26.2 miles!

St. George Marathon 2010! 26.2 miles! Yes, a long...long...way! After 4 years, I came back to do it again! Crazy, eh probably so, but when your whole family runs, it doesn't make you feel that way. It's actually the opposite, if you don't run, then you feel left out! This year I was going to be running with two of my best friends, actually 5 of my best friends! My family (consisting of my dad, brother Neal, and sister Emily) and my best friends Chantel Wilkinson and Amanda McCollough! Amanda and I did most of our training together but as the months wore on, it began to be harder to run our long distances together. Chantel trained mainly on her own around her home in Hillsboro, Oregon. Way to go girl! Chantel and I came to the park the day before the race to get a "visual" of what to expect while running into the finish!

I placed first! I took advantage of standing on the platform since I doubt I'll ever get the chance! I feel lucky enough to be one of the finishers! This year out of 7400 runners who started the race, only 5702 finished! Wow!

Blue Bunny ice cream is the best supporter of the marathon! We loaded up on their ice cream treats after the race!

Chantel and I found this shirt at the expo! It holds true for everyone! The alarm clock went off at 4am, I didn't sleep that well! It took me for what felt like an hour to even fall asleep! Amanda, Emily, and I quickly got changed, put on our sweats, and hurried down to breakfast to get some quick carbs in before boarding the hotel shuttle to the buses. It was nice this year to enjoy what I was doing, because my first year, I felt like a deer caught in the headlights. I enjoyed watching people hurry to board the buses, chow down a banana or a granola bar! Once we boarded the buses, the thought process of "is this bus ever going to stop" kept our minds busy! The bus finally stopped 26.2 miles up the canyon! Dad found the generator to layout his sleeping pads by and we all laid down to rest. The stretch of porta potties went on forever. It's honestly a site to behold! Amanda and I stood in line early, since you wait for 20-30 minutes and some people were getting so desperate to go before the race started, they took off for the trees!

At 6:45am the gun went off, yet it felt like we didn't start going until close to 7am, it did take about 6 minutes for us to cross the start line. We all started out by the 4 hour 15 minute pacer and so I think I started out a little too fast for myself. Emily and Neal left us around mile 3. Amanda kept with us til mile 5 and then took off, I told her if she felt good to just go! It was then Chantel, Dad, and I! I felt great until after walking/running up Veyo Hill (mile 7). Around mile 10 or so, my left knee began to give me trouble, which never did while training. It is the knee I wear my brace on but only cause I know I should. I was so annoyed, so dad had me stop and walk a bit and then run again. By mile 13 I felt much better, yet I then could feel blisters under both soles fo my feet. I could feel it squish. Chantel also had left knee problems and blisters, so we joked about how "they were our squishies, and we would call them our squishy"! If you haven't seen Finding Nemo... just watch it! So from then on I endured the pain of my blisters and kept ticking off miles! Pretty soon we were at 20, wow, only 6 more to go! It was about this time, the nice breeze in the canyon was replaced with scorching heat! I was determined to beat the 5 hour time, which I didn't, but it's a goal for another year! Well we'll see, after this year I'm thinking half marathons are really nice! I caught up to the 5 hour pace lady about 1.5 miles left, and passed her, yet she then passed me again and was gone. Ahh, I was bummed but quickly got over it! I was glad to be able to finish! Dad caught up to me after stopping at an aid station and as we turned the last corner and saw the balloons, there was nothing stopping me! I was off!

 

I sprinted in! Even with my blisters on both soles killing me, I passed the girl in the pink and then felt determined to pass the next guy. At the finish, I even pushed myself to pass the guy at the far right of the picture.

I got this in the bag! I was so focused that I didn't even see or hear my mom who was taking these pictures of me and obviously cheering for me! I finished at 5:04:33! Overall I placed 4514 out of a finishing 5702 runners. I placed 1822 out of 2461 females and 198 of 280 females in the 25-29 age division.

Dad and I are so excited to be done! He was so great, he stuck with me when my knee started giving me problems. I think overall we stuck with each other. I appreciate you dad and love you so much for being there for me! When my mom took this picture, I had just seen a woman holding a carton of chocolate milk! If you don't know my family, well, we're addicted to chocolate milk! Admit us! Yet, when we found the station, it was all gone! Depressed...yes! After the men's priesthood session, Dad even went out to buy some and at 2 grocery stores, they were all sold out! Lame! Yet I did buy some Monday morning for Chantel and I and boy did it taste heavenly!

Norah saying "Wow mom, you did it!"

Me, Amanda, Chantel and Norah! My girls! Way to go...we did it!

Our second greatest accomplishment together, next to graduating from BYU's Nursing program!

Neal and I celebrating being done. But what you can't see is that I'm leaning on him to help hold myself up! After finishing, my left knee really swelled up and my muscles all cramped up! I was miserable Saturday! I was burnt so I felt like I had a fever. I laid in my hotel bed with ice/hot patches on both knees, my left knee propped up on pillows, and ice bags prepared to ice my knees! Dad invited me to go to his 10 year dinner with him, but I wasn't feeling up to it! Neal went instead and Mom drove to buy Cafe Rio for the rest of us for dinner. I slowly hobbled over to the table, ate, hobbled back to the bed, got under the covers and feel asleep! I watched Gladiator at times and just rested! It felt so good to not be on my feet! Sunday morning was better, I still was walking very slow and getting up and down was painful. Monday morning was better. Sitting on a toilet was beginning to get easier. Ya, you'd never think something as easy as that could be so painful, but the squat position is the worst for the legs. And Tuesday morning, well I felt close to myself. I will take a week off and then see how my knee is doing. I've been taking Ibuprofen around the clock, which has seemed to help the inflammation around my knees. And you wonder why we do this to ourselves. We even paid money to do this, and yet we do it! No pain...no gain!

We all finished! Dad loved how we all color coordinated! I know Dad wore his Boston Celtics shirt just for Bryce (aka Elder Anderson)!

All the finishers of the 2010 St. George Marathon!