Tenth St. George Marathon 2014

The marathon this year was such a memorable experience. I volunteered at the expo for three hours Friday afternoon and exhausted my quads waaay too much. In fact I knew while riding the bus Saturday morning that my PR was shot this year. I was disappointed, but John ended up getting a number FRIDAY NIGHT and since my wonderful mother was willing to take the boys, he decided to run with me and the excitement of running with him far outweighed my disappointment. 

We ran around like mad Friday evening trying to find the essentials to get him across the finish line...including $17 sneakers from Wally world. Hey, beggars can't be choosers. John did ZERO training for the marathon. Wait! He actually ran ten miles with me back in July, plenty of training to at least finish. 

We have never run a marathon together. John is so fast that my pace is painfully slow for him, but with no training he had little choice but to stay with me. In fact I constantly had to tell him to slow down the first ten miles! He started hurting and slowing down by mile 21, but we encouraged each other and really had a great time running together. Before the race I accidentally threw my Spi-belt into the truck with my drop bag, so along the course I picked up Gu's dropped by other runners and I was good to go. It was so much fun to cross the finish line with the love of my life that I couldn't stop grinning as we ran toward to finish line. Our time was 4:47, not great but definitely the most fun I've had running a marathon.

This was my TENTH St. George Marathon, but since I ran one year under Gina's number they would only count it as my ninth. Whatever, I can wait another year to be inducted into the Ten Year Club...EXCEPT THEY INDUCTED ME IN SATURDAY NIGHT AND I WASN'T THERE TO ACCEPT IT!!!! My guess is someone goofed and they'll induct me again next year on my eleventh year since they will officially have it as my tenth year...make sense?

I grew up cheering my dad on every year at this marathon, and now my cute boys are cheering us on. Hopefully in several years all five of us will ride to the starting line together...maybe a pipe dream, but that would be an awesome memory.

(I cheesily took screen shots of my proof photos since I haven't decided which ones to buy.)