St. George Marathon 2012

 

October 6, 2012 was the 3rd time I ran the St. George Marathon.  It was also the first time my children were there to see me run.  That was my favorite part about this race.  Second in importance was that I ran another PR.  My third marathon was St George in 2011.  I ran it in 3:44:29 and qualified for Boston for the first time.  I will run Boston in April 2013 for the first time, but this marathon was about getting faster.  I trained all the way across the country and back.  I ran at high altitudes, in high heat and nasty humidity and even under threat of fire.  My first long run of the training was in Bryce Canyon.  I ran in Colorado before the fire evacuation.  I ran in very high heat and humidity in North Carolina.  In fact, my favorite training story from our trip happened during our beach trip.  I had to run 20 miles.  My plan was to start early, run 10 miles down the road and turn around to come back.  The details have escaped me a little, but basically the first 10 miles was great.  Kevin was checking on me and met me for refueling.  After 10, I told him I was fine and would see him back at the beach house.  Around 15 miles, things started feeling pretty terrible.  I started getting dizzy and needed to WALK.  I do not walk.  I had gotten to about 16 miles when I thought I saw Kevin running toward me.  Silly me!  That couldn't really be happening.  Kevin was at the beach house.  Thankfully, it was Kevin and he had 2 very cold bottles of water with him.  I suppose I confirmed that I was in trouble when I grabbed one bottle and poured it over my head.  I HATE to be cold, so this was very strange behavior for me.  I drank the other bottle of water and slowly jogged with Kevin toward the beach house.  I ended up running 18 and walking the rest of the way.  How did he know to come get me?  He felt a prompting that I needed him and that I needed cold water.  I'm very grateful to be married to this wonderful man.

Back to St. George 2012.  After our trip, I started training with Jeff Bishop and Mark Nilsen.  I could do it!  They weren't running their fastest, but they were much faster than my normal paces and I could keep up with them.  All the hard running of the trip had paid off.  AND Jeff kept telling me I could faster.  I started the race with them on October 6th.  I ran with Mark for most of the race.  Jeff was with us for a long time and then finished ahead of us.  I am so grateful for their help.  I ran a PR of 3:34:18!!!!  WOW!