Each Day Is a Gift

I signed up for this marathon just last week as a replacement for the Logan Marathon which is on Aug. 1st because our youngest son is getting married on that day.  Guess I need to have my priority right...son's wedding is more important than marathon?!!! :) 

I thought I was recovering well from the Ogden Marathon two weeks ago; WRONG!!!  Also thought since this course is relatively flat, I should be able to do the distance; WRONG!!!  The only good thing going for me is that the start/finish is in Draper, a quick 15 min. drive!  And I was fortunate enough to have the company of Lowell the whole entire run.

This race's organizer/company (Extra Miles) is the same as West Mountain...both are small and first-year races.  The course was originally point-to-point from Salt Lake to Draper along the Jordan River Parkway.  But the week before they found out there was a permit problem from one of the cities in Salt Lake so they changed it to an out-n-back. 

Got to the start at 5:30 and easily found RAD and Marci.  The RD called us over to the start line at 5:45 and gave us brief description of the course.  We had to run around the block (eBay campus, some business under construction and Frontrunner station) passing the start line for 1.5 miles then down on a dirt path about 0.5 mile long to access the JR parkway.  Then north on the parkway through the cities of Riverton, South Jordan, West Jordan and turn around somewhere in Midvale.

The weather was complete opposite of that at Ogden.  Starting temp was in the high 50s, mostly sunny and quickly heat up into the 70s.  When I drove home my car registered outside temp at 80.  Lowell and I had heaps of fun enjoying the scenery, taking pictures, chatting with fellow runners, running with the veterans carrying the Flag.  He petted every single dog and visited with the dog-walkers, probably over 20+ of them.  One lady dog-walker lost her car key and we even helped look for it and on the way back we saw her again and she had found the key; then Lowell fed Oakley, her dog some bacon.  He also made phone calls to his niece, Karen, his nephew, Dana and his daughter, Kelsie and of course I got to talk to them too.  When he forgot the words of a song that we were singing (mostly him singing), he called Kelsie and asked her to search for it.  If it weren't for the bibs on our shirts, you'd think we were out on a Sat. long fun run.  At the 11th mile we saw RAD and her neighbor who was running her first marathon.  That's the only good part about an out-n-back...you get to high five your friends and cheer on the winners!  Then just after the Park at Winchester (mile 12ish) we saw Marcie who was pacing the 4:15 group.  Lowell stopped her and the three of us held hands dancing in a circle singing the army song.  Who'd do that in a marathon?  Oh he actually danced with the three young ladies holding cheer signs at the park too. 

I took a Gu just before approaching the turn around thinking they would have an aid station there, WRONG!!!  We ran towards the tent in the parking lot only to find out that it was a gun-show or expo of some sort.  While Lowell visited with the volunteer monitoring the turn-around, I stretched my left calf which was starting to hurt.  When we got back to Winchester, I desperately needed some water to wash down the bacon and gu I took a mile earlier and there was no aid station.  Luckily there was another race being staged there complete with finish sign and an aid station.  The nice lady there let me drink their water (a big foam cup, unlike the little 4oz cups in our race).  I also made a mad dash to the park bathroom only to find that it was occupied.  We saw a lady holding up the race sign (which had fallen off and we had tried to fix it earlier) to try to take a selfie.  So of course we took the picture for her and began to run with her as we found out it was her first marathon.  Her family would meet her at many points along the way and we would help them take family photos. 

It was starting to get warm and the ice bags at mile 11 and 14ish was nice.  At 11 I put some in my running cap.  At 14 I took a bag and put some ice in my cap, shirt and compression sleeve (for my left calf pain).  No sooner than doing that, a huge black cloud covered the sun and the south wind picked up...but that didn't last long, the cloud covering that is...the south wind got worse especially the last 6-7 miles.  That stiff headwind coupled with the Russian Olives in full bloom caused havoc to my breathing.  I started to cough and wheeze.  Then it was a grind, the scenery was no longer pretty!

Lowell nearly missed the turn off onto the dirt path, but since I was hunkering down (from the headwind) I saw the arrows and hollered for him.  We saw a man with a camera ahead and didn't realize it was my hubby until we got close.  He gave us a bottle of water which was like heaven sent because the last aid station was back at Riverton (mile 21ish).  Hubby said we had less than a mile to go; but we told him we still have 2+ to go.  When we got up to the road, I crossed the road so that I could run on the "inside" of the loop, people were yelling at me that I had to run one loop past the finish...yeah yeah yeah I got that...I knew that...I'm not going to cross the mat!!!  I was wheezing, not deaf!!!  Then RAD jumped in to run the final 1.25 mile lap with us.  Boy!  Was I happy to see her!  I got tears of joy having her there to "save" me!!!   It's been a long time since we last ran together and I have missed her SO much!!!  When we turned around heading south, I ducked behind her to lessen the terrible headwind and catch my breath.  When my Garmin read 26.2, I raised my arms and said I'm done...but nope still have another 0.4 to go.  Lowell's Garmin registered 27 miles!

No matter how many marathons you run, that feeling of exhaustion at the last 400 meter is always replaced with the feeling of exhiliation when you cross that finish mat.  This race being so small, there were no volunteers to "receive" you, to give you water/food.  They gave you the medal and shoved a piece of coupon in your hand.  But we were lucky to have our very own RAD to get us our water bottles.  She even opened the cap for me.  As a consolation to last min course change, the RD got Saturday Waffles to cook each marathoner a waffle.  We had to wait in line for that though.  But it was yummy!  However, there was no chocolate milk as promised.  The RD said they ran out of them.  Luckily Dana brought us Dr. Pepper from McDonald's.  After everyone left, I went to look for my result which they said would not be coming, I saw a runner with bloody knee.  He took a spill coming up from the dirt path onto the road.  There was no first aid.  So I helped him look for ice bag and gauze from the TOSH people.  He sat down on a curb to apply the gauze/ice bag and I chatted with him.  It would've been nice if the volunteers offered him a lawn chair.  Needless to say, he was not very happy with this organization and chalked it off as their being new and first race.  I was thinking in my mind that, it could be worse if there were runners with heat stroke or more serious medical issue, they would not be prepared to handle it. 

Anyhow, I'm glad marathon #57 is in the book, next up Utah Valley in two weeks.  Hope the PF subsides and my calf heals up in time.