St George Marathon 2009

After running over 400 miles in the past 9 months I finally made it to the St George Marathon!

The family and I drove up to St George on Friday. Thankfully the kids are out of school on break so that wasn't a problem. We met Matt and Wendy and their friends Brian and Emily, who were also running the marathon, at the Pizza Factory for our spaghetti dinner before the race. Gotta load up on carbs! It took a long time to get our food so by the time we finished we had to hurry over to the convention center to pick up our race packets before it closed. We made it just in time!

We went back to the hotel, got the kids settled and tried to get some sleep. My sister says it's a marathon tradition not to get any sleep the night before, she was right. I tried not to think about it, but every half hour, sometimes every three minutes, I'd wake up and look at the clock. I finally got about an hour of sleep when the alarm went off. It was 4:30 am, time to get up.

I quickly got dressed in my shorts and t-shirt then put my running pants, jacket and gloves on because it was cold and would be even colder up where the race started. We drove over to the pick up point where the buses took us up to the starting line. As we rode up the canyon and kept going and going and going it felt like we were traveling way too far. It was very comforting to have Wendy with me since she'd done all of this before and assured me I could make it. We finally stopped and got off the bus and I thought, "Wow, now I have to run all the way back. What am I doing?"

We all had to use the restroom and there were long lines for those so we stood and waited. By the time we all accomplished that task we had to hurry to get our warm clothes off just before the race started. It all happed so fast I didn't have time to be nervous.

In the race there are pacers. Runners who carry balloons with what time they will cross the finish line. So if you want to run the marathon in a 3:45 you keep up with that pacer. Just as the race started we rushed up toward the front because Wendy, Matt, and Emily wanted to be with the 3:30 group and Brian is faster than that and wanted to be even farther up. I was going to hang back with the 4:45 group but they told me to come up with them for the first few miles then I could drop back.

I started out with Wendy, Matt and Emily but with in the first quarter of a mile I lost them. For the next 7 miles everyone was passing me. I kept thinking it had to stop eventually and it finally did when we got to Veyo.

Veyo is the big hill about 7 miles into the race. The marathon is mostly downhill, it starts at 5200 feet and ends in St George at about 2700. There are a few hills but Veyo is the big one. It's about a mile up before you start descending again. I didn't mind the hill and was kind of happy that I finally started passing people. After that I seemed to keep pace with the people around me.

It was still dark when we started and the moon was full. It was so beautiful. It was cool because all I could hear was the pounding of thousands of feet and it was one of those surreal moments when I had to keep telling myself I was really running in a marathon. The time went by a lot faster than when I was training alone because I'm a people watcher and it was fun seeing all the different kinds of people running. I was surprised at how many older people were running...and running faster than me. There were even some kids that looked like they were about 14 or 15, also faster than me.

My split time was 2:07 at the half way point. I was so excited because that was so much faster than I thought I could do. I felt good at that point, it was nice. There were little pockets of people in the towns we ran through that cheered us all on and some had music playing. It was fun.

In the last 7 or 8 miles of the race there were some steeper hills we ran down. I didn't train on hills because we don't have many around us. I was doing fine until about mile 21 when the outside of my right knee started to really hurt, then the pain went up to my right hip. I think it was my IT band...if anyone knows what that is. I think I strained it or something. I kept running until my leg started to give out, then I walked for a few minutes and ran again until I couldn't. I did that over and over for the last 5 miles. I was mad. I wanted to run and feel good and sprint at the end but instead I hobbled at the end.
I did see my family and my best friend from high school waving and cheering me on at the end. That helped and I was happy about my time. It was better than I was expecting, hobbling and all.
My official time was 4:29:21, Jeremy took a picture of the clock at the finish line but I was on a little over 2 minute delay from when we crossed the starting line.
I got my Finisher medal and will get my official marathon shirt in the mail in a few weeks that I will run in proudly this winter. Matt got a great time and Wendy qualified for the Boston Marathon which was her goal.

I always thought this would be it, I just wanted to do a marathon to say I did it and be done. Now I want to do another one to say I did it and felt good and sprinted at the end. I have found running is addicting!
The icing on the cake for me was that my very best friend from jr. high and high school was in town with her husband. She lives in Texas and I hadn't seen her for about 15 years. When we figured out we'd be in St George at the same time we arranged to be at the same hotel. After the marathon and a little nap we got together and visited for hours. She got to meet all my kids and I got to meet her husband. I was so happy to get to see her again! It just made the whole weekend even that much more memorable. She runs too and there is a marathon in Austin where she lives.....hmmmmmmm.