St. George Marathon

So..I actually finished the St George Marathon! It may not seem like such an amazing thing, since this was my third time running it. But, it was the toughest marathon that I have done! First of all, my training has been, let me say, less than adequate. I tried to be dilligent, but life with Lily got in the way. There was always something more important than than training. So, that was the first thing that was going against me. The second was this terrible cold that I have had all week. I started to feel better a few days before the race, but I was still pretty congested. Then before the race started I tweaked my knee while Julie and I were running around the trees in the dark looking for a spot to go to the bathroom. So, going into the race I was not in the best shape. This was the first marathon for Julie so I had every intention of helping her run it. But, it was quite the opposite. Julie is my hero!! She was so incredibly patient with me through the entire race. She was the one who encouraged me and kept telling me that we were going to finish when I felt like giving up. We did really well in the beginning and kept up with the 4:15 pacer. Around the Veyo hill, we stopped to walk and fell back a little. We tried to keep in front of the 4:30 pacer for the next few miles. But, after 15 miles I hit the wall. Every step was painful and we were still so far from the finish. We got to see all of our "fans" at mile 23. I got to give Lily a quick hug and then we were off again. When I finally got to the finish line I searched the crowds until I saw my family. I grabbed Lily and we ran across the finish line together. My overall time was 5 hours and 11 minutes. Not bad for not training and having a cold!