Here's the rundown. We were chatty on the bus ride up - half nerves and half excitement. Okay probably more nerves than anything else. I had gotten about 3 hours of sleep at best, so I was worried about having enough energy to crank out 26.2 miles. As with St. George, the bus ride up to the starting line seemed to go on forever and ever ... and all I could think was how I needed to run it the entire way back. But we eventually pulled up and headed to join the crazy long lines to the porta potties.
We barely made it through the porta potty line before the gun went off. Guess that stress was a good way to get my heart rate up and going for the race. We were herded along with everyone else across the starting line and then ... GO. Overall we kept a pretty decent pace. It was a bit quicker than what we trained at, but I was feeling so set on coming in under 4 hours that I didn't care.
Forgive me if this middle part is less than descriptive for actually being about 4 hours long, but in my mind it all kind of blurs together. The weather was great and the course were beautiful. I expected that considering I grew up in the area, but while running I was able to really look around and take it all in. The way the light was hitting all of the grass and farmland was pretty awesome and created a bit of a distraction every now and again.
Around mile 13, my fear became a reality: that familiar and dreaded IT band zing in my outer knee. But not just my left knee this time ... both of them. BOTH! Not funny. It was stabbing pain with every step I took, but what was I supposed to do? I stopped for a minute to readjust my IT band band (That name sounds weird. It's gotta have a real name, right? It's not just something that sounds like a stutter.) I said a few pretty fervent (probably more desperate) prayers and tried my best to focus on something else. Anything else. Cut to mile 18 - the pain had gradually dulled enough that I no longer wanted to trip just so I could sit down and make the pain stop. Happy!
I love Anna's halfhearted thumbs up in the right hand photo. And I also love that if you pretend I'm not running, it almost looks like I'm doing a Richard Simmons dance move. See, friends who think I don't dance? Don't blink or you might miss it.
Anyway. So we kept running. And then we ran some more until we were on the last stretch of the race. And that last little bit felt like the longest stretch eeeevvveer. Grant Avenue basically never ends. As much as I love my dear Ogden, I've never hated that street more in my life. Did you know that there are pretty much no trees along that stretch? Very few trees. No shade. Just a hot, wide, barren street speckled with delirious runners. I so wanted someone to just run up and dump water over my head Superbowl style.
Somehow, the stretch got smaller and the chutes finally appeared. Running through them I found our cheering section! Almost my entire family, some awesome friends, and then Shanna again (Shanna has some strange magical power to appear at random spots throughout the course when you least expect it. It's pretty great.)
Seeing everyone gave me more energy and helped me make it through that last little bit without tripping across the finish line (a genuine fear of mine). FINISHER! I came in at 3:58 (under 4!). We were all able to beat our PRs and walked away happy about that.
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| Shanna's killer signs |
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| Some of my cheering squad |
With St. George I was plagued with post-race blisters. I'm happy to report that this wasn't the case with Ogden! HOWEVER. This time around those blisters were replaced by a few blackened toenails. 1 3/4, to be exact. I'm hoping those little suckers can hold on throughout summer and decide to fall off sometime around winter when I won't need them to look as presentable for others. I'm including a photo, but keeping it small so you don't have to see all of my scary looking toenails.
It's been a few months since the race so my IT bands are slowly healing. I won't be running much for the next little bit in hopes of healing faster. I'm thinking about #3, though. Ogden again or maybe Top of Utah. I'm so happy to have discovered such a love for running in the last 3 or 4 years. It's given me a lot of really great experiences and through those experiences I've learned a lot that doesn't even directly relate to running. Three cheers for running!
That being said, Charlotte pretty well summed up the experience with this awesome little ditty:
Well done :)
