Marathon Report

I figured since I'm too sore to leave my house I better take advantage of this lazy day and do a post marathon report while it's still fresh in my mind.

I can't believe it's over. I wrote last week about my pre-marathon anxiety disorder and now I think I'm suffering from post marathon depression disorder. There was so much anticipation and build up leading to the actual marathon and now that it's over I don't really know what to do with myself. I guess for now I'll just focus on recovering and then I'll probably do something crazy and sign up for another one.

Here's how it all went down:

We drove up to LV on Thursday night and spent the night there. We took our time leaving LV on Friday. We just slept and tried to just take it easy. We drove to St. George Friday afternoon and went straight to the Marathon Expo. It turned out to be a lot of fun and very motivating. We walked around to the different booths and let the kids climb the rock wall. We ate an all-you-can eat pasta dinner that was just mediocre and then headed to our hotel to check in. We took the kids swimming and I sat in the hot tub. We met up with the Ashcrafts who were staying at the same hotel as we were. We visited with them while our kids had fun swimming together. I was really hoping to get to bed earlier but ended up staying up later than I planned.

My biggest fear was that my alarm wouldn't go off. I had set everything I needed out the night before and only needed about 30 minutes to get dressed and psyche myself out. Turns out my alarm went off but the volume was turned down. I didn't sleep good because I was too worried about not getting up in time. I woke up all of a sudden at 3:00am and realized that my alarm was going off but was silent. I had 15 minutes to get ready and catch my ride from the hotel to the early bus. I was in a bit of a panic and this set off a course of events that would make for a difficult start to the race.

I caught my ride (thanks Ashcrafts) and arrived at the early bus pick up around 3:40 or so. The advantage to taking the early buses is you get entered into a drawing to win various prizes which I was hopeful I would win, but didn't. My friend Cherise and her husband met up with me in line and we boarded the bus around 4am. It was the longest drive of my life. I was sure they were taking a scenic route because it took forever. It felt like I was in the Twilight Zone because it was dark and cold and we just kept driving and driving.

We arrived at the starting point around 4:40 and it was COLD. Probably around 37 degrees. I think it was over 5000 ft. elevation. I was wearing my short running shorts and was really wishing I would have invested in a pair of warm up pants. They were handing out gloves and hot chocolate which helped. Once they started the bon fires things got a little better. It wasn't long after we got there that I realized I had lost my chip that goes on my shoe to record my time. Luckily that had replacement ones and after a little trouble I got a new one.

We waited by the bonfires for what felt like forever and talked with some hard core runners and got some really good tips that ended up really helping me. At 6:30 people started lining up at the start line according to their estimated finishing times and pretty soon the gun went off. Cherise, Chrissy and I just took our time starting because the line was massive and was moving super slow. We lined up somewhere between the 4:00 mark and the 5:00 mark. They had "Pacers" who carried balloons with their finishing time so you could run with them and know that you would finish in their designated time. The three of us had already decided that we would be super happy to just finish under 5:30. We thought that would be a realistic goal being that this was our first marathon.

We crossed the start line and within 5 minutes were warmed up pretty good. I can't put in words the feeling I had as we ran along with that huge group of runners. It was almost an out of body experience. I was shocked to see such a wide variety of people in all different shapes and sizes. It was so inspiring.

The first 6 miles or so were a breeze for me. I felt on top of the world and like nothing could stop me. I was having trouble with my lungs the few days leading up to the race but that day they were perfect. I wasn't winded, tired or sore. I felt like I could go forever...until I saw THE hill. We saw it up ahead and we all looked at each other and said, "You've got to be kidding me!" It was huge! Once we hit that hill is when I started to struggle a little. We made it up and over the hill and when we made it to the bottom things got better...for a while.

We trudged along mile after mile, stopping at the watering stations that were every 2 miles. Things were going much better than expected and I was hopeful by mile 13 that I had this in the bag. My half-marathon time was actually not too bad. I made it to the 13 miles much quicker than I had anticipated and was feeling like if I could just keep up the pace I would surpass my goal by quite a bit.

There weren't very many places along the way where spectators could watch and cheer. I was not expecting to see my family until close to the finish line but to my surprise at mile 17, I saw Rob and the kids up ahead holding signs and cheering! I couldn't believe it! It was the most beautiful sight ever! I waved, stopped for quick hugs and a kiss from my man and kept going. That rejuvenated me and kept me going when I really was starting to doubt myself.

At around mile 18 I began experience crazy pain. I could feel that my toenail had fallen off and was digging into my skin. I knew that blood was involved because I could see it through the top of my shoe. My whole body began to ache and I was seriously doubting myself at this point. I stopped for a second and stretched, took some ibuprofen and drank some water. By this point I was with the 5:30 pacer which was completely fine with me. Ar around mile 22 is when things started to get really exciting. The crowds started coming out and were so motivating and awesome. At mile 23 I spotted Rob and the kids from a distance. I will never get that image our of my head of my kids and husband cheering me on.

This is a picture of me at mile 23 giving a quick sign to my family. Being able to see them there holding up their signs kept me going. I will treasure that moment for the rest of my life.

Here's another shot of me at mile 23. Can you see the pain in my eyes. SERIOUS pain.

The kids had so much fun making signs for me. They were so proud of me and couldn't stop smiling.

Even Rachel joined in on the fun.

It was around mile 24 when we started into the town of St. George where the people were lining the streets. Of course, a lot of them were long gone since their runners probably finished hours before me. I started sobbing at mile 24 when people were cheering for me and I was literally hobbling in pain. I have never experience the pain that I did that day---even through child birth. No epidural here, people. I looked over at this man on the sidelines cheering for me and he mouthed, "You can do it! You only have 2 miles to go! Keep going..."

As I turned the corner headed towards the finish line that was about half a mile away, I spotted my dad. He had called me a few times along the way to see where I was. He was so excited and proud of me. I am crying just thinking about how awesome my dad was throughout this process.
As I approached my dad, he ran towards me and grabbed me and started running with me.

He jogged along side me until I reached the rest of my family that was just around the corner.

I couldn't believe all these awesome people would come out to root for me. Some of them drove for hours and hours to get there. I had cousins there that I hadn't seen in years that drove a long ways just to support me. They waited for hours for me because they love me and wanted to support me. I'm just in awe. My in-laws even made and sent posters with my cousin since they couldn't be there.

One of the highlights of the whole experience was when my sister Amanda caught up to me after I passed them and asked if she could run the rest of the way with me. That was really neat. She was probably disappointed when she realized that I was completely out of gas! She stuck with me until just before the finish line, then she ducked out and let me have my moment. There at the finish line waiting for me was my friend Jen, Cherise, Chrissy and all the other Marana marathoners. I grabbed Jen and just bawled and then found Cherise and Chrissy and gave them huge hugs. I was probably crying more in pain than anything else, but to see them all there waiting for me is something I will never forget. We all receieved our finishers medal and headed to find our families and friends that were waiting for us.

My grandparents even came! I don't get to see them nearly enough and to have them there meant so much to me.

My mom was in Germany but I got to talk to her on the phone after I finished. I dedicated the race to her and I was so happy I got to talk to her and tell her about it.

Now it's done. I didn't set any records. I'm pretty sure that I was one of the slowest runners out there, but I did it. I set a goal, I worked hard to accomplish it and I completed it. I wasn't going there to compete. I wasn't going there to finish it in a certain time, I went there to just finish it. I refuse to beat myself up over my not-so-good finishing time because this was my first marathon. I only started running seriously for the first time in my life 10 months ago. For me, this is satisfying. For me, this is what I set out to do and I'm happy with that.

I decided that the best way to get over my post-marathon blues is to register for a half-marathon in Februrary and consider doing another full (I know I said I never would again) in the late Spring. So, that's what I'm going to do. Anybody wanna join me?