This was my 9th SGM and my 17th overall. I went down to St. George on Friday with Cheris and Michelle. We went to the expo first and then got take-out from Olive Garden for dinner. I took 3/4 an Ambien at 9:00 and was in bed by 9:30. We got up at 4:00 and were in the bus line at 5:00. I ate a pop tart, bagel and banana when I woke up. I also had 2 Immodium when I woke up and 1 an hour before the start. Cheris and Michelle were able to go in the elite corral so I rode up with Angela, Jeff and Brittanee. We used the porta potties once then waited by the fire. The race started 15 minutes late. I really wanted a 3:30, but I had my doubts. I ran some good downhill 1/2 marathons this summer, but I didn't have enough medium long runs in my training. I decided to run a more conservative 1:47 half and then try to negative the second half. I hit the half right at 1:47:17. After that I was never able to take advantage of the downhill. From miles 18 - 23 I had a lot of negative thoughts and wondered why I even bother running marathons. At mile 20 I started having a bad pain in my right knee and shin. It was altering my stride and I had to walk for about a minute. I had a volunteer rub icy hot on my shin and I took ibuprofen at mile 21. That helped so much. At about mile 23 I saw my angel Kris Bullock and the rest of the IronDean crew. I was wearing my IronDean jersey. When they saw me they started jumping up and down cheering me on. That was all I needed. I finished those last 3 miles feeling better than I ever have in a marathon. I felt really great when I finished. It was so fun to run into different friends along the course. I continue to do the same training year after year and somehow expect different results. I need to try something different next year. My splits were: 8:27, 8:17, 7:44, 7:39, 7:44 (39:53) 7:41, 7:43, 8:57, 8:31, 8:23 (1:21:11) 8:24, 8:24, 8:06, 8,14, 7:52 (2:02:13) 8:07, 8:01, 8:25, 8:39, 8:40 (2:44:08) 8:57, 8:48, 9:01, 8:03, 8:11 (3:27:11) 8:06 and 8:01 pace for last .29 | 