Big Cottonwood Marathon

I DID IT!  Well, sort of.  I finally feel great about my race, but I missed the Boston Qualifying time by 1 minute. :(  and 7 seconds.  I guess it just keeps me looking forward to the next race right?

The race was supposed to start at 6:40 am and the buses loaded at 4am.  I left my house at 3:15am, picked up Heidi Galbraith (my friend in the neighborhood) and headed to the bus load.  Here is a GREAT shot of me on the bus!  You can tell it's early!  Amber is next to me and Jenn and Kathryn behind me.  Katie and Tara are behind them, but they aren't really ready for the shot like me. haha

Look how cute miss Kathryn is.  She is the running vet of our group and beats us all by 20 minutes or more in races.  We are just glad she still likes to train with us, because she definitely keeps us all laughing AND working hard at the same time.  She is a nurse and besides being a great friend, she is everyone's doctor too.  She is in school to be a NP and will finish up this year.  Can't wait for her to be able to look into the boys ears and throat and prescribe medicine without having to drag them to the doctor's office. :)

 

We had a minor catastrophe on the ride up.  1st of all, the bus driver was going the wrong way, but fortunately Kathryn is from Draper and got him all straightened out.  We were behind several buses due to our unexpected detour.  It was okay, because we thought it was better to be warm, than standing out in the cold waiting for other buses..... However, when we got to the top of the canyon (about 3 miles from the start) and heard on the radio that a tour bus was high centered with only 1 wheel on the ground blocking the road.  No buses could get by, or turn around.

Fortunately, I told the bus driver I would take over and get the situation worked out. haha.  We sat for about 30 minutes waiting for some one to do something, and then they finally decided to have us all walk up about 1/2 mile and get shuttled to the start from there.  I was just glad it wasn't raining, because it was in the forecast to dump on us!

L2R: Me, Jennifer Franks, Katie Pritchard, Tara Broberg, Heidi Galbraith, Kathryn Morrill

We finally made it to the start and the porta potties.  Look how BEAUTIFUL it was up there.  We were eye level with the clouds and still, NO RAIN!!  Everyone was hurrying to get ready to start and after all the detours and delays, it only put the race back about 30 minutes.  Everything else from there on was SMOOTH sailin'.  I love this picture in garbage bags... we were prepared for rain and cold. But the start of the race turned out to be perfect weather.

 

 These are some RockStar women.  This is Jenn's first marathon and she did awesome!  She just wanted to run in 4 hours and she got that almost to the second.  I tell ya, a lot of racing is mental.  If you tell yourself you can do it... you really can!  I love running with Jenn.  Seems like we see eye to eye on most every topic and it's fun to rant and discuss while we exercise.

 Love this Katie Girl... She is basically my same pace (usually a little faster) but we train together and I think she is super entertaining and fun.  Look at her next to me she is half my size, and then know that she has a baby too!!  She just popped her out and got right back in the game.  She amazes me!  So glad I have good running buddies to aspire to be like.

 It was so fun to have a big group to cheer for!  I'm usually the last one over the line, so getting to root for others was super fun.  I love watching people come across the finish line.  It's very emotional, and inspirational.  Even if you aren't a runner, seeing people accomplish a goal is very moving.

 YAY Amber!!  She made her goal and I KNEW she would.  She did awesome and ran it in 4 hours. It's so fun to have friends to train with.  Even though Amber and I didn't do our runs physically together, we would call and chat about how we did, or what we were going to try this time, etc. It was fun to have some one concerned because people not training get so sick of listening to you talk about all the boring details.  It's my favorite part though!

 Below is the whole group... we all finished.  BARELY WALKING!  Down hill is a killer on the body, but I was super happy with the time it gave me. I didn't have any running pictures with Heidi or Kathryn because they are so fast.  BUT, like Kathryn, Heidi is one of those natural runners that still just runs with you because she is nice! I don't know if I have ever met a more athletic person than Heidi.  She is good at everything she does. OH, and she has 9 kids that keep her busy outside of sports and running. I told you... I have some amazing friends, right?

Time to train for St. George now!!! Who wants to run with me?