SLC Marathon race recap... a month late

Hey all- sorry this wasn't blogged out sooner! It has been very crazy on my end. I was going to post about the race on the Sunday after (April 18th) however, I got a phone call saying that my sweet grandma who lived in Wyoming had passed away. It was quite an emotional roller coaster for me. I know that she is much happier and is with my grandpa and my mother. So, after I got word about this- I had to make plans to attend the funeral and my sweet hubster was in the middle of finals and was about to graduate with his masters and we had a ton of family coming in to town and we had to pack up all of our belongings so we could move to Houston, TX. So, am I off the hook for being a bad race reporter?? :-)

SLC marathon. The day before (Friday) Jon and I headed up to SLC to go to the race expo and pick up all my goods. The only thing I was displeased by was the shirt. I ordered a small and the thing is a complete dress on me! I guess I will know for next time- order a youth large! I do wish that someone would step in and provide an option to have women's shirts. I know that costs more- but your racers would be happier and would pay for it. I know I would! I'm 4'11" and a normal t-shirt doesn't work for me. Okay... rant over!


We checked into our hotel after having dinner with Jon's family. I laid out all of my gear and settled in with what I hoped would be a good night's sleep. How wrong I was. As seen from earlier posts- I was recovering from pneumonia and now my husband had it at this time too. He was on meds and a sleeping cough syrup. I don't know what happened- but he was up the whole night just coughing. How awful! I felt so bad for him! So, I was awake too. I think I only got 2-3 hours of ZZzz. I wasn't sure what that would bring for the morning of.


I'd say we got up.. but let's be honest- we were already up! We left the hotel and we headed out to catch TRAX so we could take it to the race start. After waiting for about 45 minutes- we finally got on one and we were off!


We got to the start and I promptly got into a line of a million people for the porta-johns :-) I had to cut a few people off. Before you get upset- you must realize that these people were in full on jeans and some in heels. People who were clearly not running the race and because of people like that all the runners were just standing there waiting with like 5 minutes until the start! So, I piped up and was polite as I could be. I got a few nasty things said to me- but tough! I was about to run 26.2 miles in a really cute skirt and I was not going to miss the start because of it! Okay... another rant over.


So, the race. It started at 7am and I was so excited! It took me almost 5 minutes to get to the actual starting line. The night before I had written in texts to send to Jon and my sister in NH to let them know where I was at during the race. I did really well sending them out. I think I did 5, 10, half, 20 and 5k left texts. Jon ended up meeting his mom during the race and they found me at 3 different spots. It was so great to see them! It did help motivate me a lot.

Jon Running with me at the half point

The first half was amazing! I felt I could run forever at that point. Then I got to mile 17 and I figured that it would be a good idea to hit a porta-john. Now, I apologize if the next part is TMI. You'll live :-) I got in the porta potty and there was urine all over the seat. So I was just doing a squat if you will. Then I felt like the porta potty was shaking a little bit. Maybe it was from others getting in and out? I'll never know. All I know is that it really messed me up. I also think the squat move was a bad one. Note to self: don't squat after 17 miles when you still have a little less than 10 left! After that, my pace was a mess.

Up until then I was on track to meet my pathetic little time goal. Then, it all just fell apart. My legs were heavy and I just kept having to chant to myself "I am awesome!". I didn't want to walk because whenever I would walk- it was painful to get the legs going again. The last mile was complete torture! It was a slight incline and were out in the middle of the sun and it was hot! I got to the finish corral and I could see the finish line! Jon jumped out from behind the fence and he ran with me for the last little bit. That really made me feel good about the whole thing. I knew I was finishing and I was so excited!


I finished! I crossed that stinking finish line and I knew I should've changed some things about it- but at that point, I didin't care. I ran through the finished got a water bottle and that awesome medal was put around my neck. How accomplished I felt! I wanted to die- but I was really happy. I am a little embarrassed about my time. Figuring that it already posted on the internet and you can all find it anyways- I finished in exactly 5 hours. Okay, like I said, a little disappointing. However, let's remember, I was just recovering from pneumonia, this was my first marathon, and the whole pop-a-squat didn't help me out either. So, I have gotten over the time factor and whenever people ask me how it went- I just smile and tell them that I finished and that's all that matters.



So- shameless plug for gear. Body Glide + Asics running socks = gold. You hear about people getting blisters and nasty things like that during marathons, right? I don't know how I managed to do this- but I didn't have a single blister on either foot. I owe it to the BodyGlide and the socks. They were amazing! No blood, no blisters- no nothing! I was using these products before and I barely got any blisters- if any at all. The only time I did was when I got caught in a ton of snow and my feet got wet. So, to BodyGlide and Asics- Thank you!

Another plug- Runningskirts.com saved me! I won such a cute skirt not too long ago and I am in love. I was a little skeptical at first when I first got it- but the skirt is so amazing. During the marathon I kept thinking how thankful i was that I was wearing it. I wasn't worrying about chaffing or fabric riding up in odd places. It was so comfortable for the marathon distance and I have zero complaints. Thank you RunningSkirts.com for such awesome running apparel!

It's my birthday this week and I am turning 25. Can you guess what I asked for?