MARATHON FINISHER!

WAHOO.....I did it! :) It feels like a dream, but I did it! I know it sounds totally crazy to say this, but I totally loved all 26.2 miles of it. Well, okay minus just a couple! The Ogden Marathon is a beautiful course and I had great company to help me finish.

Of course, we had to start the girls' weekend off by making a stop at the Cheesecake Factory. For me it is all about the food. I don't share either, just ask any of these gals! :)

Laurel, Shannon, Tiff, Kim, Stacia,Dani, Amber, me, Ashley, Darla, Dana

Then we headed up to the house we rented for the night in Eden. It was a nice house that overlooked Pineview Reservoir. This is the view we had from the house...gorgeous! You would have thought we would stay up late and take advantage of a night away from our kids, but nope. It was serious business...we had races to run early the next morning! :)

This is the before picture of Shannon and me. We were waiting for the bus to take us the rest of the way to the top of our run. I had a scared smile on my face and butterflies in my stomach like crazy. I had no idea what was ahead of me. All I knew was that once I was dropped at the top, I had to run all the way back down.

It was finally race time and we were off. It was fun seeing all the different people running the marathon and wondering what their stories were. There were all different ages and all different disabilities. There were also lots of people running in honor of others for different reasons...pretty humbling!

I was surprised that the most emotional time during the race for me was about mile 7. It was when we passed the first big crowd of people cheering. My emotions went crazy and I couldn't hardly hold back the tears. I realized I was really running a marathon!! The people were yelling "You can do it, good job!" and when I heard that, I knew I could do it!!

After that the real fun began. We had an all-you-can-eat buffet the whole way down. I didn't pass anything up either! We had oranges, apples, bananas, granola bars, gatorade and even a popsicle...yum!! Then when we got to about mile 15, the water stop had wet sponges. So of course I grabbed one and had myself a cold sponge bath to cool off...it felt awesome!

We had been looking forward to the downhill part of the race, but when we finally got there (about mile 18), we were wishing for flat ground. We hadn't trained enough on downhill, so we started cramping up. I felt so bad for Shannon. Her legs were cramping so much she could hardly move. We stretched a lot and kept going and before I knew it, the finish line was in sight. I kinda felt like "wait, I am not ready to be done". I wanted to savor every moment of my first marathon!

We finished strong (with full bellies) and our whole cheering squad was there cheering. What a great feeling to see everyone so excited. Here is our after picture. With 26.2 miles behind us, we were smiling even bigger now and still standing!

Everyone else did awesome in their races too. Darla, Amber, Dani, and Tiff did the half. Dana and Ashley did the 5k. A big thanks to the pregnant chauffeurs, Kim and Stacia, for driving us to our starting points. Next year they will be running too! :)

Ya, I was pretty stinky and Stacia knew it. She kept her distance, ha ha ha!!

My mom, Braylee, Briggs, Pace, mother-in-law, father-in-law, Todd, Jaygen, Candace, Lillian, Kevin, Isabelle

(My dad was home sick, but I felt all his support!)

My biggest fans!

This marathon was a great experience for me! I am not going to be running another one any time soon (I can barely walk), but I for sure want to run one again!!!! Who else is in????? :)

WHAT AN ADVENTURE?!

Dani, Shannon, Tiff

Me, Dani, Tiff

This running stuff has been the biggest adventure! We have seen some unbelievable sunrises when we are running, so I wanted to capture a picture of one. Of course the morning I took my camera, it was overcast and you couldn't see anything but dark, gray clouds. After running with my camera for 15 miles, I was going to get a picture no matter what!!! We had to take two pictures to get us all since there is no one else crazy enough to be out and about at such a crazy hour. This is a picture of us on one of our long runs that we started at 4:30 a.m.....crazy!!!!!!
I totally had to take a picture of us because this has been an adventure I never want to forget (actually I don't know how I ever could)!! This is what we look like every morning when we hit the streets running. It would be easy to mistake us for miners or railroad workers, but nope, we are just runners!!! It is so hard to roll out of bed when my alarm goes off at 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. but once we head out it is a blast. Who knew you could have so much fun so early in the morning?!

We have ran through it all too! We have ran in single digit temperatures, lots of wind, snow and rain. Some of my favorite runs have been in blizzards. Nothing like snow blowing in your face so hard you can't even see!!! :) Oh, and how about the dogs?! We should be called heroes for the dogs that we have conquered! It is true, some of them have just been little poodle like dogs, but still, it is a dog with a fierce bark!! :) We have had lots of laughs too! Things might seem funnier than they really are when it is so early in the morning, but we have had some good laughs! Then there is the whole being pitch dark factor. I am soooo scared of the dark so I can't hardly believe that we are out running, sometimes in the middle of nowhere, in the pitch dark. We know that there is no one else around but we have heard some of the scariest noises!

The marathon has crept up on me way faster than I wanted it too. We did our last little run this morning and now we rest for two days and then it is the BIG race. Do I feel ready? Not at all! Am I nervous? I am scared to death! The marathon seemed so far away and I thought I had plenty of time to train. But when you have everything else going on in your life, and get a stress fracture in your leg, it kinda interfers with training. I feel like there is so much more that I should do before the race but it is too late! When I came home this morning from our run, Todd asked me if I was going to cry. I felt like I could have! This has been more than just running for me. I have made great friendships and I have accomplished things that I never thought I would. I hope I can say that about this marathon too!!

I have truly enjoyed running so much! I know this adventure is not over and we will keep making great running memories, but I am sad that this part of it is over. It has been a blast getting ready for my first marathon. I am not sad however, that we won't have to wake up at 4:30 anymore! It will also be nice to get the whole "running gang" back together. Since we have all been training for different races, we have been on different training schedules and it will be fun to run altogether again!

I can't gaurantee that I won't be crawling across the finish line at my marathon, but I know I can finish because of all the support I have. Todd has been so encouraging and supporting. Then there is all the support that I get from all the gals. Good luck to everyone else in your own races!!! We are going to have a way fun girls' weekend!!!

Oh, and one last thing. If anyone has anything that needs to be discussed or a problem that needs to be solved, let me and Shannon know. Don't worry, we have a good 4 or 4 1/2 hours that we can be discussing it! Ha Ha I can't wait...Ogden here we come! :)

Jaygen's Preschool Program

I can't believe that summer is almost here, but it is! Jaygen had a short preschool program the other day. It was an end of year/mother's day program. All the kids had painted different pictures that went along with a song and they held their picture up while the song played. Then we watched a slide show of some things they have done throughout the school year. When it was over, the kids had presents for their moms that they had made. They had made molds of their handprints and painted them...so cute!


Well, before we left I thought I should get a picture of Jaygen with Mrs. Edwards. I was totally laughing because Briggs jumped right up next to Jaygen and wanted to be in the picture. Then Pace wanted to be in it too. It was so funny! Pace wants to go to school so bad. If you notice in the picture, he is wearing Jaygen's backpack home for him and carrying his picture. Oh, my boys are always making me laugh!!!!