The Half Marathon

A couple of months ago, Rosie told me she was doing the Utah Valley 1/2 Marathon and invited me to participate with her. I seriously thought about it for a few weeks, and then decided, why not? I had waited so long to register that it had sold out and I had to register by signing up for a team. I was a team of one. Yeah me!

As luck would have it, right before the marathon on Saturday, Rosie got sick and was unable to participate. Because of sickness, weather, and the fact that we both had small children, neither of us ended up getting much (OK none at all) training in. We had decided that we were going to go for it anyway and then Rosie had to bow out. The night before I was desperately trying to find somebody to walk that distance with me. My dad saved the day and decided to join me, although he was less than excited about the 3 AM wakeup call.

Saturday morning, June 11th, 3 am rolled around much faster than desirable. I rolled out of bed, got dressed, put on my 5 Fingers and headed out. My dad and I drove down to the Provo Mall where we got on one of many school buses and headed up the canyon. All you saw in front of our bus were more buses. Seriously, who else would be up at such a crazy time of day?

At about 4:40ish AM, we got off the bus to a nice little area with fires lit all over. Let me just say that the amount of fires they had did not match for the thousands of people that were there and it was COLD!
I have to admit, I am a people watcher and I love watching large gatherings of people. I tried to keep myself warm and watched all the people around us. After I got tired of standing, and not about to sit in the weeds, I made my way over to the guard rail and continued my people watching as I played Angry Birds. Seriously, why is that game so addicting?

This is me trying to stay warm before the start of the race

About 30 minutes to the start of the race there was a mass exodus down toward the starting line. There were so many people. There were volunteers reminding everybody that the race was going to start on time and to please make your way to the starting line. When the race started I would hazard to guess that we were about 1/8 - 1/4th of a mile from the actual starting line, in the mass of people moving forward. My favorite part of the start? The volunteer stating, "Please make sure that you get credit for this race, make sure your racing bibs are exposed, whatever you have to do to do that," over and over again as everybody crossed over the starting line. I crossed over at 6:03 AM.

Photo courtesy of the Daily Herald

As we started, my dad and I were making pretty good time. We were averaging about 4 miles an hour and we were staying up with all of the other walkers. Not so bad. Then, my shoes started giving out. Not good. Meaning that my feet were not as broken into my Vibrams as I thought they were. By about a mile and a 1/2 the balls of my feet started to burn. Oh pain. I started to walk on the outside of my feet just to give the balls a little bit of a break. By mile 3 I didn't know how I was going to finish the next 10 miles. I tried to call Mike to see if he would bring me some different shoes. No answer. I got a hold of my sister who met me at Canyon Glen (mile 5ish) where I changed my Vibrams for my good ol' broken in Merrils (also not walking shoes really) and I was good to start again. My feet still hurt, but not as bad as before. That would change, trust me.

Mile 3 was the first time I wanted to quit. Mile 5, the marathoners started to pass me. Mile 8, I wanted to quit, but just kept telling myself, it is only 5 more miles. Mile 9, my dad started stopping a lot to stretch his legs. He was having a hard time. I would stop with him, but it was so painful to start walking again. Mike and Little Man drove past me. They stopped with traffic, I passed them, they passed me. I spent about 5 minutes almost catching up to them as they inched their way forward, then they were gone. I guess the whole time, Little Man was yelling at Mike to stop because they just drove past me.

Mile 9 1/2, I tried jogging, but my feet seriously felt like they were just wooden blocks attached to the end of my legs. Mile 10, my dad stopped but told me to keep going. I kept turning around and watching for him (I was a bit worried about him.) I would see him walking behind me, then stopping, then walking until I couldn't see him anymore.

I called my dad at about mile 10 1/2 and asked him how he was doing. I was willing to stop and wait for him if needed, but he told my that my mom was on her way to pick him up. I stopped worrying and kept walking. Mile 12 (only 1.1 miles left!) I seriously wanted to stop. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of how much I would regret it if I got so close and didn't finish. I kept moving. I was seriously hobbling at this point. I called my mom to see if she had my dad yet. Nope, she didn't anticipate the horrible traffic situation and was seriously a couple of miles away. I tried calling my dad, his phone had died and it went straight to voicemail.

At 500 North (only 5 more blocks, I can DO this!) Mike called me. He and Little Man were parked and working their way toward me. We met up at 200 North. Mike and Little Man joined me to walk to the end until the crowd at the finish line got way to big and they dropped off. Here are a couple of pictures of me as I am coming up on the finish line. I don't know if you can tell how tired I am. Training would have been smart. I don't know if I would have made a good pioneer. :)

In the act of finishing the race, we lost my dad. He apparently finished as I was working my way out of the crowed to try to see if I could find him in the racers that were still coming in. We passed like ships in the night and didn't even see each other. We spent about an hour and a half looking for him (mostly Mike because the longer I went without moving a ton the less I was able to move) and never found him. In the meantime, he was passed out on the County Courthouse stairs with a dead phone. We are glad he was ok, but sad he had to walk a couple of blocks further to find somebody to drive him to his car.

I am glad I finished this race. I might have been one of the very last people to come in from the 1/2 marathon and about half of the marathoners finished before me, but I FINISHED! It was such a feeling of accomplishement walking over that finishing line. I don't know if I could have done it if it hadn't been for the following:

1 - All the people sitting along the route watching for their loved ones and shouting encouragement (You're doing good! You're Almost done!)

2 - All the marathoners who would encourage me as they passed me. Seriously, they were running further than I was walking and they took the time to encourage me. It was greatly appreciated and greatly needed.

3 - Mike & Little Man walking the last 2 blocks with me. Seriously needed that.

4 - The emotion of all the people at the finishing line cheering everybody in. Having some friends there also that called out to me by name. Awesome.

5 - Sheer determination and will power, coupled with the thought that I would be SO disappointed in myself if I didn't finish.

I paid the price. I hobbled Sunday but my body has forgiven me (except for the numerous blisters that abound on my feet, they are still there) and for the most part I feel back to my normal self. If, and that is a big IF, I ever do a half marathon again, I will train for it. Even if I only plan on walking, I have learned that I need to be training to walk that far. Our bodies are amazing gifts and can do amazing things, but would do better with a little more preperation. :)

Even though Rosie wasn't able to do the race with me, I thank her for asking me so many months ago if I wanted to do it with her. Now I know I can. :)