My First Marathon Experience

Here I am, near Mile 8. Feeling pretty good at that point!
Here I am at the finish line, with my Gun Time. My actual chip time was 3 minutes faster, because I was so far back at the starting and had to walk a while before getting to the starting point. I was so happy to be finished!

Me and my biggest fan!

Yesterday, I ran in my first-ever Marathon race. It was the Utah Valley Half-Marathon. That's right, 13.1 miles. It started about half a mile past the turnoff to come up to Sundance, and ended at the Provo Tabernacle. It was so nice running down the canyon, with the wind at our backs. Quite a different perspective than driving it every day! It was in the upper 40's, which was perfect weather. We saw the sun come up over the mountains and it was so beautifu land green everywhere. Coming out of the canyon, I saw Jim and Aspen, cheering me on at the bottom of Canyon Road. That was at mile 8. It was so fun to see them! They drove down the road a bit and I saw them again at Will's Pit Stop, at about mile 9 or so. Aspen was the loudest cheering section there! It was great to have that support and made me feel really good. In fact, there is no way I could have stuck with this for 5 months without Jim helping out with the kids and being there to support me every step of the way.

My race time was 2 hours, 24 minutes. I ranked 172 out of 287 for the 30-34 women's age group. My average time was 11.02 minutes per mile. I'll be honest, I was hoping to come in at closer to 2 hours, and I think I probably could have. But, a few things stood in my way of that.

First, I woke up with Laryngitis the morning of the race. I'd been feeling the beginnings of the flu coming on all week, and was praying my hardest that it would not hit me until after the race (which it did!). I even had Jim give me a blessing, and I firmly believe that is the only reason I was able to hold off getting sick any worse than I was. A few hours after the race, I could not speak at all, and I was starting to get cold & hot sweats, and feeling achy all over (not just from the run). My stomach was cramping and in knots the rest of the day.

Second, I made the huge mistake of taking a packet of Goo and some Powerade instead of just sticking to water on the course. Basically, straight sugar. And probably a big cause of the cramping. That, and eating oatmeal for breakfast- much too heavy of a meal. I caught up to the 2:20 pace-setter in the beginning, when we were in the canyon, and was able to stay with her until around mile 9. At that point, the Gu I had taken at mile 6 had given me a sugar-rush, and it was starting to wear off, and I started feeling sick to my stomach and a little light-headed. I actually considered what I would do if I had to stop and throw up. Fortunately, I made it to the aid station at mile 10 without that happening, and I grabbed two cups full of water and downed it. Shortly after that I started feeling better (after some heartfelt praying) and I was able to run the last 2 miles.

That was also about when my right foot started hurting, right in the middle on the outer edge. Which is funny, because all during my training, it is the area of my arches that have given me trouble and I felt no pain during or after the race in those areas. But the pain in my right foot hurts so bad whenever I step on it that I think I have a small stress fracture. Bummer.

So, even though it didn't go exactly as I had hoped, I still feel really good about my results. I was just hoping to make it in under 3 hours, so coming in under 2.5 hours was great. I would love to be able to do it again, but I think a 10K is more my style. Because to be honest, I felt really pretty good up until between miles 9-10, and then it was a mental test for me.

Nothing compares to the feeling of accomplishing something I never thought I would be able to do. It feels really great! Despite the pain I feel now in my foot and muscles. I guess that's why the race slogan was "Pain You Enjoy." Because, I loved it!