Getting back to it

Top of Utah Marathon

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Location:

SLC,ut,USA

Member Since:

Apr 12, 2008

Gender:

Female

Goal Type:

Half Marathon Finish

Running Accomplishments:

FINISHED my FIRST (and maybe LAST) Marathon!!

Short-Term Running Goals:

Get back into better running shape.  Train to run a good 1/2 marathon sometime in the nearish future (no commitments yet) 

Long-Term Running Goals:

Get into good shape and stay there. 

Personal:

I am married to the greastest guy and I have 5 awesome kids - 17, 16, 13, and 5 yr old twins.

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Total Distance
36.90
Total Distance
0.00

Took the day off!  Felt good to sleep in - if you call getting up at 6:45 sleeping in!

It was nice to have a take it easy kind of day - I did the laundry and cleaned off our patio. Took the twins swimming - we were the only ones there for over an hour!  Fun.

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Total Distance
4.00

I felt good this morning for our run.  don't have accurate stats because I forgot to stop my Garmin when we finished.  Most of our talk was about the marathon.  I can't believe it is this SATURDAY!!!

Comments(4)
Total Distance
3.00

Just a short easy run today.  We ran down to Willowcreek and then Jenny's mom brought us back.

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Total Distance
3.50

Did a nice walk this morning.  Hopefully our taper hasn't been too much.  I think at this point rest is the most important.  We're not doing anything tomorrow morning and going up to Logan in the afternoon.  We'll take in the pasta dinner and expo and hopefully get to bed early.  The next time I log in it will be to report on the MARATHON!!

Comments(5)
Total Distance
0.00

Rest Day. Slept in.  Was busy all morning - getting ready to go up to Logan.

Desiree, Jenny and I left about 1:30 pm, stopped for a yummy lunch at Rumbi's in Bountiful.  Drove on up to Logan and we're afraid to see what our accomodations were going to be like.  We got one of the last rooms available in Logan.  We stayed at the M6Inn, right on the main street before you get to town.  It actually wasn't bad at all and was just fine for the 12 hours that we were checked in there.  We hung out in jenny and Desiree's room waiting for Leslie to catch up with us.  We all laughed and had a great time trying on different combinations of running clothes trying to decide what to wear, depending on how the weather was going to be.

When Leslie got there we went to the Copper Mill Restaurant to pick up our packets, check out the VERY SMALL expo - less than 10 vendors, and go the pre-race pasta dinner.  It was good food, probably not worth the $12 we paid but we wanted to take in the whole experience.  We spun the prize wheel and won the most excited prizes - TOU license plate covers!  We did a little shopping at sports authority and got our bananas at the grocery store and were in bed by 9:30.  We had a great evening together and were nervous, anxious for the big day.  Even with a sleeping pill I didn't get a lot of sleep but I did rest.

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Race: Top of Utah Marathon (26.2 Miles) 05:35:42, Place overall: 1550, Place in age division: 56
Total Distance
26.40

I don't even know where to start with this marathon report - I guess at the beginning.  We got up at 4:15 and got ready for packed up our stuff and drove to the park to get on the busses.  It seemed like a very long bus ride up the canyon to the start.  We used the potties right off and then went to the tents to stretch and stay warm.  It wasn't actually hard to stay warm - it wasn't hard at all to stay warm.  It wasn't nearly as cold as we expected it to be.  We went to use the potties again and picked the slowest line and barely made it back to the start line 2 minutes before the start.  We even had a hard time getting our extra warm clothes on the bus because the bus driver started pulling away while we were trying to get our stuff on the bus.

We went to the very back of the pack to start out - we didn't want to get caught up in the push and rush of the front of the crowd.  That worked out very well.  We had a good start and very even pacing all the way down the canyon.  I loved running down that canyon - it was perfect in the elevation drop - not too drastic up or down, and it was beautiful.  I really loved meeting so many people and enjoying the run.  Leslie had given us all running shirts with our group name on the back "the Running Chicks" and that brought about a lot of conversation with a lot of people.  That was a lot of fun.

I felt great at the half way point and we were anxious to see our group of family that we knew would be cheering for us at about mile 14.  I could see my husband, Paul, standing up high on a guard rail with the video camera.  Jenny's family, parents and MIL were all there and desiree's 3 oldest kids were there (her husband is in Holland on business).  It was such a boost to see them all and have them cheer for us and look so proud of us.  We figured that was the last time we would see them before the finish but they kept  appearing every couple of miles cheering us on.  That helped us SO MUCH!!

We REALLY lucked out on the weather!!!  It wasn't very cold - started the race in shorts!  It sprinkled one time - 2 drops.  It was hot for about 5 minutes and the rest of the time it was WONDERFUL.  We were so LUCKY!!

I felt good until about mile 19 and then really started to fatigue.  My quads and hams were so tight and my left knee was really killing me but not so bad that I thought about stopping.  I remember thinking at mile 18 that I wish a marathon was 20 miles.  at soom point around 15 we split off from Desiree - she was cruising!!  She ended so strong and finished at about 5:12.  We lost Leslie at the 9 mile mark because we kept having bathroom issues and would have to stop at about 3 potties in a row.  She kept going and was ahead of the rest of the way.  She said that is what kept her going  - knowing we were behind her.  She finished about 2 minutes ahead of us.

Somewhere between mile 19 and 20 Jenny's knee gave out on her.  She was in a lot of pain and could hardly walk.  I stayed with her and told her I wouldn't leave her.  We helped each other finish.  While she tried to walk out the pain I very slowly shuffled along beside her.  We went back and forth between walking and SLOW jog/shuffle.  Those last 3 miles were SO LONG!!!  Esp running down Main street with all the traffic - I hated that.  And then looping back to the park and not knowing exactly where the finish was - was hard.  But our husbands met us at the last corner and ran with until we got to the finish shoot.  It was so exciting to hear our names announced at the finish and Jenny and I crossed the finish together - hands together high in the air and proud of ourselves.  It was so great to get hugs from all of our friends and to have their support.  It was also so much fun to see all of the friends we had made along the way.

Desiree and I and our families stuck around for the awards ceremony - once again taking it all in.  We also had fun taking our turns to cheer on some runners coming in at the very end.

One interesting thing is the difference between my Garmin and the race times and mile markers.  My Garmin was .2 miles different than the course and my finish time on the Garmin was 5:19:41 - I know that was due to having the Garmin on auto pause and I also stopped anytime we were stopped for bathroom stops.

Here are my splits:

1 - 11:07, 2 - 11:05, 3 - 11:34, 4 - 11:11, 5 - 11:05, 6 - 11:11, 7 - 11:15, 8 - 11:29, 9 - 10:49, 10 - 11:22, 11 - 11:22, 12 - 11:09, 13 - 10:52, 14 - 10:46, 15 - 12:42, 16 - 11:43, 17 - 11:08, 18 - 11:36, 19 - 12:26, 20 - 15:03, 21 - 13:17, 22 - 14:08, 23 - 15:04, 24 - 13:39, 25 - 14:18, 26 - 13:10, 27 - 4:57 (12:19 avg)

I was a little surprised looking at the splits afterwards to see how consistent we were thru the first 18 miles.  You  can definitely see where we began to have trouble. My only disappoint was not finishing as strong as I would have liked to. I wish I could have kept up with those splits from the first 18 miles.  Next time.

overall, it was a great experience.  I really liked the course a lot (Leslie didn't) and enjoyed the scenery and the people.  I would do it again - just not tomorrow.

The official stats were finally posted online.  I registered in the Filly division (give myself every advantage, I figure).  My official finish time is 5:35:42. I was #1550 overall (out of 1718), #56 in the filly division and #74 in my age group and #724 in Female category.

Comments(7)
Total Distance
36.90
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