{ST. GEORGE MARATHON}
Saturday October 4, 2014
I've totally been procrastinating this blog post!
And I'm not entirely sure why...I thought that I had more photos than I do,
which shouldn't really matter, I mean I ran a MARATHON.
I should probably blog about it.
So here's the story. In March I ran the Phoenix Marathon and my running partner Rebekah ran the 1/2. After she finished the race she was like...Hey Cara I kinda wanna run a Marathon now, and I need you to run it with me so we can train together...and I was like sure, why not?
The St. George Marathon is a lottery so you put you name in and then a few weeks later you find out if you're in or out. Since it was our first time ever putting our name in we really weren't expecting to get in at all, but we did!! AHH! Now it was time to seriously start training.
At the time I didn't realize we would be training during the SUMMER. THE SUMMER. IN ARIZONA. Pretty much all our long runs began at 4:45 AM on a Saturday morning and all my weekday runs were at 9 PM to avoid scorching temps. It was a rough schedule. Lesson learned.
The Marathon was a blast! Rebekah and I ran the entire 26.2 miles together!
Huge thanks to Stan and Cathy for being there and cheering us on along the way!
Friday afternoon = EXPO DAY aka freak out day.
Suzette (my cousin) Me & Rebekah (my running parter)
We drove the course the day before to map out the course.
Morning of. 4:45 in the morning waiting 1.5 hours in line for a bus to pick us up.
(unforgettable, but not a highlight of the day)
7 miles down!
14 miles down!!!!
21 miles down!!!
26.2 miles COMPLETED!!!
My friend Kim at work made this. My fridge motivation.
Charm Necklace:
Left to Right: Disney, Phoenix, St George AND a tortoise and the hare :)
3 Marathons in the books!!
Fun things to remember:
Wake up time 3:30 AM.
Waited in line for a bus for 1.5 hours the morning of
The man in front of us in line was telling horror stories from his worst marathon experiences, it was freaking us out so bad we had to switch lines.
They delayed the start 30 minutes because of the bus problem.
We saw a girl running in a bath robe for the first mile
There were NO lines for the port-a-potties at the start line (this is UNHEARD OF)
We stood around a fire pit with an insulated blanket before the gun went off
I saw my cousin Kevin and cut about 20 people off just to go give him a hug within the first 2 minutes
Lady with a huge container of chocolate chip cookies
Stan & Cathy cheering us on at mile 7 and 21 and 26!
The sweetest lady handing out baby wipes at the port-a-potties
The array of candy at each water station (lemon heads, skittles, red vines)
Small bags of ice being handed out at mile 25
THE ICY HOT volunteers who rubbed icy hot anywhere and everywhere from the waist down at each water station- the most amazing thing I've ever experienced during a race!!
Ice cold chocolate milk being handed out at the finish line
FOOD at the finish:
Great harvest bread slices with butter
Fruit: cantaloupe, oranges, honeydew and bananas
Yogurt
Ice cream sandwiches and popsicles
Fountain drinks and yes I totally drank a Diet Coke right after :) ha.
Yay! Sounds like such a fun memory! One of these days I'll hopefully run a full...one day. haha
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