salt lake city marathon

well, i must have posted a self-fulfilling prophecy last monday. a factor i couldn't control came round wednesday morning: a big, fat cold. boooooo. i woke up with a nasty sore throat and aches. i sped to trader joe's after work and bought some vitamin booster and vitamin c. i was popping them both like they were candy. mmmmm, candy. thursday i woke up feeling worse and friday was unbearable. sore throat, congested lungs, achy body, and a stuffy nose. i really tried to ignore the whole sickness, for fear that i would actually be sick for race day saturday morning. my father-in-law had me gargling hydrogen peroxide all friday night. while disgusting, it actually killed the sore throat and saturday morning i was feeling pretty good.

i don't think i could have asked for a better morning. the temperature was perfect, i was still on east coast time, so a 7am start time really felt like 9am. linds and mare were right by my side. i finally got to meet erin at the start. (she had an AMAZING race. i bet she'll post about it soon. way to go erin.) erin, you are beautiful inside and out. :)

so off we went. first six miles were fantastic. last 7.1 - mmmm, not so much. the cold kicked in and i'm fairly sure my lungs shrunk to half their size. stupid, stupid cold. i'm still trying to figure out how much of this was mental vs. physical, but suffice it to say, mile 7-11 were pretty rough. i had a great finish, and tried to keep a good attitude at my small victory known as a half marathon. i loved seeing family at the finish. steve's face was the best. he looked so happy to see me. love you stevie boy.
salt lake was the place where i really began my running. i remember six years ago trying to run the trail around liberty park once, and not making it halfway around. it was pretty amazing to be able to go around it saturday without a hitch. i remember hearing a fifty year old woman in relief society in my sugar house ward say how elated she felt every time she crossed the finish line of a marathon. saturday, i saw her family on the course. thank you for the inspiration.

it was really a race of returning. returning to family, returning to friends, and returning to roots - and even an old, slow race time. ;) that being said, i truly believe every race is a learning experience. this one taught me to be okay with the uncontrollable factors and to love the moments that are given to me. while i'm pretty sure many races have taught me this particular lesson, i think it was really driven home this time. there's nothing more valuable than that.







so, i'll let jona post about his incredible marathon if he wants to. if not, that's fine. but let's say he was incredible. way to go babe.