It has been a goal of mine to run a marathon for as long as I can remember. It’s always been something that I would do sometime in my life. I began preparing three years ago. The first time I set the goal of running the dreaded 26.2 I allowed myself and entire month to complete the goal and I’m kind of embarrassed to say this, but I barely finished. You have to understand, I’m not a runner. Running and I have this love/hate relationship. Running a marathon might not be a big deal to a runner, but to me it is.
Then last year I set the goal and started training, but due to a foot injury I was unable to finish training. I would run and re-injure myself so I couldn’t run for a while and then I would have to try to keep up on the training and it was just too much and life was just too much and there was no way I would have finished with the injury I had. Plus, I HATED running. So, I decided to stay off of my foot for a few months.
I thought about the reasons I wanted to run a marathon. I read somewhere that less than 1% of the world’s population has ever completed a marathon. That made me really want to run it. And when I thought about my little girl and what I want for her in life I realized that I need to be an example to her. I want to show her that you can do hard things. That was enough for me.
Third time’s a charm, right? Chelsea and I started running about a year ago and to my surprise I actually liked running again. We decided to start training for the Top of Utah Marathon. We have had so much fun running together! We have ran together so much that we have covered every topic under the sun. We have had some really good runs and some really bad runs. We have ran in freezing (or below) weather, we have slid on the ice, ran in rain storms, Woke up at 3:00 in the morning to run, we have both tripped on hoses and rocks and our own feet. One long run in particular sticks out in my mind where we left at night and had a really hard run and ended up getting lost because they changed a street name on us so we ended up running and extra 2 or so miles and thanks to navigation (who also had the wrong street name) we FINALLY found out where we were supposed to be and by the time we got back to our car it started raining and lightening. We were so glad to be done with that run only to find out that we had locked the keys in Chelsea’s car. So, we sat in the pouring rain and waited for Chelsea’s brother to come get us. We didn’t want our husbands to wake our sleeping children. Her brother had to drive to Nibley in the middle of the night to get her other set of car keys then drive back into Logan to bring them to us. Then… we still had to drive up Blacksmith fork to get my car and Chelsea lost a hubcap and we got home at 2:00 in the morning and it was the WORST run ever. We can now laugh about it. I guess my point is, we trained really hard! I have worked out with personal trainers and fitness instructors and fitness experts, but I couldn’t have picked a better partner to train with for this race. She pushed me when I needed it and has been such a great friend!
Somewhere in the middle of training I re-injured my foot and decided to see a Dr. about it this time. He told me to stay off of it completely for at least 6 weeks and come back. I would probably need an MRI at that point. He was concerned that I had permanent damage because this had been re-occurring for so long. I was told I would not be running the marathon. I laughed and thought I guess I will have to figure this one out on my own. I knew that in fact I WOULD be running the marathon and I would not be sitting on the side lines for the next 6 weeks. I just can’t sit still for that long. So, I was careful about my work outs for 2 weeks, iced, replaced the souls in my shoes and took the prescription he gave me on my long runs. I was supposed to take the prescription daily, but I was NOT going back to that Dr. so I had to use my pills sparingly.
Two days before the marathon I started getting a cold. So by marathon day I was stuffy, congested, had a sore throat and was lacking energy. I had to get up just after 4:00am so I laid all of my stuff out the night before. I had decided on granola and soy milk for breakfast. So I put the granola in a bag and was going to put the milk in a container the next morning. I didn’t want to leave my vitamin and prescription out because Brinley was still up so I put it in the container to be used for my milk. In the morning I forgot about the pills and poured my milk over them. I headed out the door Oops, I forgot about the antic desk my Grandma just gave me and Dustin unloaded right in the middle of the living room floor. And because I can’t see in the dark I ran right into it and limped out the door with a big bump on my shin. I wasn’t off to the best start, was I?
Chelsea and I got separated at mile 4, so I was on my own for the next 22 miles. The canyon was so beautiful and the fall leaves were bright. This made the majority of the marathon pretty easy. Despite the cold I actually did fine until I had to stop on Hollow Road for a bathroom break (stupid bladder). I had hoped that if I did need to stop it would be somewhere in the canyon and that would save me some time, but of course it was right on Hollow Road and my only option was a port-a-potty, port-a-potties usually mean waiting.
Somewhere between mile 17 and 18 I could feel that I had done something to my knee. Sharp pain is never good. My foot was hurting. I had purchased a new shirt to help with all the rubbing and it was proving to be a waste of money. At this point I could feel that my body was starting to slow down. I was WAY too far from the finish line to be feeling like this, but I had ran 385 miles since I started my training program about 5 months ago and did some pretty intense cross training, I worked way too had and there way NO WAY I was not going to finish this! I was kind of confused about what was going on with my body. I just ran 20 miles two weeks early and it hardly even fazed my body. I knew the marathon was not going to be my best run and I began to get discouraged and as anyone could assume, it’s not good to get discouraged at this point in the game, but I pushed through the next two miles and actually enjoyed miles 17 and 18. There were so many little kids that I slapped hands with as I ran by. This of course made me think of Brinley and I wasted so much time slapping hands, but I just couldn’t pass them by when they had their hands out.
By mile 19 I knew I was going to need some motivation to get me through the next 7 miles. For some reason in my head I was expecting my Parents, Sisters and Brother and their families to be in Millville and Dustin and Brinley would be waiting for me at the finish line. I didn’t see my family and my body was beginning to shut down, (so frustrating) so I thought of 7 people that I couldn’t give up on, 7 people that I could run for. And that’s what I did. I ran a mile for each of those 7 people.
At mile 22 I saw my parents and I don’t think I have ever been happier to see anyone in my entire life. At that point my knee was shot. My body was completely deprived of calories (energy) and I could tell that my equilibrium was off. My body was in desperate need of calories and electrolytes , but I knew I could not stop until the race was over or it would be so hard to go again. I never really felt like I hit a wall. I felt like I was dragging a wall and with every step the wall got bigger. I never felt like I was floating or got to the point that I couldn’t feel my legs although I wish I did because I was very aware of all the pain. I can’t even tell you when I hit it. I just know that it progressively got worse and worse. I was thinking I would run into my brother at some point and he would run with me. I couldn’t wait to see him!
At mile 23 I saw my parents again and my mom had a sign. This made me cry. I secretly wanted someone to make me a sign. I was not expecting to see my parents anywhere other than when I saw them at mile 22. My mom ran with me a little bit and this was so inspiring to me. She had jeans and sandals on and that meant so much to me! I honestly had no idea how much I would depend on my support group! I went back and forth in my head who I was going to run the last three miles for. I initially thought I would run 23 for Dustin 24 for Brinley and the last 1.2 for myself, but I ended up running 23-24 for Brinley. Something was seriously wrong with my body and I didn’t even know where I was. I just kept running.
I decided that the last person I would run for (besides myself) would be Dustin. I thought about him the entire marathon. I would think about other things for a while, but my mind always came back to him. I thought about our past, about our future, about all of our good times and about all of the things we have been through so I decided to run mile 24-25 for him. At some point I saw Troy and Brinley and of course I was so happy to see them. Brinley ran along the side of me for a second, but she pretty much passed me up. I was crawling! Down the block was Dustin and Sabra. I just smiled when I saw that Dustin was in running shoes and workout clothes. I could not possible think of a better way to end the marathon. Dustin HATES running and I totally did not expected him to run with me at all. This made the race so much easier for me. He encouraged me and pushed me and I was so happy he was there by my side. I did think about my sisters a lot and thought they just couldn’t make it (if you can’t tell I was pretty messed up at this point).
When I had about a mile or so left Dustin said, “There’s Jess.” And I was so happy to hear that! I thought maybe she couldn’t make it because of football games, but then when I saw her I noticed she was in running clothes and I’m pretty sure I cried again. She too inspired and motivated me and I was so happy to have them there to help me finish the race. I was moving so slow that I felt bad for Jessica. I could tell it was an awkward speed for her and she could probably walk faster than I was running. In fact, I did get passed by a few speed walkers.
They ran with me until the very end and by the time I crossed the finish line they were already there ahead of me. My parents, Dustin, Brinley, Troy, Sabra, Amanda, Jessica and Madi were all there waiting for me at the finish line. I was confused about how they were always a step ahead of me. I didn’t know how they got from one place to another so fast. I kept thinking here I am running my guts out and they are always one step ahead of me looking back I realize that I was just running really slow, but I was so thankful for all of their support and was way excited to see Amanda and Madi at the finish line.
I had three goals when I entered this race. My first goal was to finish, my second goal was to run the entire time and my third goal was to finish in under 5 hours. I’m happy to report that I accomplished all three of my goals. My time was 4:41:04, I met my goal. I should be fine with that, but I just can’t help but wonder what my body could have done on a good day.
I received so many texts, phone calls, cards, gifts etc. and that meant so much to me. I honestly didn’t even know that many people knew I was running the marathon nor did I know how much I would rely on their support. Thanks everyone for supporting me and helping me accomplish this goal of mine!
After the race I had a hard time balancing, like I said, my equilibrium was off. So I rested for a minute and we all went to Village Inn (except for Jess) My Grandma, Steve and Braxton met us there. I ordered a cheeseburger and ate the entire thing (it wasn’t even good) plus some fries and half of Brinley’s pancakes and two hours later I was starving again, ok that’s not entirely out of the ordinary for me. Dustin ordered pizza for dinner and I ate three pieces. The next morning I woke up at 5:00 in the morning just STARVING so I got up and got a piece of cold pizza and brought it to bed. Now this is completely out of the ordinary for me. Dustin looked up at me like, what are you doing? I just said, “Yes, I am eating pizza. I am starving!” So, it took a cheeseburger, fries, pancakes, and four pieces of pizza before my body realized that it wasn’t going to starve to death. I could quit eating like a big fat cow and go back to a normal healthy diet.
