Jill and I left our children in the care of their grandparents and we went to St. George for a really fun couples weekend. So many of our friends and neighbors also went to run the marathon. If I counted correctly we had 11 Mindi Meadows (or former MM) neighbors all running the race. I took Friday off work so Jill and I could drive down and enjoy sunny St. George. We arrived in the early afternoon and picked up my packet at the expo. While we were there we ran into the Vickers. It's always fun to run into friends at the expo.
The Yeagers were so kind. They hosted everyone and their families at Kevin's parents' condo. The Yeagers provided lasagna and everyone else brought bread, salad, fruit, and dessert. It was so much fun to visit and relax with everyone before the race. We learned that it was Gwen Smith's birthday. We improvised and Kevin put a rather large candle on a brownie while everyone sang to her. It was especially fun to visit with the Smiths, who had come up from Phoenix.
Jill and I stayed at La Quinta Inn which is really close to Kevin's parents' condo. The hotel was really nice. They had a terrific breakfast in the morning that we both got to enjoy on Sunday. On Saturday, I got up dark and early and picked up Kevin and Ron, and then we picked up Ben Sutton on our way to the start of the race. Later Holly picked up Jill, so the ladies didn't have to wake up so early and drive us into town to catch the bus. The lines for the bus were really long, but they moved crazy fast. Most of us were able to meet up and ride together to the start. Here is a picture of us at the starting line.
Pictured here left to right, Ben Sutton, Cade Bryant, Kent Candrian, Kevin Palmer, Randall Vickers, Norm Stevens, Nate Smith, Amy Stevens (the only girl from our group) Nate's brother in law, Ron Hada, and Kevin Yeager. Missing from the picture were Doug Burton and Brandon Moncur.
We all met up at the last fire pit, like we do every year. We patiently waited and then with about thirty minutes to go, we walked up to the starting line to toss our bags of clothes into the moving truck. Then we got in line to run. The weather was perfect and just a bit cold. Doug and I were close together, but quickly he got up ahead of me and I never saw him again. I feel like more than any other race, this was about as perfect as I could have ran. I started fast, but not too fast. I ran hard and pushed myself the entire time. With the exception of one small bathroom break I pushed it every minute of this race.
My goal was to finish in about 3 hours and 20 minutes. That's probably what I would need to qualify for the Boston Marathon. There was a small outside chance I could come in at 3:15, but I could also run too fast and then bonk. I was well ahead of the 3:15 pace runner most of the time. I couldn't understand how I was so far ahead. Watching my time, I felt like I was on track for 3:15 but the pace runner was well behind me. Sure enough, I did slow down the last five miles of the race, but unlike other races, this year I still ran (not walked). The 3:15 pace runner passed me, but I kept pushing and giving the marathon everything I had. It became obvious that I was going to come in closer to 3:25, which is still five minutes faster than I have ever ran it before. Technically I could still tell everyone I qualified for Boston, however my likelihood of actually running was zero. As I came into the final mile, I was so tired and beat. But I had a nice pep talk with myself and I said, "Every other marathon I slow down and walk much of the last mile, but not today! Today is my day to leave it all on the battlefield! I may never train this hard in my life and the rest of my life I'm going to remember today is the day I gave EVERYTHING to finish this St. George marathon as strong as I possibly can. I can rest all I want when I'm finished, but I need to push through the pain and finish this race strong!"
Jill and some of the neighbors met up at the finish line and she captured this fun picture of everyone trying to figure out the St. George Marathon app (Kenneth Smith, Holly Yeager, Gwen Smith, and Lorilyn Vickers). It has an athlete tracker that works really well. It was really nice for them to see where the runners were at and have an idea of when we would be crossing the finish line.
Jill had a great eye and saw me from a distance. I'm in the blue shirt.
I was in so much pain. But only a hundred yards more!
I finished in 3:25:45! It's a time I am very proud of. Doug and I trained for almost a year doing hills, speedwork, and tempo runs. It took a lot of early mornings, long Saturday runs, and diet to try and prepare myself for my best race. It was my best race by five minutes and if you go back to my first marathon in 2001, this was better by an hour!
Doug did qualify for Boston and our other friends all had great races. Most importantly, though, we had such an amazing time together. What a fantastic group of friends.
This was the obvious one, and I went to the medical tent to have it lanced. The medic who helped me told me she hadn't seen any blisters worse than mine yet for the day. On my other foot, the entire ball of my foot had a really deep blister underneath the skin. A couple of days later I finally used a razor knife to cut deep through the callous of my foot to lance it too. It was only then that I could walk normally.
Check out my times for the last three years. I keep getting better with age. Now at age 44, I finished with my best time ever.
Last year I took third place in my division. This year, I thought that taking five minutes off the time should get me at least second place, right? Wrong. I couldn't believe I slipped to 6th! I was able to still get a nice small plaque, but that was devastating to slip from 3rd to 6th even while taking five minutes off of my time.
It was past noon by the time we left the awards ceremony. The Men's Clydesdale division is always last, but it's worth it for me to get a cool plaque. Here is my haul from the race.
After lunch at Five Guys, Jill went out poolside to read a book while I took a short nap in the hotel. Then, we drove up to Enterprise to visit with Michelle and James Gardner. It was really fun to drive the course and see how much the organizers had already cleaned up. Jill couldn't believe how long the 26 miles felt while driving it. We met up with my dear cousin and saw the new beautiful addition to her home. It looked really nice.
After visiting we decided to stop by and see Pine Valley. It's a small community in the mountains between Enterprise and St. George. The historic chapel really stands out in the town. The man who was commissioned to build the church was a ship builder and didn't know how to build churches. So he built it like an upside down ship. Here is the beautiful chapel. People still meet here every Sunday even through it's over 100 years old. They also provide scheduled tours. We missed a tour, but there was another family checking out the church like we were.
Here is Jill from the top looking down.
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