Life is a Marathon

If that were really true, then I've already ran my way through life. That's right ladies and gentlemen. This last weekend, I ran my first marathon! 26.2 miles of sweat, pain, and exhaustion! But let's rewind a little bit, shall we?

Thursday, I had to get everything done to get ready to go to St. George on Friday. I came home from class/TA-ing and did laundry, packed, graded papers, finished some homework, and then made sure to drink a million and a half bottles of water. Seriously though. I had to pee like every 25 minutes. But I was grateful for it later!

Friday was the day before THE DAY. My Daddy came to pick me up in his fancy pants rental car (which was actually a Lincoln Town Car that he HATED and called a boat all weekend). Erik came down from BYU-Idaho and I was super excited to see him! He has grown up SO MUCH by being in college! He does everything - he volunteers for school activities, participates in everything under the sun, is on the karate and jujitsu teams, and has straight A’s. Who is this kid and what has he done with my brother?!?! Aubrey rode with us and we had a blast on the way down to St. George. Just to prove it, here's a video and some pictures of some of our many adventures:

Windows down in a freak rainstorm? Yes please.

My fam will understand this...we should have bought it!

Waiting for Dad to finish his conference call

We stopped for lunch in Filmore, UT and got a Subway sandwich while my Daddy had a conference call for work. I brought my Bloggie (my HD video camera) so we could record and document our trip and we played with it while we waited for my Dad to finish. I’m going to try and make a video montage eventually and I’m pretty sure it will be HILARIOUS. J (Thank you to Aubrey for being a fabulous cheerleader/videographer for the weekend!)

After the drive, we checked into our hotel and then waited to hear from Erika and Erin. It was so sweet...I got my own queen size bed and plasma screen television! My dad had his own bed and television and so did my brother. It was nice to have space to relax and unwind before the race the next morning.

We settled in for a little bit and then called Erin and my Nana and Papa and we all met up at the marathon expo. The expo is also where we had to check in for our race and get our numbers, shirts, and free samples! Other than that, the expo is basically where a bunch of people come and sell their running merchandise and it’s SA-WEET!

Here's a taste of stuff they were selling and what samples we got in our race bag (explained by Erin):

I got a foam roller to massage out my IT band (I have IT band syndrome...totally lame), a brace for my IT band, and then some cute running headbands and a 26.2 magnet for my car. It was SO great to see my Nana and Papa! I hadn’t seen them since January, so I was excited to spend the weekend with them! J There was also a pre-race pasta dinner at the expo, so we ate there. All you can eat pasta, salad, breadsticks, and cake! I was terrified to eat too much before the marathon though, so I didn’t eat very much.

After a lot of food, a lot of running shopping, and a lot of laughs, it was time to head back to the hotel and get to bed early for the race. That is, after watching the BYU vs. Utah State football game! Let’s just say we won the game in the last 11 seconds and it was LEGIT!!!! My Nana, Papa, Dad, brother, and I all freaked out. It was great! J

I went to bed at 9:45pm but couldn’t fall asleep until 11:30pm because I was so nervous for the race. We had to be up by 4:00am to catch a shuttle to the starting line too so I didn’t get very much sleep! L When my alarm went off at 4, it felt like I’d only been asleep for a couple of minutes. Don’t you just hate those nights? I sure do. Luckily, I put all of my race stuff out the night before so I could just change and head out. The hotel provided a runner’s breakfast and I grabbed a bagel and a banana, but I was too nervous to eat! I only ate half of the bagel!

Once we got into the shuttle, it took us to the finish line where the buses would take us to the starting line. My dad and I got on our bus and it was at that point that I realized that I couldn’t turn back. TERRIFYING!!!! The bus drove the course so I paid attention to the hills and mile markers as best as I could in the dark. It took 35 minutes to DRIVE. How long would it take to RUN?! I started freaking out. And then I felt my bag. Background story: at the expo, they give you all of your samples/number/etc. in a bag with your race number on it and you take it to the starting line. You use it to put your sweats in (because the starting line is usually freezing) when you start the race and they give it back at the finish line. Anyways, I had put my banana, IT band brace case, and my water belt filled with White Cherry PowerAde in there. And my PowerAde had totally SPILLED ALL OVER EVERYTHING! Which meant: 1. I’d have to put my sweats into a sticky, PowerAde filled bag and 2. I had hardly any PowerAde for the start of my race! This led to more freaking out. And it led to my Dad laughing at me.

The bus ride finally ended and we unloaded at the starting line. It was crazy! Some photographers took our picture and we headed to the bathroom line because before long, the lines would be huge. It was about an hour until race time and I had no clue how I was supposed to find Erin, Erika, Chandler (Erika’s freshman brother), and Erika’s mom. There were over 7000 people there! But you know what? I looked over to the other bathroom line and saw Erika! Total luck.

We waited by the fire pits and rested and before long, everyone was lining up at the starting gate. My Daddy went to take our clothes bags to the truck and I didn’t get to see him before the race started. So sad! But Erin, Erika, and I all started at the same time. It took us 5 minutes to cross the start after the guns went off because there were so many people! But we were off nonetheless.

After the first three miles or so, Erin got way ahead of herself (mostly because she has freakishly long legs), so Erika and I told her to go ahead. We enjoyed the scenery and laughed and talked until the first fan checkpoint at mile 7 - Vejo. It’s a mile and a half of hill up a volcano. Cool right? Heck yes it was cool. We dominated it and ran up the whole thing! Piece of cake. Mostly because we saw our families and Aubrey cheering us on before we went and we plugged in our iPods to have pump up music. J

Miles 8-12 were kinda boring. There was this ridiculous 2-mile incline from miles 9-11 that lasted FOREVER. But we conquered that too. J I tried not to look down at the road because there were dead snakes every time I looked down. Totally terrifying! I mean...yeah, they were dead...but they were alive once!

It wasn’t long before we hit mile 13. Halfway, baby! We were feeling really good, especially knowing we'd see our families again at mile 15.5. Erika and I were cruising down the hill into Snow Canyon to "Super Bass" by Nicki Minaj. We even started dancing! People around us thought it was funny but as fun as it was, we probably could have used that energy later!

Miles 17 and 18 were hard for me. I don't really know why but I think it might have been the heat. The temperature was climbing into the 90s (we were running in a desert...we should have expected the heat), so it was really easy to feel dehydrated. We picked it back up at miles 19-22 though!

Finally, we made it to the last fan checkpoint - mile 23. Oh how I hated that mile! It was hot, my body was exhausted, and we had finally reached the city of St. George (which meant winding through the streets until the finish line). Those last three miles were totally mental. Any negative thoughts and I'm pretty sure I would have stopped right there and walked and/or collapsed. But Erika and I pushed each other all the way to the finish line. We did it in under 5 hours!!!! Sure, it's no Boston Marathon qualifying time, but I was proud of the time for my first marathon. And you want to know what else is cool? They streamed the race online so my Mom and brothers and sisters could watch me finish! Super cool.

Crossing the finish line!

After a sweaty hug and walking through misters, I got my finisher's medal. My Daddy was at the entrance to the cool down area waiting for me with a huge bag of ice. It was heaven sent! (Thank you Daddy!) It was incredible how fast my legs got sore. Once I stopped running, moving was painful and slow. It took me forever to walk to get my sweat at the bag area! I think I was pretty dehydrated too because the walk from the finish line to my Nana and Papa's car was torture. Thankfully, Erik let me borrow his hat to keep the sun out of my face.

Erika, Me, Erin, and Chandler at the finish line (with Dad in the background)

Once at the hotel, I put on my swimsuit and went and soaked in the hotel pool to relax my muscles. It felt amazing! And then it started raining, so I went back inside and showered. Holy cow my body was tired. I tried to relax and lay down on my bed, but my legs kept locking and it was really painful. Luckily, I popped some tylenol and then it was off to dinner.

We went to Outback Steakhouse with Nana and Papa and had our first real meal of the day. I'd say it was well earned! I got french onion soup, a baked potato, and a little steak. Everything tasted so good! But it wasn't long before the men had to go to Priesthood session of General Conference, so it was just me and Nana.We attempted to shop, but there weren't that many outlets and I didn't really want to walk. I'm pretty sure I looked like a 90 year old woman waddling my way around the stores. We decided it would be best to get some ice cream and go back to the hotel.

Sunday was the drive back to Provo. I said goodbye to Nana and Papa the night before, but I'll see them at Christmas! It was fun to catch up with them and have them cheering for me along the course. Erik, Daddy, Aubrey and I were all pretty tired for the drive home. The weekend in St. George wiped us out! But it was worth it.

Me and Daddy at the finish line!

After 4 months of training, countless hours of running, 4000 calories burned on race day, and 26.2 miles of pure exhaustion, I did it. I ran my first marathon with some of my favorite people. And I can't wait to do it again! Well...maybe I can wait for a little while...