Saturday, June 11, 2011

Utah Valley Marathon

Today was marathon day and it was quite eventful.  First, here is a picture of a happy Steph and Holly before the fun. 
Here is a recap of todays fun.  I woke up at 2:45 A.M., CrAzY!!  Jake was very kind and woke up to drive Holly and I to the buses, Jake you are AWESOME!  We climbed into a van, not a bus, and got a little nervous when the driver asked us where we were going, that can never be a good sign.  This dude was crazysauce to say the least.  At one point I almost told him "hugs not drugs, dude."  He was a scary driver and we got lost...a few times.  It took us an hour and five minutes to drive to Wellington.  We all thought he was going to drive us to the middle of nowhere and leave us for dead.  But we finally made it and were happy to see a lot of familiar faces.  Todd, Rachelle, Ashley, Erica, Bobby Jo and a few ladies from the gym that I know but can't recall their names at the moment.

We started running with the 3:10 pace group because Seth, GM of 26.2 Running Co., was leading it.  I stuck with them until about mile 5 or 6 and then got too far behind at an aid station.  Holly stuck with them and did awesome 3:15, she amazes me!!  I chugged along at a good pace and stopped at the half way point for a quick potty break, sorry but when you drink more than a camel sometimes you just gotta go!  I was doing great until mile 15 when BOTH of my quads started cramping up, it was HORRIBLE and lasted the remainder of the race, 11.2 miles of MISERY!

At mile 17 I started my "dedication miles."  Mile 17 was for Jake because we have been together for 17 years, 13 years of marriage and 4 years of dating.  The moment I started thinking about Jake I started crying.  He is the most kind and loving person.  He is always trying to do whatever it takes to make me happy and he works so incredibly hard for our little family.  I finally acknowledged that I am a slug of a wife.  Yes, I keep a clean house and I take care of the kids, etc.  But when it comes to being a good wife I am seriously lacking.  I almost hyperventilated because I was crying so hard.  I truly love Jake to death and I have made a vow to myself that I will be a better wife and friend to him.  I am so blessed that he picked me and I think it's high time I started showing it. 

Mile 18 wasn't assigned to anyone and that was okay because I had Offspring to help me through it.  Which was good because I needed a little break from crying.

Mile 19 was a douse.  My dad died 19 years ago in a car accident so I decided to dedicate mile 19 to him.  As if I wouldn't have been emotional enough the song playing on my ipod fit my thoughts exactly and turned me into a real mess.  The song was by Avril Lavigne, it's called Wish You Were Here, I think you get it.  I am listening to it now and crying all over again.  Sheesh, I'm a huge baby!

I saw Jake, Jorge and all the kids at about mile 20.  The kids had made awesome signs and Kobe and Jake ran with me for a bit.  I REALLY wished they could finish the race with me, I was feeling super lonely and emotional and wished more than anything for someone to run the last 6 miles with me.

I was crying...again and we got some pretty horrible pictures but I will not be sharing those :)  Kobe just kept running and running, people even started cheering him on.

Mile 21 was for McKenna.  Kenna has been struggling with gymnastics lately and has been really scared.  They are working on REALLY hard tricks and she lost her back handspring on beam while we were in Florida and she has been stressed about it.  I always tell Kenna that when stuff gets hard you can't just quit, you have to work your hardest and soon you will get it.  This was very fitting for me because I was really hurting and I really wanted to quit.  I got emotional yet again but I kept running, actually at this point it was probably more of a crawl but I kept going.

Mile 22 was for my grandma Eleanor who passed away last month.  I remembered something my mom had told me.  When my grandma first started struggling she wanted so badly to get up and walk around but her little body just wouldn't let her.  My mom asked her if she wanted to go run a race and she said "YES!" So mile 22 was for grandma and it's a good thing because I really wanted to stop and walk for a minute but I couldn't let my sweet little grandma down.

Mile 23 wasn't for anyone, so I did stop and walk for a minute.

Miles 25-26.2 were for Kobe, at his request.  I just love that little guy and I had to keep going for him.  His favorite song came on my ipod too, Justin Bieber's Never Say Never.  He likes it because it says his name in it.  I embraced Justin's wise words and found that song VERY fitting as well.  I have had some strong feelings that people are trying to bring me down lately and I found it very fitting.  Not to mention "I will never say never, I will fight til forever."  This song really made me push through the pain and yes I have Bieber Fever ;)  I think I replayed that song 3 times and it really helped me.  I thought of Kenna too, who just yesterday busted out EVERY SINGLE work of that song! 

As I was approaching the finish line I was dragging and just wanted to crawl across.  Then I heard "come on girl, you are almost there."  It was Rachelle (runningfortrevor.blogspot.com).  Her blog is AMAZING and so is she.  We have done a couple of long runs together and I was SOOOOO excited to see her.  We ran across the finish line together and I made her give me a hug..sorry Rachelle, I know I was super stinky and sweaty :)  I loved having her to finish with and we both qualified for BOSTON!!!  We crossed the line at 3:31:53 according to the picture, I haven't checked my official time yet.

My Garmin read 3:28:53 with an average pace of 7.59 minute mile.  But I did have that one potty break so I guess that was the difference.  After I hugged Rachelle, I just started crying.  I was hurting BAD. See?
Big ol' baby!!  Holly took me over to find some water and Jake gave me my smoothie, they are the best.  Then Jorge was kind enough to give me a little massage to try to work out the cramps, he is a massage therapist and he is the bomb!!!  I can't express how much I appreciated him doing that knowing that I was a big, sweaty, stinky mess.  Holly walked up with our Boston Qualifier shirts and Jake made us pose, I really didn't want to. 

I am so proud of Holly for being awesomsauce.  She is super speedy! 

I couldn't wait to get home to my ice bath, it felt awesome!  And I earned myself not only a Boston Qualifier shirt but this cute necklace, it was supposed to be for my birthday but Jake decided that I had earned it...after a little convincing ;)


I am so glad it's over, so glad I am married to the best guy EVER and so glad I don't have to do it again until September 17th.  The good news is that since I qualified this time I don't have to kill myself on Top of Utah ;)

I am finally done.  Sorry for the long, emotional post.

Do you have either a Jazzy Electric Scooter or a hot tub that I can borrow?? 

I can't walk, last year that didn't set in until much later.  I hope I didn't cause any serious leg issues.




5 comments:

  1. Girl your post made me cry. I really am not an emotional person but I just cannot hold anything in today. You are absolutely amazing! I cannot believe you fought cramps for 11 miles. You are my hero.

    I absolutely love your dedication miles. So inspiring.

    I feel suprisingly good today but after Ogden I literally could not even walk. Keep the ib profin 800 in you every four hours and take it easy. Let me know if you need some because I have an entire bottle. ha!

    I just love you Steph and am so proud of you! Now bring on Boston! :)

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  2. Way.To.Go Stephanie. Beautiful post and run. Loved it!

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  3. I'm still crying after reading about your dedication miles. I'm just blown away!

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  4. What a great post! I love the idea of dedication miles, I have never heard of that before. You had me getting all teared up.

    And wow great time! Congrats on Boston qualifying, that is so AWESOME! Great job working through the cramps.

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  5. you are an inspiration! way to go. loved the idea of having dedication miles.

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