Deseret News Marathon

On July 24, Pioneer Day here in Utah, Scott ran his first marathon. He actually ran down the mountains and canyon that the pioneers came down into the Salt Lake Valley when they arrived. Cool, huh? Not so cool on his quads. We went to cheer him on at mile 19 and then at the end. We were so excited for him, proud of him and I was crying with pain for him when I saw his face at the end. I am very happy for him that he did it and loved it! Here is his write up on the experience:

Mile 19 water table.
All the kids with their sign at the finish line.

Scott and Greg running in to the finish line.FINISH!! YEAH!
Run a Marathon? Are you Crazy?
It all began in early March. I was sitting at my desk and got a call from Greg Thornton. He said he wanted me to run the Marathon with him. My initial thought was "NO WAY! ARE YOU CRAZY?", but I must have agreed because a couple weeks later Greg Thornton (1 Marathon under his belt), Ryan Koeliker (several Marathons) and I started the training process.

In order to train we basically started at a 6-mile run and raised it by 2 miles every other weekend. That first 6-mile run almost was enough to make me quit. It was freezing cold outside, I didn't have the running gear for cold weather and I couldn't keep up with Greg and Ryan very well.

In April, while in Bakersfield, California I ran in a 10-mile race through Orange Groves. It was hot but running at sea level was AWESOME.

The Marathon itself has a 3200 drop in elevation. In order to prepare for this we spent the night at the Thornton Family cabin near Brighton. We ran a 16 mile course in the morning downhill from Brighton to the base. It was such a pretty run. We saw a couple of Moose, a deer and a porcupine. The elevation drop was around 3,700 feet and although the knees took a serious pounding on the downhill, I felt good about being able to run down hill for an extended time period and not be too tired. This was a hard recovery though and my knees hurt for several days following the run.

Two weeks later on the 18-mile run we decided to go 20 instead. Mile 19 to 20 was very hard for me but I made it to 20 and started finally feeling like I could actually run the Marathon.

In final preparation I did several medium sized runs, another 19-mile run and felt anxious for the Marathon to hurry up and come. In all, I had logged just over 300 miles in running preparing for the big event an average pace of 9:30. Greg and I felt ready but Ryan started having some bad back pain a few weeks back and the Dr. advised him not to run.

I told Alicia my best estimate was we would finish between 3:45 and 4:15 so she could be at the finish line.

Race Day!

Marathon started at Big Mountain in East Canyon at 5:30am. The buses left between 3:15-3:45 am and I woke up at 2:30 am (I went to bed around 9:15 pm). We got to the start line around 4:15 am and spent the next 1:15 waiting in line for a bathroom, laying in the road looking at the stars, stretching and devising our game plan.

I think Greg and I had a perfect strategy for the race. We started off slowly and really just tried to hold back during the first 3-4 miles where the race dropped about 1600 feet. When we got to the 2-mile uphill section we just wanted to pass more people than passed us. Turns out we passed approx. 30 people on the uphill and weren't passed by anyone.

Downhill again, and we picked up our pace a bit. We started trying to pick someone out ahead of us and gradually reel them in eventually passing them. This worked for a while until we picked out someone who was running a fast enough pace that we stayed about 50-100 feet behind her (Pink Shirt Girl) most the way down the Canyon. At one point Greg said we are running an 8:02 pace and she must have been running 8:02:05 because we weren't gaining on her. We really felt we had a good rhythm going and the race felt good. We came out of Parley's Canyon at Mile 16 and it felt good knowing there were only 10 miles to go and we were on pace to finish under 4 hours.

Mile 16.5...OUCH!

In between mile 16-17 I felt a sharp pinch in my right calf. This made me nervous but I tried to run through it trying everything I could to work passed it. It happened again and we stopped so I could stretch it. Over the next 5 miles our pace dropped considerably and I was:

1. nervous that it would pinch again or get worse
   
2. realizing that finishing was going to be much harder now
3. feeling bad that I was holding Greg back
   

Mile 19

Alicia, Brielle, Ava and my mom were sitting just after the water station here. It was very nice to see them but when Alicia asked how I was doing instead of answering "fine, great" I had to say..."I am hurting". I loved seeing them there and it made me want to keep pushing.

We also saw Ryan somewhere along this stretch. It made me feel bad that he couldn't run with us but he probably took one look at me and thought...wow I glad that isn't me.

Mile 21

Ran by the University of Utah Stadium, I felt we had gained some pace back and I was feeling a bit better. Greg and I sang "Utah Man".

21.9 a turn for the worst

Just before mile 22 we turned onto 1300 east. I had just told Greg I was excited for flat to uphill again because my Quads were killing me. Immediately after the turn and right before the mile 22 sign my right leg cramped up completely. I fell to the ground in pain, and Greg stretched out my calf, then my left calf did the same thing. I was so mad. I hadn't ever cramped up on a run before and since that first pinch this is what I feared more than anything.

A few guys who were competing in their 100+ Marathon gave me some electrolytes (pills) and said that would help me finish.

Although the water stands were every other mile and early on in the race it seemed they were too close. Now they couldn't come up fast enough. I just had to push when I could and take it easy when I couldn't. Probably a lot more taking it easy than pushing.

Finish the race

Greg was so good to me. He easily could have finished the race 30-45 minutes faster had he not pushed me and helped me through it. I probably would have quit running and just walked the last 4 miles but instead he pushed me to run and walk through intersections to give me a little break.

The Marathon route dropped down along the parade route and that was nice but made me very emotional. I am sure that they could see how much pain I was in. To say I was exhausted is an understatement and had been for several miles. It was so nice to hear them cheering me on but it made me start to cry. I knew I was less than a mile from finishing. Greg kept telling me were were almost there. He would say...6 blocks to go...5 blocks to go... and I just kept trying to push.

With two blocks/turns to go Greg's nephew Andrew jumped in with us and ran us into the finish line. I was exhausted, crying (okay bawling), and in pain but seeing and crossing that finish line I felt so much pride. I accomplished something that I didn't think I could complete. Let alone after the major cramping. It was an AMAZING feeling!

4:17

I told Alicia between 3:45 and 4:15 for our time and even with all the intersections I walked and the slow pace I had to take the last 9 miles, we still finished at 4:17.

I really couldn't have done this without Greg. I was SO discouraged. He is such a good man and although I know he would have liked to finish faster he signed up to run this with me and stuck by me the whole way. Thanks Greg, you really don't know how much that means to me. This is a day I will always cherish and remember. Let's do it again....

Visit from the West Side

We had a visit from the Buchanans of the west. Glenn (Scott's brother), Renee, Ariana, Mina and Siena came from Oregon and stayed with us for a few days. Our days were filled with fun. It was really nice to spend time with them, because we don't get to see them that often. I do have to say also . . . they were so easy to host. They are so helpful and so low maintenance. We'll have them back anytime.

Scott took a day off of work and we went to Snowbird. We were going to take the tram up and then hike down, but it was still quite muddy. So, we played in the bounce houses, trampolines, rock wall, alpine slide, zip line and mechanical bull instead. Well, I should say, they played and I (being pregnant) jealously sat watching with Fred and Rama. The next day was a big day. Our niece, Annabelle, was baptized in the morning. It was neat to have so many of the family together for this. The baptism was beautiful and the lunch at Brian and Rachel's house afterward was soooooooo good.That day was also the birthday of Brian and Rachel's first child, Emma, who passed away at birth. The evening was spent celebrating her. I always think this is so neat. We met at the cemetery so that we could each give her a pink flower and then we did a service project. This year it was to buy pajamas for children who are taken from their homes to a care center. The night ended with a movie and popcorn outside in B & R's backyard. Very cool. We all loved it.
Sunday was our turn to host. We had everyone over for Sunday dinner and then a lot of playing in the backyard while Uncle Brian made snowcones (thus the kids with no clothes and thus my not passing the glucose screening :)).The brothers: Brian, Scott and Glenn

4th of July 2009

(It's about time, eh?)
4th of July is totally my favorite holiday. I love it!

We started off the 4th of July festivities with a bike parade with the playgroup kids from church. It was fun for most of the kids. Mine whined their way through it. I decorated Brie's scooter and Ava's stroller. When the parade was starting, Brie didn't want to ride her scooter so it stayed back. For us the parade consisted of Brie walking next to me crying to be held, Ava giving up on her stroller and me carrying it while we trailed far behind the other parading kids. At least they loved the popsicles.The actual 4th of July was definitely a fun day. We hit almost all of the celebrations that we get to every year. So fun. Of course we started off with the annual 4th of July neighborhood breakfast at the Nielsons. This is the neighborhood Scott grew up in. He's gone to this breakfast forever and it's always fun to see all of his people and have them see him and his little fam.And yet again, all the fun at the breakfast (bounce house, pony rides, face painting, fishing for toys, dunk booth, live music, cake walk, kids parade, good food) ended with a crying melt down in the grass by one Brielle Buchanan because we had to leave. It was hard to leave. What a good time.
We then go directly over to the East Millcreek (where we used to live) parade to see Brian and Rachel's float. They built the float, marched in the parade and got 3rd place! Awesome!
Then on to some delish shaved ice!After we all had a good Cafe Rio lunch and a very nice nap at home we headed to our friend's house for a pool party. We swam, we barbecued and then Scott lit fireworks for the kids. We were supposed to go over to the city's big firework show, but it was Saturday night and I still had lots to do for Primary the next day. So we gave up on the big show (which is so sad for me) and put the girls to bed. I'm pretty sure they got their fill of 4th of July fun though. We all did.

Camping in Idaho

(I'm back to the blog finally. And I have a lot of pictures and a lot of fun things to report.)

After visiting Kamber, the girls and I drove to Lava Hot Springs to camp. We met Scott there and got to camp with our friends Mark, Trisha, Laird and lots of their family. It honestly was like heaven! They already had the camp set up, it was BEAUTIFUL, they made us delicious food and we even got to swim during the day. It was perfect. I was aching to go camping and was so very happy to be falling asleep in a tent those nights.

Each family took a turn making meals and they were GOOOOOOOOOOD! I love camping food.Scott with a real man's breakfast! I was in dreamland with my "Eggs In A Frame" breakfast.And then a dessert of delicious marshmallows roasted over a fire and made into a s'more . . . can't beat it!One day was spent in Lava Hot Springs at the pool. Now, that is the way to camp. You get to feel all clean and then go back to camp.Brie and I went on a walk to a meadow of wildflowers that overlooked all of Idaho's farmlands. It was so pretty. She picked flowers to make a bouquet . . . not for daddy or Ava or Trisha, but for herself. The girls even got invited on rides on the four wheelers and they were THRILLED!Some girl talk around the camp fire. We got to use our new tent! This was also so exciting. This tent was my Christmas present and it's awesome. It is so big! Everyone called it "the chateau". Ava was able to sleep in her pack 'n play in the west wing and we were far away in the east wing. The potty was also kept in the west wing.
Playing holy board.Brie found a caterpillar friend that kept her and Ava entertained for a long time. Trisha was nice enough to make a home for him so we could take him with us. He did not last long at our house.
Thank you so much to Mark and Trisha and fam. It was a great time!