Running the Marathon--all 26.2 miles!

My cute family after running the marathon--what great supporters!
(And thanks Jay for strutting into my cute family picture.)Disclaimer: This is a REALLY, REALLY long post. It's actually more like a short story. It starts with me getting started to the end of training and running the marathon. You can skip around as much as you want--it was more just for me to sit down and write my experience while I remember it.
The Very Beginning:
I started running in college--loved it! Ran about 4 miles 4 times per week--never felt better and got more done in all of my life--the perfect anti-depressant really!

The Beginning--to the marathon--my first Half-Marathon--Provo Canyon:

Well, it all started last year--with my little sister Emily really. I wanted to get back into running--I had run in college, but through my pregnancies and what not I had run on and off, but never gotten fully back into it. I hurt my back badly (2 herniated discs and a bulging one) and found that exercise was the best thing for it--as long as I was exercising, my back did alright--when I stopped, my back got in trouble. Back to Emily--she started running. She signed up to run a marathon!!! The crazy woman just up and signed up for a marathon! She started training for it--she trained very well infact and fell in love with running. She did awesome at her marathon (even though she got quite sick the week before it and the doctor told her that she wouldn't have the strength to run it). Her marathon was very inspiring. It really made me want to run again--to really be able to run well. She convinced several of us siblings/in-laws to sign-up and train for a half marathon. We started the training. I wasn't convinced that I needed or even wanted to run a half marathon--running a few miles every couple days was good enough for me--so I thought. I actually didn't sign-up for the half marathon--though I was training for it along with several others. We were quite busy at the time--selling our home, moving, working on our yard, planting a garden, and so on as is everyone's lives--so I trained, but as minimally as I could. Training was a 19 week process--going from not really running much to running a half-marathon. I possibly would have not run the half-marathon if Emily hadn't actually called and told me that she had just signed me up, so I better continue training and run it. Now I was committed. On my final run before the half-marathon, my knee started killing me around mile 6 and I was supposed to run 10 miles! I ended up walking quite a bit at the end and I only did 8.5 miles. I was pretty worried that I wouldn't finish the half. Emily explained what the knee injury probably was and gave me pointers to help it (i-t band--stretching, ice, ibuprofen). So I ran the half marathon and it was really neat to accomplish. It was really hard at the end, but had some really fun parts as well. I really felt great for accomplishing such a feat--and to be doing it with siblings was really neat as well!

We all ran the Provo half together--August 2008

I did a half!! Now what?!
(writer's disclaimer--this gets personal--don't read if you don't want to)
I decided that I wanted to keep in good shape--I kept up the running. I started to think about running a marathon--no way, I would tell myself--that's crazy! I started to actually feel like I should run a marathon and that I would be grateful that I did! No way, I would tell myself--too much work and dedication and time that I don't have. Plus we would probably get pregnant soon--we had been trying for almost a year now, but with 3 other little ones, we weren't too concerned that we hadn't gotten pregnant.
Well, time went by and I finally decided I would train for a marathon with my brother, Jeremy. We both began training--two weeks into it I found out I was pregnant. A sigh of relief went through me--thinking, oh, now I don't have to run a marathon, phew--but I am in good shape and that is great so that I can keep running through my pregnancy.
Well, two months later we lost the baby--well, not sure what happened actually--it didn't form correctly and there wasn't much left of it when we did the ultra-sound. Just had 12 weeks of being the most morning sick I have ever been in my life for nothing--that's no fun for sure!

It is Time--do it already! Training Helps---
I began working out with my friend, Heather--we would run to a park, work out and run home--it was great! Another friend of mine told me that she had decided to run a marathon. She was going to run Top of Utah--in September. I was intrigued. My family and I ran a 1 miler together--really fun, I loved it and so did they. I was enjoying running and being in shape. I went to Jeremy's marathon in May--he did awesome! It was so inspiring once again! I knew I wanted to go for it for real this time and that I really wanted to do it! I was enjoying the workouts I was currently doing and I knew that I could do most of my training in the mornings and not take time away from my family. I moved forward with training. I reviewed several training schedules and planned out what I thought would be best for me--Tuesdays & Thursdays--2-3 mile runs and workouts with Heather. Wednesday--medium runs and Saturdays--long runs--working gradually from 6 miles to 21 miles over the course of 18 weeks. I was very worried about getting an injury in training--especially with my bad back. Both Emily and Jeremy had had injuries in training and I had heard all kinds of horror stories about how a marathon is so hard on your body and you should just never do that to yourself. But I honestly felt that it was time and that I needed to do this--I needed to run the marathon--I didn't know why, but I needed to do this--even if it was just for me. Jon was in full support and was willing to let me do whatever I felt I needed to do. I prayed that I would know how to train to help prevent injury and to be able to do well on the marathon. The more I ran, the more I studied tidbits and learned things here and there from other runners, the more I realized that my workouts with Heather were giving me perfect strength training to help me be stronger and do better on my long runs--and ultimately help prevent injury--answer to prayer!
Emily and Jeremy gave me lots of tips about running and distance--eating, stretching--and whatnot. Jay helped me out too (my little brother who is an exercise health nut--an awesome one though). After my long runs I would take ice-baths--yes it sounds crazy, but boy does it heal quickly! I would be sure to get lots of protein for quick healing--drank nasty glutamine powder before long runs. I got pretty sick during the middle of training and my doctor gave me an inhaler--I had asthma in high school and the beginning of college. This helped me greatly--the inhaler. I came to realize that it would really be helpful to have a gps watch to know if I was running far enough. Our finances are tight and I was trying to spend as little as possible on running this marathon. I looked on line and found a used one for a pretty good deal. I called the guy--he was close to Jon's work--Jon went to the bank, got the money and bought the watch. A week went by and the bank hadn't withdrawn the money from our account. Hmmm. . . I told Jon to go back and ask about it--we couldn't assume that it wasn't coming out and then bounce something. The bank had no record of it and said not to worry about it--it was their mistake! Definitely a tender mercy! I got my gps watch for free! It greatly helped--what I thought was a 10 mile run was actually a 9 mile run. I found myself watching my pace and pushing myself to go faster--and always getting in all the miles I planned on--knowing how far I had really gone was very helpful in training.

Training Runs:
When I got to my 14 miler run, Emily ran it with me because I was nervous to run that far on my own--had never run that far before. When I did my 16 miler, Jeremy ran that with me for the same reasons. At the end of both of those runs, I thought I wasn't going to make it--well, I knew I would, but it was so hard and several times I thought I was going to puke or loose something out my back end--you do feel quite sick at times on long runs. I was learning how to gage how much and what to eat/drink during a long run. I had to do my 17 miler by myself. I was pretty worried about that. We were visiting Jon's parents and so I had to find a place to run. I decided to go on the Legacy Parkway trail. I was nervous that I didn't know where bathrooms or water was, but figured they would have some along the way over that long of a distance (though I went out 8.5 miles and turned around). I had my water belt filled with gatorade and a granola bar--so I had at least something--I would need water eventually and I figured I would find some. I had listened to this awesome soundtrack that had a great beat and was powerful--it was in my head helping me along the run. To my dismay, every stop just had a nice little sign--no restroom and no water. I started to get worried as I realized I may not get more drinkage, so I drank sparingly. It got really hard the last few miles and for strength I thought about my dear little family and sweet husband and gave thanks for them--it was actually a neat experience. Thoughts of the temple gave me strength as well. I made it--and I actually felt pretty good! I ran all 17 miles! Went home, took an ice-bath and drank--my favorite--a muscle milk--yum yum!
The hardest training run I did--
was my 19 miler--Emily, Jay and I all met at this awesome trail I had found while camping--that was at the mouth of American Fork Canyon. I wasn't sure how far it went or all the ins and outs. We ran the first 7 miles on a dirt trail--kind of cool. Then we followed a paved trail that took us close to the American Fork temple--we needed more miles, so we ran past the temple. It got quite late, we ran out of drinkage. We still had about 6 miles to go. We did come to a park where we were able to get more water--we greatly needed that! It started to rain quite hard and then turned to hail--that wasn't too fun. At mile 18 I felt like I was "hitting the wall". We had one last huge hill to go up and then we were almost there. Close to the top of the hill that was killing me I somehow got another wind and then finished out feeling great! It was a crazy, hard run! Lots of hills, not enough to eat and drink, and we were unfamiliar with the path. But it was neat to do together (not to mention that it was quite dark at the end and a guy pulled over to "offer us a ride" and the second he saw Jay he sped off--so it was a good thing Jay was there with his rippling muscles to scare off the creepy guy up to no good).

The scariest training run I did:
Emily and I were meeting up Provo Canyon--we were on a little different schedules and I was on a short-long-run week and she was on a long-long run week--I won't explain, but she was running about 15 miles and I was running about 10. She parked 5.5 miles up the canyon, ran down with Jay to where I parked and then Jay left and she and I continued back up to then come back down. Well, it got pretty late--and pretty dark. Though there were actually still quite a few people on the trail as we went up so we didn't think too much about it. When we turned around and were heading back we realized it was actually quite dark--darker than we realized. We also realized that we hadn't seen anyone else for a while--we were almost done though and were just passing Bridal Veil Falls--just a couple more miles to go. South of the falls the trail goes down or up--we stayed up on the top trail. We could see someone ahead and they didn't appear to be moving. Emily called out to them--hey, who are you? I waived my gps watch light at them to see if they flashed one back (many runners have one and do that to let you know they are coming). No response. As we started to get closer we realized it was not a person and it was quite large. It was also not looking at us, but at a group of people down below standing around a fire-pit. At that moment we both looked at each other and said, I think that's a bear! Emily told me to just go down--off the upper trail and onto the lower trail. We ran down--cut through trees and dirt--slipped a bit--I was in front--Emily was not right behind me for a second and I was so scared to turn and look--but I did and she was there, had just slipped--we ran for our lives! We ran under the bridge to Nunn's park--the darkness freaked us out and we screamed as we ran under. We were too scared to look back but as we came to the campground I got worried about the people around the campfire that the bear was watching. We weren't going back, but we did find the campground host and told her. She called police and we had to make an official report. We were so freaked out-2 more miles to go to my car. We continued running on the trail, but it was so dark that we kept getting freaked out of something jumping out at us or any shadows we saw made it unbearable. We decided to run on the highway-yes really dumb--but too scared to take the trail. The highway was quite dangerous really--there is not much of an edge there and lots of cars honked at us--thinking what crazy girls running on the highway--and they were right, but they didn't know that we had just been scared to death by a bear. We finally made it safely to my car. We were just shaking all over and super freaked out! I drove Emily back up the canyon to her car. The people around the campfire and around that area were being sent home and cops had a big spotlight at the sight. We never did find out if they spotted anything, but a bear had been spotted around there a week earlier as well. It was quite the run--I bet we went so fast and I wish I had thought to look at my gps watch to see our pace when we ran away--I bet it was FAST!

My final and my favorite training run:
Jeremy, Jay, Emily and I all had signed up to run the marathon at this point--really neat to do it all together! We decided to meet for our final run. We met close to Utah Lake and ran up to Bridal Veil Falls and back--21 miles total. We met at 5:30am--it was dark, but I hate running in the heat, so early is better for me when I am going to be running for several hours. We all ate our power bars, filled our water-belts with gatorade--Jay had planted some gatorade on the trail as well--and off we went. What I really enjoyed about the run was talking with each other. I have come to learn that you really get close to those you run with. I think that's because you have a lot of time to really talk and because you are working hard at something together so you bond in that way as well. Jay and Jeremy were funny--competing the whole time, but trying not to show it. These two girls passed us at a certain point on the trail and that just upset Jay. For the next several miles his goal was to find those girls and pass them. We did finally meet up with them, talked with them for a while and passed them--but they were training for a marathon as well and one of them was in really good shape--they were good runners. They actually passed Emily and I as Jay and Jeremy kept ahead and got a ways ahead of us--we didn't really care though, it was just the last 5 miles or so of the run anyway. At about mile 19 it got pretty hard--I hold out well until I get close to the end--I try to trick my mind into thinking I have an extra mile more than I really do so that I hold out better--it works sometimes to a point. But I got another wind and really it was a great run! I could have kept going and actually I did for about .25 of a mile. We all stretched out and went home. Jay and Jeremy got talking about how they hope we won't mind if they don't stay with Emily and I at the Marathon--it was kind of funny and we told them that when it comes to the actual race--each to his own to do his best. We probably would all be at different paces on the actual marathon. I actually felt really good for the rest of the day--those ice-baths really help is all that I can say about that!

The Marathon:
The night before was quite the night. Emily, Ben, Sophie (Emily's 6 month old baby), Jay, Jon and I all shared a hotel room. Jeremy and his family stayed with his sister-in-law. It was quite the room--oh did I say hotel--I meant totally motel! Jay got the couch-bed--which seemed to be broken in the middle and every time he moved in the slightest it would squeak very loud. The wonderful air conditioning unit would go on every 20 minutes and would rumble and clank as it came on, waking up the baby who wouldn't really cry, but would get disturbed and fuss for a bit. After an hour of squeaking, rumbling, clanking, fussing, etc. Jon and I just started laughing--it really was funny and we weren't going to get much, if any, sleep--especially since we had to get up at 4:00am to be at the buses at 4:30am. Well, Emily got up extra early with Sophie and then pumped her a bottle. We all just got up and got ready. Jon drove us to the bus stop and amazingly, Jeremy walked onto the same bus as us within a minute of us getting on it!! I think that was a tender mercy--amongst the 3000 other people that were getting on buses, that's really quite amazing! We were all together and on our way through the city and up the canyon that we would be running down and through in just a few hours. It was freezing cold and there was a firepit to stand around. It was fun to visit with the other runners as we all waited. I got pretty nervous as we got closer to start time. And then, it was time. We all started out together and stayed together for a few miles--then Jeremy and Jay went ahead. I had to use the bathroom--darn it--bad for time! Emily waited, then she had to use the bathroom a few miles after that--I waited for her. I stupidly ate a goo--I never did that in training and I shouldn't have done that on the race if I hadn't done it before. It made me quite sick to my stomach and then I had to use the bathroom again--the other kind. I told Emily not to wait or we would waste a lot of time waiting for each other and we all had goals for our time. My goal was to do a good job--not really sure exactly what that was, but to keep under 9 minute miles throughout most of the marathon. The bathroom was a waste--had to wait in line for a few minutes and then I really didn't go very much and still felt sick. Emily had given me an ipod shuffle to use if I felt I needed it--I had never had music while running (except while on the treadmill--and I enjoyed that--seemed to help with speed), but was excited to try it out if I felt I needed it. Well, after coming out of the bathroom, I decided I would put on the shuffle and just book it--it was downhill at this point and I knew I was trained well enough to go pretty fast downhill and not kill myself later in the run. I went for it. I believe the music helped me go fast--I felt like I was flying and felt "flow"--where you just feel like you're not making any effort and you're just flying along. It felt AWESOME! It lasted from about mile 9 to mile 16. At mile 14 I thought I would see Jon--he and Ben were supposed to be there waiting and cheering us on. This is a point I regret in the marathon. I didn't stop listening to the music, I just looked around and was trying to keep a good form and run well--look impressive to Jon. I thought I would see him. But no, I didn't and I was really bumbed--I had really wanted him to cheer me on and to gain strength from that. The sad thing is--he was there--he was calling out to me--I just didn't hear him because I had music on--and he is filming me--I ran right passed him!! I was looking for a red shirt because that is what he was going to be wearing, but because it was cold, he had on a gray sweatshirt over his read shirt. Anyway--that and eating the goo rather than my powerbar, as I had done in training runs are my regrets from the marathon--oh and using the bathroom--won't wait in lines again--it will be roadside service for me. Next time (yes there will be a next time), I will stick to what I did on my best runs. And Jeremy informed me after the race of what he does--I like his theory and I will follow it on my next really long run to see how it works for me. He takes a bite of powerbar just before each aid station and then gets a drink at the aid station. This way he just stays pretty constant throughout his run. I like the powerbars better than the goos because it has more substance than sugar--so next time, like I said, I will be smarter and even if I don't feel like chewing (which is why I didn't eat the powerbar and ate the goo instead), I will chew, and when I expect to see people, I will not have my music on and then I can actually hear them calling out to me--could be quite the church lesson couldn't it?--anyway, back to the race--I remember running next to cars that were going very slow in the backed up traffic. Knowing people were watching helped keep me going and striving to keep a good pace. I stayed under a 9 minute mile for most of the marathon--which I was quite pleased with. The last few miles were pretty hard and I kept finding my pace was around a 10 minute mile and then I would try to speed up, but I usually couldn't very much. As I came to the end I could see my cute little family waving at me--they had a big bunch of red balloons so that I could spot them. Sarah and Ty Webster got those (my niece and her husband)--and they, along with Jons brother Eric and his family and my parents and sister Rebecca all came to cheer us on. Jon and the kids and a niece joined me as I came to the end and ran along with me. As I got to the finish line I got a final burst and ran ahead into the finish. It was awesome! I had done it. I ran the whole time except during the aid stations as I would drink gatorade/water and at the 3 bathroom breaks (such a waste of time, but oh well). My final time was 4 hours and 16 minutes--my average pace was a 9.4 minute mile (but that includes the aid stations and bathroom breaks) and my fastest pace was a 5.45 minute mile. It was awesome and I was very excited to have done it! Emily came in just after 4 hours, Jeremy and Jay stayed together until the very end. Jeremy came in just ahead of Jay around 3 hours and 45 minutes. My dear sweet husband emailed many many people and got them to send me cheering on/congratulation emails that he had me read the night before! He also had a trophy made for me and framed a recognition of all my races that he put together! He also got me a sansa clip (like a shuffle)! He was so good to me through all my training and running and I just love him so much for all that he does for me to support and help me accomplish goals that I want to do! He is a wonderful father and took care of our kids while I was on long runs and whatnot. I am very blessed with the best husband on Earth! Thank you Jon--I couldn't have done it without you!
Here are some pictures from the race:
My family waiting for me--the red balloons so I would know where they were--awesome idea!!

My cute boys!

My cute girls!

Close to the end--family joining me to run to the end.

After coming through the finish line.

Jeremy, Jay, me, and Emily after the race.

Emily and me--what a cute picture!

Me and my sweet husband Jon--we are cute!

Thanks to:

First, thank you to Jon, my amazing husband! What an amazing and wonderful support through all the training and on marathon day! Thank you for your sweet and thoughtful gifts and surprises on Marathon day--you are always so thoughtful and kind to me! Thank you!

Second, thank you Emily for helping me run a marathon and being such an inspiration and such an awesome sister--such a good example of so many things! You are amazing!

Third, thanks to Heather who helped me with strength/core training and keeping me strong and encouraging me!

Thank you Jay and Jeremy for your support--for the runs we did together, your tips and fun personalities--it was really fun to get to know you better as adults!

Thanks to everyone who sent me encouragement and congratulations!

Wow, this really was more like writing a book! But, hey, now I can remember it all better!