous Veyo hill...

Far off in the distance was the dreaded hill.

It actually wasn't as bad as I thought. I was planning on walking it as I needed but in the whole mile I probably walked less than .20 of a mile, which was surprising to me since I hadn't done a ton of hill training. 

Miles 9-13: Attacking that hill gave me just the boost of confidence I needed to speed up my pace. 

Miles 14-17: continued to speed up a tad. I really started to enjoy the scenery and found some great moments of meditation. I loved Snow Canyon! 

Mile 18-19: these miles were full of rolling hills. My paced slowed a little on the uphills but I was refusing to walk. It just didn't seem right to walk when my iPod was blasting Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never." 

Miles 20-23: I loved these miles! (Compare that to my first marathon where these were some of the hardest for me). They were all downhill and at mile 23 Eric, Brooke and Marlee where waiting for me. Special bonus* my friend Nancy was also there with her husband Pete cheering on a friend and it was so fun to see them. Funny note: they all thought they were at mile 21 (where I asked them to be) but they were in fact at 23. The map they were looking at was a little misleading.

Mile 24-26: Eric started running with me at mile 23 and it was nice to have him by my side cheering me on. By mile 25 his legs were giving up from a previous leg workout and I told him I was gonna take off to the finish 'cause I was feeling great. He took a short cut to meet me at the end.

.20, The Finish: there are few feelings that can match the awesomeness of finishing a race and a marathon takes the cake for me. Running those last few strides through the finish line was wonderful for so many reasons. I really couldn't believe I had just finished the St. George Marathon, one of the top marathons in the nation and as I looked at my Garmin it looked like I had beat my first marathon time by 10 minutes!! It was confirmed to me when my friend Olivia text me and congratulated me for my 4:19 time! Wow! I had cut my time by not 10 minutes but 13 minutes! I never would have predicted that to happen. That is a 9:55 pace AND I was surprised how good I felt. I had planned to run this marathon with nothing less than a 10:30 pace. I now know I can run a marathon again and I can even run it faster!!

Stay tuned for fun after the finish line!

Happy Fitnessing!