St. George Marthon 2009

We had a good trip down to St. George. I love this chair at the gas station in Beaver (though I have to write that I am not a big fan of the car serviceman who works there--he told me my tire was going to blow out a few years ago--but that's a story for another day...)
Chris had said that we need to find a cool Cooper tires sign somewhere to hang in the boys bedroom (along with all their old license plates that border their room). I figured a picture with it in the background was almost as good. Coop couldn't have cared less. He was excited about his Swedish fish. Ian had been patiently waiting to get cinnamon bears since we left home (you can tell he's my kid! what 4 year old chooses those when you can have any candy in the gas station.
The boys were so good in the car. We had lots of snacks and activities for them to do. Cute Grammie sent them a notebook and little Sesame Street sticker books (as well as a bag of treats). Next time I need to remember to bring coloring books, crayons, pens and notebooks in the car (and a bag for garbage!). The boys were super cute reading their books. Cooper is in love with Curious George currently.
Okay now on to the actual marathon part--it is exciting to actually be writing this post! It is honestly crazy to realize I actually really did run a marathon! I always felt like marathons were for someone else, that you had to be an amazing or fast runner or to do one. I'd run track in high school but almost 10 years later had never really put fitness or running on the front runner in my life. Grant it there were lots of really fast, athletic people at the marathon but there were also tons of what I would call "normal" everyday people who chose to train for and run a marathon--and they did it! Just like me :) like I always thought I would do "someday"--it's pretty exciting to know I've done it now.

I watched the movie "Spirit of the Marathon" with Val right after Coop was born and there were 2 lines from it that really stuck out. One was that crossing the finish line of the marathon will change your line forever. The other was that you run marathon how you do life. I can honestly say the first is true; it is interesting as I've reflected the last few weeks after the marathon. Sometimes I honestly can't believe I did it! Others I feel so empowered to do whatever I want and am encouraged that when you put your mind to something you truly can do ANYTHING! The second quote worried me some since I remember thinking--I do life indecisively, so does that mean I may never even run the marathon?! But I was amazed really at how consistent I actually was with training and during the marathon. I felt like my attitude was just take it one mile at a time, keep going and be measured. So maybe what this actually tells me is that since I ran the marathon this way I can start to live more like this in my day to day life :)

My leg behind my right knee had been sore for a few weeks before the marathon. My inspiration on how to make it through this was to run on the indoor track. I was so anxious the entire week before the marathon! The trip down went well. The night before the race I made during to eat well and drank a lot. I got a good night sleep, got up about 3:50 a.m. ate some toast and bananas and a Kirkland breakfast shake, finished by gatorade and Chris took me to the bus. I met a really nice lady from Colorado who had run 14 marathons and we talked all the way up. I talked to some other girls waiting in line for the porta potties. It was neat how approachable and friendly everyone is, there was one girl who an elite runner but she didn't put on airs or anything, she was from Nebraska and really nice. I went to the bathroom (toilet was a hot commodity), threw my clothes back in the truck and did a little bit of warm-up/stretching. I decided to stretch and not start with the 4 hour pace, so ended up started about 11 minutes at the gun, which really ended up being fine. I passed a lot of people which was actually kind of motivating! I was getting ward between 1 and 2 miles so took off my gloves and long-sleeved shirt and deposited it by a van on the side of the road. I tied them together hoping that would help me find them at the end...but no...learned the hard way, really, don't wear anything you'll be sad if you lose (it was my cute soft black Modbe shirt). And I also got a little gold again a few miles later so tying it around my waste would have been smart. I'm glad to have learned things like this so next marathon I can know things like this!

Usually it takes me about 4 miles to get warmed up and into a groove but it was awesome because I never had to "warmup" just felt good from start which is a big change for me from most long runs (or even just my regular 3 milers!).

I was feeling really good through mile 5, then about mile 7 you hit Veyo/volcano which is a long hill. I overheard a girl talking about who she was dedicating miles to which I'd thought about doing, so I decided to dedicate miles 1-7 to my 7 siblings, 8 to my mom and 9 to my dad (those were up the volcano), mile 10 to my friend Elizabeth, 11 to "Grandma" Lesli, mile 12 to my grandma who lives in St. George, mile 13 to the Parry family/their son Ben who is serving an LDS mission. I totally got into a groove/was focusing so much on running I didn't do any for miles 14-20. But I had already planned Coop to be mile 23, Ian mile 24, Chris mile 25, and myself mile 26, thinking of how I can continue moving forward, becoming better, making changes, doing things, like I did running this marathon! And also generally to just do more to make Christ and Heavenly Father more a part of amy life.

I honestly felt pretty good the whole time. There was a lot of up hill (plently of those! more than I expected even though Val told me and looked at map...not the same thing!). My quads were sore from the downhill but that made the uphills nice in a way! Amazingly I didn't use my knee bands the whole time!! They rode around my ankles the whole time. LOL. It is so ironic (and such a blessing) because my hurting knees were the reason I almost didn't start training for the marathon in the first place. So it was such a relief to not have them hurt at all.

I carried my Gu with me safety pinned inside my shorts and had planned to take it around mile 15 but at mile 13 I was needed it. I took one again at mile 19 and then about mile 23 (last push through town to finish, losing some steam but still going strong; there were many walking/run-walking the last 2 miles and I wanted to scream at them, you're almost there, keep running!!)

A couple motivators for me during the marathon--I was almost checking off miles in sets of 2 (shocking that I the to-do list queen would find this helpful!) since there were aid stations about every 2 miles. Mentally it was almost like rather than thinking "ok, I ran a mile" I would think in terms of the next aid station, which meant I just completed 2 more miles! The balloons hanging on the portapotties were awesome, it was motivating to see that shining ahead and know an aid station was close! I didn't end up needed to use the portapotties during the race, which made me really happy. I had really worried about that but using it twice BEFORE the race helped I'm sure.

By mile 20 I was feeling so encouraged and still had plenty of steam. By mile 21 we finally hit the final descent (no more hills popping up! that was a bit of a mental trick to work through) and I knew it was all "downhill" from here, which was very motivating. I was feeling great physically. I had wondered earlier if I'd hit the "wall" but I never did! I felt strong from mile 21 on, tired of course but just kept going, passing some people, encouraging some along (I told one guy to keep going and he said his calves hurt, should he listen to me or them?!). The cheering crowds were great! St. George seriously does an awesome job with their aid stations/volunteers; there were lots of people who were hurting and were getting rubdowns at stations.
You can see me at the very back in the blue, to the right of the girl in the orange. I didn't know if Chris would see me, especially since I'd started lately and didn't know if he'd just stand there waiting for me (especially with the boys' short attention spans). So I was so excited to come down the finish line and hear Chris' voice. Chris said I wasn't sprinting but was finishing strong. I felt like I was going pretty dang fast! But maybe after 26 miles that seemed fast :) I was so excited to come in under 4 hours!! At one point after my first half marathon I wondered if I could maybe qualify for Boston but then realized that was pushing it too far, my goal needed to be to finish. Period. I wore my watch during the marathon to pace myself back so I didn't start too strong, since I really wanted to finish, have energy for the end, and not get injured. My pace stayed steady the whole time, even up the hills, I was often passing quite a few people and staying strong. I was excited that my pace would likely put me under 4 hours. I realized early on that this pace would not qualify me for Boston (under 3:40:49 is the max time for my age group) but I was okay with that, that was not what running this marathon was about (it will be someday but not this one!) And I was so proud that I ran the whole 26.2 miles, other than walk-jogging through the aid stations; I'd grab a gatorade and then a water almost every time and took my Gus right before each of the 3 aid stations.
I was so excited to see the boys that I totally spaced getting ice to ice my legs (do that different next time!) and they had popscicles that I wanted to give to the boys. I ate bread and started to drink right away, walking around.
We ran into my aunt and my cousin's girls. They'd made me a cute sign, so sweet!
I did it! And was thrilled with my time of 3:56:09 for my first marathon! It was so fun to get the medal (and I'm still waiting to get my shirt in the mail--they ran out of my size, sad).

It's Wednesday now and I am feeling pretty good. Overall my muscles feel about back to normal, other than a slight nagging that is still in my left hamstring, though that was there about the last week or so pre-marathon so I was just grateful to run the marathon without it giving me much, if any, problems.

I am already trying to decide what marathon to do next! The Runners Series 2010 for St George Marathon opened up Monday at 9 a.m. and I was on at 8:59 a.m. to get Chris and I signed up. I also looked into a few spring marathons--Salt Lake in April or Odgen in May--we'll see what I decide. I'm not sure I want to start training again quite that soon, especially since those would be colder months to be training. Plus I really would like to run one with Chris. It was different but nice to be out there on my own for this one, focusing very closely on me, but I can also see how fun it would be to run with a family member and friend and enjoy the feeling of finishing together!


(The lists below are still in progress. I'll likely keep adding to them as I think of things that will be beneficial for me to remember for future training/races/marathons.)

Things I learned/recommendations of things that worked for me:

• Gu: in training and during marathon
  
• Gatorade: Highly recommend training with.

Things I know now/will do different next time:

• Clothing/warmth: what wear, later in race if gets cold
  
• Bus (not sure what I meant??)
  
• Sunglasses are a must for me; next time may try a hat but was fine without it. I was worried I'd wish I didn't have my glasses or see people with hats and wish I had one. Not the case. Even if I do get a cool running hat in the future I'll still have to wear my glasses my eyes hate the sun.
• Right after finishing the marathon--go directly to the tent and get ice! I'm pretty sure it would have made my muscles' recovery a little bit easier.