Utah Valley Marathon

This is the finish line of the Utah Valley marathon, I made it! What a journey. After months of training for the Salt Lake Marathon only to pass out at mile 24, I had to tackle this beast one more time. So I decided to do the Utah Valley marathon, six weeks more of early mornings, a lot of long runs, and tired legs paid off. Quite honestly I am really going to miss training, I enjoyed getting up early, the chatting sessions with Amanda, and Melody, and the sitting in the river after long runs. It is so nice to have time as a mom to yourself, and time to talk, even if it comes at 5 in the morning.

The marathon turned out even better than I had hoped for. My goal was to pace myself with the 3:10 pacer for as long as I could, and hopefully keep him in site. (The winner of the marathon last year volunteered to pace the men who wanted to qualify for Boston, men have to have a 3:10 to qualify.) I was worried about going out to fast with him in the beginning because my fastest marathon, before this was a 3:35. The Salt Lake marathon was faster, but we all know what happened there. I started running with the pacer, and to be honest it felt like a training run in the beginning, we were all talking and having a good time. I ran with him for 16 miles, 7:15 minute miles. After mile 16 I still felt really good, so I picked up the pace a little bit and started running with another guy. We kept right on talking until mile 20. At that point I saw a couple of my friends that had run the half marathon and had come to cheer, they told me my other friend Amanda was right up ahead of me. I picked up the pace and ran a 6:45, and kept running 6:50 for the next six. It felt so good. I didn't look at my watch I had no idea how fast I was going, I just felt really good. My family and friends were there cheering, I think that made me pick up the pace. The last two miles my friend Marie ran with me. It was funny because I was so zoned out, that I didn't recognize her, she was jumping up and down waving her arms, and it didn't click in my brain that it was her. It was nice to have her there. At the end I could see the time clock and I couldn't believe it, 3:06!!!! My goal was 3:15!! It was such a fun race, for the first 20 miles I was just talking and having a good time, the last six were just getting it done.

Honestly the time didn't matter as much, the most empowering thing to me was to set a goal and finally realize it. I am so glad that I didn't give up after Salt Lake, because I knew I had it in me. It taught me that really you can accomplish anything you set your mind to, with goals, hard work, patience, and the belief that you can do it. That might sound so cliche, but it taught me such a powerful lesson. In fact I wrote Jesse on his mission about it, because it reminded me of my mission, and life in general. Training and running a marathon taught me that you have to have an end in mind, a point that you are moving towards, and with that focus and direction everything falls into place. Because you will naturally start doing things that will bring you to that end goal. Most importantly if you have the whole purpose of this life in mind, to return home worthy, then naturally you will start making the choices necessary to align your life with that end realization. It isn't always the easiest choice, or the most convenient, but the Lord knew we were capable of hard things, and that accomplishing hard things refines us and makes us more empowered to accomplish the things that await us in the future.

My sister in law Jen, this was her first marathon and she finished strong!

I finished third place in my age group, and tenth overall.