First and foremost: THANK YOU to all my family and friends who supported me during this race. I can’t tell you how many phone calls, texts and emails I received with words of encouragement for this marathon. I appreciated every single one of them!
I know that I’m not an elite athlete. I don’t have lightening speed. I don’t run like a gazelle. My goal for this race was to finish. That is all. No time restraints or other expectations. I knew it would hard. I knew I would look like a physical wreck and be an emotional tornado when it was over. I knew that during the last 6 miles I would lose my stride and start the “shuffle”. So thank you for supporting just an average me. I realized that this is a “race”, but every one of the 7,500 runners there were running their own race and experiencing their own journey. We just happen to be doing it on the same day and the same time and in the same place.
I have so many emotions about this race, I’ve been having a hard time sorting through them and getting them into some sort of coherent order. Here it goes:
We left American Fork around 12:00pm Friday afternoon. The kids stayed home with a babysitter and we enjoyed a quiet drive to St. George. We stayed at an Uncle/Aunt’s second home in St. George. It was nice to have the place to ourselves!
One we arrived, we headed over to the Expo! It was very busy and filled with lots of excitement and energy! I picked up my number and got teary eyed that it had my name on it (forewarning that I am an emotional basket case when it comes to running stuff!!). We saw Teena, Smooth, Lowell and a buddy of Tim’s from high school. I picked up some awesome swag. We left shortly thereafter to grab dinner. We went to Pizza Factory and met Amber G. It is a small world when it comes to running!
After dinner, we headed back to Uncle/Aunt’s house to watch the BYU football game. It was nice to sit and relax (with no kids). Around 9:00pm, there was a knock at the door – it was Tim’s cousin. She was there to pick up a pillow that had been left behind a few weeks ago when she stayed at the house. She and her two brothers ended up spending the night at the house. It was fun to talk about the race with them.
I was a party pooper and went to bed around 10:00pm. I slept great and woke up at 4:00am. I had 2 pieces of bread with peanut butter, a banana and an imodium AD. I rode to the buses with Tim's cousin. I met Smooth, Rachel, Karen, Bec, Lowell and others at the bus staging area and it was so comforting to be with friends!
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| Me, Karen, Rachel and Bec |
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| Waiting for the bus |
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| Still smiling....haven't started running yet! |
The bus ride was so fun! Everyone was chatting and giving lots of great advice! Seeing the starting line was emotional for me! Seeing the flags, the “starting line” sign, hearing the music, watching the flash mob, and feeling the energy – all those months of training for this one day. Today. Right now.
Flash Mob video
The lines at the porta potty were forever long. The race was going to start in a few minutes and we headed out into the woods (along with 7,500 other runners) to take care of business. I got stage fright and couldn’t go (found out later on that in southern Utah it is tarantula mating season….yikes!!!). We dropped our bags off and headed to the start.
The air horn blew right at 6:45am and the first few miles were in the dark. It was very warm at the start and I knew it was going to be a hot race. The first few miles literally flew by. All the other runners were excited and chatty! I REALLY had to go pee and was afraid I was going to wet my pants. There were POPs at every mile, but there were long lines and I wasn’t willing to wait.
Finish Time: 4:11:52
Average Pace: 9:36/mile
Miles 1-3 (9:19, 9:13, 8:43) I started with Karen and Smooth. But I lost them at the water station at mile 3. I walked through the water station to make sure I could get the water down and not spill it all down the front of my shirt.
Mile 4-6 (8:21, 8:35, 8:28) I saw the 4:00 hour pacer and decided to hang with the group for as long as I could. I was really sad that I had lost Karen and Smooth so early in the race. I walked through the water station at mile 5 (again, some of the best advice I received was to walk through the stations and to give my legs a 10/15 second break and to get a good long drink). Shortly after the water station, Smooth hollers to me – they had been just behind me. I was SO glad to find them again. It boosted my spirits greatly!
Miles 7-9 (8:17, 9:32, 8:44) I saw Tim at mile 7. I was SO SO glad to see him! To see a familiar face during a race is such a mental boost. I took some electrolyte jellybeans. Mile 8 was Veyo hill. Though it looked intimidating, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought – just long. My friend had given me the advice and just “down shift”, look down and go. What great advice! I just stayed with Smooth and Karen and just grinded. There wasn’t a line at the POP at mile 9 and I took advantage of it. Such sweet relief! Then the Dammeron Hills started. I knew the hills weren’t over and just continued to down shift and climb. My right hip was starting to ache. I’ve been having problems with it for several months.
Miles 10-12 (9:38, 9:33, 9:54) Still climbing. I walked through all the water stations and jellybeaned at mile 11. Smooth was keeping track of the mile splits so carefully. We were on track. We saw a fellow pushing a wheel chair with a handicapped man. I ran ahead and got all teary eyed! I told him what an inspiration he was to all of us. We happen to see him driving on the way down to St George (their trailer had the special wheel chair in it). Amazing!
Mile 13-15 (8:49, 9:33, 8:27) We crossed the half way mark right at 1:59:00. I was still feeling good. My feet were starting to get sore and my hip was still aching. But my legs felt good and my breathing was controlled. There was a helicopter that kept flying over. We would wave.
A side note…a part of MY mental training was visualization. At the risk of sounding like a total dork, I would visualize during training runs that I was an elite athlete. I had motorcycle escorts and people chanting my name. As Natalie Norton says, “Shut up this stuff works”. It does…how else could you get through such a grinding training schedule.
So when I saw the helicopter, I felt for a moment that I was an “elite” and not just a runner trying to finish.
Mile 16-18 (8:37, 8:26, 9:16) The descent into Snow Canyon was so breathtakingly beautiful! I kept saying to my pals how grateful I was that they were there (because we are running down a canyon, they close down the road and spectators are allowed in very few places until you enter the city). Smooth was giving wonderful advice about getting down this huge descent without tearing up my legs. At mile 16, I thought that maybe I would tell Tim to meet me at the finish and not run with me at mile 21 because I was feeling so good. Even though my hip was really starting to ache, I felt great. I was still walking through every water station, taking jellybeans and Vaseline to prevent chaffing (double hooray for Vaseline).
Mile 19-21 (9:21, 10:21, 8:58) Then Winchester hill hit. It wasn’t that huge of a hill, but it was at mile 19. My legs were loosing gas and the sun started to beat down. I swear the temperature went up 20 degrees. I had another potty stop at 19. The POP was a bit tilted and I was already a bit unsteady. So I was afraid it was going to tip over. I was sick of eating electrolyte jellybeans and started eating oranges. I took a Gatorade at the first table…guzzled it down while I walked to the second table. Then I grabbed 2 more water cups. I felt like whatever fuel I put in, immediately got sweated out. I lost Smooth and Karen at the water station and felt like someone had taken the cap off my energy tank. (I think the mile 19 and 21 splits are off…my watch automatically stopped when I went into the POP).
I got to the point where I would start thinking; “just make it to the next water station”. My thoughts of telling Tim to just meet me at the finish quickly vanished. I wasn’t sure I could even make it to mile 21. I saw Tim at mile 21 and started to get teary eyed. I was so glad to see a familiar face. He was going to run with me from mile 21-23. I knew I wasn’t capable of carrying on a conversation. So I told him to start telling me stories. Anything to get my mind off how horrible my hip felt, the cramping in my calves and how hot it was. He started rattling off story after story. An ambulance came roaring by. A runner had passed out on the side of the road. They had an IV going and she looked like death had taken over. The reality of how hot it was really set in.
A marathon is made up of two races. Miles 1-20 is race one..an easy race. Mile 20-26 is race two. The thing about race #2 – you’ve already been running for 3+ hours. Your body is aches and your mind is tired. It is where the real race begins.
Mile 22-24 (12:11, 11:11, 9:54) I had to walk some through these miles. My legs felt like they were filling with lead. I would stop and stretch some but they just seemed to get heavier and heavier. Tim jumped out at mile 23 and kept saying I only had a 5k to go. At mile 24 they were pulling towels out of a big barrel of ice water. It was so refreshing to wipe the salt off my face and arms. I kept pounding oranges, water and Gatorade. The sweet volunteers were so encouraging. One volunteer looked at my bib and said, “Toby, you can do this”. I was baffled that he knew my name (only later did I remember that it was on my bib). Hooray for good and kind people. (My mile 24 split was off…stopped and stretched).
Mile 25-26.2 (10:46, 10:00, 2:47) My body officially shut down. It was pure will power to make it the last 1.2 miles. It was a run/walk effort. The crowds were cheering, but I felt like I didn’t deserve the cheering. I felt horrible and looked horrible. There was nothing pretty or beautiful about the last mile. Nothing.
I saw Tim at the finish chute and knew I was so close. I crossed the finish line and the clock read 4:11:52. I wasn’t sure I would be able to walk out of the chute. They put my medal around my neck and I didn’t move. The sweet volunteer told me I needed to keep moving…as hard as it was. I got some water, oranges and an ice cream sandwich. It was the best ice cream I ever ate. I had planned on meeting Tim at the massage tent. There were thousands of people and I was feeling a bit delirious. I wasn’t sure I would be able to find it. Luckily, I spotted him standing outside the runner’s bullpen. I sat down because I was afraid my legs would give out. Finally, I left the bullpen area and went over to the massage tent. I couldn’t stand up in the line so I just scooted up the line. I saw Smooth and Karen, both looking great! It was nice to sit and decompress, but I felt like I was just cooking in the sun.
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| Scooting up the massage line |
Finally, it was my turn for a massage. I’m kind of a massage snob, so it wasn’t the best one I’ve received. But it was nice to lay down in the shade for 15 minutes. Afterwards, I was ready to leave. My legs and hip hurt. I just wanted to take a shower and eat. Every last calorie I had in my body was extinguished.
I had to drop off all my sewing stuff off for my designer (who happens to live in St. George), so she met me at Café Rio (after a really great shower). That pork salad and coke never tasted so good.
So now that it is all over, it really was an incredible experience. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I learned a lot. I need to spend more miles on the road in training. I need to do more weight lifting to strengthen my hips and legs.
I may not be able to walk right now, but I’m thinking about when I can do it again. Maybe a bit faster.
