First off I have to say what a fun race this was. I'm so glad I did not miss out. I was very hesitant because of my first attempt at a marathon in 2009. All I will say about it was that it was a negative experience and has taken alot to get past it. It had been pretty frustrating. And, bottom line I was just mad at myself. This race I had done so much more training and felt 'maybe, just maybe I can do this'. I had only told a couple of people that I was thinking about running it. If it were not for great friends I do not think it would have happened.
Marlin and I got up pretty early because we had to drive to Logan from Tremonton. I wasn't thrilled to get up so early, but, it actually went by pretty quick. Before I knew it we were on the bus headed to the start line. Boy, did it seem like a long bus ride. I was happy to see a big white tent set up for the runners. I knew we had awhile to wait and it had been raining. A few minutes before the race it really started to pour rain. Lots of thoughts going through my head at this point. I tried not to get overwhelmed and reminded myself to have a good run.
I don't have a mile by mile report, but, I know I did what I had set out to do. Stay around a 8:30 pace. I knew I wanted to stay ahead of the 4:00 hour pacer and behind the 3:50 pacer. There was a young kid I ended up running with alot of the way because he was wanting to stay ahead of the 4:00 pacer also. I could not believe how fast the aid stations came up. The race was flying by. Before I knew it we were at mile 10. I was feeling great. I know how I've felt in other races and this was a completely different experience. Before I knew it we were half way and I was happy to see the time - around 1:55. I was still on pace. It had started to rain and I was loving it actually. I loved meeting other runners along the way. When we started to get around mile 16 I wondered if things would start to change for me, but, it was all still pretty good. As we started to get into the residental area I was not sure what would happen. I just kept focused and was happy I was keeping the same pace. When we got around mile 19 & 20 I didn't expect the uphill quite yet. I knew we only had around 6 more miles to go and really wanted to pull this race off under 4 hours. Each mile that went by I was happy I was still feeling pretty strong overall. I had met an older gentleman around mile 13 that had came up to me...as we ran together he said I was a strong runner. I really enjoyed talking to him and thought about what he said towards the last few miles. I was happy to be at mile 23 and wondered if Marlin was finishing. I could see other runners were slowing down, even walking, and knew I did not want to not get caught up with that. It just drove me to focus more. When we got down to the last mile I was getting ready for it to be over. The last half mile is when my legs really started to feel it. I was not going to let them shut down on me. Once I passed the last corner and saw the Finish line the only thing I cared about was FINISHING!!! I passed a few more people at the very end and was EXTREMELY happy to see Marlin right there at the end. What am AMAZING experience and I LOVED every minutes of the race!!!! What a experience to run 26.2 miles in the rain and hail. And I qualified for Boston 2013!!!!!!
Finished 567 out of 1831 runners.
Women - age group (50-54), finished 6th out of 43 women | 