Ogden Marathon

The Ogden Marathon was May 19,  2012. I was nervous and excited for it. It was my first marathon back after having the boys and had been 4 years since my last one. I was shooting for 6:30 pace per mile which would have been 2:50. It's hard to gauge what shape you're in for a marathon, but I was just going to go for it. Jeff had looked up the course record for the marathon, and if I ran 6:30s, I could break the record.

My little brother, Richie, ran the marathon, too. He stayed at out house the night before the race so we could ride to the starting line together. I woke him up a little after 4 and we ate breakfast. I went back to my room to change and came out when it was time to leave. I found Richie still wearing his pagamas, clipping his toe nails in the bathroom! I couldn't believe it! It was time to leave and Richie wasn't ready at all. He's so funny and laid back.

It was nice to have Richie there to ride the bus up to the start line and wait in lines at the bathroom. By the time I got through the bathroom line, I heard a guy announce that there were 7 minutes until the start of the race. Yikes! I hadn't warmed up yet. I did a quick couple of minutes jog, shed all my warm clothes and dropped my clothing bag off at the truck. I headed for the start line and was able to start really close to the front.

When the gun went off, I found Jed Johanssen, a former WSU runner, to run with. We ran the first 8 miles at 6:30 pace, but I felt like we were slowing down, so I started picking it up. I ran the rest of the race by myself. I saw Jeff, Lisa and the boys at mile 8. I always run faster when I see my boys cheering for me. I was feeling really good and comfortable running 6:30s. At mile 13, a biker came up to me and said he would escort me through the finish. There were so many people cheering for me, it made me emotional. It was so nice to have the biker notify people in front of me that I was coming, so I didn't have to dodge through them. The second half of the race I locked in to 6:20 pace and felt really good. While I was running, I kept thinking, "I love this! I feel so good!" The last part of the race was awesome! The finish was lined with people cheering and holding their hands out for me to slap. It gave me chills to finish the race. I was so happy to finish as the first female with a time of 2:47:22 and broke the course record! I really feeling running is a gift I've been given and I'm so thankful for it.

My boys, my biggest fans!