Ogden Marathon 2010

On May 15, 2010, everything my two friends and I had been training for for the past 14 weeks came to fruition...we successfully completed the Ogden Marathon! It was an incredible experience, and even though it was quite painful at times, one that I wouldn't trade for the world. The run started off in the valley and ended right down on 25th street in downtown Ogden. Last year I ran the half, and for me it was so eye opening to see how far I had been able to come in a year.

One of my good friends' family was able to capture some fun photos of all of us coming out of the Ogden Canyon. Here we are about to enter the Ogden Parkway. I must admit, I got extremely emotional when I saw all of her kids at this point in time. When we hit mile 20 I hit a bit of a wall and it was all I could do to just keep running. Weird,but I wasn't physically tired more so than mentally exhausted. The heat was getting to me and I just wanted to be done! But then, when we came out of the canyon and here her family was at mile 23 or so (can't quite remember the exact mile marker) I just thought...I AM ALMOST DONE!! And that was all I needed to keep going! I had to make it to my family at the end.
Good thing I was wearing shades because I got somewhat teary eyed seeing them here:)

The sweet sight of VICTORY! Jared always hates pushing through the crowd at the finish line so he's always stationed a bit before it. So here I am about to finish! The sweetest part of the end was both hearing my name from the crowd (Jared always screams loud for me and we had some neighbor friends out there cheering us on) and hearing my name being blared out from the loudspeaker as I finished! So Awesome:)

Let me just say that my kids have been absolute troopers throughout this training and throughout my addiction to running. The last weeks of training I had to get quite a few babysitters to go out on my long runs and they never complained. I love that they see that I love something so much that I work hard at it and I hope that I can pass on some of that desire/drive to them for whatever they end up loving in life. Here are my little troopers waiting for me at the finish. Jacks helped me pick out my shoes for the race and advocated for the neon green pair you see me wearing. His reasoning was that he would be able to spot me better as I ran past him! LOL!!

And here are my gal pals that I would never have successfully finished without! I LOVE and MISS these girls so much. Not only in my running life, but they have been amazing examples to me in my personal life. I love remembering all the crazy stories we shared on our runs, and I never realized how much of a bond I could create with them through this experience. I have vowed to return to run more races in Utah, not only because I love running, but because I LOVE these girls so much that never running with them again is unfathomable to me. So...hopefully in the near future we'll have more of these pics of the three of us at the sweet finish of victory:)

The end. Taking this photo with my kids was so wonderful because it meant I WAS DONE! And even thought this blog post is incredibly long already, I just have to mention I LOVE the photographer of this photo and I couldn't have asked for anyone more supportive throughout all of this than him. My sweet Jared and I (as you all know) have gone through quite a bit these past few months, but he never complained once when on those few weekends that he was able to fly home to spend a mere 2 days with us that I was out running long runs. Without complaint he always took care of me when I could barely move and when I started doubting myself a month before the race because of my knee, he never gave up on me. He told me to keep going and that he knew I could do it. I love him and miss him and can't wait to be back with him at the end of the summer. Luv ya babe:)