No words to express how I am feeling. I am getting in the ice bath and taking a nap. Will write more later :) xoxoxoxoxoxo Sherpa Maurine- I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER!!! Sherpa Mandy- You are the best friend and sister in the WHOLE world!!! Sherpa Kelli- Just in the nick of time to get me through the last 3 horrid miles :) xoxoxoxo Finish Line Cheer leaders Luz, Kim, & Smooth I love you to DEATH and your smiles made me cry even harder. David- the roses were PERFECT and having you there was AMAZING. You are the BEST husband in the whole world! More to come later. I need that Ice Bath!!! Burrrrr..... *** I am officially SO sore! I need to go to Walmart, but I am afraid of my porch steps :( Michelle- THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WAITING FOR US SLOW POKES!! You made my day to see you there. I knew you the instant I saw you :) Yes, even before you were waving the crutches :) XOXOXOXOXO
We started the Marathon festivities with a trip to the Brick Oven for dinner. Actually mine started with licorice for breakfast, then Dutch Babies for breakfast, THEN more licorice. THEN a trip to our favorite Chinese restaurant for lunch. My fortune cookie said, "Soon you will be very pleasantly surprised." How's that? Then MORE LICORICE! Then David and I went to the temple and then we met up with the gang for dinner at Brick Oven. Last evening the gang included, Josse, Erika, Luz, Smooth, Larry (President Smooth), Anna Lisa, Justin (Mr. Anna Lisa), David (Double D) and me. Dinner was GREAT! I had their fabulous homemade root beer. It was SO tasty. It was my first real root beer in about 3.5 years. No diet drinks tonight :) I got home and pretty much went straight to bed after laying all of my stuff out just as instructed my Sherpa Miles (formerly known as Tarzan, formerly known as Maurine). I was out by 9:30pm. I awoke at about 2:30?? I laid there between awake and asleep until about 3:30 when I figured I'd better get up, as I was going to fall all the way asleep and miss the bus. I got ready and headed over to the buses. I met up with Smooth, Luz and Maurine and headed onto the SLOWEST bus in all the WORLD! It was sad really. Anyway, we pottied and chatted with everyone and found Anna Lisa :D ( I work with Anna Lisa and sort of talked her into this bad boy. She was a virgin too) The weather could not have been more perfect. Seriously, God blessed us all with the most perfect day. Seriously, God blessed me with the best day, period. I know that a lot of you come to my blog because you find me a bit humorous, but in all seriousness, this run was a miracle for me and a blessing from my Father in Heaven that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Anyway... we started out and the goal was to let the hills take us down naturally with control as to not trash the quads for the FLAT :) I loved the hills on the way down. I warm up much better with up hills, as I run them every day. The road was great. I loved the course, except the last 5-6 miles. I am not sure how that could be changed and really was fine, but HOT, UGLY, HOT, and UGLY! .. and up hill, I think... Anyway, I will add more details later, cause I can't remember them. Mad about NO water at mile mile 21, just the sponges :( I was needing water and was actually starting to panic, it was weird, like I might die... anyway... I was scoping the houses for hoses and I spied a kid on a bike with a pack. I sent Sherpa Mandy (SIL) to see if he had any water in the pack. He did and I started to weep... really, I cried. That is when the sperts of crying started. OK- for Boston BUTT HEAD. We were passing a church, I think, and there was this guy who had already finished. He was sitting there on the lawn yelling, "I'm finished and YOUR NOT." Over and over. It may sound really silly, but with the state of mind I was in, I wanted to go over and yell profanities and punch him. It was like being thrown rocks at. Anyway, that was Boston shirt guy who needs to DIE! That was really close to the finish. Arghh... So the finish. Mile 20 on was really hard. Mile 23 on was the hardest. Thank heavens that Mandy joined Maurine and I at mile 21. It was something to look forward to and she had CHOCOLATE :) I really didn't care about the Reeses, but it was new and NOT gu :) Kelly found us at about mile... I don't know. That was another fun distraction. I really wanted to be done and most everything south of the shorts was not really very happy. With a mile to go, I picked up the pace, but could not hold it for very long. The body was finished and I had to make it hold out for a bit longer. I cried a ton the last mile. It was a weird cry, I am guessing because I was SO tired. David was there and I was SO glad to see him. Kim and Tom Lee were there to cheer me in, I bawled. I saw Luz and bawled. I saw Smooth and bawled. I found Anna Lisa and bawled. I saw Larry and bawled some more. Are you catching my drift, I just kept crying and crying. Now for Sherpa Miles. Maurine is the MOST AMAZING PERSON IN THE WHOLE WORLD! She sacrificed her marathon so that I could do this. She seriously made my whole marathon. She kept me on track for my gu's and gatorade, etc. She hauled ALL of my crap in her cool super hero utility belt. She was just plain amazing and I will be forever in her debt. I love you, Miles!!! I am sure I will add more tomorrow, like my splits, but for now this is all I can think of :) Maurine has all the splits on her bog :) %%%% More Race report %%%% I am SO happy with how the race went. Miles 0-21 were fine, yes aches and pains here and there, but nothing too bad. Even miles 21-26.2 were not horrible, I was just SO DONE. When I mention all of the crying from mile 21 on, it was because of the realization that I was going to finish the marathon. I was actually going to finish a goal that I had set for myself more than 3 years ago. It was the winter of 2005-2006 and I weighed more than 250 pounds. I had just had Will, our 6th and last child. I was SO sick of being overweight and was ready to really change. I had decided to join Weight Watchers, finally after years of wanting too. I was seeing some success and decided that I would run a 5k that fall for Onion Days. For those of you who know me, I like to plan ahead so I set a few more goals. The next year, following the 5k, at the age of 38, I would run a 10k. The next summer at the age of 39, I would run Hobble Creek 1/2 Marathon. AND then for the year I was 40, I would run a full marathon. Now please realize that I was still VERY overweight and really did not believe I could do this, especially as I ran each race. Each race was SO hard that I could not imagine ever being able accomplish the next goal. There really are no words to express the feelings in my heart about doing this. I am SO glad that Kim Lee told me about this blog. I am quite sure that you all were Gods gift to me, so I could do this. Your tireless support and encouragement made this possible. I have learned SO much about smart (and not so smart) training. When I needed my long runs YOU were there for me. Thank you all SO much. Now more about the race. There were these Pleasant Grove Firefighters that I had to beat. I picked them off throughout the race. Some were tougher than others and put up a fight. The last two were in the last mile, but I got them, no fight. Now raspberry girl was a different story. She passed us in the beginning and by the end I had caught her again. We went back and forth for a while, but I finally got her. She ended up getting us some where near the very end, and I don't think we caught her again. The last mile was a blur, except for STUPID tambourine volunteer and Beastly boston dude. David said we should have asked him who he bought his shirt from :) I wish David had been there, actually he wouldn't have done anything, I wish Scott had been there to arrest him. Enough about Boston dude. Oh, and I passed a TON of people in the last 5 miles. Maurine will have to verify, but we mostly passed people and were not passed by many at all during the race.
Maurine had to keep slowing me down throughout the race. My legs really just wanted to go go go. Only in the last 5 miles did I have to make them keep going. They were done and now they are making me pay ;) I will write about my pain and suffering on Sunday's report ;) My first marathon was PERFECT. I am so happy about EVERYTHING about it. It was really the best day ever and I am THRILLED!! First 5 miles: 11:50, 11:23, 11:39, 11:34. 11:50. Miles 6-10: 11:42, 10:52, 11:34, 11:19, 12:10. Miles 16-20: 12:08, 12:17, 12:29, 12:32, 12:01. Miles 21-25: 12:27, 13:33, 12:36, 12:52, 12:25. Mile 26: 11:23 Oh- as I was laying in bed, the door bell rang. It was Kellie and Tyler with the BIGGEST piece of chocolate cake I have ever seen (or eaten ;) THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! That was SO wonderful of you to bring me the BEST cake ever. I ate it, whipping cream first and shared some with the spry ones that live with me :)
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