What a day it was! My first marathon. It was hard. It was
really hard. I am so glad I did it though. It feels great to have that long time goal checked off my list. My day started at 4:00 am. I did not sleep well at all. It didn't seem to matter too much though. I was able to hop up and get going. I got up to Salt Lake a little late and had to run from my car to the Trax train and barely caught it. We arrived at the starting line at the U of U where there was music, water, a gear drop area, and a very long row of port-a-potties. I really missed having my siblings there with me. It was not the same without them but it was still exciting and at 7:00 the race started. There were at least twice as many half marathon runners as full marathoners. We split off on different routes at about mile 5. There was a fairly stiff breeze blowing right into us for the first 13 miles. It was really tough. I was getting pretty tired already because of that. Right after mile marker 13 we changed directions and it made a world of difference. For the next 3 miles I felt quite good and was feeling pretty optimistic. I singled out a few different runners as ones that I would try to beat by the end and thought I had a good chance. About mile 16 my legs started to go. Around mile 18 I had completely lost sight of the runners that I had been trying to keep up with and I had to start concentrating on just getting to the end. My run/walk intervals had been 4 min/1 min but around this point I changed my watch settings to 3 min. run/1 min. walk. That helped but I found it hard to even keep that up all the time. My 1 minute walk would turn into 1 1/2 or 2 minutes but that didn't matter too much anymore. With 3 miles left I noticed a girl vomiting into a garbage bin and was so glad that wasn't me. I figured since I wasn't to that point yet I was doing pretty well. 3 miles left...2 miles...1 mile...finally we were turning into the Gateway and the street was lined with spectators cheering behind barricades set up along the road. I knew my family was waiting for me at the finish line. Just 15 yards before the finish line I heard the announcer over the loud speaker announce my name, "Number 524, from American Fork." That was cool. Here it is:
Here's me with my finisher's medal:
I am very sore today but it's a good kind of sore. I've talked to my brother, Eric, and we're going to try to get into the St. George Marathon in October. Anyone want to join us?
One final thing, I have to thank my husband for his support through all this. He has never complained about me going on my long training runs and has been such a support to me even when it's been hard. I could not have done this without him. Thank you, hon. I love you!
