If ever there were a goal to accomplish after running a marathon, it would be that one. And I did it. Marshall and I ran the Top of Utah marathon over the weekend. What a great race they put on there. It was very cold that morning but luckily they had a tent set up with heaters. It was so nice to stay warm as we waited for the race. The first 14 miles are down the canyon and it felt so great. I hit the 13.1 mile mark at 1:54.40, which is 2 1/2 minutes faster than my best half marathon and 3 minutes faster than the one we did in August. It was great. And then I died. I really tried to hang on, and I sort of managed until we hit mile 20. It was pretty much over at that point. There was nothing left. My quads were so beat up from the pounding on that downhill that I could hardly lift them anymore. It was a spectacular death. That is the only word to describe it. If I wouldn't have been dehydrated from the race I would have cried. But, oh bliss, to cross that finish line. That was the best feeling ever. I wouldn't let myself sit down because I was so afraid of throwing up like I did after the other 2 marathons I have run, so we stretched and ate a fat boy. I was concerned about our kids and wanted to get out and find them. We hadn't seen them as we were running through the finish. Luckily we found them rather quickly. They had missed our finish because they had gone into a store to use the restrooms. But Amy took this picture of us. (I forgot to take off my sunglasses).
Our time was a 4:09.47, a PR by 26 minutes. Yay!! We are still recovering and can't walk down the stairs, but we are already planning to do a half marathon Oct. 30. I didn't hit my goal of going under 4 hours, but I was still so happy with the race. And I can hit that goal at the next one.
