Yeah! It's Over!!

So I am sitting here trying to decide how I want to word this post. Do I want to say what a great accomplishment it was for me to run another marathon and that I had a great experience and loved it and can't wait to do another one? Or do I want to tell the truth and say that it was TERRIBLE! The weather was miserable rainy and windy (with the wind against us) and cold. I rode the 4 am bus up to the starting line because I wanted to put my name into the drawing for some great prizes but don't know yet if I won anything. I had no one that I knew that was up there for the first 2hrs so I was pretty bored. Luckily I found Robyn and Traci for about 25min before the race started.


I decided to run with on of the Cliff Bar Pace guys. I was going for a 4:30 and knew that if I just stayed with him then I would be okay. The race starts and I immediately feel like I have to pee so I hit the porta pottie at mile 1 and thought to myself this is going to be a long race if I have to stop alot.


Mile 2- I find Andrea (Andy who I work with wife) and we start to talk and decided to run together. We just started running and left the pace guy behind and I'm thinking we are doing great, I feel great but maybe we are running a little to fast for the start.


Miles 3,4,5,6- Feeling pretty good but my knees are kinda starting to ache and cramp. Andrea says it's the cold. It is raining slightly at this point but still windy.


Miles 7,8,9,10,11, 12- The rain is coming down hard and it feels like you are running while taking a shower because of the rain streaming in your eyes. Knees are still killing me. Veyo hill wasn't too bad. Loving Andrea's run for 7 min walk 1 min strategy


Miles 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20,- All these miles are kinda a blur of pain and agony. Every time we stop running and take our little walk break I feel like my knees are going to give out and then when we start running again it hurts so much. The downhill action is killing me. Andrea is great and really encouraging me.


Miles 21, 22, 23, 24 ,- I want to cry. When we came down off of Snow Canyon Parkway I didn't want to walk during our break because I thought Ellen and Lou would be there and I didn't want them to see me walking (pride I know). I didn't see them but I'm glad because I was getting a bit emotional at this time knowing that is was close to being over but I still had so far to go and probably would have cried if I saw them. We did slap the hands of the kids as we passed but that almost took more energy then I had. Andrea was like a rock star and so many people knew her and were cheering for her so I just pretended that they were cheering for me.


Mile 25, 26- At this point we only have 1.2 miles to go and there are lots of people cheering you on and you know that you are so close to the finish line and you can hear the crowd cheering. Andrea's energy was starting to fade so I just kept telling her that we were awesome and we were going to kick butt and I would pick out people in front of us to pass. Rounding the corner of the last block was great and I was looking for Josh because I really needed some encouragement at the moment. After I saw him and the kids I just took off for the end and I think I finished pretty strong. My friend Jenny came to watch and I heard her yelling for me and she says that I looked pretty strong and calm coming in. Inside I was thinking hurry up and get to the finish line dang it! The ice cream cone and the warm lemon scented towel at the end was the best. I forgot about my knees for a minute as I was talking to Andrea and telling her thanks so much for running with me. She really saved me and helped me reach my goal. Oh, my time was 4:27:14! I was really excited and I cut 27 min off my first marathon time! I hope to one day break the 4 hour mark but right now I don't ever want to run another marathon again or at least this year.


Josh and I went to Cafe Rio after and then came home and I had a ice bath and Pomegranate Blueberry juice drink. Ellen's friend who does Iron Man's says the stuff is good for the joints. I think I have ruined mine because I can honestly barely walk right now. I took a nice hot shower and got dry and warm and then Josh rubbed my legs for me and I had a three hour nap. Josh is now at the Priesthood session and I can't wait for him to come home because then McKendry will go to bed and he will go and get me a Pumpkin Pie Blizzard with Cheesecake bites from Dairy Queen! That is my reward and I won't feel bad about it because according to my Garmin watch I burned 3066 calories running the race so I will eat whatever I want!

This is me before the race.

This is me thinking about running the race. This is what time I left my house to make it on the early bird bus.

Josh and I after the race. If you look hard you can see me holding up I finisher's medal between us. What a cute family!
Holding up my time slip and very happy about it too!
Kenny with her marathon winner. She thinks I won and I told her Yeah I won because I finished it and she said Oh there's lots of winners huh. Alot of people had their medals still on because I think they are too tired to care about taking them off. Also we worked hard for them and don't want to lose them
Andrea and I. We are pretty wasted and that ice cream rocked!
Don't let the smile fool you. I may act happy but I was really crying inside and so thankful that I could see the end in sight. I kicked it in the butt after this and it was soon over!!