Salt Lake Marathon

This race got the best of me. For the first 20 miles it felt, dare I say effortless, maybe not effortless, but easier than I had though. Me and my friend Amanda were in fifth and sixth place the whole way, out of 1,000 plus woman. At mile 22 I started feeling really low energy wise, I had already taken a gu at mile 20, and was hoping it would kick in.
Mile 23 wasn't pretty, I hit the wall hard, I started slowing way down, and stopped at the mile 24 aid station to get water hoping it would wake me out of the groggy state I was in. I could feel my body shutting down. I tried to take a drink and collapsed, luckily my brother was there and caught me. After a minute I told him that we could keep going and I would walk it out, he let go of me. I collapsed again, at that point he realized I was pretty bad off. So he picked me up and carried me to the grass, the medic came over, and checked my pulse. The medic said that my pulse was threaded. I wanted to keep running. I am sure it sounded absurd, I couldn't even stand on my own. But, I was only 2 miles away!! Finally I felt more stable and tried to stand up only to collapse again. Finally after about 10 minutes of laying there my pulse got back into a normal rythm. The medic said if I could take 10 steps on my own he would let me finish the race. At this point, my time was shot, but I wanted to finish the race. I took a wobbly 10 steps, at which he said that he would bike behind me to the finish to make sure I made it. So on we went, my brother, the medic, and me. It must have been such a funny sight. Me looking like death, my brother in khakis and a polo, and the medic following a close third up the hill. Needless to say we all crossed the finish line. I finished in 3:40, the exact time you need to qualify for Boston.
The funny thing that was my first marathon time, and I was happy about it, but I trained a lot more for this marathon. I learned a lot about myself doing the race though. I learned that I am not a quitter, even if it is painful. I also learned that hard things pass. Nothing is permanent. I also realized how powerful family relationships are, I am grateful for the support of my brother, and Scotty.

(My friend that I ran till mile 22 with took third overall with a 3:16. I am so proud of her!)