Oregon Marathon

July 1st was my last really long run before my marathon. I had planned on doing 23 miles, but one of my water bottles that I was supposed to use twice was gone when I got to it, so I altered my route and only did 20. It didn't go as well as my first 20 miler, but I still would have been happy with that pace if I could have kept it up for 6 more miles.

Rog and the kids tried to find me out on my run, but didn't end up finding me until I only had about a mile left. They picked up donuts while they were out which was a nice treat when I got home.

I tapered down the rest of the month until it was marathon time! 13 one week...

And 6.2 the next.

The day of the marathon, Rog got up to see me off at 3:00 am.

A lady in our ward, Vanessa Heber, was also running the marathon, so she drove me up. It was nice to have someone to talk to on the way up and at the top while we were waiting to start. She runs many marathons each year and is FAST, so I said goodbye to her as she took off at the start.

I was excited and started way faster than I should have. I was thinking if I go fast now, I won't have to go as fast later. But really it was, I went too fast at the beginning, so I had nothing left at the end.

It started in Vernonia and followed a paved forested trail down into Banks. The trail was beautiful and reminded me a lot of the Provo River Trail. One thing about it being on that trail though was that the water stations were unpredictable. There were plenty, but I couldn't rely on them being at certain mile markers. 

Rog was an amazing support and found me many times along the trail. He had made awesome signs for him and the kids to hold up.

Cutest cheerleaders ever!

They saw Vanessa before they saw me. 

I was feeling really good the first few times I saw them.

The first half is uphill. It's gradual at first, but there are a few pretty good hills you have to climb before you get to the halfway point.

I was grateful to be finished with the uphill portion and switch to downhill, but that soon changed. I started having IT band pain around mile 17. My legs were tired from the uphill and the downhill pounding was killing them. I had to stop to stretch them out a few times and it was all over after that. I got out of the mentality of just run no matter what and kept going back and forth between running and walking.

It was also hot! Any chance I got, I poured water over my head to try to keep cool. That is definitely not all sweat on my back. And also notice my tumor on my left hip - that's where I kept all my Clif Bloks (energy chews). I got so sick of eating them along the way.

One of the times I saw Rog and the kids I just stopped and hugged Rog telling him how I couldn't do it. He let me complain for a minute and then pushed me along telling me to just do it.

They had 4 hour pacers that caught up with me around mile 23. (They were the only pacers they had and I didn't know they were going to have them until the morning of. Otherwise I might have planned to run with them the whole time and I suspect things would have gone a lot more smoothly if I had.) I told them I had to finish in under 4 hours and they were totally willing to help me do that. They were an incredible help and kept me running until about mile 25.6. At that point I just couldn't do it anymore and walked for .3 or .4 miles before finally making myself run to the finish line.

I came in right at 4:03:00 - just 3 minutes over my goal of 4 hours! I kept telling myself if I finish in under 4 hours, I never have to do this again, but I just couldn't keep running that last .6 miles. 

What really makes it depressing is my average pace was 9:16 - way slower than all of my training runs! 

But on the bright side, 10 years (and 3 kids) later, I finally finished another marathon and I shaved off 34 minutes from my first marathon. 

Logan was super excited to be taking this picture with me. Can't blame him, it was a long morning for everyone!

It was a super small marathon with only 131 finishers (64 female), so despite not accomplishing my goal, I took second (out of five) in my age group.

My IT band totally seized up after the race and I limped around for a few days until it loosened back up. But I finished and that's all that really matters, right?!

When I talked to my dad the next day, he told me the secret to a good marathon is starting out at a pace that feels so slow you could run at that pace all day. I definitely did not do that, so in a few years I'm going to have to try again with that mentality and see if it goes a little better for me. I also think I should try picking a marathon in the spring or the fall because running in the heat is my kryptonite!

The medal features Haystack Rock (at Cannon Beach), so I took it with me when I was there 4 days later to take a picture with it there. (Yes, it is a ridiculously large medal.)