If a year ago someone had told me I would run a marathon, I would have laughed in their face and told them they were crazy. Turns out, I'm the crazy one.
Back in the beginning of July my visiting teacher Lori somehow talked me into running a marathon with her. I don't know how she did it. She must have said something very convincing or maybe I just don't have the ability to tell people no.
At any rate I started my training with only 10 weeks to go. Training is not fun. It's very time consuming and what normal person really enjoys getting up early on a Saturday to run 19 miles? Definitely not this girl. But I did it.
Sadly the marathon was the same day my dad had a 50 mile bike race so mom and dad wouldn't be able to come. THEN dad had to work Friday night at the MoTab concert so they couldn't even just skip his race. I was a bit sad. I mean a marathon is kind of a BIG DEAL. Oh well. My cousin was going to come and cheer for me as were a couple girls from my ward.
So Friday I headed up to Salt Lake to get my packet. Then I went to stay with an old roommate from college. We went out to dinner and caught up on what's been happening in life. Then we were back at her house. It was only 9 so we decided to put in a movie. Walk, don't Run. I recommend it to anyone. It was super funny and cute Lindsey left a note on my bag in the morning that said Run, don't Walk and a good luck message. It was a great way to start my day at 4 a.m.
I got to the bus with plenty of time and we headed up the canyon. It was a very long bus ride. I headed straight from the bus to the porta potty line and as luck would have it I found Lori! In the dark! at 6:15! But the line was slow moving and when it was finally my turn, the race started. Oops.
So I finished my business and then got out there. It was just after 6:30 and kind of cold. I had forgotten my long sleeve shirt, but they had given us some gloves so I just hoped I'd warm up after a mile or two and sure enough at 2.5 I was tossing the gloves to the side.
The canyon was pretty steep and by mile 8 my knees were hurting pretty bad. I was glad I had decided to wear my knee brace. I took some advil or aleve or whatever they gave me at the first aide station and kept going. The canyon was BEAUTIFUL!!! Perfect for the first day of Fall. The temps were great and the leaves were amazing.
Coming out of the canyon at mile 14.5 I could hear someone cheering for me. I was expecting my cousin to be there so I was looking for him. Instead I see this man on a bicycle and had to do a double take. IT WAS MY DAD!!!! I almost started crying right there. He biked around with me and ahead of me for about 3.5 miles. It was good to have him there. The uphill started at about 15.5 and I was getting kind of tired. Mile 19 was super painful with it's downhill again. My muscles did not appreciate that at all. From there on out it was a mile at a time. Usually it was more of a song at a time. Lori and I were together from about 15 to 20. Then I could always see her just ahead of me.
At mile 22 or 23 (it kind of starts to run together by this point) I was super mad at the world. I hated everyone and everything and I was ready to be done. Dad found me again around this point and helped me through and then dad was with me again through mile 24 and my cousin was at mile 25. I was SO thirsty by this point and that last mile might as well have been another complete marathon.
My cousin walked with me through the aide station while I drank all my water (3 cups) and was still thirsty but still had that last mile to go. It was awful. My right big toe had started to hurt at mile 23 because of a blister and it was hard to figure out how to run without that hurting super bad. At mile 26 that blister popped and there was no way I was going to run with my shoe rubbing against that. So I took off my shoe. I was going to run with just one shoe on but that was awkward so I took off the other one and ran the last .28 miles in my socks. I had just enough left in me to run across the finish line, shoes in hand, and then I was completely spent. I cried.
I can't believe I actually did it. It was hard and not very fun, but what an accomplishment!
My mom and dad drove me home and stayed for a while, but they had to head back to Idaho because my dad had to work today.
It was good and I suppose I'm glad I did it. I'm feeling pretty sore today and I imagine tomorrow will only be worse. I lost one toenail in training and I'm going to lose both my big toenails. They hurt almost as much as my muscles. We saw a sign as we were running that said "toenails are for sissies". Guess I'm not a sissy.
I'd do it again if I didn't have to train for it, but it just takes too much time. For all you who can keep on doing it, kudos to you. As for me, I think once was enough.
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| Mile 22? Maybe. Dad said smile, I said no. He said fake it. So I tried. |
I'll keep my toenails from here on out.
