Salt Lake City Marathon recap

First of all, I want to say this was my BEST marathon EVER! Remember my last post with my goals for this one? Well I totally beat ALL of them!!!

Hello cute little number 3, my official finish time was 3:55:51!!! But now I'm getting ahead of myself... Let me tell you the WHOLE story (which will probably be really long, but I promise it's interesting!)...

Ok, so the day before I had cheese pizza for lunch and for dinner that night I had fettucini alfredo (I don't have pics, but I'm sure you can use your imagination!). I had to carb load the night before to top off my gas tank, and the pasta was perfect! (I actually started carb loading 3 days before the race)

When I went to pick up my race packet, I had to go to a different table because I opted for the early marathon start, which was at 6:15 am. The regular race started at 7 am. I KNEW I wouldn't sleep the night before, so I just decided to start early and get it out of the way. ;) It turns out, the early start was supposed to be for SLOOOOW people who were going to walk the whole race. The city was only keeping the roads closed until 1 pm, so they wanted the walkers to have about 7 hours to finish. (Side rant: REALLY? You want the SLOW people who are WALKING to start out IN FRONT of the people who run 5 minute miles? Do you UNDERSTAND how ANNOYING it is to try and get around the slow people? It is NOT fun and I usually get frustrated REALLY easily by this. End rant) The guy at the table tried his HARDEST to convince me to sign up for the 7 o'clock start... "You DO realize you will start running at 6:15 right? Are you REALLY sure you want to start THAT early? I think you should sign up for the later start." No thanks, I decided to keep the early start. And I'm SOOO glad I did, it gave me a COMPLETELY different experience which I'll go into detail in a minute...

The night before the race, I was in bed at 11 pm and I needed to get up at 4 am, which was going to give me 5 glorious hours of sleep! The night before a race is always SO MUCH FUN (sarcasm here) because I don't sleep all that much. I'd say I stared at the clock most of the night and if I'm lucky, got somewhere around 1.5 hours of sleep collectively.

The alarm went off at 4 am (I was already awake, so I didn't actually need the alarm) and I got up and ate my banana and some water. I got ready and headed out. I am SOOO thankful they decided to have buses take us to the start (which was 3.5 miles away), I was not looking forward to walking down to the train station and standing in the cold for 20 minutes waiting for it. It was also RAINING. UGH, all I kept thinking about was LA this year and how people I know ran in the LA Monsoon Marathon and I did NOT want the experience of running a marathon in the rain.

By the time we got to the start, the rain had pretty much stopped which was great! I took this pic on my phone 5 minutes before the start of the race. (YES, I wore the headband the entire time)

There were only 146 people running the early start, so this was definitely strange for me because the race felt SO small and not like anything I had ever experienced. I walked to the starting line and scarfed down a Gu gel for energy right before taking off. They blew the horn and we were off!

I started out sort of towards the back of the pack, but it was really easy to get around people since there was literally nobody there. It was still dark outside which made it weird. I'd say within 5 minutes of starting, I was in fourth place. There were 3 guys ahead of me. I was totally ok with that because I felt like I was at a good pace (around 8:30 per mile) and I was sort of using them to not push myself too hard in the beginning.

The mountains were absolutely GORGEOUS to see the sun come up over, I was in awe of them. The first few miles went really smoothly, and the downhill course really helped a lot. Around about mile 2, I passed one of the guys putting myself into third place! Woo!

Somewhere around mile 3, I ended up passing the two remaining guys who were in front of me and took the lead! It was SOOO surreal and strange to be at the VERY FRONT of the marathon. Definitely a new experience for me and something I will likely never have the opportunity to experience again. I WAS WINNING a marathon! :-D

Around mile 4, the course entered a park and as soon as I got into the park, the road forked. THERE WERE NO SIGNS telling us which way to go. NOT COOL. So I had to yell back at the two guys I had passed which way to go and they told me "straight." I prayed they weren't pulling my leg so they could take the lead but I trusted them and went straight. After going up a hill, I saw a water/powerade table and knew I was on the right track. WHEW!

About mile 6, the course left the park back onto the street we had come down before. There were NO cones, signs, or ANYTHING telling me which way to go! I actually had to STOP and yell across the street at one of the cops to ask where to go. They told me to turn right, go to the stop light, and turn right again. I got SOOO frustrated at this point because the road should have at least had SOMETHING telling you where to go and it didn't. Man, I felt like this being in the front thing wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. :-/

I continued on my merry way, sucked down another Gu gel, and was constantly looking behind me to see where those two guys were. The gap between me and them slowly widened to a point where I couldn't even see them anymore. It was surreal. I was totally winning the marathon!!! I finally knew what it felt like to be a Kenyan, and it felt AMAZING!

At about mile 9 or 10, there was an uphill which sucked some energy out of me. I kept wondering when I would be at the top and back on my way downhill. Shortly after, I was over the hill and continuing on. The course went straight on this one street for like 5 miles through this REALLY NICE neighborhood with mansions and private gates. It was really cool.

I hit the mile 13 marker and knew the Kenyans would be catching up to me pretty soon. Since I got a 45 minute head start on them and the 7 am start group, I figured they would most likely catch me around here. Still no other runners in sight. Mile 14 marker comes along and still nobody...

At mile 15, the time had FINALLY come: the Kenyan passed me! It was SOOOO weird to have someone SO FAST run right past me during a marathon. One second he was next to me, then he was gone! It was fun for me to pretend like I was an elite runner keeping up with the fastest guys in the race. I've NEVER started a race at the front (because I'm not THAT fast) so I've NEVER seen these guys start, run, or even finish a race because I'm one of those average paced runners. About 5 minutes later, another Kenyan passed me. Then a white guy passed me who was also from the 7 am start. I was still first from the early start though, which was so fun for me! I felt like I was winning! ;-)

A few more guys passed me over the next few miles, but I hadn't seen any ladies yet which made me feel awesome knowing I was still first. My ankles started getting sore and I started getting worried. I was still ahead of my pace to beat my goal time, but I wasn't sure I was going to keep up the running...

Around mile 19, I HAD to take a walk break. My ankles were in SOOO much pain at that point, so when I got to a water/powerade station, I took some powerade and started walking. I ended up walking for 3 minutes, which actually helped I think. Then I started up running again knowing I would need to push myself to get the time I wanted.

At mile 21, the marathon course joined back in with the half marathon course and there were all of a sudden a lot of people surrounding me! It made it feel like I was in a marathon again! EXCEPT one small detail: like 98% of the people from the half were walking. REALLY?!? You are doing a half marathon and you're walking? I'm glad they were participating, but I felt like they should at least try. Maybe I'm just UBER competitive and think everyone else is too. I guess for some people it isn't about a time, it's just about finishing.

Sometime before mile 22, I had to take a second walk break. This time, I was only allowing myself one minute to walk. After my minute was up, I started running again (although at this point it may look like jogging).

This picture was taken somewhere around mile 22. I got TONS of compliments on my outfit, EVERYONE loved it! That made me feel good too and I think gave me a confidence boost. :) (I forgot to mention the temperature was about 50*, which is probably my favorite temperature to run in-not too hot, not too cold). Since it was chilly out, I opted for the arm warmers and tights/pants to keep me warm. I was DETERMINED to wear the dress for this marathon so I added things to my outfit to make that possible. ;)

Here's another picture of me looking all happy because no girls had passed me yet! This was somewhere around mile 23 I think...

A little after mile 24, I saw my hubby! YaY! Seeing a loved one is just what you need to carry you through to the finish! I really feel like I start to slow down in these last few miles every time, so it was nice to see his smiley face. :) I may not look as happy here because there was an uphill right in front of me, and I really don't like uphills all that much.

At mile 25.5, I sort of lost it. Garmin said my time was 3:51 and some odd seconds, and I started getting all emotional and teary-eyed (I actually have this on video) because I knew I was going to beat my goal and my brother-in-law's best time of 3:58:02 (Remember, I'm super competitive?). This was such a great feeling knowing I had set out for something and was actually going to accomplish it!

I turned the corner and headed towards the Gateway, which is where the finish line was. There was another .3 miles or so left, and the course had a tape running down the middle to separate the marathoners from the half marathoners. I obviously went to the marathon side and one of the race guys got on his walkie-talkie and said, "the first woman is coming in and she's wearing a red bib." I thought it was pretty awesome I WAS going to be the first girl to finish the marathon! I had NO idea what was about to happen next... (This is my I'm about to finish a marathon face! Tired and exhausted!)

As I got closer to the finish line, I realized they were getting the ribbon out for me to run through! OH MY GOSH everyone, I was SOOO NOT expecting that! You can clearly see the excitement on my face of actually feeling like I was going to win the marathon! (Also, notice there are NO other marathoners anywhere behind me?)

Then this happened:

And this:

OH MY FREAKING GOSH, I was on cloud 9! I felt like a rockstar! Forget all that pain I was in, I just got to run through the ribbon and experience WINNING a marathon and it was indescribable. Then on top of that, I had 5 people surround me and ask if I would do an interview for the local paper! WoW, I ran through the ribbon AND get interviewed? So this is what it feels like to win! I know now WHY all those elite runners run marathons (not the money part because I didn't win any), but just the feeling of all those people cheering for YOU and running through the ribbon! OMG, absolutely amazing. The people from the newspaper even brought me water, an apple, and some pastries! I was getting the royal treatment and it felt GREAT!

Ok, so I know I didn't win the actual marathon that started at 7 am, but I WAS the first woman to finish from the early start. :-D I didn't intentionally sign up for the early start trying to win because I didn't originally know it was for walkers, I was SURE someone would pass me (and it just so happened that there were no women elite runners in this race so no women ever did). I am sooooo glad that I did decide on the early start though because I got to experience something at this marathon that I KNOW I will never experience again.

I am currently working on creating a video with the footage I took from my ipod during the marathon (and the day before the marathon). It's about half way finished, and I am soooo super excited to share it with everyone!

I know I said this was going to be my LAST marathon ever, but I feel like I just can't give it up! It's too addicting! Runner's high, endorphins, and that awesome adrenaline rush are all trying to lure me back in to run another one! I'm definitely going to take some time off though before doing another one, but I'll be back!

If you want to see the rest of my pictures from this race, head on over to my facebook album.

I'll leave you with this picture of me after getting my medal. I am SERIOUSLY glowing in it. It was definitely one of the best days of my life and I will NEVER EVER EVER forget it. :-D