St. George Marathon

Every year since 1990, my dad has run the St. George Marathon, with the exception of 2006 because of some crazy medical stuff that happened that summer.  He is an animal.

Nobody would believe it now, but growing up I hated running.  I thought it was the most stupid sport in the world and I couldn't understand why my dad and sister loved it.  This was marathon #5 for us.  I got Derek hooked, enough so that he will run them when I am injured and can't.  (Insert sad face...)

We trained hard.  We trained smart.  We moved to SLC which = running LOTS of hills.  And it paid of because.....

WE ARE GOING TO BOSTON!

For those of you who aren't into running, qualifying for the Boston Marathon is a big deal.  The Boston Marathon was the first marathon established in the USA and is now 118 years old.  The only way to get into it is to qualify, or donate obscene amounts of money.  You can't just sign up and get in via raffle.  You have to qualify and even then sometimes you don't get in.

Anyway.  Derek has qualified before.  Last year I was 25 seconds off my qualifying time.  Not this year.  I don't mean to brag, but we crushed our times.

Derek needed a 3:05:00 to qualify.  He ran a 2:57:56!!  That is an average of 6:46 minutes/mile for 26.2 miles.  He is amazing.

I needed a 3:35:00 to qualify.  I ran a 3:23:50!!  That is an average of 7:46 minutes/mile for 26.2 miles.
And something I didn't expect was getting 8th place in the Women's 25-29 division.

 I won't lie.  I felt really good until mile 24.  That is when my legs started to feel that I had been running for 3 hours.  That is when I saw someone holding a sign that said, "All walls have doors."  That is all I needed.  I went through the door in the wall I was hitting and I finished.   I wanted to die at the end.

Derek did some PT on me right after I finished.  This is me trying to follow his instructions for him....