St. George Marathon!!!

Last Saturday I ran the St. George marathon!!!  It was my first marathon.  And I loved it!

The day before we left for St. George, when I came home from work I was greeted by some inspirational sidewalk chalk, courtesy of the Halls and my family.  That was an unexpected surprise!

The next day we drove to St. George.  We drove up to the start line so I could check out the course.  I remember thinking: "wow, this is a long ways away!"  And I would be running that whole thing the next day!  Here we are at the start line.



That night I barely slept.  Rachel dropped me off at the bus loading and I made it on the very first bus to the start line which left at 4:00am.  I sat next to a 72 year old runner who was running his 5th marathon this year!  He had interesting stories to tell.  I was up at the start line a little after 4:30am.  It was cold (in the 40's) and windy.  They handed out Mylar blankets and I huddled in one behind a firetruck that served as a wind block.

About 6:00am I met up with Jack C.  He used to live in Ridgecrest years ago, and he is now into running ultras.  So we spent some time catching up as we awaited the start of the race.

At 6:45am, the marathon began.  Because of the thousands of people, it took about 2-3 minutes for us to even cross the start line.  We were unofficially divided up by our expected race times.  In the beginning it was hard to even move.  Too many people and trying to dodge out of the way and not run over anyone.  It took several miles before I no longer had to worry about running into someone as the crowd thinned out.

As planned, I held back the first several miles.  Eventually Jack left me behind as he was trying to qualify for Boston and needed to run a faster pace than I was planning on.

There was lots of chatter among runners.  I also found that I often ran with the same group of runners.  I also admired how many girls were out there that were much faster than I.  There was one lady who ran in front of me for a good 12 miles of the race at least.  Every time I passed her she insisted on passing me back.  So I consented to let her run in front.  She held a good pace that I was doing, so it was kind of strange to actually run with a silent "buddy" that encouraged me to run a fairly constant pace for much of the race.

Passing the time during a race is much different than during training.  I was often distracted by strange running strides.  There was one girl who literally ran on her toes like a sprinter.  I wasn't sure how she was going to run all 26.2 miles that way, but she had already done it for a third of the way.  Another guy ran like a duck, with his feet pointed outward at a 45 degree angle and not straight forward.  I couldn't stand to see that so I had to pass him.  There was this other young guy who was totally social and messing around. He seemed to know everyone.  At one point he ran backwards at a good 7:30 min/mile pace for a good minute, just so he could "see his friend".

In the first 9 miles is a large hill, called Veyo hill.  At first it looks pretty intimidating, until I reminded myself that I ran bigger hills in my training outside of Ridgecrest.  On this hill I found I was passing a lot of runners.  Hill training does pay off!

There were aid stations basically every two miles, until near the end when there was an aid station every mile.  I took water at every aid station. I carried 3 PowerBar "gels" that I consumed about every 35-40 minutes upon approaching an aid station so I could down it with water.  After I ran out of the "gels" I started sucking on PowerBar EnergyBlasts - or gummy blocks.  This was my plan to get electrolytes and some fast energy, and I stuck to it.

The scenery was very beautiful.  Mountains, red and white canyon walls were all around to be seen until the last few miles of the race that concludes in the town.

A little after halfway, somewhere after mile 14, I was still feeling really good.  And I decided to forget holding back and to start picking up the pace.  So the last half of the race I tried to maintain a 7:45 min/mile pace or faster, while in the first half I tried to stay between a 7:45-8:00 min/mil pace.  I started passing people all the time.  I kept telling myself that this was easy, so I believed it was.

Starting around mile 18 or so, I started to notice runners who were "hitting the wall".  Many were running very slow, walking, stopping, and even throwing up.  It seemed odd, as I felt awesome.  I knew that they had all maintained a faster pace than me up until this point.  But now I had the advantage so I ran even faster.

Also around this time, I noticed I was chafing.  I had used glide previously, but it apparently wasn't holding up.  Fortunately all the aid stations have Vaseline, so I partook to relieve the chafing.  No sense in running in that kind of pain if I don't have to.

As I entered the city of St. George, I saw Becky T., who took my picture here:



It was awesome to see so many people cheering along the side of the road, even from the race start.  Little kids were giving me "high-5's" which I gratefully returned.  Lots of funny signs everywhere to encourage runners along.

I won't lie, the last few miles were long.  I kept thinking I should have run another mile by now, but I'd only gone another tenth of a mile.  My pace was fast, but time was slow.  My feet were also getting tired of the pounding on the asphalt.

The last few miles I continued to pick up the pace.  Eventually I hit the last straightaway to the finish line.  I saw the kids holding up signs and cheering me onto the finish!  What a great inspiration they were!  I was full of gratitude to see them.



Here I am waving at the kids.  I ran over to the side to see them better before the final hundred yards.



Almost there!



And I finally crossed the finish line!  My time was 3:24:41.  I thought, "wow, that was a lot easier and much more fun than I thought it would be".  An old man (who I later found out was the famous BYU football coach LaVell Edwards) put a medal around my neck.

I walked through some misters and arrived at a table of chocolate milk.  I downed a pint in one gulp.  I had a moment of dizziness, realizing that my body was already starting to shift from running mode to recovery mode - and I had a thought that maybe this was harder that I had convinced myself.  That quickly passed and I did a few stretches and got some more chocolate milk, water, and a very yummy ice cream sandwich!



I went over to see my family on the other side of the fence.  This was the best tasting ice cream sandwich ever!



Here I pose with my support crew!  They were the best!



We found my stats posted.  704th place!  Not bad for a first timer out of 7100 registered runners!



I sure feel blessed to be in such health to be able to run a marathon.  I'm also greatly blessed with a great family who supports my running addiction:)  I think Rachel is concerned I might want to run another marathon.  She has every right to be concerned!



It is hard to explain why a marathon is so rewarding.  Maybe it has to do with all the preparation coming to fruition.  It could be that I am simply capable of running 26.2 miles, and run it at a fairly quick non-stop clip without running out of energy or breath.  It is kind of like climbing a mountain; it is very hard, but the satisfaction comes from completing a hard task and enjoying the view at the end.