Utah, St. George-marathon 10/1/10

2 months behind!!

I left Ed and the kids home and flew to UT for the St. George marathon. Thanks Ed and the friends that helped with the kids! My friend Kaylynn is the one who entered the lottery with me (we should have entered as a group), but didn't get in. :( Luckily she signed up for a different marathon a couple weeks later so we were still able to train together. :)

9/30-My high school friends are awesome supporters and decided to make a girls trip out of it. It really meant a lot to me how much they catered to me all weekend! After flying into UT and getting my hair done ;), we left a couple hours later and Alisha drove us all to St. George. Thanks to Jenn's grandma we had nice condo to stay in. We got in pretty late, but we still stayed up and talked all night. It's been so long since I've done that and I loved it!

10/1- We slept in, got breakfast and then went to Jennie's brother's pool to lay out, swim and take silly pictures. I'll have to add pictures later. Then we went home, ate lunch, hung out and got all gussied up for dinner at the Pizza Factory. We met up with Valerie- who we went to high school with as well. She shared marathon tips and took us to a beautiful place where Stephanie took some pictures of us all.

It was really fun! Steph is great! See more of her photos here.

^After pictures we got yogurt- took some uggo immature pictures in the car- my fav, and went home and stayed up a little too late for having a marathon in the morning!

10/2- I woke up around 4:15am and got all my stuff together. I met Joan (my friend Kristen's MIL) at 4:45 to get on the buses to go to the start of the marathon. At the start of the race there were bonfires to stay warm but they mentioned this race had one of the warmest starting temps ever! It was in the high 40's I think?

(Joan's friend, me, Joan)

I only have one picture at the start or the race. All the other pictures I'll have to add when I get them. On to race details...

It begins with the goal I made to run one marathon in between each baby as a way to get in top shape before my body is destroyed again. ;)

Miles 1-13.1:

My goal (always) is just to improve my time. The last marathon I ran was 4:29. I was pregnant so I didn't push too hard, so for this race I was hoping for some time around 4:15. I wanted to give myself some space so I started with the 4 hr pace group. The race started at 6:45am. I ran with out music and just went with the flow of the people around me. We passed the 4 hour pace group in the first few miles. I kept worrying I might be starting too fast, but just wanted to go with the flow and use the energy when I had it. The beginning was pretty effortless and I'm sure I had adrenaline. I was wearing a Garmin so I checked my pace pretty frequently. I trained at a 9 minute mile pace, but was surprised to see fluctuation between 7 mm (downhills) and 12 mm(uphills) but averaged 8.5mm. I was in the sun from mile 7 on, but I felt so good I couldn't believe it! I turned on my music at the first uphill and used it as my motivator the rest of the way. I'm sure people thought I was crazy when I kept throwing my hands up in the air to Akon's song, "Freedom" (Best song ever! Thanks Kaylynn), but I didn't care, I was feeling great! I had a PR on my half marathon time. (I forgot but somewhere around 1:54?) I kept thinking, "WOW, I could really get a good time!"

Miles 13.1-26.2:

Mile 14+ things got a bit harder and by mile 17 when Stephanie and Alisha joined me for a bit, I was getting tired and it was getting hot! I stopped at every drink station for Gatorade and water, GUed at the beginning, mile 6, mile 12 and mile 18? By 17 miles I poured one water over myself and drank the other. They also had misters runner's could run through to keep cool. Alisha and Steph were very gracious about trying to make me comfortable. We didn't talk, but it was nice to have them by my side. Mile 17-21 was rough so it's a good thing they were there. At mile 21 we separated and I got a good second wind until mile 23. I was hurting, but I was NOT going to slow down this far into the race! Jenn joined me at mile 23. It was a great mental break to have her with me. Once again we didn't talk at all, but just having someone to run next to me and support me was a saver! It was rough to be running through town just waiting to see the end. When I finally saw the finishing balloons I was SO tired! Those last .2 miles kicked my butt! I used all my energy to get to the end. I usually have some energy to sprint to the finish and give an enthusiastic smile for the cameras, but not this race! I was definitely depleted, but it was all worth it. I finished at-

Chip Time	3:55:50
Overall Place	1917 / 5702
Gender Place	559 / 2460
Division Place	66 / 280
Age Grade	57.4%
Pace	9:01

A definite PR and 34 minutes faster than my last. Far faster than I'd ever expected! Even though it was SO hard, the race was as good as it could have been and my body cooperated so graciously! If you run you know how crucial/relieving it is to have a good functioning body the day of the race after you've spent SO much time training. I was proud of my time- and am now feeling like maybe that should be my last full marathon since I'm not sure I could beat my time again. :) We'll see. Funny how addicting it is. ;) I was so relieved to have it over!!!

We went home, I took a nap and then we went and got pedicures. I felt so nauseous for a while I was SURE I was going to throw up, but once again my friends rescued me and I was feeling okay by the end of the pedi's. When we got back we got ready and went to dinner and then went home and talked all night again. I've missed out on a lot of time with these friends and it was good to have some deep conversations, to relate, to get to know everyone better, laugh, cry and be immature. A well needed successful trip. Thank you ladies! Let's do it again!

(Stephanie, Jenn, Alisha, Jennie, Me)

10/3- Sunday after our drive home I got to meet up with my family for dinner. Missed my man and my babes, but a trip away makes you appreciate everything more. Thanks for everyone who make the trip possible!