I guess I better update my blog... It has been a long time. Three weeks ago I was married to David Sondrup in the SLC LDS Temple. We were married on Monday, September 12th. It was an absolutely beautiful day. We were the only ones that were married in the Temple that day. It was nice to take all the time in the world... Just a perfect day. The following Friday we celebrated our wedding with family and friends at the Salt Lake Hardware Building. Just a beautiful and an amazing day! The following day we opened our gifts and started our move down to Del Rio, Texas. As for running, I put in on the back-burner for about three weeks. I knew it was taper time, I just REALLY tapered. I was not going to stress out about my upcoming marathon but rather try to enjoy my time with my new husband. I spent a lot of time on the TM. I actually have not ran outside since we have been in Texas. Anyway.... Now to the St. George Marathon.... I had no expectations of myself going into this marathon. I felt like I could push myself bellow a 3:20 if my body would allow. I knew that whatever happened, I would end up with a fine time. I was at St. George, my favorite race.... What could possibly go wrong? I got to the bus with the gang (RAD, Toby, Smooth, Karen, Walter, Danielle, Teena, and Fonz). I could really feel the marathon energy that was flowing between everyone. I sat by Toby on the way up to the start line. It was really fun talking to a first time marathon runner. It really made me think back to my first marathon, which was also at St. George. I was excited for her. This year I went to the elite section of the start line. Lines were long for the POPs. Didn't feel so special. Gun went off and we headed toward the line. I figured I would start with the 3:25 pace group and work down from there. We were off! I stayed with the group for a little bit and then pulled ahead to the 3:15 pace group, even staying ahead of them a little. I felt great! 6 miles past and I hit my 10k at 45 minutes. I still felt there was not too much effort involved, I just kept tuggin away. Veyo came. Still felt fine. My heart rate actually climbed a little, no prob. I slowed 8-12 miles because I knew they were going a little uphill. I was hanging around the 3:15 pace group at this point. Mile 13: Not a good feeling.... I could feel the muscle fibers in my quads, they were already torn. "Oh dear Rebecca, we have a problem." I thought to myself. "We are half way and the best part of the race is still coming. Poop." I decided that I would just run at a good clip as much as I could before my legs were completely gone. Mile 16: Gone. Quads, all gone. What to do now? Just cruise I guess. By mile 18 the 3:25 pace group caught me. Dang it!!! I was not going to PR this day. I felt fine waist up. Sweating now because I didn't know if my legs would make it or not... I just had to cruise. Mile 20: I just wanted to cry. This is the part of the race I can usually blast past everyone. Not this day. I watched as some people were passing me, I was jealous. There was nothing left in my legs. I watched my 7:15 pace slow to a 8 minute pace, 8:15 mp, 8:45.... By the end it was a slow 10 mp. Mile 22: No more stopping at aid stations. I couldn't get my legs to start up again. Stopping was out of the question. Last 10 miles were really a shuffle. I was actually laughing at myself, I could not believe this was possible. My heart rate was slow and I just wanted to finish. I saw my mom at 26.1, gave her a wave and a big smile. I was about done. I was not happy with my performance. I felt I ran the race WRONG and trained WRONG. Looking back at the past few months, I actually felt fine with how I did. I wish David would have been there to see me finish in person, oh well. He watched me finish on the live coverage of the race, pretty cool. I am thankful to be running. :) It's Monday and I can barely walk. There is a marathon in Texas in two weeks that I really want to do. Hopefully I can walk by then. :)
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