St. George Marathon

I know that this is not so recent however, I wanted to write about my experience in the St. George Marathon. October 7, 2006, I participated in the St. George marathon. I have many reasons for running the marathon; staying fit, making a goal and sticking to it, and being able to say I have run a marathon, but the real reason is that my dad encouraged me to do it. Driving down to St. George was stormy the whole way and even when we pulled into St. George it was raining. I really didn't want to run in the rain or wind, I was really quite nervous and had no idea what to expect. Dad, Phil and I drove the route and I kept thinking, "Where is the end??!!" Then there was Phil that was falling asleep in the back seat and said, "I am wore out just driving the 26 miles!" I stayed with mom and dad in the hotel that night and Phil stayed with the kids at our friends the Kabonics' in Toquerville.
The alarm went off at 3:20 A.M. and as I rolled out of bed, I thought, "what am I doing?" We met Scott Buchanan (my cousin) in the lobby and had a continental breakfast (it is hard to force food down at 4 in the morning and when you know that you will be running 26.2 miles in just a short time). We got onto the bus at around 5:30, it took about 45 minutes to get to the starting line. The race doesn't start until 6:45 A.M. so they have these fire pits (probably 50) that everyone just stands around trying to stay somewhat warm until it is time to line up for the race. They also have 100 port-a-potty lined up and you wouldn't think that with that many potty's that there would be a line but the line went on forever. We had to pill our clothes off about 10 minutes before the race started and that was probably the hardest part about the race, it was so cold I thought that I wouldn't be able to move if I took my warm-ups off.
Dad and I started off, it was dark and there was a full moon and not a cloud in the sky, what a perfect morning to run. It didn't take long for us to warm up and we had a great pace going. You would be so amazed at the people that raced. It was so crazy!!! At mile 7? we came to Vejo hill, this hill is the hill that everyone talks about when running the St. George marathon. It is a mile long and steep. We got to the bottom of the hill just as the sun was coming up over the top of the hill. I wanted to get to the top before the sun got there, a little more than half way up most everyone ends up walking because running doesn't get you up the hill any faster, so I walked and made it to the top without much sun on the hill. I can't believe how great my run was. ---A little footnote...At the beginning of July, I injured the side of my knee (my IT Band) while training. It hurt so bad, I had to take 2 weeks off of running and wasn't sure if I would be able to run at all because every time I tried to run it would start to hurt right around mile 4. I went to the doctor and he did an electro treatment and gave me some exercises to work on. Amazingly, I didn't have any more problems with my knee not at all.--- So to be able to run the marathon and not be having any knee problems was great!!! Right before mile 17 there is a downhill slope and I had to end up walking a little sooner then I wanted to because my knee did start to hurt.
Dad told me even before we started the marathon, that I could just take off if I needed to. I think that is crazy talk because, it is his fault that I'm doing this so I wanted to stick with him for as long as I possibly could. Right after mile 18, I turned around to see how my dad was doing (he was back about 10 feet) and I said, "Dad, how are you doing?" He said he was doing fine but that I could go if I needed to. No, I was fine. At 18.5 mile I turned around again and dad looked me straight in the eyes and said, “GO, JULIE! I want you to get the best time you possibly can!” As I tried to decide if I should go or stay and run with my dad I started to cry. I had come so far and I didn't really want to leave my running partner, but I also knew that he wanted me to do my best, so I went. I turned around and started running with tears running down my face. I really had a hard time leaving my dad, what a spiritual expericnce. My dad came in only 11 minutes behind me and says that this will be his last marathon.
I am so glad that I was able to run with him, he was such a great coach. We would run and would only stop at the water stations that were every other mile. I think that if I had not known that I would have not done as well. Your body kind-of needs that little bit of break so that it can continue on for 26 miles. The worst part of the race was the last 3 miles. The course had changed this year and so dad wasn't sure where it went so we didn't drive that part. So when I came to that part of the race it was unfamiliar to me. I knew that I didn't have that much farther so I wasn't going to stop, but every corner I would turn I thought I would see the finish line. I was dying, I just wanted to finish!! Finally I turned a corner and there it was (still 3 blocks away) but there it was and then I saw my family. They were so cute: first, my mom saw me, she must have been walking with Lexi to see if she could see me because as soon as she saw me, she turned around and took off running with Lexi, then I saw the rest of them, Phil, Garrett, Porter, Alisa and Chad. As I ran past them, the kids were cheering for me and I felt so good. I tried to sprint the last mile because I saw the time clock coming up on 4:20 and I wanted to make it there. I crossed the finish line at 4:20:01 (that was the start/finish time) My chip time (the official time) was 4:19:20, they have you put a chip on your shoe and it will start timing when you cross the starting line and stop when you cross the finish line. After the race Phil asked me if I was going to run another marathon? I think I will have to say Yes, it was an awesome experience!!!