TOU Marathon 2012... My First Marathon!

Ok, it's been forever again, this will take a few posts to completely update on our lives... but this is a start! On September 15th, 2012, I ran my first marathon. WOO!! That feels awesome to say... What an adventure it was! I can honestly say that it wasn't even bad! Haha of course it is freaking LONG, but I hated life so much more while training than I did during the race! I can honestly say my longest training run (18 miles) was 10x worse than a 26.2 mile race, so I'm glad the race didn't leave a sour taste in my mouth.

So here's the back story for those of you who don't know it. Back in March...ish Matthew and his sister convinced me to train for and run the Bear Lake Half Marathon. Holy crap, that seemed like a crazy task! Knowing that Matt and his sister were (and are) both 10x faster than me, I went on a search for a running buddy who would run it with me at my pace. I went straight to Nicole (thinking, who better to train with than the sister who lives in Smithfield!?). After some convincing, I got her roped into it. Both of us started talking to Angie about it and her response was "I wish I could do it with you guys!!" Well... why not?? She was easy to convince. We just got her to book a flight to Utah! Then I called Josh. If you recall from my past stories, he sounded excited to do it. Then he called me a couple of days later and created the famous quote of "THIRTEEN POINT ONE MILES!? I didn't know it was that long! I mean, I always knew a marathon was 26 point something, but I didn't think about the fact that this was... half... that..." Yeah, awesome. Despite his fear of "I'm not a distance runner, I'm a sprinter", Josh signed up and so did his wife, Ang. (Again, she was much easier to convince than her husband. :)) And there it stood! We all ran the Bear Lake Half Marathon. (If you missed that race, you can read about it here.)

Ok, so we were getting ready to run a HALF marathon (which I was pretty freaked out about) and then the week of the race, I got an email from Angie. It said "So I've been thinking... (Yeah, first problem right there!) I want to run a full. THIS SUMMER. I mean... a marathon has always been on my bucket list, and I figured we might as well do it now while we are already half way there in our training!" Ok, I'm way too competitive to be at the same running level as my sister and then let her move forward without me and move onto a marathon... I'm convinced... We signed up a week or two later for the TOU marathon here in Logan, and the training began. I already told you about how much I LOVED (heavy on the sarcasm) that, so let's just move on to race weekend.

Angie flew in kind of late on Friday night. She grabbed dinner on her way up to Logan and crashed at our place that night. Matt and I ate Cafe Rio (It actually DOES have a lot of carbs in it... rice, tortilla... beans... Ok, maybe we just love it too much!) and Angie stopped at Noodles and Co. (Ok, much more normal pre-race dinner...). That night, we chatted for a little bit and Angie and I were FREAKING out! We had both suffered set backs in our training (Angie got a nasty headcold, and I had actually been wearing a boot during the day for the final month of my training and took 3 weeks off to heal my foot in the middle of training.) but we knew there was nothing more we could do at this point. Both of our stomachs were freaking out, and so we decided to go to bed instead of talking about it any more. We woke up bright and early the next morning and walked to the finish line/bus pick-up. Luckily, my apartment is literally a quarter of a mile from the starting line, so we didn't even have to drive anywhere!

Ok, so we got our packets, got on the bus and settled in for the long ride up to Blacksmith Fork Canyon. The bus ride wasn't as bad as I thought. We just talked a little bit, tried to sleep a little bit (yeah, right!) and nibbled on a half of a bagel. It was pretty uneventful. Once we got up there, we just hit the porta-potties, drank some water, stripped off our warm clothes and got ready to run! We didn't have to wait long at all... Thank goodness! As we stood there waiting to start, Matt said he was going to run it with me. I felt WAY bad making him stay out there on his feet any longer than he needed to and told him to run his pace and I would be ok. I actually felt pretty bad later because it was so sweet of him to want to run with me, but I didn't want to make him suffer! Trust me, running at my pace when you don't have to is definitely suffering. Haha so he ran at his pace and did awesome!

Ok, so we took our place at the starting line and then we started! The whole first part of the race is pretty uneventful. You are SURROUNDED by SO many people, it's incredible! I never thought there were THAT many people who actually wanted to run a marathon! It was way cool. Luckily, the first 14 or so miles are all run in the canyon. It is so beautiful, especially in September! It was really nice to be distracted. Angie and I ran together and we were both feeling so good! We had decided we weren't going to run with a watch and we were just going to run it, do it, and not worry about our time. We had no idea how long we had been out there. Around mile 7, we decided to walk through the aid station, get some water, and pop some shot blocks. Have I ever said how much I LOVE black cherry shot blocks? Well, goodness, I love them! They taste so good just when you need them! Haha so we kept running, feeling awesome, and walked through aid stations here and there. When we got half way there at mile 13, it was the first time we saw a clock telling us how long we had been running. We ran the first half in 2:04! We were SO stoked! We both were feeling awesome and we ran the first half faster than we ran our half back in June! It was sweet. I know that everyone says that is to be expected, but we were seriously feeling awesome. I stopped for a quick bathroom break, caught up to Angie and we started going again.

Around mile 14-15 is when the spectators can actually start sitting on the side of the road cheering you on. There are no words to describe what a boost this brings! There were so many people at the mouth of the canyon screaming and cheering everyone on! I seriously get goosebumps just thinking about it... It was awesome! We ran a little farther and there I saw Nicole and Jeremy with Makelle and Parker! WOW! I never thought that would mean so much to me. As soon as I saw them, my eyes watered so bad (ok, maybe I cried... But Nicole did too!!) It was awesome. They made these awesome signs too:

I loved the signs. They made me laugh so hard. So creative. I loved it.. Then I found out later that Parker had been doing this the whole time until we got there...

Who WOULDN'T smile when they see this face!?

Nicole said he would laugh SO hard when people slapped his hand... How freaking adorable!!

 Seeing the crowd and especially seeing my family gave me such a boost! I didn't feel like I had run as far as I had! It was going my so fast and I seriously was feeling better than I ever thought possible!

Here we come around mile 15!

 Right around this time, however, things started to take an unexpected turn. For how good we felt, I didn't think anything would get to us. The night before the race and the morning of the race, Angie's stomach hadn't been feeling well. We just figured it was butterflies from the nerves and everything and that everything would calm down once we started running. Well... It turns out that was not the case. Around this time, her stomach started cramping SO bad.. I was trying to talk her through it and trying to keep her mind off of it, but I honestly had no idea what to say and I had never dealt with anything like this before! This is when I got sad that I had told Matt to run ahead of us, because I knew he would have known what to do... I was clueless... But we kept running on. We would walk through the aid stations and a little after them trying to eat a banana and drink water to calm her stomach down. Nothing was really working... She would dry heave a lot and I think around mile... 18 or 19 she actually threw up. She lost everything... I don't know if people truly understand what this means... When you are running a marathon, you NEED fuel to carry you through it... Especially if you are out running for 4-5 miles like we are. Things started going downhill. We started "fighting" from miles 18 to about 22. She was worrying about me because she didn't want to hold me back, and I told her I wasn't going to leave her and we were going to finish the race together... This fight went on for awhile. Finally she said "Lauren, I'm not going to start running again until you leave me. I promise you I will finish, but you are making this worse". Ok, maybe that wasn't an exact quote, but she said all of those things for the most part...

Here we are right as Angie's stomach started getting worse and we started "fighting"

 Holy crap!! What the heck do you do!? What would you do?? Call me a terrible person... but I jogged ahead... My eyes filled up with tears and I was so angry and sad. I didn't know what to do. I actually turned around a couple of times and thought about just running back and staying with her. Maybe I should have... Running alone SUCKS! Haha I admire people who do it alone all the time, but it sucks. I saw Nicole, Jeremy, and the kids a little bit farther up the road. I could see the worry when Nicole saw that Angie wasn't with me anymore. I started crying and told her what happened. She gave me some water and told me to keep going and she would watch out for Angie. Thank goodness I had Nicole! I felt so much better knowing that Angie would have SOMEONE there if she could just make it to Nicole. I was so worried about her.

Everyone always told me that miles 18-22 were the hardest, but I honest had the hardest time running alone from miles 22-26. Wow! It was long. Haha I got tired, but at that point you know it would just be silly to quit. I got to mile 24.5 and I saw my sister-in-law, Trisha, and her husband Chett, standing there cheering me on. I just remember hearing Trisha say "Lauren, you are AMAZING!!!" and that was all I needed. I powered through all of the pain and emotions and I knew Matt would be waiting for me at the end. I told myself everything he would have told me in all of the right places. There was a slight downhill, "Let your legs go, Lauren!" and I passed a few people holding their legs back. I got to 26 miles (no one prepares you for that blasted .2...) and I saw Matt. I don't remember what he said, but I do remember that what I thought he said and what he actually said were two different things. I knew I was supposed to kick though. So I just finished as strong as I could and gave it everything I could! I passed a few people on my way in (which I LOVE doing) and then I was done!! Holy crap... Did I seriously just do that!?

Coming over to see Parker and Makelle when I finished.

 Once Matt hobbled his way over, I told him everything that happened, and we waited for Angie to finish. All I can say is, if you want to be inspired by a marathon, watch the finish line at the end of the race! I mean, I'm sure watching wickedly fast people come in in 3 hours is freaking awesome and inspiring, and I respect them, don't get me wrong! But wow, watching people who would not quit no matter what was SO motivating for me! There were a few people who literally limped across the finish line with shredded IT bands, but they made it across that finish line! I respect those people SO much, and I can't help but think that if I was in their same situation, I probably would have quit. That is actually what I told Angie as well. Seeing her come across the finish line was one of the most emotional moments of the race. She finished SO strong, and most people wouldn't even have guessed what she had been going through just a few miles before. There was one point she was so dizzy she could barely put one foot in front of the other. But guess what.... She freaking finished!!! How amazing is that?? You hear about people bonking and dropping out of the race all of the time... But guess what?? My sister bonked and STILL FINISHED! Haha that is amazing to me. Incredible even!

The gang after the race! WOO!!

 Overall, I loved it. I loved the race, I loved that the hills weren't too bad, and I loved that I did it! If I could change one thing (and I'm sure everyone would agree with me on this), I would eliminate the dumb winding through the neighborhoods! Once you know Logan, you realize how close you are to the finish line the entire time, and how irritating that is. Haha from about 3 miles out, I could hear the announcer at the finish line! How irritating is that when you still have 3 miles left!? Overall, I loved everything about it! I came into this race thinking that it would probably be my first and only but... we'll see... :) I don't know when I will run another, but... I think I will probably definitely run another one.

Me and my honey! I couldn't have done it without him! Love him!

Quick shout out to my love! He had to deal with all of my whining, my slow pace, my dumb injured foot, my whining, my worries, oh, and did I mention my whining? I am so lucky to have someone who tells me he believes in me and helps me believe in myself! He finished the marathon in like... 3 hours and 10 minutes I think? I actually can't remember. He did freaking awesome though! Love that man!

Two of my beautiful sisters!

Another quick shout out to Nicole and Angie! I never would have run it had Angie not asked me if I wanted to. She was my little phone and email buddy for the months leading up to the race and she always kept me going! I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the race would have SUCKED had I not had her to run with. She definitely kept me going the whole time. I am so proud of her and for finishing despite having every reason not to. And to Nicole (and fam)... Their support meant the world to me! Seeing them there gave me an additional energy boost that I always needed right when they were there! I was so grateful for their support and love.

I seriously have the best family in the world on both sides! My in laws and my family were both supporting and encouraging throughout the entire training process! It is so nice to know there are people who care and people who are cheering you on! Thanks to everyone who ever gave me words of advice or encouragement throughout this process... A marathon is literally more than I ever thought it would be. You literally push yourself to a physical and an emotional breaking point. It is the best accomplishment I have ever made in my life because it wasn't something that came "easy" to me. That made it all worth it. We'll see if and when I do another one...

I DID IT!!!! :)