Going into SGM I had three goals. I am weird though and did not think of them as gold, silver and bronze. I thought of them as Gold, Gold plus and Gold plus plus. This is because my lowest expectation was worth a gold to me and the rest would all be lots of extra frosting! Gold: Make it through all four Grand Slam marathons with lots of fun memories and no injury. Check! Gold Plus: Get a PR. Anything under 3:57:58 would do that for me. Check! Gold Plus Plus: Get a BQ. For me that is under 3:55:00. Check! Tom and I went down without kids this time. We stayed in our small condo with Walter and Misty staying next door in our larger condo. Always nice to see them! We were invited to a nice pasta dinner at Ronda's beautiful home Friday night. It was delicious and so nice to be out of the crowds! Thanks so much Ronda and hubby! Things all went well on Saturday morning except that we never found Doug who was planning on running with us. It was nice that it was a bit chilly at the top and the fires were actually needed. I was also very grateful that all worked out well for the POPs. :) In fact I am thrilled to death that I went through this whole marathon without a single potty stop! Yay! I was so happy to have Tom running this race with me. He didn't get into the lottery and was not planning on running. However, I really wanted him to pace me so I kept having us enter contests that were giving entries. Luckily we finally won a contest through The St. George Running Center! I was so happy that he was now in to help me through my goals! Everything felt pretty good throughout the race. I didn't have any pains making me hate every step like many others around me were obviously feeling. I was so grateful for that! My dear friend Amy lost her 33 year old sister last Saturday so just before going up the hill at mile 19 I said, "This one is for Amy!" I kept thinking of the things she was going through and how much harder that is and that soon my "hard" would be over but hers would continue to be there. It helped me get up that hill and continue to the end. On the last turn before the finish line I heard someone yell Tom and Kim! I looked over and saw my other dear friend Lesa and her hubby cheering for us! She had surprised me and came down to cheer us on! I was so happy to see her! I was happy to have Tom grab my hand and lift it above our heads as we crossed the finish line together! It was a great thing to have him share with me. I am so happy he was able to be there for me! I saw the people giving the medals and was excited to get it...I walked to where a cute older gentleman was handing the medals and said, "I LOVE YOU!" The guy next to him said, "We all love him!" But I didn't think much about it until we went past them and Tom said, "Do you know who gave you your medal? It was LaVell Edwards!" So I turned around and said to him...."I loved you even when I didn't realize who you were!" I'm sure he thought I was just another loony fan but I really had no idea it was him. I just thought he was a really cute guy who was giving me my medal! | 
