We ran it!!!
You know, two weeks ago!
The race was intense and difficult, but TOTALLY worth it...and since I came straight home and got a sinus infection days after getting home, I haven't really been up to writing about it. Thankfully, my aunt Lisa (and many others) wrote fantastic tributes on their Facebook pages with oodles of pictures, so I'm just going to share today what's on my phone.
The night before the marathon, at the expo, they had an awesome booth where you could write either who or what inspires you or what you're running for, and the four of us siblings who were there (NaElle had a longer trip down from Utah and hadn't arrived yet) took our picture, along with my husband who surprised me with what he wrote:
Later on, when Na got down to the Valley, we went back and took pictures with the cool backdrops with our names on them:
And then got back to Aunt Lisa's in time to watch everyone who wasn't running play Just Dance:
And write posters for us. Thanks to Leah, Jayze, and Sarah for coordinating the crowd of children while the rest of us ran!
Race day--we all got up by 4:00 (although to be honest, I wasn't really sleeping well and was actually pretty relieved when my alarm went off) and got ready. The nerves were pretty intense by this point!!
On the bus ride over, we decided we had to take a picture with our "awesome" water bottle (it's not an average bottle, but an awesome one), and because the flash on my phone was intensely bright (blindingly so), these are the pictures we ended up with:
...cute, eh?
....and guess what?
Those are all the pictures I have. Because I was running for the next 6 hours and 50 minutes (which is how long it took us to finish).
We stayed on pace to finish with the rest of the racers (the marathon can only keep the roads closed for 6 hours) until the half marathon mark, after which we fell behind a bit and had to move to the sidewalks. There were some TOUGH moments there, including the fact that we had to run up and down driveways (hard on your knees), got lost at one point and had to ask a local policeman for directions, and because it was trash day, we had to run around everyone's trash cans which were sitting on the sidewalk, ready to be picked up.
Getting towards the end, we were running down Alma School Road when I heard shouting--I looked up, and Jack and Clark were on the side of the road with my cousins and uncle, cheering for all their worth. That was just the pick-me-up we needed to make it to the next intersection where Jayze (and his baby Kimball) were waiting to jog with us the rest of the way to the finish line, where dozens of family members were waiting for us! NaElle and my dad jumped the barrier (nice thing about finishing nearly an hour after the race is over, people are a lot more lax about the rules) and ran across with us.
It was an intensely emotional experience to watch my mom accomplish such a difficult achievement, and to accomplish it with her. I can honestly say that I have never done something as physically difficult in my life before (including my first marathon), but it was incredibly rewarding.
And I'm glad it's over!
In other news, McKay, NaElle, Steve, and my dad did incredible on their Half marathon (each of them got fantastic times and came across looking amazing, judging by the pictures and videos I've seen on Facebook), and Abe and Levi ran the entire race together and finished in a fantastic time. We got a shot of the entire family who had run together at the end of the race, and that one I am willing to post here, because it makes me just so happy:
Comments