After hardly any sleep at all we woke up at 4:30 am to get ready. We were all so nervous and it was FREEZING cold outside. We got ready and packed up our stuff to head out. Before we left we all knelt down and had Becka pray for us to have a great run and that we would be safe. Honestly, I'm the least spiritual one of the group and that prayer made me feel a lot better. We drove from the cabin to the starting line. No one wanted to get out of the car because it was so so cold, but we did. We headed straight for the line to the potties. Let me just say those things stunk so bad. I was gagging. The race started before we got to the potties, but there were 7,600 runners and it takes a long time for that many people to cross the start line so we finished at the potties before taking off. Lexi didn't worry about the potties. She started right away. I think Maryann and Bryant did to. So after the potties we just started. I had a lot of clothing issues. I had tried to do my hair cute and put a headband on that morning so I would look good crossing the finish line, but that didn't work according to plan. My hair started falling out of my pony immediately. Then my headband started falling out at mile 2. It was a joke. I just pulled it all out and pulled it back into a messy, not cute at all, bun. Oh well this was a race after all, not a fashion show. I felt like the first 6 miles went by fast. It was cold and the wind was blowing, but at least it was blowing at our backs pushing us along. Becka and I felt good and we just went on our way. I pounded GU every five miles and only drank water at the aid stations. The aid station people were amazing. I was so very grateful for all of the volunteers. Veyo hill really did suck and we power walked up it. It was tough and we didn't want to burn ourselves out that early in the race. After Veyo hill we continued on and started shedding our layers. We met some really nice ladies from Northern Utah, Ally and Erin, I think. I'm so bad with names. They asked us to tell them about ourselves. Becka told them she had 6 kids and her oldest son is 22 and a marine. They were amazed. They thought Becka was only 30. She does look so young. After the half way mark Becka said we needed to run the second half faster if we wanted to finish in 5 hrs. We kicked it into gear. We continued on and my sister's friends from Costco were volunteering at the mile 15 aid station so I left my good jacket with them and found out the status on my sister delivering her first baby the night before. I hadn't gotten a text from my mom yet and I was very worried. I found out everything was fine and my new nephew was born at 3:30 that morning. I was so happy that I cried. We continued on and got rubbed down with icy hot at several of the next aid stations and I was feeling great. Becka's knee started to really hurt her around mile 18, or that's when she decided to tell me about it and she started to cry, she was so frustrated. I told her I would not leave her and that we were in this together. We walked for a minutes and she texted her husband to tell him about her knee. A little bit later her texted her back, but that's her story I will let her talk about that. We continued on and she got rubbed down a few more times with icy hot. She told me it was a little better so we kept going. I texted my mom and husband and told them we only had 4 more miles. My husband texted back asking if I was dying and I proudly said NO!!!Just before we got into St. George I saw my sister in laws sister cheering me on and it was nice to see a failure face. As we got into St. George we found a cheering section just for us fishies. It was amazing to see Cami Lee, Jess, Amanda, Racheal and Elisa on the side of the road cheering us on. AMAZING!! Thank you girls so so much for being there to support us. After that we cruised on. Once we got to diagonal street we were still going strong, but we were getting tired. Just then Becka's son who is a marine and lives in CA was walking down the street toward us. He picked Becka up in the biggest hug and it was so awesome. He ran the last 2 miles with us. Honestly he had us running pretty fast and I wanted to ask if we could slow down or even just walk. I was pooped, but I sucked it up and just kept going. After Dason started running with us we passed some of Becka's family cheering us on. Then right before we turned the corner to the last stretch for the finish line we got to see the Habmlin/Castango/Kelly/Glover Family. That was awesome to see Jayci, who we dedicated our mile 9 to, on the side of the road cheering us and some of her family members on. Once we turned the corner and I could see the finish line I got this crazy surge of energy. I started to pick up speed and I was scanning the crowd for my family. I finally saw them right before the finish line. I started crying and that just made me want to finish faster so I sprinted to the finish line. It felt absolutely amazing. I was so happy and proud and excited to see my family and fellow fishies and just exhausted. I was so grateful for all my friends and family that came to the finish line to cheer us on. I loved every minute of it and I have to say that taking the gu every five miles, drinking lots of sips of water, having Becka to run with and taking my ibuprofen before the race made everything fall together. There was not one time during the race where I thought about quitting or hit a wall. It was amazing. I LOVED IT! I definitely want to run another marathon and I loved running it with my fellow fishies.
This was one of the hills we had to run up. I can't remember if this was Veyo hill or not. I think it was.
OK yes, it was Veyo Hill. Becka and I before we concurred it.
Amanda Pilmore took this picture of me and Becka as we were running by their awesome cheering section.
I love your play by play because it's my play by play too. =).. i still can't beleive we did this!!! I love that you felt great.. no chest pain! I think you could have got in under 5 easy had you not waited for me, but thanks! I needed you to keep me going!!
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