Stg Marathon 2011 Revisited

proceed with caution: I have never been so wordy in my lifetime

Our cute little family after the race. Look at my skinny hubby, he has lost 27 pounds riding his road bike the last few months!

 My running buddy Abby. We were GLAD to be done, and so excited that the blessed Mary Lu brought us chocolate milk and donuts, never been happier!

My fans aren't they cute!!

Gus had enough of my sweaty kisses to last him a lifetime, he loved my popsicle I got though!

I made Gus this shirt. It had 26.2 miles on it, I did it last minute so def not the cutest thing. I cut the numbers out of felt then instead of sewing it on I used hot glue:) I was pretty lazy the day before the race, can you say ghetto!

Never been happier in my life! I was so excited to see baby Gus at the finish line. I couldn't just keep running  past him, we had to stop for a couple of minutes so I could squeeze him. Poor Abby had to wait, love that little boy of mine!

This is the starting line of the marathon in Central. Crazy amount of runners packed into a tiny little area! 

The sunrise that greeted us on Saturday was beautiful. This is probably at mile 4 or so just before entering Veyo. It was such a pretty morning early on, then the heat set in and it was ugly.

My favorite view of the race, but not my favorite part of the race. Snow Canyon mile 16 or so

4:10 am my alarm goes off. I got a pretty good nights sleep, I went to bed around ten thirty or so and luckily Gus didn't wake up once. Once I was ready I decided to walk to the corner since Abby was picking me up and I didn't want her to have to drive down our road (they are doing construction). So at 4:43 I get to the corner and start eating my usual before run breakfast of a piece of bread and peanut butter, but no Abby. So I wait a little longer and send her a text that says are you awake. A few minutes later with no reply back from her I decided to give her a call. "Bub you awake?" she replies "crap, No!" So I go back inside ask Kyle where is truck keys are and hall butt over to abbys. They have school bus' that drive you to the start line and the last bus leaves at 5:30, so I was a little worried we weren't going to make it. I drive her truck to Stg while she gets ready, and we end up parking in a handicap stop to save time. We hop out and look towards the bus' and guess what the line was at least 3 blocks long. Yikes! Usually there is no wait at all, so we waited for a bus for 30 minutes, the last time I looked at the clock it was 5:50 and we easy had a 30 minute bus ride ahead of us. I just kept thinking to myself they wont start without 3 bus loads full of people, they just can't! 

The start line. We get to the start line, and I remember hearing someone say 6 minutes till start time. Good thing we don't have any pre race stretches or routines because we would be sol! Our first stop is to drop our bag off with our unnecessary blankets and sweaters. It was the warmest temp. in race history in Central, bad sign! Our next stop was to the potty, we tried to cross the road where the potty's are.  With all of the runners packed like sardines and only a few minutes we decided it was a no go and to do what seemed like everyone else was doing and find the biggest tree you could. We ended up going to the bathroom right next to each other with at least 5-7 runners around us doing the same thing. I was laughing so hard the whole entire time. 

The race. The marathon started and we were a few minutes ahead of the 4:30 pacer. We were both feeling so good, our plan was to skip the first aid station at 3 miles and hit the next one at five miles which we did. Then our plan of action was to keep doing every other one until it was necessary to hit everyone. The stretch from mile 3 just out of central to 7 in Veyo is great! I think every person in both towns are out on the roads cheering you on, it is very motivating to see all of the people. Then you hit the dreaded mile long Veyo hill, we decide to run about half way then walk the rest of the way up it. Once on top of the hill we start running again. We run until the next aid station which is at mile 9. The next 4 miles are the worst in my opinion, from mile 9 to 12 there is a steady incline and it really bites the big one! We see our friend Jill at this point we stop running to say hi and walk with her for a minute she was having foot problems, then we were off again. We finally get half way and our time is 2:06. I was very proud of us, the first half is definitely the hardest part (well, the part with the most uphill) and we made it. We both were feeling it by this point, so we decided to walk a little longer at this aid station, and that we would hit every station the rest of the race. The second half of the race is my least favorite. I remember someone telling me that if your second half isn't faster then your first half in the Stg Marathon then you are doing something very wrong because it is all basically down hill. Well, every year except 2007 I seem to do something very wrong. We run from mile 13 to 16 then walk about a half mile then run to the ledges which is probably mile 18. The ledges have a pretty intense uphill also, which isn't the most inviting thing during a marathon. By this point it is hot, I mean HOT hot! I saw some people taking ice cold waters to the "poor" cops on the side of the road on their motorcycles. I wanted to grab it out of the lady's hand, but then I decided that wouldn't be very lady like. I start to get mean at this point in the race. So we walk up the hill at the ledges then run until mile 21 the next aid station. Then we walk a little and run to mile 23 the next aid station. Then we walked a little and ran to the corner of bluff and diagonal which is prob mile 24. Now our goal is run 3 blocks walk one, which we did. At this point of the race you are hurting everywhere, and you just keep hearing everyone say "you are almost there, just around the corner" which is a total lie. Hopefully, they are forgiven for that sin, I just don't know if I will ever forgive them. Bless their hearts for being there in the hot sun though. Some nice kids had popsicles for the runners for FREE! You better believe we both grabbed one and ate it. I said free because some of the blasted folks were selling snow cones, and I seemed to have forgotten my money on this 26.2 mile run. You see I do get mean towards the end. Well, we ran our little hearts out the last few blocks until I saw my cute little Gus on the side of the road. So I squeezed on him for a minute and gave him lots of sweaty kisses then decided we better finish the last .02 miles of the race. I was so glad to be done, it was so so so hot and I got fried! We finished in 4:54, not my fastest but I was glad it was sub five at least. The second half of the race always kicks my trash, so I think next year I will do long runs on just the second half! Welp that was marathon number 8 for me, and hopefully I have a few more in me before I call it quits!