So I ran my second marathon yesterday! And, I beat my previous time by about 45 minutes.
Warning---long and detailed post up ahead!
I had to wake up at the glorious hour of 3 a.m. to catch the bus to the start. As I sat in the warm bus, eating my pb&j, I thought about what this day would hold for me. I knew I would be able to run this one much better than St George because I had trained better and knew what to expect. The bus pulled into the start around 4:20, which left over an hour and a half til the start. It was cold, so cold you could see your breath, but luckily I had on my sweater and sweatpants (they gave us a bag with our race number on it to put our warm clothes in at the start, which we could pick up at the finish). There were fires in metal barrels spaced around on the street for us to stand by, but they were so crowded and I was dressed warmly enough that I ended up just laying on the asphalt and hoping to get a nap or something. I should have known better, I was too wired for that! So after a couple minutes of that, I decided to just party in the porter potty lines. It was fun being able to just talk to people, see where they were from, what they were going to accomplish that day, what their time goals were, ect. I love the running community, it's the best!! The people I meet at races are always so nice.
The start was fast approaching, so I had to get my ipod on, my fuel belt on my waist, and made sure my gps watch was ready to go. I also had to take my sweats off, which meant five minutes before the start my whole arms and legs were completely numb. I knew they would warm up after I started running, but I was still freezing!! About the start, we started 20 miles up Provo Canyon in a little town called Wellsburg, which I immediately fell in love with as soon as we started running. Small valley, big green fields, beautiful houses, mountains all around, horses grazing in the fields, quiet streets....everything about this town made me want to live there eventually. It was just beautiful in every way. There were some people who got up at the crack of dawn to watch us run, there was even a cute family sitting on their roof, waving and clapping for us. All 1,600 of us runners wound around their little valley, then headed towards the canyon.
It was about mile 7 that I stopped to tie my shoe, and this girl in a yellow shirt came up behind me and said don't stop, I've been following you the whole way because you have the perfect pace! I had to laugh because I was taking it super slow at the beginning, but I told her I was fine with her tagging along! It was only a mile later that we hit our first big hill, and I ended up losing her on the hills that followed. A lot of people walked up the hills, but I figured if I just kept a slow running pace up the hills I could just get them over with. I liked that much better than walking! Even though I didn't hill train that much, I was able to make it up all the hills with no problem. The downhills were fun for me because there were a lot of them, and I could let lose down those hills without losing too much energy.
I was able to keep a pretty even pace throughout the race until around mile 20. That's when I hit the dreaded "wall." This is where your muscles give up, you get really grumpy and discouraged, and it seems like you can't go on. The only solution to the wall is to run through it. So I adopted a "walk a little then shuffle/run a little" for the rest of the race. I saw my best friends (Hannah, Lolly, and Brooke) at mile 21, they were yelling "only five more miles!" and I was yelling "I hurt!!" but I ended up giving them a high five and running on. Those last few miles were horrible to say the least. The girl in the yellow showed up again and was like, let's finish together! Help each other out, you know? That lasted for a mile or two until I really couldn't run for more than a quarter mile at a time. I told her to go on without me. (I know, I'm so noble!) After that I tried to stay with this 80 year old guy, because to have him beat me would be too much to bear. He broke away from me with less than 2 miles to go. I then came around a bend with a mile to go and saw the finish line down the road. I felt instantly happier! I could see 80 year old man and yellow shirt girl ahead, but I couldn't catch them. I walked until about a half mile until the finish, then I let go and ran the rest of the way. I saw Dustin and Heather standing at the opening to the finish chute, about 200 yards til the finish line, so I waved and gave them a high five and shifted into my finishing kick, my springing gear, and ran my guts out to the finish line.
Crossing that line was amazing! I almost gave in to tears but I figured that would be dramatic, so I ended up just smiling and laughing. I found my cheering section and we took pictures (coming soon) and talked about the race. They were all inspired :) my great-aunt Larraine was there too, she is honestly the greatest and nicest person I know! I felt pretty good after that race and honestly, I cannot wait until the next one!
When we got back to where we were staying, I couldn't walk down the stairs to the basement so I scooted down on my butt like a little kid. Haha! And on the drive home, getting in and out of the car was really fun! We had a blast on the drive home, stopping for a picnic in Jacob Lake and stopping to take pics at Cliff Dwellers and Navajo Bridge. Loved every minute of this weekend, and I cannot wait for my next race! I just have to figure out when/where it will be :)
And next time an 80 year old man named Woody will not beat me by two minutes.
