I had Diego drop me at the mouth of the canyon and I ran towards the mile 20 marker, at mile 19 Rachel ran by ( she was pacing the 4:00 hour group). She said Smooth was back there, so I ran up toward mile 18 cheering and clapping for runners as I went. I turned back toward mile 19 afraid since I'd told Smooth I'd be at 20. She could see me from way off and raised both her hands up and yelled my name. I was so happy. She looked strong. I'm sure the runners were getting hot, but I thought the day was gorgeous. Green canyon walls, blue skies. I promise I did not feel event millisecond of discomfort. Smooth got a little quiet around mile 24-24. She was afraid she was cramping up. So we sang "called to serve him" as we passed th temporary missionary housing and talked about her mission and son coming home. She should be greeting her son right this minute (2 years!). Today was her 47th marathon and last before Auatralia. As we came into downtown Provo, I started to get verklempt. I knew Smooth was exhausted, but I was sad the marathon end was coming so soon. As we approached the last .10, we saw Ericka sitting on the side with her camera. we said hi and then Smooth said 'lets sprint!" So we ran past this old guy making it into the finishers chute cause she wanted a picture with me crossing the finish. So basically we elbowed that old guy out of the way so he wouldn't block our photo op. Just kidding, everyone was clapping after we started sprinting. He got his own shot behind us. We saw. Rebecca who'd finished up with 3:16! Smooth, of course knew everyone and said hello. We waved at Rachel dipping her legs in the ice jacuzzi . Larry was kind enough to take me with them to lunch. We at where Smooth's so. Had lived at BYU called the village and we ate at the Aweful Waffle. It was delicious. I was so happy for Smooth getting to see her son today. She's off on a new adventure now. I am so glad I recovered enough and in time to do a few runs with her. I got to run past the spots on the UVM course that defeated me in 2011 and it felt great. I am totally going to do UVM next year. | 