Oh .. St. George.
The marathon that I pretty much didn't want to get into. After training so hard for Utah Valley from January to June I really really didn't want to keep training through summer for another one. I can honestly say it took a little of the fun out of running for me. When thinking about running my first marathon I knew I wanted to train for a Spring marathon because I enjoy running through the colder months. Summers are generally so busy for us and trying to get long runs in when we're camping on the weekends is REALLY hard. I really went into this training cycle with the plan to "just have fun" at St. George. I wouldn't train as hard and I was okay with that approach. This was Jeramie's first marathon. He trained harder and better with me for Utah Valley .. I was worried about how he'd do.
So we headed down to St. George with my parents Friday morning. The kids all stayed home with Grandma Robie. If nothing else I was looking forward to a couple days of relaxation!
Well .. you know minus the 26.2 miles of running in the middle.
We stayed at the
Desert Pearl Inn and it was a beautiful resort! I was in awe of the beauty that is Zion National Park. Of course it happened to fall during the government shut down, so technically the national part was closed. But the town we stayed in was right outside the national park and just gorgeous.
Didn't I tell you it was beautiful?!
I would love to come back here and stay here again.
There were tons of restaurants within walking distance.
Pre-Race hydration.
Water and Beer.
We had dinner here and it was really delicious!
After dinner we headed back to our hotel and to bed. We had an early wake up call the next morning. So that they didn't have to wake up with us my Dad had rented a car in Cedar City so that they could head over to the race later. The next morning Jeramie and I were up and ready and on our way. We stayed about 45 minutes away from downtown St. George. The time flew by that early in the morning.
I don't have any pictures from the race itself. We found the buses pretty quickly and before we knew it we were on one and on our way up to the starting line. Once we arrived up there it was still dark. I was really glad that I'd brought somewhat warm clothes to wait in, plus my mylar blanket from Big Cottonwood a couple weeks before. I was SO glad I had it. It was downright COLD at the start and windy. All we did was stand in line for the porta potties and the starting gun went off right as we had finished and were gearing up. So there really wasn't a lot of waiting around for us at all. Which is probably good considering how cold it was. So we dropped our drop bags and off we went. The plan was to run together and see how things went. I really hoped we would be able to run the entire thing together. We were doing really well for the first while too. Around mile 9 I decided I really needed to pee. I knew if I stopped now it would be the only time and I'll feel much better for the rest of the race. So I told Jeramie and he says, yeah okay, me too. In I go and then back out. And I'm standing there waiting and waiting. No Jeramie. So I get my phone out to take a picture of the porta potties, thinking I'll be funny and post it on FB that I'm just hanging out at mile 9 of a marathon waiting for Jeramie. Low and behold there's a text message from JERAMIE that simply says, "Go ahead. I'm going to be awhile."
If you know my husband then you're thinking .. OF COURSE.
So off I went. I wasn't looking forward to another 17.2 miles by myself. That's a long way and a lot of time. So I focused on seeing my parents around Snow Canyon. I think that was around mile 17. I kept thinking how good it would be to see them. I was still feeling pretty good. Mile 17 would not be too uncomfortable yet. And maybe I could hang out and chat with them and wait for Jeramie. I didn't think he'd be that far behind me, as I'd stood outside the porta potties for several minutes before digging out my phone.
But I came through Snow Canyon and my parents were nowhere to be found. So I just kept trucking on. There aren't very many places to spectate St. George Marathon prior to the end in the city. So I knew I wouldn't likely see them until the end at this point. Once of the best things about St. George is that they have every mile marked with porta potties and balloons. At once point I could see the balloons for the next mile marker while I was passing one. That was kind of motivating. It didn't seem all that far and the miles kind of ticked off pretty quickly. I started having the same pain in my right leg and hip that I experienced during Utah Valley pretty early on .. maybe around mile 18. I was so disappointed because deep down I had really hoped that running slower and having run so many miles this year already would work in my favor for a more comfortable marathon. I guess "comfortable" and "marathon" just don't belong in the same sentence. It was around mile 20 that I started walking through the water stations every time. I was okay with that. It was part of the plan. One of the other really awesome things about St. George is that they have people with icy hot at the aid stations every mile to the end I think after 20. I took advantage of that several times. My calves were starting to cramp up pretty badly and the icy hot helped a TON.
There were some pretty decent climbs in this race. I was surprised but in a good way. It was nice to not have the constant quad pounding like some of the other races I've done. Towards the latter part of the race there was a lot more downhill and that was kind of nice too. When it was getting the most painful you definitely had gravity on your side. The last mile felt the longest. And before I knew it I was turning into the finishing shoot really hoping my parents were there. Although I didn't hear them when I finished I saw them quickly after. It was so good to be done!! The only thing I didn't feel like St. George did well was the finish line food. It was pretty lame and I was REALLY hungry. So I headed out of the finishers area so that I could wait with my parents to watch Jeramie finish. I hadn't seen or heard from him since Mile 9. But thanks to the Find my iPhone app, we knew that he was coming in soon.
These hurt every time.
And then all smiles .. knowing I'm finished.
4:43:45
Overall Place: 4253/5821
Gender Place: 1777/2655
Division Place: 401/515
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed.
And then in came Jeramie! So proud of him. I figured that he would finish around 5:30. I'm really proud of him. Considering that Jeramie really only ran the long runs, and even then, not all of them this is a fantastic time. He would have done better had he run Utah Valley with me.
5:15:25
Overall Place: 4999/5821
Gender Place: 2839/3166
Division Place: 370/384
Even though we only ran 9 miles together.
I'm still glad we got to run this race "together".
After we finished we headed to go eat. I couldn't for the life of me remember where we parked the car that morning, so my mum and I wandered around for quite awhile looking for it. However, we eventually found it. Let's just say that #1, I wasn't driving that morning and #2, things look a lot different in the light than they do in the dark! Finally we found ourselves at Red Robin! I LOVE Red Robin! And then it was off to the pool for some relaxation.
Here are a couple good shots that the race photographers got. I really want to buy the one of Jeramie and I because I really like it.
