26.2

As you may have read, the night before the Marathon I was feeling very anxious. I was nervous about my knee injury that had happened the week before, and just wondering if I could really do this. My body, my mind, could I do this?

Running the Marathon with me was my older brother Ben, my Dad, my brother-in-law Justin, my little sister Sarah and her husband Sam. Justin flew in from Canada and had a couple of friends with him running it as well. As luck would have it, there were a few family friends from San Diego from the ward I grew up in that were running it too. It made for a fun group :)

The night before the Marathon we had a big dinner full of lots of spaghetti, bread, cookies... pretty much all the carbohydrates that I could fit in my body! I felt like I hadn't drank enough water so without even thinking before I went to bed I drank about 6 glasses of water. Bad. Idea.

I couldn't fall asleep because I had to pee about every 15 minutes, giving me a total of three hours of sleep before my alarm went off at 3:00 a.m. to get up and get ready for the Marathon. Having almost no sleep didn't seem to slow me down because I was just so anxious. I got up, stretched, got dressed, ate my bagel and headed out to meet my family at the buses that would be taking us up to the starting line.

Breaking in our gloves for tomorrow morning!

The start of the race was my favorite part of the whole experience, yes even better then the finish line. They had about 20 fire pits going, tons of food, music blasting and everyone is so excited. You could feel the adrenaline. My brother-in-law Justin is always super outgoing and his excitement made it even better. After we had taken off our sweats and went to the bathroom as many times as we could manage, the race started!

 

My Dad and I had done a lot of our practice runs together and found that we were usually the same pace, so we figured we would start the Marathon together, but no one was going to wait for anyone else if the other fell behind, we all wanted to get the best time we could.

It became a blessing that my Dad and I stuck together the whole race! We both agreed that having each other there helped us each do our best. When I was feeling weak he was feeling strong, and when I was strong, he was feeling weak. It was a great balance to have during the race and kind of made the experience even that much sweeter. I felt like I had come full circle since we had trained so much together and were able to run the whole Marathon together.

We were doing great, and didn't have to stop (minus walking right on through the aid stations for water etc.) at any part of the race until after mile 21. Then the notorious wall everyone talks about hit. Mile 22-26 were the hardest thing I have ever done in my life! I have heard several people talk about how they get really emotional at the end of the race and are crying when they cross the finish line. I didn't cry when I crossed the finish line, but I did get emotional at mile 24. For me mile 24 was it. I was done. I was tired, and I used every ounce of what I had left in me and I got a little teary as I told my Dad I couldn't do anymore. I had to just stop and tell myself to get it together.

Although it was excruciating mentally to have to tell my body it was not done and to keep it up, I  was able to regroup it to the point where we finished the Marathon. I always knew I would finish, but those last couple miles sure do play tricks on you. I was just so dang happy to be finished, and so was my Dad. The end was hard for us, but we both crossed the finish line holding hands with smiles on our faces as they announced our names.

WHAT AN EXPERIENCE! What a mind trip, and talk about pushing your body further then you ever thought it could go!

Not only was my entire family there but so was Trevor's family. Such a great feeling to be surrounded by friends and family :) After the race I headed home to get a shower while I could still manage to somewhat walk - you think I am joking - ha. We ended the night off having a big joint family BBQ full of amazing food and gorgeous views of the red mountains to match. Such a great weekend :) I wish I had picture of the beautiful red rocks we got to see on our run, despite the pain, I did take moments to enjoy them :) 

 I was just a tad excited to see my family haha :)

 P.S. I still can't walk properly...